Introduction
Gone are the days of booking package holidays by stopping by a travel agent, picking up loads of brochures, having to work your way through them and then go back to the travel agents to actually book your holiday. Now it can all be done with the click of a mouse.
You don’t even need to leave your own house to book your perfect getaway which is great! And way more convenient, but it does open up a whole new realm of problems and dilemmas and it can be hard to actually make the decision on what is the best deal out there.
I talk about this in detail in my post How To Find The Perfect Holiday but today I wanted to develop on my previous post by discussing what is better, package holidays or booking your trip yourself.
Package Holidays
Package holidays have been around for years and are the traditional way of booking a holiday.
Up until recently it was the most common and popular way of booking a trip and meant going into a travel agent and discussing the types of package holidays you were looking for with the agent and planning the trip together.
Since the internet has taken off, booking package holidays has become a more independent task, with the need for an agent no longer necessary. But package holidays are still very much a big thing!
Package holidays are holidays where everything is included in the price (well almost everything!) You used to be able to get the baggage and transfers included and the choice to reserve your seat on the plane too! This is not so common now as many companies have seen the financial benefit in charging extra for this.
This is what made me ask the question……are package holidays really worth it now??
Booking Yourself
An alternative to the package holiday is now having the option of booking yourself.
This means you will need to find the flights that are suitable for you, and the hotel and transfers separately. Making the whole experience a little more inconvenient (unless you are like me, I love doing all that stuff!)
It will involve going to multiple sites and doing a lot of comparisons before you find the options that are suitable for your trip. This can be time consuming and will take a lot of research.
But What Is Best?
This question really depends on many factors. First how confident you feel navigating your own way around an unknown country – if you are nervous about this, then booking yourself might not be ideal for you.
It also depends on how much time you have to research your trip. As mentioned above, booking yourself can be time consuming.
Package holidays are super convinent when it comes to the companies doing all the hard work for you but they regularly do have hidden costs.
Teletexts is renowned for this. They advertise holidays at a certain price online (normally a bargain price too) but you have to call them to book and when you get to that stage you will most likely find the holiday price is completely different to the one advertised. They are also pretty ruthless sales people too. Once they have your info, they really try to make you ‘buy in’ to the holiday.
Another thing to note when looking at package holidays is that a lot of the cheaper tour operators and travel sites are the ones with hidden extra’s and charges. You may think you are getting a cheaper holiday in one of the lesser know operators but it is actually sensible to look on sites like First Choice or TUI who actually offer much better value for money when it comes to the whole package, ESPECIALLY if it is long haul!
Booking yourself, although time consuming, does mean you get a lot more control over your holiday.
Using sites like sky scanner gives you lots of choice over the date and time you want to fly and the choice of all the airlines taking that route on that day. I like to see it as a comparison site for flights.
As I mentioned in my post How To Find The Perfect Holiday you will also need to research the hotels in the area thoroughly and decide what is best for you. I prefer doing this on sites like booking.com as they have so many flexible payment options. This is great if you cannot afford to pay for the whole trip in one go.
You will also need to work out how you will travel from the airport to the hotel. Look into the options of trains, buses and taxis to find out which one is quickest, cheapest and most convient.
Ok But I still Want to Know What Is Best For Me
Well this completely depends on your circumstance.
For me, if I am going on a beach holiday or a holiday that is longer than 5 days I will always do package holidays. I don’t really know why this is, I guess it’s just easier to navigate and you know that you are in safe hands. Also, you really don’t want to book a budget airline for a flight that is longer than a couple of hours so its best to go with a tour operator that offers decent flights too.
Package holidays really do seem to have it all covered when it comes to summer and long haul breaks and you can find the best hotels this way too. A lot of the companies have dedicated, exclusive hotels which are really nice!
So for me, for a summer holiday or long haul holiday I will always book package holidays
Booking yourself is great for other types of trips though. I find this option most useful if I am booking a city break or a short break.
This gives me more control over my options and normally works out cheaper.
With short breaks you really want to make the most from your trip and when you do the booking yourself you can pick a flight time that means you get the most time possible in your chosen location.
I also find a lot of city breaks are easy to get to form the airport by public transport or Uber so there is no need to book transfers.
The best thing about booking yourself is you get to choose when you pay for your hotel. I always use booking.com as like I said above, it has many flexible payment options and a lot of the time you can pay at the property. It also shows you where the hotels are located on the map so you know if you are near points of interest or if you are going to have to travel miles to get to them.
Are Package Holidays Really Worth It Then?
So to answer the question…..are package holidays really worth it? I would 100% say YES but only if you are travelling for more than a couple of days.
I actually really enjoy booking trips myself as it gives me more control over budget and means I can really research the area too. I wouldn’t do this if I was going to somewhere like Mexico though, it just isn’t cost effective.
A lot of it come down to personal preference, but knowing your options means you have the ability to be more savvy when it comes to booking your trip!
Package holidays or booking yourself………the choice is yours!
If you liked this post or would like some trip inspiration please feel free to visit my other posts under My Adventures
Thanks for reading a please comment if you have any suggestions, tips, feedback or questions and I will be sure to reply 🙂
Emma X
Great read! Really informative with loads of handy tips that I would never of thought of!
Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I am glad you have found it helpful 🙂