SOME people enjoy netball or cross-stitch, but my hobby is booking holidays – and I’m really good at it.
I know a lot of people hate searching for a family holiday, working out what resort is best and whether it’s good value for money, but I enjoy it.
Helen says holidays are her favourite hobby.[/caption]
I treat it like a sport.
There is no better feeling than getting a really great deal for a week in the sun.
I go through the flights, hotels and dates with a fine tooth comb, working out little ways to save.
I have been doing this since my early 20s, after picking up the habit from my dad – back then, the best bargains were on last minute deals.
We used to pack our suitcases and my dad would be on the phone to Teletext Holidays, nabbing a same day bargain.
His greatest achievement was booking a flight that had already started boarding. Although, we’d never be able to do that now.
However, it’s still a thrill when you lock in a trip for a bargain price. It makes the holiday instantly better.
Sometimes it’s a small saving, like finding a cheaper airport transfer and saving £20, but sometimes my research pays off, saving hundreds. It all adds up.
Getting a package deal
Last year, I got my biggest saving yet on a family holiday to Greece.
By booking everything individually, instead of going for a package deal, I saved over £1000 – which was a third of the price.
I couldn’t believe it!
Having just moved house, we hadn’t booked anything for summer, hoping to utilise the garden.
But, the end of term was approaching and after months of grey skies and drizzle, I decided we needed a proper holiday.
Dad, Simon, on pool duty with the kids[/caption]
The best deals were in Greece.[/caption]
Heading first to a popular holidays provider, I browsed the best deals across all six weeks of the kids’ school break.
I didn’t have a set departure airport or destination in mind and I kept the dates and length of time we’d be away flexible, which meant I had a wide range to choose from.
At the time, Greece was coming up the cheapest, and I narrowed it down to the Louis Apostolata Island Resort in Kefalonia
The deal was pretty good. Flights from London, a week half-board in a four-star resort, a suitcase each and transfers to and from the airport in Greece for £3400.
But, since we hadn’t planned on a summer holiday, it was still over budget.
That’s when I started looking into each aspect separately. I discovered that instead of flying with the designated airline, we could fly with Ryanair for half the cost.
Flights were £140 return on the budget airline.
Since we didn’t need four suitcases, we just booked one between us for the week, immediately saving another £150 on the Ryanair flights.
Going onto the hotel’s own website, I noticed that I could book directly with them and the price was coming up a lot less.
They also had an offer on a room upgrade if you signed up to the mailing list. We actually ended up with a nicer room, while paying less.
Louis Apostolata had a great deal.[/caption]
Helen’s family ended up getting two trips for almost the same amount![/caption]
The only thing that wasn’t covered was transfers. On the package deal, a coach transfer was included but it also stopped at a number of other hotels.
When I looked it up, a taxi to the resort was only £80 return.
However, even with this on top, we still saved a whopping £1001 on the whole trip.
We used the money we saved to book a weekend in Disneyland Paris in October.
Again, I booked everything separately, using the Eurotunnel to drive to France and booking a hotel close to the theme park with 2-day tickets for just £440 for all of us.
Our trip only cost £1300.
After saving money on our Greece trip, I told people that Disneyland only cost us £300!
Book carefully
My advice would be to always book with reputable suppliers, because you could end up forking out more if they are not legitimate.
If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is.
I do like DIY holidays but I am not against booking a package deal and sometimes they are so good, I can’t beat them. I think that’s great.
Our favourite places to shop for a package holiday are Jet2holidays and TUI.
Booking a package means you get extra protection for your holiday through regulators like ABTA, ATOL and ABTOT.
This means you’ll get your money back on all aspects of the package in the event of any holiday disasters, like flight cancellations or issues at the hotel – which I wouldn’t have had with my DIY version.
For peace of mind, some people prefer to pay extra and not have to think about that, but massive holiday disasters are rare so I am happy to take the risk.
