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Original poster

Booking a holiday years ago vs now

53 replies

Bananamilkshakewirthcream · 29/01/2023 12:42

I hope no one minds me posting this here.

I was thinking about the way we book holidays these days. I do a lot of research, Google the area/resort, lots of photos of the hotel, read reviews, I even watch YouTube videos of the hotel and area to get a better feel for the place.

Years ago it was a case of just choosing from a brochure or in a travel agent. My first abroad holiday with dh was only a few hundred pounds we simply booked last minute in the travel agent , only looked at a couple of photos.

Can't imagine doing that now.

OP posts:
bellamountain · 30/01/2023 20:57

I remember holiday brochures as a child. You'd visit the local travel agent to pick up various brochures and have a look at home to see what takes your fancy. Just a few (small photos) to go on. Crazy, I even look at street view now to see what the area around a hotel is like. I did like using a travel agent though. They would tap away and do all the hard work and, in all honesty, it was probably a lot quicker than trawling the internet like we do now.

gogohmm · 30/01/2023 20:59

I booked holidays off teletext, or once off an advert in the paper - square deal, had no idea where we were staying just the flight destination

the80sweregreat · 30/01/2023 21:00

The travel agent had to work at it years ago! Now it's done on line or bounced back to the person to do it all,
It was a totally different experience all round

TakeTheShiteOutYaMouth · 30/01/2023 21:02

I went to a travel agent the other month and when she shortlisted some hotels I asked if we could have a brochure to look through them...she told me they no longer do brochures. I hated having her flicking through the hotels on screen at her pace.

Obviously we went away so I could TripAdvisor, YouTube, Mumsnet search and google the hell out of the hotels.

But there's something nice about having a holiday brochure and even just 3 years ago we had them.

TheLeadbetterLife · 30/01/2023 21:06

Depends on the holiday I think. I sometimes used to read Lonely Planet guides or similar, borrowed from the library.

The other day I was trying to remember how I used to book flights twenty or so years ago. That knowledge has completely left my brain. I remember once booking some at a travel agent, but I'm sure they also used to advertise "bucket" flights in the papers, and you could call a number.

I travelled in South and Central America in 2001, and I honestly can't recall how I booked my flights from country to country.

the80sweregreat · 30/01/2023 21:08

Brochures will fizzle out over time I suppose
You can get them in some places still though
I got a few last year , but you still end up online reading the reviews or looking at a birds eye view of the place online etc etc! It's amazing what you can look up.
Reviews make me panic a bit though. Such disparity from people who went at similar times
I'm not sure it's always a good thing , but I still read them all

the80sweregreat · 30/01/2023 21:11

I booked some long haul flights at a travel agents in the 80s. Was dead easy.
Tickets came in the post.
It seemed less hassle back then , or maybe I was less of a worried / anxious mess back then !!

DuesToTheDirt · 30/01/2023 21:17

Before we had kids, we'd just get flights (if going abroad) and book the first night's hotel - which meant picking somewhere out of a guide book, phoning up, hoping they spoke English... The following days and nights we'd move on to a different town, look for a hotel, ask to see the room, say, "Yes thanks that looks great," rinse and repeat. I wonder if such a thing is possible now, or if you'd just be stuck trailing around with no accommodation left.

the80sweregreat · 30/01/2023 21:22

You bought a phrase book to take with you
You still can, but it's not as common I bet!!

ChicoryDip · 30/01/2023 21:24

It did seem less hassle in the 'olden days' with none of the stressful reading of 1000s of reviews and choosing from endless options.

We used to go down to the travel agent, see 3x photos in a brochure, look at the table of prices and flight times and possibly look at a map of the resort. Booked. Job done.

We also did several 'accommodation on arrival' holidays where you didn't even know which resort you'd be in. Can't ever imagine taking that risk now.

grayhairdontcare · 30/01/2023 21:29

I miss turning up at the airport and just going where was available in budget

FredaFox · 30/01/2023 21:29

I used to be a travel agent and holiday rep, it's a completely different world thanks to the internet
Can't imagine doing either job now

QueenOfHiraeth · 30/01/2023 21:30

It was so much more exciting and less pressured than now! Having a travel agent took a lot of the stress out of it in my opinion, to the point that I still book bigger trips through Travel Counsellors
Oh for the days when the excitement started with leafing through the brochures and built as you booked it and counted down. Even going to the airport and travelling was exciting back then whereas now is all delays and stress
I miss it!

tornadoinsideoutfig · 30/01/2023 21:38

I wasn't happy at college so I walked into a travel agent at 17 and booked a one way ticket halfway across the world. I can't remember if I needed to go take the cash out at the bank or not.

