It all depends on where you go and what you do...of course. I am also looking at a May flight and chack out the prices on ryanair and easyjet etc regularly. From previous experience I am expecting that in march when the next flight timetables are released, you should check prices everyday and then (if you are not just booking for 1, I am usually booking for 6 at least) snap up the first price you are happy with. Better still, have no plans, no date, no destination, then build your holiday around your £10 flight.

I prefer DIY. I always get good deals to Turkey. It's all about getting good flights, and being able to pay the balance off their and then. Although some DIY companies are now offering low deposits, if you book both aspects of your holiday with them.

Steve

We've gone DIY for the last 3 years even although we don't find it cheaper than packages. We started putting our own trips together because we couldn't find what we wanted from the big TOs. Maybe it's partly to do with wanting to travel from Scotland. We have fewer options up here. For example, last year we wanted to go to the Italian Alps in the summer. All we could find from Scotland were flights into Verona and hotels in the Lake Garda area. By putting it together ourselves we got a small hotel in the exact village in the Dolomites that we wanted. It cost more as we used BA and had to transfer ourselves, but we got the exact holiday we wanted rather than compromising.

edited for rubbish spelling

There seems to be a belief by a lot of people that the aim of DIY holidays is to save money. But that's not what it's all about. If you organise it yourself you have far more choice available and can pick and choose the details you want. You can frequently get much better accommodation than that offered in the brochures. There are lots of beautiful places that are just not in the brochures, or only just beginning to appear. If you want to go to places a bit more off the beaten track then go DIY.

There seems to be a belief by a lot of people that the aim of DIY holidays is to save money. But that's not what it's all about.

I agree with that, but savings can be had against "package deals", but NOT always.
A big advantage is the flexibility, within reason you can tailor to suit your needs, length of holiday and a greater choice of accommodation. As you have said, it also gives a chance to visit places not in brochures. I nearly always go DIY now and do save, but the convenience and flexibilty is a major plus. I've said lots of times, savings are usually down to getting cheap flights, miss them and it may not necessarily be cheap.

Robby

In my experience if you're tied to school holidays you won't normally do a DIY for less money than a package. I've tried many a time, including pricing hols for this Easter and have only once found DIY cheaper, which was last Easter to CDS. We've had a really good deal on a Package hol to Benidorm during the Easter school hols this year, which turned out far cheaper than any DIY I could put together.

i always travel in the school holidays for the past 13 years and every year the prices for me work out loads cheaper by a couple of grand, i get the flights as soon as they are released - they are cheaper then well have always worked in my favour - we decide where we would like to go and then book tickets etc in the September 08 for August 09.

Hi wlondon,

book tickets etc in the September 08 for August 09.

This is exactly what we do for our hols also but as I said, only once it's worked out cheaper to do it DIY than package. Do you live near London or a choice of local airports. In order for us to benefit we need cheap flights from either Cardiff or Bristol, otherwise we have the added expense of travelling over 4 hours to another airport (or even an overnight stay) We find our choice of flights is very lmited.

Hi Shirley H

yep i do live in London

yep i do live in London

That would explain why you can do DIY cheaper. The choice of local flights for us is very limited or very expensive. When I say local, I mean our nearest airport is an hour and 15mins away and the next one is 2 hours.

Oh wow

for me Heathrow is a 20 minute drive but i tend to travel from Gatwick as it works out chepaer adn i can get the train to Gatwick from Victoria which takes 3o - 35 minutes

This year I have booked 3 adults 7 nights in a villa with a private pool in the algarve late June/early July and I have worked out the cost (including transfers) at £325 each - I think that is pretty good price wise given that I was pretty tight with the dates I could fly. Also the accomodation looks lovely and I shan't need to get up at the crack of dawn to reserve a sunbed !
Last year I put together a trip to Canada after I managed to get an unbelievable deal on flights I was able to tailor the trip to our needs and I am pretty sure that I saved over a packaged trip even though I chose a more expensive hotel for part of the stay than similar packages offered.
During the rubbish summer of 2007 I booked a DIY of flight and accomodation seperately via Thomson and managed to get 4 of us a week in Majorca in August for about £1150 when I was that day quoted a minimum of £1750 for a package with accomodation on arrival. The apartments that I booked were In a place we knew reasonably well and turned out to be 'basic' in that there were no kids clubs , check in was at a larger hotel a few minutes walk away , a small and very peaceful pool and no noise or lager louts .
I think DIY is great either for saving money or getting a better holiday for your money.

Some years ago we wanted to take our 3 kids skiing. We chose the resort and the hotel from the brochures. But then I looked up the hotel on the internet. I found that they had some much bigger corner rooms, which were better for 5 of us, and not bookable through the brochures. Our daughter was under 5 at the time and she went completely free in the hotel! So we ended up in a much better room in the same hotel we'd seen in the brochure, and at a greatly reduced price. Most hotels have a whole array of different standard rooms to choose from, but the tour operators use particular ones (usually the cheapest).

DIY is no cheaper for like for like accomadation in the peak season.Anyone who says they save thousands is lying or deluding themselves.Out of season yes definatley cheaper but July and August no way.

Apartments for 4 people in Turkey that we stay in is charging £15 night all season!!!so if you managed to get a cheap flight when they went on sale,you would have a bargain for July and August.

Wayne zab that was a very broad comment for which you have no basis

why would we who do save money tell porkys - Most of the people on here are adults not children who think they need to prove something to others

I definatley save a couple of grand as i go away for 3 weeks at a time and one of my kids is classed as an adult - and yes its n July and August that i travel in

Wayne you are so wrong, as a family of 5 we having been booking main summer holidays for a number of years now D.I.Y. A simple test even on Thomsons website, Look at booking accommodation only and then a flight, you will see it comes out cheaper than booking a holiday through them. It also depends of the number of people. It is harder to find it cheaper for only 2 but for more than that its quite easy, as you are not paying per person, but room cost. Even Hotel websites often offer cheaper rooms as most have free children and 50% discount for 2nd & even 3rd children and reductions for 3rd Adult sharing a room. I never book a package unless its only me & hubby and I get a really cheap deal.

You could have done a cheap DIY to Turkey yesterday.EasyJet started selling return flights from Manchester from 6th August for £75 each inc baggage allowance,that was return!!prices have shot up now.

From a peronal point I stand by my earlier post.I have been on dozens of web sites for hotels and cant find anything for 2 sharing in peak season for less than £650/700 each in a hotel that is like for like to 3 star brochure accom.Add to that the flights of say £150 each and you aren't saving anything.
Perhaps all those who make these huge savings might like to disclose the names of the sites you book on so we can all share in your good fortune.
I'm the last one to stand up for travel agents but travel agents prices are becoming quite competetive thses days and the price you see in the brochure isn't the price you will often be quoted.