Can you still get a last minute bargain holiday?

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O is it just your luck? Just been given last minute annual leave so was looking online fir a beach break in Europe but either I’m not looking in the right places or the last minute deals of old don’t exist! Any tips?

Try looking for flights on skyscanner and then hotels separately? Might be cheaper

Came to say this very thing.

The amount of flights I’ve looked at, or booked, and I see the prices continually drop as it gets closer for flights that obviously aren’t getting close to capacity. Then just make a hotel work to your budget.

There’s defo bargains out there.

The old fashioned last minute deals used to arise when most people booked their holiday through travel agents. The agents bought up their packages with set dates in advance of the season and had to sell them or lose all the money on them, so they'd massively discount close to the package start date.

The industry has changed now, fewer people use travel agents and they don't operate in the same way anyway, so you don't get the Ceefax-style (!) last minute package deals like you did in the past.

You can sometimes get a cheap flight although I think even that is much more difficult post covid, cheap hotels tend to be easier to come by once you have the flight as they need to fill rooms. It's more work nowadays though!

Try Secret Escapes. They have packages as well as just hotels. Not all are covered by ATOL but some are if that’s important to you.

Deals can be v good outside of school holidays and I’ve been to some fantastic places with them (last one was Marrakesh for £230 at then end of March)