i think the sooner you book your holiday the better really! especially if its going to be the school easter hols! we booked our dom rep holiday last july and we dont go until august again the school holidays! and i keep checking prices against what we paid and the closer we get the more its going up in price! at the moment we have saved £1000! and that could go higher, unless your are prepared to take the chance and wait to see whats on offer for a last minute one but for us thats not an option as we have 3 kids and wanted to make sure of what we were getting. hope this helps.
shell5

we had our first holiday in five year this March in the Dom Rep Bavaro it was the best holiday we have ever had we paid £2800 with thomson last october we are now looking to re book but like you the prices seem to be through the roof at the moment, but have a good search on the internet as i found a few today for well under the £1000, try sunsave.com
The sea is glorious warmer than a bath can not wait to go back but if any one has a good hotel they can reccommend we would appreciate it we have one 6year old who loves the water.

Cheers all
Frarn :

We went to Cuba in May (it was not a half term time holiday though) and we booked last september. Thr price had dropped by a third on all Cuba holidays by about 3 weeks before we left. They werent just last minute deals either as we noticed the priced pretty much continually dropped. There was only hotel which got fully booked. I always said if we do it again, we will wait and book late, but things may well be different at easter

HI, we've just booked Dom Rep for next August

Take a look at Thomas Cook/Airtours. We found their prices very reasonable. We've paid £300 per person less with them than Thomson's price for the same hotel- brilliant.

We've also just booked this week to go in August next year. I spent weeks trying to find somewhere last minute for the school hols this year and found nothing. So decided to start looking for next year. We have booked to go to bavaro and saved over a £1000 by booking through directholidays instead of first choice. I thought I was going mad when searching because the prices were rising.

We to got a fab deal for August next year through Thomas Cook, although a few weeks later some more people decided they wanted to come with us and they paid nearly £100 more than we did and it was only two weeks later! I seem to find Thomas Cook prices quite reasonable we travelled last year with them to Turkey and they were the cheapest for that holiday aswell.

Shirleyh where and which hotel are you going to next Aug?

I've often debated the book now/later problem and my solution, for what its worth, is to keep looking and researching the hotels and when one I like comes up at a price I'm happy with then I book it. Better to get what you want, where you want than having to compromise later.

I would like to point out that some TO's offer much more leg room on the flight as standard than others and on a long haul flight that makes a huge difference. To be comfortable I would have to upgrade the flight with certain TO's which often works out a lot more than a standard flight with others.

Good luck whatever you decide.

Hi Carter,

We're off to Dreams, La Romana, Bayahibe, Dom Rep. It's called Sunscape Casa del Mar at the moment but will undergo a refurb and name change in November.