Hi there

When I was looking to book my fortnight in Menorca for August I found the same thing too. I ended up booking a package with Direct Holidays as I found that although I could get something around £200 cheaper by doing DIY, the accomodation offered was inferior and then by the time you add taxi's it was pretty much the same cost.

I have costed some hols for June though and these work out LOADS cheaper DIY. I assume it's the fact that July/Aug is school hols and you'll be ripped off regardless of who you book with.

With regards booking hotel direct have you tried just 'Googling' the name of the hotel you are interested in. You should be able to find the reservations dept that way. Again, I tried this for Aug and it was still more expensive than the package.

Happy holiday hunting!

Nic

Just had a thought. Have alook at the website http://www.islas.co.uk

You can get web addresses for hotels from here.

Hope this helps

I think the only way to get a decent DIY price over peak season is to get very cheap flights. without that I dont think you will save much at all. I managed to get 6 flights for £600 to turkey for next august by booking them when they were released in June . Ive probably saved £800 over the cheapest package I have found for the same hotel but the flights would normally have been £250-300 each so had i not got them cheap that would of wiped out my saving. If easyjet fly to Mahon your best bet would be to get flights the day they are released to guarantee the best flight price.

I agree with Lyn. The best way you can beat the brochures during the main school summer holidays is getting flights at rock bottom prices.

Possibly travelling on Easyjet or Ryanair to Spain and her Islands or the Algarve, trying to get flights on the day that they come on-line. Or the cheap flights to Turkey that were available with Aegean earlier this year.

The accommodation only providers seem to have put there prices up quite a bit for next summer.

I think it might be a different story at other times of the year.

Plus I also believe the T/Os are fighting back .so between that and the accomodation only prices going up I think the honeymoon may be over for getting cheap DIY deals during peak times. I agree with chris and nic though and other times of the year you should do better .

i have booked to go to lanzarote for next june for 10 nights its cost all in all 1000 the same holiday with first choice for one week is double amount this is for six of us.

So are all the cheap flights released around June time then? Just want to know so I'm ready next year to look for a bargain for 2009!

I think it depends on the airline . I got my flights for turkey with Aegean flights beginning of june . they were rapidly increasing by the hour and within a week or two the best deals were gone. Easyjet I believe have only just been releasing their prices for 2008 so there could be some bargains there now for 2008 but Youve been looking havnt you chris and werent too impressed this year XL are another airline that bring out their prices early, their prices remain fairly consistant but at least you can plan early as a rough idea as to whether your likely to make a saving. I saved a fair bit for Easter gone for my holiday to Sharm in egypt .I booked flights early to Sharm with Xl then booked direct with the hilton and didnt need to pay until checkout. I saved between £1200 -£2000 depending on the T/Os flight day but for next year i couldnt beat the T/o as the flights were too expensive. That does seem a very good saving but that is over 6 of us with 2 rooms.

lyn

Julie,you endorse my point.Out of season you can save a lot by going DIY.I did it last september and saved hundreds,but in peak season its very very difficult

I've noticed the budget airlines aren't that cheap this year also. We usually book flights to Faro airport and this year, even on the release date they were alot dearer than last year

Perhaps these airlines are getting greedy.Who knows what comes round goes round and the package deal might soon make a come back (not that it ever went away of course)But you know what I mean

we do both and sometimes diy works out cheaper and other times package, mainly packages work out cheaper for me when i get a free genuine child place without supps etc added on that some co's do. like lyn and chris ive also booked with agean twice once for easter and for aug and got aug flights for about £75 each for 2 weeks return ,these flights are now around 225 each so a huge saving. you just need to keep looking , price watching etc, ive been watching prices to lapland this week and just managed to get a reasonable price for lapland lol

I just google the hotel or apartments I'm interested in and e-mail them direct for a quote, I'm all booked up for Cala D'or in August 08 and I've saved £700 than if I'd booked through a TO. I agree the budget airlines do seem to have hiked up their prices for next year. We got 4 flights to Palma this year for £450 in August and for roughly the same time next year it's cost me £690 plus a charge of £21 for paying by visa card.

Hi Shell

Just out of interest can I ask who you booked your flights with and when? I know I'm a bit ahead of myself but was thinking of DIY for Cala d'or for Aug 2009!!! I want to be prepared for when the flights come out next year as I obviously missed the boat for our hol for 2008.

Thanks

Nic

Hiya Nic, I booked my flights with BMI Baby, we used them this year and they were very good. I booked the flights on 3rd November. They were out later this year for next years bookings. Last year I had the flights booked in September

I think we got a good deal by booking early to menorca in aug 2008.£700 for flights with Jet.2 for 6 of us(5 adults and 1 child) and again £700 for two, two bedroom apartments at the "Marinda Gardens" in Cala en Bosch. Comparing this to a package we saved about £800. We are looking at hiring a car but they seem a bit pricey for a 7 seater ( not much change from £250) can anyone recommend a reasonable car hire company? any promotional codes welcome

Jackie x

we have just got a great deal, i used thomas cook accommodation only , 4 ads 1 child age 3, 14nts all inclusive for £780! screen price on viewdata was £860 i tld t.cook i had a loyalty card for holiday hypermarket but as their system was down i couldnt book it, they matched the price!
for the flights they were coming up with Thomson at nearly £1300 for all of us, so i booked a package self catering for 2wks in side with a free child and that only came to £1002.00! so for all 5 of us 14nts all inclusive
4+ rating from newcastle, day flights and transfers £1782.00.
Same holiday from thomas cook on a night flight from newcastle £2747.00!! result....

We are looking at hiring a car but they seem a bit pricey for a 7 seater ( not much change from £250)

In a similar situation we actually found it cheaper to hire two hatchbacks - more room overall for the luggage on the transfer from the airport and more flexibility during the holiday as we didn't all have to to do the same thing at the same time. Probably cost us a bit more in petrol but then 'people carriers' are pretty heavy on fuel anyway so it probably didn't cost us that much more.

SM

Jackie I always find holiday autos the best deal . If you follow the instructions here for the 15% off via the one account http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=734198 this is the best deal i found when booking a few weeks ago. And if do it via quidco as directed on that thread you will get another £10 back. not sure how they fair on a 7 seater as we only book a hatchback but check it out. they usually include 2nd driver for free and you can also pay a few pounds extra when you book to pay for excess waiver which is a good idea .

lyn