TUI holiday website not taking bookings, what is going on?

[HighSea]

Have a holiday booked with Tui during the school holidays all booked and paid for. Just visited the site to book a holiday somewhere warm over the Christmas holidays and you can’t book. It pulls the holidays and prices up, you click on the hotel you fancy and you can’t go any further. The main description is there but when you try to look at facilities and different types of rooms the section in blank and says call then the phone number. There is also no button to click to book or select different flights etc etc. I have come off the site gone back on tried a different destination and hotel and it’s exactly the same.

We loved it.
we stayed at the Melia Tortuga and we didnt see anything that made us feel as if anyone was being exploited

Yes we did. It was a last minute extra holiday (braggy) before the dc went back to school and we just wanted a week in the sun in a 4/5 star hotel with a short flight.
We did do a couple of excursions and enjoyed them, felt safe at all times even with a very blonde 15 year old DD.

I’ve been to Boa Vista and absolutely loved it. We didn’t see swarms of flies. Yes, it was windy, but we knew it would be. It didn’t matter if there were cloudy days because it was still hot, and the idiots who didn’t listen to the reps and staff to put sun cream on, still burnt. We didn’t stay in the hotel the whole time, we went out and about a few times. I’d go back in a heartbeat.

I wouldn't enjoy an overcast sky. Part of the reason I like getting away is for a lovely blue sky and some sun. Is there anything to do there outside going to the beach?

The site looks fine to me.

I’ve seen loads of posts lately that seem to be trying to make it look like TUI are going bust, it’s weird. I know they’re having problems as are many other parts of the aviation industry, but are you all spreading misinformation on behalf of Jet2 or something?

I was idly googling before, cos of this thread, and saw that it was windiest over winter. So wondered whether it's the same in the warmer months too.

I've just googled and it says windiest month is Feb followed by May and April. I've only been there once though so can't compare it to another time. I just found it relentless and it made it feel cold in and out of the pool.

There's no denying a lot of TUI and other airline passengers have been having a terrible time on occasions over the last few weeks.

OTOH it has looked at times as if certain opinions expressed here has come from keen supporters of some of their competitors.

We had a similar problem months ago with the package we wanted to book (you had to phone to book it and couldn't get through). Booked independently in the end. Now it seems if easyJet decide not to operate our short flight we might lose all our hotel booking money. I've often booked independently in the past but it's making my rethink it.

We went in March I think, yy the wind making you feel cold one day by the pool we had a mini tornado it picked up some small tables & chairs & blew them around for couple of minutes twas very unexpected.

Wow!

We went at the end August/beginning sept
Plenty of blue skies
We snorkelled, paddled with baby sharks, went over the dunes in a buggy, jumped off rocks into a lagoon, went to the pier to see the fish, had cake at a Portuguese bakery, went on an Island tour.
our teens loved it

Tui shares continuing to tank today. Check your insurance folks! I hope you all paid on credit cards 😬

@Hoppinggreen what island did you visit

@HappypusSadpus no seriously,

capital.com/tui-share-price-forecast-buy-sell-or-hold

The beaches often have red flags as it's so windy it's dangerous to swim, so don't count on that!

I wouldn't go to Cape Verde in December tbh. It's NOT year-round whatever the travel agents say. We went in March and it was cloudy and too cold for the pool literally the whole time. Theres f all to do as well if it's cold. In Boa vista you're actually driving across rocks to get to the hotel...

I don't really understand why anyone would choose it over the Canaries, then. The weather is almost always pleasant in December/January (last year was mid twenties in Gran Canaria over New Year), you have loads of budget flights, and there's stuff to do other than sit on a beach if it is cloudy and wet.

What am I missing?

Tui shares continuing to tank today. Check your insurance folks! I hope you all paid on credit cards

I presume as they are part of the ABTA scheme you're guaranteed to get your money back, if they went under so it won’t matter how you paid for it or if you had insurance.

You sound over invested. If they did go bust, would you be as gleeful about the thousands of job losses?

That's kindof my point 🤣 if I did it again I would've just gone to canaries and enjoyed the 'pleasant' weather but not used the pools too much or just sucked up the longhaul flight and gone to Mexico.

I too found Cape Verde to be a bit cringe in how the tourism interacted with the tourists. The locals were lovely and unassumimg but they are exploited. You'd go on excursions in which one of the things you were encouraged to do was gawp at the local kids at school but when I asked if we could bring school supplies to drop off at the school it was a flat 'no'... pretty disgusting really

How the tourism interacted with the locals sorry *

Sal
some of the hotels are huge. We stayed in the Melia Tortuga, which was a nice size. We had a beautiful 2 bedroom suite

We were never encouraged to gawp. We were offered a drive through a shanty town as part of one trip but we refused, we took some toys and pens, pads etc and asked our tour guide to drop them off. No idea if he actually did but we left some things in our hotel room as well with a note telling the cleaners to take them.
I saw nothing that was any more uncomfortable or exploitative than what I have seen outside resorts in other non European places. I am not saying the locals live in luxury but apart from fishing Tourism is all there is so they really do need that income.