Hi Weemaz, Please could you indicate which area of Great Britain that you will be travelling from, I get the feeling that you are from Scotland with a name like that but I could be wrong.
I have just been for a 5 day 4 night hol in Beni D.I.Y. and will try to help you plan it.

Sue

The most important thing about a DIY is getting the flights, accommodation is easy to find.
You have two choices, low cost scheduled flights or charter flights. To get a good price on a low cost scheduled flight you have to book as early as possible. Charter flights are just the opposite, as the tour companies who charter the planes don't put them on sale until they know they can't sell the package tours. Basically if you have to go on a certain date use a scheduled flight, if you can be flexible then you MIGHT get a good last minute deal on a charter (or you might not go!). Scheduled flights are usually MUCH better times, not 3am!
There are loads of agents for booking hotel rooms or apartments over the internet and a lot of the hotels take direct bookings on the net as well. When you look remember that the price quoted is usually for the room (or apartment) not per person.
To get from the airport to town either use a taxi (60 euros each way) or hire a car, which would not be much more for the length of time you are going. Taxis don't need to be booked they can be picked up outside the arrivals hall on the way out and phoned from the hotel on the way back. If you aren't happy without booking the use one of the transfer companies mentioned in the airports posting near the top of the page.

Thanks for your replies Sue we are from Scotland would like to fly from Glasgow.

Marion

Hi Weemaz, I'm afraid i'm struggling to find a flight that is both resonably priced and for only 3 nights from Glasgow. We fly from Leeds and are fortunate to have Jet 2 who are excellent. I booked last June for March this year and it was only £67.00 inc. The best I can find for you is for 7 nights with http://www.airflights.co.uk on 19th Sept for £85.00 but it's not clear if it includes taxes e.t.c. The best sites in my opinion for accomodation are http://www.wintersunshineholidays.com or http://www.alpharooms.co.uk For transfers try http://www.shuttledirect.com failing this just have a walk to the travel agents and see what they have to offer.

Good Luck

Sue

Thanks for you help sue, will try them and the travel agents

Marion

Hi, We,ve done diy to Benidorm for the last few years.Just booked for late September and the best flight prices were with easyjet who are starting a Glasgow to Alicante route from July this year. If you check out Flyglobespan they do Benidorm for all different nights and they may have a good package on offer.We,re booking with Benidorm Direct for accomodation and there transfer price is £19 pp return .Hope this helps.

Alexa

Thanks Ally

Marion

Flight with easyjet from 18th to 21st at £85 each thats from glasgow with all taxes included. For accomodation you may find http://www.holidayroomsdirect.com quite reasonable.

Thanks will check it out

Marion

I was looking to book a week in benidorm for 4 of us the end of July beginning of August, but the prices were coming out over £2000 which I thought was ridiculous. so I had a look at doing it myself so I got the flights for £690 from bmi and the hotel from med hotels the ambassador playa full board for £590. so its cost just over £1200 for full board for a week, although we still need transfers. The same holiday with thomson is coming out at £2100 and that was only half board. Just goes to show what a difference doing it yourself makes. If anyone is interested xlcom flights were quite cheap but the bmi ones were nearer home for us.

diane.

Well done, Diane
If you haven't already seen it, you will find details of transfer options in THIS thread.

David

We are just back from Malta and I am planning our next holiday to Benidorm in October.
I always book on the Internet but use Package holidays and often spend a lot of time trying to plan a DIY holiday but I never seem to find that the price will be much cheaper.
Can I have some opinions please?
We have stayed in hotels such as Nereo, Marina,Castilla, Presidente and las Dalmatas and for October it looks as though it will be about £950 to £1050 for two on full board on a Package. I dont want to go further than East Midland Airport.
What do most Beni regulars do please?
Regards Sue

Like you I have tried DIY but not found anything better than package or tailor-made. We are going to Levante Club Hotel in November (been twice before -brilliant). We looked at internet packages and went to a travel agent and asked them to beat the best price we found and they did. We did specify the hotel. Last year we stayed at the Marina. We watched Teletext, picked a company we thought were well priced and asked about the Marina although it was not advertised. They "tailor-made" a holiday for us which included private transfer by taxi and it still beat all other advertised packages pricewise. This year we are flying from Glasgow and the cost of the 4* Levante Club Hotel (in my opinion the best hotel in Benidorm) and it is costing £604 for 2 of us. As your flight supplements are likely to be much less, I think you could do better.
P.S I think Levante Club is far superior to the Marina even if it's not so close to the action.

As people have said quite often, going DIY isn't about cost, you obviously can't expect to save much when you are booking one or two flights, rooms etc compared to a tour operator who is booking hundreds and can negotiate big discounts. What you CAN do is get exactly what you want, flights at sensible times, an apartment big enough to swing the proverbial cat and maybe a hire car, for about the same price as tour operators charge for a red-eye flight, a poxy little studio and a two hour coach transfer. For hotels the price saving of a DIY is minimal and if I stayed in hotels I'd probably get a package because you then get better financial protection should one element of the holiday go badly wrong.

Hi We have been to Beni quite a few times ,both package and diy. The last 4 times diy.We are going with 2 friends on 28th Sept
Flights for 4 £318

Apartment beach front 2 bedroom £259

Transfers to and from Beni £76

Grand total of £653 for 4 adults. This is for 8 nights as we have a 9.30pm flight so we have the use of the apartment till we leave for the airport. It works for us we wouldn,t get a 2 bedroom apartment from the travel agent without massive under occupancy supps.More spends too.

Alexa

Hi Sue we are going to Benidorm in July for 4 weeks
I always do DIY as the tour operators charge so much for July/ August, my holiday costs:
Flight £101 each with BA (booked in December) =£303
Bus to and from Airport £30
Apartment £250 a week x 4 =£1,000
Total holiday costs £1,333 for a month in a 2 bedroom apartment.
As i go by myself and my 2 children we don't go to fancy restaurants and eat out everynight, we have breakfast in our apartment, then i make us rolls for lunch i treat our holiday as if we were at home, we prefer to have 4 weeks self catering than 2 weeks in an hotel for the same money. This will proberly be our last time in Benidorm for a few years, as we went to Goa in March and we fell in love with it, that was a last minute DIY and we paid half the price that was in the brochure, so i think if your going for 2 weeks and you know the hotel you want, then go with a tour company, but if like me and you go for longer then do DIY.
crystalxxx

Thanks for all observations and opinions submitted.
I have obviously left it late to get a cheap flight now so after much browsing and and also speaking to an advisor who does 'tailor made' she told me she could not beat my price with Portland on line for the Nereo at £888.00 for 2 x FB on Oct 24th .
Today I phoned Portland and got a further discount which gave me £850.50 so I am well satisfied and have booked.
Regards Sue

I am well satisfied and have booked.

Well done Sue
I`d have booked that as well....that`s a good deal.

SanJi x

I must admit I have tried to DIY holidays and I could not get it any cheaper than a package. The package companies have done a good job. If you play one against the other you will get a good deal often playing the sister company against the main company First Choice and Eclipse have two prices for the same holiday so you book with the cheapest .