To ask how to book a holiday?!

[OldLadyInPolyester]

I know I'm lucky to be able to have a holiday so this post is very much a privileged moan....

Where do I start? I have to co-ordinate annual leave with my DH and make sure it doesn't clash with any of our colleagues. Then I have to find somewhere we can go in those dates.

We want a sunny beach type holiday. We have young kids so the nearest airport to home is best so it has to be a destination we can fly to from there. Then the resort has to be family friendly, in our budget and not to far from the airport in whatever country we choose.

Do I go for a package holiday or book flights and accommodation separately? Villa, apartment, half board, all inclusive?

It's just so much planning and logistics I think I'd rather stay at home at this point!

How do other people go about it and where are you off to this year?

Sounds like you'd be better with a package deal or through a travel agent. Have a look at Tui.

With young kids I would book a package to include a villa with private pool, more space for a family.

Id love a holiday, but the logistics and worry about covid/ war means we're probably not going abroad this year

We usually use Villaplus

If it’s the first time you’re booking a trip go for a package.
Tui have their moments, but are generally very good.
When you type in which airport you want to travel to it will show where they fly to from there.
Have a little think about what you want from a trip. I know I don’t want to cater on a trip, so when we travel independently I always budget for the costs of all meals out.
You may find AI easier for this trip.

@Porfre

Id love a holiday, but the logistics and worry about covid/ war means we're probably not going abroad this year

Helpful 🙄

OP you’d definitely be best with a package, decide whether you want self catering in a villa or apartment, or if you’d rather go to a hotel and have all inclusive, b&b or half board

If you’re looking to use your local airport, check where they fly to and take it from there

I tend to do a package deal because for me it's just so much easier

Package deals would probably suit you well.

We have been on several. TUI, Jet2 and Love Holidays. I think it is best that the tour operator is ABTA and ATOL bonded for maximum protection.

We have also booked the hotel or villa separately from the flights. Sometimes it can be cheaper that way. My MIL used to own an apartment in the Balearic Islands years ago so for that we only needed flights and travel insurance.

We went to mMajorca about 4 years ago through a Tui package. I thought all inclusive would be the dream but I wasn't particularly impressed. Too many people around the pool and always worried I'd lose a child 😆. Although actually the eldest was particularly awful that holiday so it might not have been a bad thing....Hated that we were all cooped up in one room. Problem is I have champagne tastes on a lemonade budget 🙃 and we have to go in school holidays now which has doubled the price of everything.

We have just booked to go to the Canary Islands through Tui. I got fed up on the website and ended up going into the travel agents who were very helpful. Like you we didn’t all want to be in the same room and I couldn’t work out how to find us a suite with separate rooms on the website but the agent sorted this for us. I wanted to go for a package this year (we’ve done separate flight + hotel or flight + villa in the past) because then they’re obliged to get you home in the unlikely event of anything going wrong.

Check your passports before you book - so many expired passport threads lately 🤣

Good point @Robostripes. I do need to renew one of the kids!

A travel agent might be the way forward actually. Do they still exist?!

Have you thought about a lodge or a static caravan?

Some European sites have fabulous pools, playgrounds, kids clubs etc. you can self cater a bit to give flexibility at breakfast time (not having to be dressed etc) and then eat out if you fancy. You can have separate bedrooms to the kids and a bit of space to spread out - lots have decked areas outside.

I don’t know where you are in the uk but lots of France, Belgium, the Netherlands etc is easily drivable to remove the airport stress.

I'd have a look on the tui website. Search for hotels. Spain(apart from the canaries) is only a couple of hours flight. You can browse the hotels and see the facilities, room, location including length of transfer from airport. You Search different dates and airports to see different prices etc.

As for the time off I book well in advance, so make sure have got the time off work before hand. I'm lucky they are fairly good at work with time off. We are off to Crete this year.

I go on booking.com to find a hotel. Then I go to opodo.com to book flights. Easy, and I’m in control of costs and locations etc, not some agent trying to drive up costs so she gets more commission…

I booked with ‘on the beach’ I wasn’t fussed where I went so I could type in ‘Anywhere’ I chose flights from local airport only and I knew we needed two bedrooms minimum so put all that in the refine column, it was really easy. I hate all inclusive because I think part of the fun when on holiday is trying different restaurants and bars.

I booked with TUI, just used their filters to put in everything I wanted and then chose from the hotels that came back in the search results! Booked an all inclusive package so that its all taken care of.

I work in travel, so proficient at searching / pricing and would usually book everything separately but after covid (and now unpredictable geo-political situation) I'm only booking packages so everything's protected and there's only one lot of admin to do if we have to change it.

I always use skyscanner + booking.com or Airbnb.
I hire a car to be picked up at the airport.

Personally I use an independent travel advisor who is amazing. Especially with all recent COVID stuff, she’s an absolute oracle on all the paperwork we had to complete. I used to always book flights / accommodation separately (go abroad 4 times a year) but I would only book a package now. People think independent advisors are more expensive but in our experience it’s same price or couple of years ago she did a Maldives trip for us £4K cheaper than Kuoni for exactly the same trip. Go into a travel agent for assistance.

Jet 2 holidays are easy to book and the company seems very helpful.

Our requirements are always an apart-hotel so separate rooms and living space but all inclusive. They do exist you just have to hunt for them. A good travel agent will be able to help.

We always use On The Beach , easy to use website no hidden costs and can use so many filters to get the exact holiday you want

We like On the Beach too

@ImInStealthMode

I work in travel, so proficient at searching / pricing and would usually book everything separately but after covid (and now unpredictable geo-political situation) I'm only booking packages so everything's protected and there's only one lot of admin to do if we have to change it.

With you 100%. I had pre Covid flights booked which were really difficult and expensive to keep moving so we had to go when it wasn't great and really stressful.

I would have much preferred to have been able to cancel.

I guess you need to decide what's important to you OP and what your family is like. We now stay in self catering because I don't find cooking/eating out a huge chore and I hate that fighting over sun beds in the morning. I'd also rather have our own pool and my kids have never gone to kids clubs.

If you have children who are super happy to bugger off all day to kids club then I'd do AI hotel.

I was an independant traveller till i had a child.. i like the comfort a package holiday brings.

I have also used hays travel.. i especially want to be able to go into a travel agent as i want to be able to go in with a query.. not be on hold on a phoneline.

My holiday i am due to go on has had flight cancelled. Travel agent has helped rebook. As it was a package far easier that the whole holiday was cancelled