What sites to use to look for holidays?

[DebbieFiderer]

Due to lack of funds, our last proper holiday abroad was almost 10 years ago. Now that I am finally earning decent money again, I would like to maybe go away somewhere warm (and cheapish!) in October half term, but I have no idea where to start with looking for holidays. What websites do people use to search? If it makes a difference, we have 2 primary aged children and would like something fairly low key, where we can just chill out by a beach/pool/water park, maybe with some kids activities, not too far away.

Watching with interest.

We have used our Tesco vouchers in the past to go to a Siblu caravan near Bordeaux which was a great holiday

I booked a holiday through babyfriendlyboltholes - totstotravel is quite good as well. (they cater for older kids, not just babies).

I find it a lot cheaper to book separately rather than a package usually. Tend to use booking, trivago, Expedia for hotels & sky scanner for flights.

Other than that possibly on the beach or ice lolly X

As above, use Skyscanner for flights (they come up with all possible flight options). Once you've found the best flight time and price, before booking on Skyscanner go on the airlines own website and double check you can't get the same flight a little cheaper (which I found I could twice).

For hotels, again Expedia, Trivago and Booking.com. You can search using a range of options (AI, pool etc). Select 3 favourites then check them out on Tripadvisor (put hotels name in and go to reviews) which could save you from going somewhere out of the way/horrid.

Ps- forgot to add, use a company like resorthoppa to book your airport to hotel transfer! And Tripadvisor really is an essential, as well as reviews you can view pictures of the hotel taken by people who've stayed there which give you a much better idea of what's it really looks like unlike the glossy ones you'll see on Expedia etc. Also, if you enter the name of the place you want to go, it comes up with the best rated trips, places to eat, things to do etc. You can also ask questions about the place in the forums.

Have a great trip, sounds overdue!

I have used travelrepublic.co.uk for the last few years. You can get flights, hotels, transfers all on one site but it's way cheaper than the usual package sites.

Thanks all. Any suggestions for somewhere not too expensive that will be warm in Oct?

On Moneysavingexpert, it says that it can be cheaper to book a package if you are wanting a week in a popular resort, so best to check both methods.

I once got a package to Tenerife including flight, a week's B&B in a 4 star hotel, luggage and transfers for only £100 pp more than just booking the same flight with jet2holidays.com. In that case, booking separately would have been much more expensive.

Best bet for warm in October would be Canaries - Lanzarote, Tenerife or Gran Canaria unless you are looking at further afield.

Go to holidayweather.com - other options other than the Canaries could be Southern Spain (my parents live in Murcia and it's always warm then!), the Algarve, Turkey, Morocco & Malta. EasyJet & Ryan Air have their prices up now for October which creep up month by month. As an alternative to hotels, there's always renting an apartment through airbnb.

Again, have a great trip wherever you end up going!

I've used low cost holidays for my hotel with Ryanair flights the past couple of years.