Best website to book a city break

[CousinGreg55]

Looking to book a European city break for Oct half term, Lisbon/Barcelona/Venice.

Where is best for booking this. Expedia seems quite cheap, where else would you recommend?

I've had lots of recent success with an actual travel agent.

Book direct with airlines. I have used British Airways and JET 2 websites, had good experiences with both, depends where you want to fly from. You can book hotel and flights together and has been competitive on price.

You don't need a website. Just book both your flights and hotel directly with the relevant companies - gives you much more choice and flexibility.

I went to Venice and just booked it all through the Jet2 app

BA Holidays is often much cheaper than booking flight and hotel separately - certainly was for NYC.

or for a city we now prefer an Airbnb or similar to a hotel- much more space and often nicer locations. I’ve used AirBnb and booking . com for apartments in Valencia and Seville before and both were fab.

booked flights direct w Easyjet and got taxis to city from airport.

Occasionally you can get a bargain with Secret Escapes. Easier for two people and cheaper o/s of school hols. But otherwise it's worth a look.

Also EasyJet

My best deal to Amsterdam also came with Easyjet

We did Prague recently and booked a package with EasyJet holidays.

Sometimes EasyJet and Jet2 city break packages and also BA flights plus accommodation can be cheaper than booking it separately.

See what combination works best for you.

Jet2 gets my vote, excellent service and always trouble free.

BA holidays have been excellent for City Breaks for us. EasyJet as well, but obs down market and cheaper hotels

Another vote for Jet2/Easyjet packages but also a quick look Booking.com for accommodation and whatever flights suit.

However, if you're talking about this half term, you're very last minute, so if you've seen something 'quite cheap' on Expedia, that might be your best bet.

Jet2

I am just back from a city break, gorgeous 4* hotel with EasyJet. Spoke to a few ppl who were there w Jet2 and had been put in bad rooms “because the tour operator pays the least”. We OTOH were upgraded.

Don’t believe everything you read about EasyJet! I’d pick them again for sure. Private taxi transfers etc, great quality.

The people saying jet2 - is that a city break bought like a package holiday with flight hotel transfer and luggage? Sounds like a nice easy option - do you end up paying a premium for that?

You don't get a transfer automatically, but I'm sure that you could book one as an extra, although I'm not sure that it's necessary because they're to cities and there will almost always be a taxi rank and frequent, cheap, public transport from the airport to city centre and onward connections if necessary at the destination.

You do get hold luggage, but most people wouldn't need that anyway, as city breaks are usually only a few days and Jet2's cabin baggage is amongst the most generous, you get both a small and large bag as standard - I'm going on a week's hiking holiday to a sunny destination in a few weeks and am only taking hand luggage. But you could use the allowance to check a bag if you wanted to not be restricted on liquids, or outfits, or have room to bring a lot of shopping back.

But the flight and hotel are legally a package, which gives you more protection if something goes wrong and it may be cheaper than booking separately. You can always look at the city break price and then look on somewhere like booking.com to see if you can find a comparable hotel for less and just book the flight.

We went to Prague last October with Easyjet. Really good value .

We've booked a couple of city breaks with jet2 - but have also just booked airlines and accommodation separately- using booking.com or vrbo for self catering . Just jump in a taxi at the airport . In fact - even the city breaks we booked through jet2 we did our own transfer as the normal taxi fair was cheaper than what they were quoting for transfer . The only thing with booking separately yourself is checking the timing of your flight against when you can access your accommodation as you don't want to be lugging cases around with you .

On our last Jet2 holiday to Sicily we had a beautiful room with direct sea view. The on line booking allows you to look at the type of room you could book, we always opt for a slightly better room with sea view if possible. There’s often not a huge financial difference. A couple of times we’ve booked suits for not much more money.

We do lots of city breaks. I’ve never booked as a package. Always book accommodation on booking.com and whichever flights suit directly with the airline.

Another vote for Jet2
I like the 22kg of luggage especially for a city break where I may want to look smarter for dinner. On an autumn city break, I take 2 coats usually.
Venice last November and Vienna this November.
Usually no transfer included in a city break ime

Do you book the flight or hotel first?

I usually book flights first, and then the hotel straight after. By that point, I’ve checked multiple airlines and hotels so know exactly what I’m wanting. I know that booking.com allow free cancellations on most hotels up to a certain point before arrival though, so you’re not losing anything if you did book accommodation first then need to make changes if the flights don’t suit.

We book flight or ferry
Then book accommodation