Swimswam · 30/01/2023 21:41

I remember the excitement of the plane tickets arriving. And all the different codes on them. It was special paper too

MissAmbrosia · 30/01/2023 21:42

I was thinking about this the other day. In about 1995 we went to Prague. We phoned a company in London that advertised apartments and they sent us a photocopied list of the options - brief description, location, price - and then we chose one and did a bank transfer I think. I can't remember where we found the company - maybe the Rough Guides had started then. Then we booked a coach with Eurolines. We went a few times - Prague was marvellous back then - fewer tourists and very cheap. We are going this year for the weekend. My god the prices of everything! We did loads of coach trips to Eastern and Central Europe in the 90s with a company called New Millennium (I think). Absolute bargains and we saw so much and had such a laugh with our fellow travellers. Hotels were usually quite basic and 30 hours on a coach to Krakow would kill me now but I have some amazing memories of those trips.

Eixample · 30/01/2023 21:44

The travel agent in the high street had postcards in the window with only the date and price. At the end of 6th form we went in and asked for Santorini £110. Didn’t know anything else about it except it was 7 nights and included transfers.

Useit · 30/01/2023 21:47

I preferred it back then, it was a lot easier, everything was less stressful with booking and travelling.

TheFairyCaravan · 30/01/2023 21:50

I remember we had to cancel our holiday because DS1 was unwell on the day we were due to go. Once the insurance confirmed they’d pay out we booked a late deal to go to Majorca, the following week. All we knew was we were going to Alcudia and it was self catering. It was 1999, we paid £447 for the 4 of us and it turned out to be one if the best holidays we’ve ever had.

In a way I wish I could be that carefree now, but I won’t book it unless there’s a 4* plus rating on Trip Advisor. I have to scour all the photos on there and the local area and the flights have to be just so. 🙄

Slimjimtobe · 30/01/2023 21:53

Ah yes .. the days when we booked a holiday from the teletext 😂

I remember booking my first holiday using the rough guide (b&b and hostels)
those were the days

TreesAtSea · 30/01/2023 21:57

Useit · 30/01/2023 21:47

I preferred it back then, it was a lot easier, everything was less stressful with booking and travelling.

Agree. Fewer options then and no ability to endlessly check and compare everything, making you feel oddly responsible if plans go wrong...as if you should've somehow done even more checking and predicted/presented the problem...

TreesAtSea · 30/01/2023 21:59

*Prevented not presented

ChicoryDip · 30/01/2023 22:01

And yes to phrasebooks (rarely used but still compulsory packing) and plane tickets with multiple carbonated 'coupons' that were then tucked into your boarding card.

There was also a cardboard Visitor's Passport that I think lasted for a year and you just got it from the Post Office with a photo.

I was trying to explain vanity cases to DD - the idea of a special box for all of your toiletries that you took on the plane with you. Those were the days! 😎

DuesToTheDirt · 30/01/2023 22:02

TreesAtSea · 30/01/2023 21:57

Agree. Fewer options then and no ability to endlessly check and compare everything, making you feel oddly responsible if plans go wrong...as if you should've somehow done even more checking and predicted/presented the problem...

Show quote history

Indeed... we took a boat trip a while ago. There was a choice of 2 companies doing very similar trips at a similar price, I picked one and the boat broke down and stranded us for a while. DH: "Why did you pick this company?" Like I hadn't done my research or I would have been able to predict this!

HiGunny · 30/01/2023 22:14

I remember inter-railing around Eastern Europe in 1999 with a friend. We landed in each place with our Lonely Planet guide, dropped our backpacks off at the train station and went in search of accomodation.

Sometimes there were people (usually old women) who met the trains and had pictures of rooms they had to rent and we could go and look at them. Could have been very dodgy but we generally looked out with this type of accomodation!

Package holidays, I remember looking through the brochures and analysing the descriptions to avoid anything 'lively'!