Package holidays v booking separately

[Aug12]

Hi all,

Currently planning our first abroad holiday. My partner and I haven’t flown for many years and it will be our children’s first time too (7, 4 and 2)

I was looking at a lovely villa in Valencia, booking flight’s separately and hiring a euro car once arriving. We loved the idea of having freedom to explore, private pool, enjoying food bought from the local food market and also the options to eat out a few times too.

I have been told that it’s a very naive idea by some seasoned travellers. They advise that with a young family navigating flights, hotels etc all for the first time, we should just take the stress away and book all inclusive. That way you don’t need to worry if flights are cancelled and costs can quickly add up for food etc so all inclusive is the better option. Less stress if things go wrong with young children in tow.

On one hand I do kind of agree that for our first time, perhaps keeping things simple is best. However, I have this, perhaps wrong, idea of what an ‘all inclusive’ holiday is like.. I can’t think of anything worse than being in a shuttle bus full of fellow holiday makers from the plane stopping at various hotels on the way to ours, trying to ‘bag’ the sun loungers early morning by the pool, eating buffet style meals at the hotel.. all of this is the opposite to my dream of a holiday in the sun. I loved the idea of the rental car so we could day trip further afield but with an all inclusive style we would be more limited, and I know if we’re paying for food/drinks on site then my partner isn’t going to want us to fork out for restaurants.

I know the kids would enjoy either option. The new experience of being on a plane, sunshine, beaches and a water park, they will be living their best life regardless of which option we pick!

Is cover less protected if you don’t book a package? Is my idea of an all inclusive holiday wrong? Opinions and wisdom all very much appreciated. Thank you

I wouldn’t do a package holiday (or an All inclusive, I can’t imagine anything worse than having to eat in the same place with the same people for every meal- like being at school or prison).

We’ve always created our own holidays with the kids. As they’ve got older we’ve made them more adventurous with 3 or 4 locations, travelling by train or bus which has been great fun. When they were little we’d do a villa with pool or small apartment block with pool. We usually (but not always) hire a car, and we budget to eat out once or twice each day as who wants to cook on holiday?!

I book all my holidays separately. I even managed to sort a 4 centre Thailand trip complete with interconnecting flights and boats.

I see, thanks for explaining! We’re child-free (for now, still on the fence) and love adventure holidays, multi-stop / multi-country backpacking and interrailling trips, long road trips etc. I think it was just wishful thinking on my part that we could keep all that up with a baby in tow if we decide to go down the baby route. 😂

As PP have said, the choice is not AI versus package. You can go to the website of any large AI hotel and book a week there without a flight. Or there are packages that go to villas.

A package gets you a flight, the accommodation, and a transfer, for one easy-to-understand price. It also usually (assuming that it's with a company that has its own airline, or is an airline and is adding on the accommodation) gets you the guarantee that if your flight is cancelled by the airline, you will get your money back, or they will compensate you for any missed days etc.

The downsides of a package are that (a) you may be paying a bit more for the convenience, and (b) things like the transfer and the baggage allowance may be one-size-fits-all. For example, you might spend an hour and a half in the TUI coach at the airport with people from 3 other flights while a fourth one TUI flight comes in late, then you drive 20 minutes, and then you tour 12 hotels dropping people off.

A 'package' holiday isn't necessarily all inclusive. I think it's when flights and accommodation are booked together and is then IATA protected.

We often book package holidays if they offer what we want for comparable price or sometimes even less than booking separately. Package operators often get a discount for block booking hotel rooms so it can be cheaper.

We've never stayed all inclusive and have been on Jet2 packages that have included boutique hotels, self catering apartments , bungalow complexes, villas and even a campsite in Croatia.

Their packages saved me the hassle of working out how to get from Malta airport to the other side of Gozo when we went diving there and included all the luggage we needed (two cabin bags each and hold bags) within the standard price.

We usually go self catering or B&B and stay within walking distance of shops, restaurants, beach etc so can often explore using public transport but we have also hired a car for part of the holiday.

People who imagine the Benidorm show when they think of 'a package holiday' are out of date by decades, it doesn’t have to be like that at all these days.

Thanks for the wisdom :) I didn’t realise a package holiday could be self catering apartment and flights, my mind just instantly jumped to ‘all inclusive!’ 🙈

Holiday is all booked now through a package and have managed to get what we wanted. Many thanks

There is a fundamental difference though:

A package is automatically SAFI covered because they are ATOL protected, flights alone are not. Travel insurance doesn't usually cover SAFI.

SAFI is really unlikely bit something for you to make a risk assessment about.

https://www.gocompare.com/travel-insurance/guide/scheduled-airline-failure-insurance/

Or book with a credit card. With the Monarch Airlines collapse some years ago, credit card chargeback refunds were often paid quicker than the SAFI refunds.