How do you choose a holiday destination when nothing appeals?

[qali]

How do you decide on a holiday destination if nothing is jumping out? I’ve probably looked at half the planet, and nothing is getting me excited

We love doing road trips - California this year was amazing. There is a lot of planning involved, but it's totally worth it

So where have you been and liked?

Where have you been and not liked?

What do you enjoy actually doing?

Who is on the trip?

ATOL protection mainly covers you if the tour operator goes bust, which is obviously a non-issue if you haven’t used one.

I book all my own hotels in Japan and the norm there is free cancellation up to as little as 24 hours in advance. It’s not somewhere that a package is giving you much protection that you wouldn’t already have.

If my airline went bust then I’d be highly unlikely to lose any money on hotels. If they went bust in the 24 hours before my flight, I’d be covered by my insurance for the cost of the first hotel. I’d be able to cancel the rest for free anyway.

The Audley 2 week classic Japan tour by train is “from £6895 per person”. We’ve paid £4550 per person for flights and accommodation for an epic 82 night tour of Japan. Their prices are wild!

I spent way too much on my last holiday. I wish I didn't want to go anywhere, I'd be much better off financially.

I’m currently looking at-

A tour to Libya next summer to see the eclipse there + Roman ruins (almost certainly won’t do this, but it looks amazing).

More japan. PP is right that you can never have too much Japan.

Bologna.

Hiking and biking in the Julian alps.

Norway. The other scandi countries are some of my faves but I’ve only been skinning in Norway.

Swedish arctic (again, almost certainly won’t do this any time soon but it looks fab).

Vietnam, mainly for the food.

St Lucia.

Any of those appeal?

@Aaloyisha if you want to see Roman ruins and the eclipse without breaching a Foreign Office travel warning, there's some in southern Spain west of Gibraltar. Lots of other interesting things to see like all the Moorish historical sites in the Andalusian cities.

@Takoneko So you have booked identical hotels? You are comparing apples snd pears. We like a helping hand with holidays and can afford it.

Rhe package holiday travel and linked arrangement regulations are not just about airlines going bust. It’s a statutory instrument and there’s many obligations on the provider of the holiday. It’s nothing to do with Atol. It’s a piece of lactation lots of people ignore and you obviously know nothing about it. I’d not want your tour at your prices thanks beet much. I’ve been to Japan and I know what my standards are! Not yours I suspect. You are paying £73 a night so il leave you to it!

@MeetMeOnTheCorner

As it happens, we are staying in a few of the hotels in their medium category on our next couple of trips.

The Gate Kaminarimon (and its sister hotel in Ryogoku) plus a couple of Omo5s. We’re also staying in a couple of Omo7s (Hoshino’s next tier up). I haven’t paid more than £120 per night for any of those (although we do have a couple of splurge hotels that aren’t on their list that we’ve paid more for). The OMO5 in Kyoto (which is on their books) was less than £50 per night for our dates. These aren’t super-expensive hotels. The Park Tokyo and Sheraton Hiroshima are £100-200 per night hotels. In low-season they can be less than that.

If paying a few grand each for a company to book things for you and give you peace of mind makes you happy and you can afford it…. by all means crack on. Clearly the act of paying more gives you a sense of superiority and you can’t put a price on that.

I've just booked estepona for the eclipse next year.

Not somewhere I would normally travel but it made it easier to choose, the eclipse is only in so many places.

That sounds awesome! Have an amazing time.

Estepona is great. Definitely somewhere I want to go back to, there's botanical gardens and a long paseo.

Loads of interest in the area, Andalusia is so much more than the mass touristic Costa del Sol.

I haven’t used Audley specifically but I’ve often gone through an itinerary with other travel agents and then priced it up myself separately and the cost has worked out pretty similar, or just a couple of hundred more which for many people is worth paying to avoid the hassle of dealing with a complicated itinerary and peace of mind. You won’t be able to access the kind of prices on hotels, flights etc that the travel agents can which is where they get a lot of their margins. Unless you travel enough to make registering as a travel agent yourself worthwhile. Even then you won’t be able to compete with bigger companies, and will have to pay a joining fee plus monthly membership fees. There are advantages to using an agent too - if a transfer doesn’t turn up or a hotel isn’t up to standard, it’s someone else’s problem to sort out.

