How do i find cheap but lovely holidays?

[RicottaPancakes]

I have never booked a typical charter holiday before. But we'd like to try one :-) I've just been on Thomson's website and it's so expensive! Or perhaps that's just me? What's the best way of finding a cheap family charter holiday abroad please?

Voyage Prive and Secret Escapes have some good deals but you have to be flexible with dates and flight times (but that’s also the key to getting good deals with anyone)

Last minute.com? Teletext holidays (a website now teletext no longer exists)

Walk into a travel agents, tell them your budget and exactly what you want and they'll do their damn best to find it for you. If you're not satisfied with what they come up with there and then, they often take your details, phone around to airlines and do some haggling on your behalf, and come back to you with some options. I've always been v happy with co-op travel and they're good at family holidays.
EasyJet do their own holiday packages and The Imaginative Traveller are amazing and you might strike lucky with one of their special offers.

Jet2 and Ryanair do holidays too. Have always found it better to DIY though, especially if you're on a budget.

On the beach did a cheap and cheerful last year for us. They put all the seperate components together. Flight, hotel, transfers etc. And flights were hideous eg cheap :)

If you book separately, I worry about what happens if say your airline goes bust. I'd have travel insurance but I don't know if that's enough. I too thought I could get a decent price for a week in Spain with the kids - cheaper than staying in the UK people tell you! They were wrong!

Another vote for walking into a travel agent. that's their whole job. they know where to look / what to look for. They are used to narrowing down your list of personal requirements.

That’s why I liked on the beach We has specific ssszr

Jet2 are good, reliable and cheap.

I've used Lastminute.com. They were great. Just booked Krakow for half term and booked flights direct with Easy Jet (Ryan Air were cheaper though) and hotel with Booking.com. The flights were pricy but had been cheaper so worth booking earlier if you can. The hotel (best western with breakfast) was cheap as chips.
Teletext holidays advertise great deals but when I've rang them they have been a lot more expensive!

Sorry paid approx £300 pp for 4 nights, 5 days. Flights were £217 and hotel was £661 for 3 rooms with 7 of us staying.

It's all about supply and demand, so if you can avoid school holidays, if you can't then see if you have any local variations eg inset days, half term phasing etc- it's much cheaper for us to go away in 1 half term than another because of this
Then it's airports- avoid the local popular one and head up the road. Take the anti social flight time. It makes a Huge difference eg Doncaster at 5am cheaper than Manchester at 10am
Then it's about location- so atm restrictions on Egypt and Tunisia have pushed up prices of elsewhere. The euro rate is awful, so non euro countries better value. Turkey is less popular due to safety concerns, it's all about your level of risk perception. Some locations attract a premium vs another 'similar' eg Ibiza vs gran canaria
Weather- October is warmer usually in canaries than mainland Spain so costs more
Type of accommodation- don't assume all inclusive is more than self catering, and sometimes you pay more but get more included
What do you need/want eg kids club with uk team vs local team vs none

Reality- join some fb travel groups and get an idea about what people have paid
And finally- Always always trip advisor- I'd go min 4 but up to you!!
Ps book with a credit card- those fees are protection!!

Sorry! I went to a travel agent and was £440 a person for apartment, no breakfast and people would have had to stay in the lounge on a sofa bed.

Agree jet2 are actually fine. If you go down the booking flights separately route, clear your cookies and go into incognito browsing each time you go back to for eg Skyscanner otherwise the price just goes up every time you visit the site.

Loveholiday !!! And you can pay in instalments too xx

Travelrepublic is good too. You can choose flights, hotel/apartment star rating, self catering, half board, full board, all inclusive etc. They do transfers too, but often it's as cheap and usually quicker to take a local bus or taxi than wait for a transfer bus to drop at every hotel in every resort. For school holidays I always book flights as soon as they come out. My Jet2 ones for next July have already gone up hundreds.

Avoid Thomson/TUI. TheIR Facebook page tells horror story after horror story and they do nothing to stop customers with genuine grievances being trolled by a revolting group of keyboard warriors.

Expedia or BA offer flight+hotel (+car if required) directly from their website.

We've had some amazing deals looking on BAs last minute or whatever they call it. DP and I got flights and four nights in a five star hotel in Rome for about £500 all in. Then upgraded to business class for the flights for another £50 each.

God I think I nodded off when writing at midnight.
We like ‘on the beach’ because
We could book a villa within a resort
Pick flights
Low deposit
Pay until two weeks before in instalments.

Went to Turkey last year and it was lovely.

Thanks everyone, that's givenme a lot to think about and google. Didn't even consider actual real life travel agents!

Love Holidays are great. I got such a good deal with them this year that it was half the brochure price and £300 PER person more than the travel agents very best price

Sorry. £300 less per person than the travel agents best price

I book flights well in advance which has seriously cut down the cost of some really lovely trips and then book AirBnB apartments. Several fab holidays in the Canaries for under £300 a head. We like to self cater/eat out as love the variety of restaurants and find we don't eat as much in sunnier weather!

I booked a Jet2holidays AI holiday on a water park in February in canaries - half term. Basic holiday for two adults two kids was 1.5k - I upgraded and it was 1.8k ;brilliant IMO particularly as all inclusive

I checked Thomson same holiday basic was 2.3k .....

I got flights. Villa with pool and massive private garden including Car hire with thomson for 1200 last year for 4 of us.. checked for this year and it was double. Sometimes just luck on dates I think