Where/how do you book your holidays?

[WeLoveHaribo]

Just that really.....
I'm sure i'm missing loads of places to look/compare holidays and flights..
Thank you

I just book a hotel seperatly according to location/ type of holiday, then add the flights seperatly.

Who/where do you look thou?
Do you book hotel direct or online/instore?

I book flights by checking skyscanner then homeaway/owners direct for self catering accommodation or portals like booking.com for hotels. I also Google any short listed hotels,
and check out their own website to make sure I'm getting the best deal

I research hotels on trip advisor and book directly on their website (unless there is a better deal on booking.com)

Skyscanner is good for flights.

I did book a recent trip through a travel agency but wasn't happy with the service so I'll go back to booking it all myself!

I use skyscanner to check flight prices, then normally book direct with the airline or sometimes with Expedia (for the Nectar points).

Accommodation is generally though booking.com or airbnb.

I book accommodation direct usually. Instore they add a huge % on top as try have to pay staff to source.

Ie we have been looking for a trip over new year. Knew we want to ski, so looked at high resorts that will have snow at that time. So that filtered locations to three places. Knew we wanted a hotel rather than chalet etc this time. So looked in those locations for a hotel of the type we wanted, decent restaurants, spa, suitable rooms for us with kids.
Then just choose 1-2 hotels and check they work with flights or trains

i usually look at the area i want to travel to and work back from their look at the airports and which routes fly in then look at the airlines.

same for accomodation usually book direct or through the most direct/cheapest route.

don't do travel agents or big tour operators or main tourist destinations. try to avoid holiday destinations that a lot of Brtis prefer.

For the last two holidays abroad I have booked with Jet 2 - prices lower than most others if you book in advance and gives you the option of paying over a period of time. They have pretty generous luggage allowance too.

Without planning ahead we wouldn't be able to afford a holiday!

For city breaks or hols closer to home I like Hotels.com and Booking.com.

I have friends who book flight first then book accommodation with a 'pay when you get there site'. Only problem with that is I would never have the money for flights up front :)

ang do you know the 'pay when get there site?'
Booking.com is coming out over twice as expensive as say, Alpharooms or Onthebeach..
Thanks will look at all these options.

I meant the sort of sites like Booking.com which allow you to pay when you actually get to the hotel - sorry if I confused you! Some of the other accommodation sites do this as well and it can help spread the cost.

Booking.com was expensive the last time I just it - Hotels.com had a cheaper offer for the same hotel. Trivago is also worth a look as they can browse various sites for you.

Depends what type of holiday. DP and I (no DCs) usually go somewhere in the Med a few times a year out of the main holiday season. Usually book 2/3 months in advance but sometimes it's as little as a week a two before we go. I realise that this is a luxury that anyone looking for a family holiday in August doesn't have unless they have a very large budget or are prepared to take anything that's left.

As a PP mentioned, jet2holidays do some excellent value packages. We once got a week's package holiday, where B+B in a 4 star hotel, plus flights, luggage and transfers cost less than £100 pp more than just the flight alone (exact same flight).

If I am booking independently, I find travelrepublic the easiest site to compare all available flights at the same time (we can theoretically go from about half a dozen airports across northern England) - just pick the best combination of price/convenience for the right dates. Travelrepublic also do discounts on accomodation on the flight plus accomodation option.

I find booking.com the easiest site to find/shortlist accomodation - I will set the satisfaction rating at 80% or above, enter dates and then use the map option to hopefully find something available, nice and suitably priced in the right area - we generally want to be in walking distance of restaurants/beach etc. But will usually check hotelscombined/travel republic etc to check the best price.

We usually hire a car, so mostly book through carjet, but we are building a list of trusted suppliers that dont' rip you off with extra charges.

I've found booking.com to be cheaper if you pay on booking, but obviously that's a risk and makes a mockery of their 'no cancellation fees' claim.

If you want a hotel from a chain (Hilton, Novotel, etc) you often get extra stuff and/or a better price if you book through the hotel's own site. Things like free wifi or a 10% discount. It's worth checking.

Many Hilton based hotels charge their guests for Wifi access.

I pick the sort of holiday we want then I start working out where to find it. so last Christmas wanted a big holiday abroad, somewhere warm with mayan ruins. narrowed it right down as needed somewhere that didn't require anti malarials.

I research on MN and in particular the forums on Trip advisor. each town has a forum, each country too and you pick up loads of information on them.

I use sites like accuweather to work out how warm it will be. I buy lonely planet travel guides and I also contact the tourist information for the country, region and town that I want to visit so that I get lots of free maps and guides. then I do a rough itinerary and book the accommodation and flights. then the add ins like car, day trips excursions etc.

love, love love doing this. only a shame we wont be going away again for a few years.

I like Lonley Planet Guides. We often use a specialist travel agent because we put together bespoke holidays, eg China, Peru, India, Japan,Brazil, Ecuador, with their expert help. Not a cheap option, but we have had some memorable holidays and experiences. We usually get the flights via Avios and then get the specialist company to suggest an itinerary and I adjust it after reading up on everything. Sometimes I change the hotels too. For example, in our forthcoming trip to China, I am using a fairly new hotel in Beijing they have not used before. I feed back info to them regarding whether they should recommend it or not in the future. We have done this a couple of times before and hotels I have found are now in their brochure!

If it is the USA, I do my own bookings for the hotels and B and Bs. Sometimes, for cities, we just book flight and hotel via BA. This works well and usually the price is very good for high quality hotels. I check out reviews on bookings.com and trip advisor, but the former is the most reliable in my view. Less of the "Chuck is the best bellhop ever" rubbish!

I think if you want a straighforward two weeks in the Med, then there are lots of different avenues to find the best combination of flight and hotel. We do not like really early or very late flights, so prefer a scheduled airline because their flight times are better for us. Yes, you pay more for that and the convenience of Heathrow.

mummymeister - why no holidays in the next few years? You will get withdrawal symptoms!

We book packages online. Always book on the day they are released (april 2015 for August 2016 holiday) and always get a free child place.