Don't go anywhere then. Holidays are expensive and often bad for the environment, no point unless you're keen! There must be some relaxing things to do at home.

Booking for yourself is fine until something goes wrong and then you are on your own. We booked a package and all the flights home were cancelled for days. The tour company put us in a hotel and paid for all expenses for five days and then flew us home.
If you don’t know where you want to go think about what type of holiday you want to do. Then go to a travel agent and collect some brochures. Maybe think about something you have never done before.

For some destinations I don’t think the difference in price is quite so stark and I think that peace of mind is probably worth the money. In some countries I’m sure you might even save money with an agent. Japan isn’t one of those places.

For Japan, I am 100% confident in saying that their mark ups are incredibly high. I’ve stayed in a number of the hotels that they use, as recently as this Easter.

My last trip was one night five star, eleven nights four star and two nights three star and we paid less than £750 per person for accommodation. The flights were the expensive bit at almost £2k per person. That is the most expensive time of year.

If you've looked at half the planet and nothing appeals, then wait until something does. It's not compulsory to drag yourself on a half hearted holiday.

Estepona is a very nice town, one of the nicest on the Costa del Sol. I don't know if you have been before, but it's one of the few places there that doesn't feature wall to wall Full English breakfast (more churros con chocolat) or English/Irish pubs on every corner either. The food on Restaurant Row (Calle Caridad) and around Plaza de las Flores is amazing, so much choice, all great.

I go for three weeks over Christmas every year, but have been in May also. Love the place.

@TakonekoAny quick look at hotel prices in Japan at good quality hotels in better locations are not bargain basement. I looked at your costs and you have not compared like with like and Audley adjust prices down if you take more basic accommodation. I assumed your flights were £1000 each and this gives around £6000 for hotels for 82 days. Thats £73 per day and it’s virtually impossible.

Of course Audley include expensive transport or car hire and have various activities built in which you can jettison. They sort out any JR pass and that’s included if needed for the holiday. It’s not an extra. It’s like an all inclusive holiday, except meals and yours is nowhere near the same at £73 a night. I’ve travelled widely and I know decent Japanese hotels are not that cheap.

ps - I don’t work for Audley but you need to compare apples with apples and I’m not against companies who give a decent service making a profit.

Oh that’s interesting! This is extremely silly, but Estapona was the setting of a gangster drama I watched a while ago so I’d assumed it was all dodgy brits abroad…. silly me.

I’m actually more interested in Libya than the eclipse, but there are a few tours running there to coincide with it when it’s usually so hard to get into (for good reason, I know).

I should see more of Moorish / Roman Spain though. Another one for my list!

@MeetMeOnTheCorner £1100 has disappeared from your calculations.

I know what I’ve paid for The Gate and its between £100 and £200 per night for two people depending on the time of year and day of the week,

I also know for a fact that you can book the Sakura Terrace for about £50-£100 per night for two people depending on the time of year.

Lol I know what a package is and that it doesn't require a beach!!

We have used travel agents to book fly-drive holidays previously but we just find booking separately works for us, particularly in Europe where it's relatively cheap to find an alternative flight or hotel if needed. Although we've also done the same for the US and SE Asia.
We always check cancellation policies etc and have comprehensive annual travel insurance. It's just about common sense and planning. We've never had a problem (I've probably jinxed that now though haven't I!).

Could you be any more pompous!

I recognise this poster’s style from when they had a different username. This isn’t the first time that they’ve described my mid budget Japan holidays as “bargain basement”. 😂😂

just bringing a slightly different flavour to this thread. i booked a holiday for me and my DS (16) with a company called Journee who specialise in mystery holidays. we booked 4 nights in a 4 star hotel, city break, 2 excursions and didn't know where we were going until we got to Gatwick. Absolutely brilliant. couldn't fault the company. we had an incredible time in Krakow, Poland. took all the stress and worry out of things, would highly recommend.

@EllaPepper Thay sounds amazing. When do you find out where you’re actually going?