to say that searching for a holiday online is just a terrible, awful, dismal process?

[Mintyy]

Honestly, in this household we both loathe and detest this annual torture! In the end one of us has to fall on the sword and sort it out but ye Gods I'd rather be the only one who cleans the toilets all year than try and find us a lovely self catering 2 week summer break more or less anywhere in Europe.

I don't really remember how it used to work in the days of travel agents, but seem to recall they only did package deals to hotels on the Costa Brava etc.

How would you book a camping holiday in France or a self catering in Portugal pre-internet? Was it from ads in the back of the paper?

Whatever it was it was a darnsiteeasierthanitisnow.

i usually spend from December to April weighing up and obsessing over the options for our two week family self catering holiday. This year DH put an end to it by saying he wanted the exact same place and time. Kids agreed with him, it was available and I was bereft!
My usual haunts are:
Ownersdirect
Cottages4you
Booking.com
But our lovely place in Salento, Puglia last year came from the costedelsud website.

We tried to go to Germany - gave up. Seemed impossible to find anything like the choice you get for France, Spain or Italy.

dowser - there is a holiday inn right next door to edinbugh zoo - it's great! has a pool and is very kid friendly. I've had great deals just booking directly through the HI website. last time it was £70 for 4 of us dbb!

Yes, Germany not really geared up as a tourist destination Edith. But we were determined to go and are going to foist ourselves upon them!

We are going to the Alps, and have been slightly disconcerted to find most of the holiday photos are of cute Heidi-esque wooden chalets draped in snow. They nearly all feature photos of the hosts in National Costume - including full lederhosen - also.

Oh sorry just re read and saw you said central - it's out at the zoo so not central, but has easy bus and tram routes into town

Yes, yes, plenty of Heidi-esque chalets. And, weirdly, lots with photos of the owners and their families bouncing around on trampolines. I think AirBnB might be the way to go but found that that very complicated and pressured - lots of badgering emails from the owners.

We go on AI package holidays and I love browsing them.
But we have to go first week of August so when I slide the slider down to sub £3k, there isn't much left.
Took a risk on a brand newie this year but it's just opened and actually does resemble the artist's impression so fingers crossed.

Exactly notso, tons of unqualified opinion with no way of knowing what to trust.
All totally subjective.

I remember booking a German campsite by letter in the mid 90s

I remember doing my German exam in the mid-90s and one of the questions (or perhaps one of the sample exams, it's all a bit hazy) was to write a letter booking a campsite place.

I love researching and booking holidays. Although now before booking I send a long email to DH with "read this and tell me if you agree because if you agree you are not allowed complain"

he always bloody does, but he eventually apologises

We have a friend who was a travel agent. We used to tell her what sort of holiday we wanted and she just booked it for us. Sadly, she has retired, so I will have to find someone else to do it for us. I have given up booking holidays online because it is such a faff.

I don't mind paying a little more for someone else to do the work for us.

Package holidays have come a long way from a fortnight in Benidorm. Last year we stayed in a five star hotel in Crete with taxi transfers, and it was worth every penny. It was a Jet2 holiday, and I would be happy to book through them again.

I actually enjoy it but my pet hate is when you put in your max budget and they bring back loada that are in your budget on jan 27th but double that by August - and then if you are easy on dates you have to search under each week over the flexible period to see the list of properties.