Whats the savvy way to book a family holiday abroad?

[Notonaschoolnight]

Next year I'd like to go on a family holiday abroad. We've never done this befor, I haven't set foot in a travel agents since going on all girls holidays twenty years ago and I'm guessing things have changed with deals to be had on the Internet.

Are there any clued up people out there who can give me some tips?

It depends what sort of holiday you like!
Personally, I use villas4you and lastminute.com to find out what bargains there are to be had. They're usually package deals, but that's great for me.
If you're booking in advance, I'd search out deals via a travel agents website - try Thomson to get an idea of prices. Then use your preferred airports website to see what times/prices you're looking at for flights alone, and then see how much cheaper it'd be to book flights, transfers, accommodation, food, separately.

Personally I can never be bothered with the faff :o and book package deals last minute. I hope that helps a bit, and don't forget to shop around :)

What type of holiday do you want?

first I work out where I want to go. then I buy travel guides for it like lonely planet ones or ones recommended on MN. then I pull together what we need - apartment/hotel, flights, car etc. I like to do it all myself as I enjoy the planning as much as the break and I like to do the research first. once booked I then do a loose itinerary to make sure we don't miss any must sees/dos. what kind of hols do you want OP?

I havent done a package trip in years. We tend to either drive to France or Italy and have done a mix of Eurocamp type places or gites. Or I look for cheap flights and use www.booking.com and www.tripadvisor.com to find accommodation. It does depend what you like though. If you want all inclusive, kids club, entertainment laid on a package might be better.

It all depends on what you want to do, where you want to go, what type of holiday you would like?

For us it's all about privately owned villas/houses - and making our own travel arrangements. I haven't used a travel agent in many years.

Give us more details!!

We do package deals - mainly because we saw the angst of the book-it-separates when the poop hit the fan and our plane was delayed over 24 hours due to snow.. and again when industrial action cancelled a plane that was part of a connecting series of flights...

we were taken care of from start to finish in both cases. Others, however, were fighting over plug sockets at the airport to get on the internet and sort out their problems..

9 times out of 10 everything has gone smoothly, but those times for us were worth going package.....