Searching for holidays

[Willowswood]

Aibu to feel completely exasperated at trying to find a holiday?

Family of 5, want self catering as sick to death of all inclusive. Anywhere warm and sunny. Cheap as possible.

Every time I think I've found something, there's a few bad reviews that put me off.

Why do people moan so much? And I know I am moaning right now lol.

Any recommendations of anywhere to try? Been looking at on the beach and love holidays as Tui and First Choice too expensive.

I take holiday reviews with a pinch of salt. What bothers one person, won’t bother another and I think most people who leave reviews only do so if they’ve had a bad time. On TripAdvisor, I’ll often click on the profile of someone giving a negative review, to find that they have a host of negative reviews about everywhere they’ve ever been. Last year we had a wonderful holiday at a hotel that had a host of negative reviews, as well as a few good ones. We had an amazing time so I made sure when I got back that I wrote a good review.

For self catering look on booking.com and flights separately. Gives a bigger choice. Also look at less mainstream locations as they are likely to have cheaper flights

I read a review recently, it said that the bottles of water in the room were warm & no fridge, so they were unable to drink the water !
I say, there was a bar at the hotel & it was a good hotel, no complaints from myself

I also take reviews with a pinch of salt

Some people complain about very minor issues

Where do you live? Look at cheap flights from your nearest airport and then look on airB&B for a villa. We always do this and have never had any issues.

Definitely book hotel and flights separately, you can save 1000s, you often get better rooms and more civilised flight times. I also use booking.com. And take reviews with a pinch of salt- I tend to think, would I be friends with this person (the reviewer), and would it be the end of the world if what they said was true? If I’m in a sunny place with a beach it’s unlikely I’ll care if the choice of breakfast pastries is a bit limited!

And as others have said, work the flights out first and then find the hotel. We tend to go for destinations which have good flights from our local airport if we’re not set on a particular location.

We've gone for Easyjet this year, as seemed to be significantly cheaper than the others mentioned. I just plump for the ones with very few bad reviews so we shall see! North Africa seems less expensive than the rest this year particularly.

I feel your pain. I have been looking at every company and just when I find something, a review puts me off.

However, I finally decided and am now going somewhere where a review said there are drug deals going on in plain sight and lots of “Looky looky men” trying to flog you stuff.

Initially it did put me off but it was just one review out of many good ones so I went with the majority.

We've had very positive experience of self catering in Algarve, Portugal. Nice posh appartment complexes with pool and bar etc.

One was called Monte Santo in Carvoeiro
the other was Salema beach village in Salema.
Both were lovely; the latter is a bit out of the way and you'd be a bit limited without car hire.

I'm also struggling. I want a UK based family holiday that isn't a caravan park or centre parks though. It doesn't appear to exist!

Family of 5 here too and have just booked trips with the Ryanair flight sale being on.

Now heading to Airbnb for accommodation. Good luck!