There is no absolute right answer here. Usually I do go DIY but not always. Its worth a bit of time spent researching. Tour ops, travel agents, hotel and/or flight direct. Also try the likes of Expedia and the many other websites for flight and hotel packages and also flight or hotel on their own. If it sounds a bit overwhelming then just put Ledra Beach in google search and see what it brings up- good starting point

From what I can tell its yes and no !

To elaborate a little...

If like us you are stuck for certain times of the year and you have to book week X and week Y then the chances are you will find it cheaper (much cheaper) to book a package ! We looked one year trying to book everything ourselves and the flights alone were coming out more than we could book a full holiday for ! - You also get more peace of mind should things go wrong, you can ring the travel company and they deal with it !

However if you are more flexible with dates and timing then you can keep looking for cheap flights, and when the flights are on a great deal (lets say £150 there ( instead of £600 there and back) because its a funny time of year and an odd midweek flight etc) and then there is a flight back in an unusual amount of days (ie not 7 or 14 days, you know 11 days later or 18 etc) at £100, and you shop around for a cheap hotel that will deal with you directly (and has space available to do this as many will sell their allocation to the main travel agents) and if the hotel happens to be offering a better deal due to funny time of year etc ... then you can get away dirt cheap.... (but if something goes wrong then its you pulling out the credit card to pay for a new flight home etc)

Steve

I have spent time trying to do DIY without success. We tend to go back to the same hotels each year and whilst I was offered a very good discount this year by the hotel it still worked out more expensive DIY. As Steve says it can be done if you are flexible on dates but there is no guarantee. Some friends of ours have an apartment and tell me that getting cheap flights is very much a lottery.

fwh

Living in Cyprus for the last 8yrs and booking holidays for my parents to come out and stay for 4 weeks every November I've found it's always been better to book flights and accommodation separately or use Sunshine.co.uk / Travel Republic for the best prices.

Before the route was cancelled, I used to book flights with BA/GB Airways from Manchester to Paphos but since then, the times and prices have been very good with Monarch (to Larnaca). We're in Limassol so the airport isn't the be all and end all for them.

I've costed up hotel accommodation directly with the hotels and it's always been more expensive than using one of the 2 companies I mentioned above. I got an extremely good deal with Thomson 3yrs ago on one of their special 5 GBP per night deals at the Atlantica Oasis. That time, I booked 26 nights on BB basis including flights (booked separately) at a cost of around 570.00 GBP for BOTH of my parents. They ended up being moved to the Miramare on the seafront for the full duration of their holiday as the Atlantica Oasis was closing towards the end of their holiday for some remedial work.

The last 2 winters have been spent at the Golden Arches and booked with Sunshine.co.uk with flights and accommodation on half board for 28 nights coming out at a little under and a little over 1,000GBP for them both.

However, I also arrange their accommodation to Malta and this time they got an excellent deal with Mercury Direct. Flights, accommodation on half board and their transfer by minibus in each direction came to 1049.00GBP. It was one of the 4 weeks with 3rd week on BB but they paid 49.00GBP per person to upgrade to HB for the 3rd week and then I found a discount code for 50GBP off the cost.

We do the same from Cyprus as we've found it much cheaper to book flight only and then book accommodation with one of the bucket agents online. We generally choose Sunshine or Travel Republic and have just arranged a 10 night holiday to Egypt, combining flights on Egyptair from Larnaca to Luxor with a connecting flight via Cairo in each direction, 2 nights hotel accommodation in Luxor followed by a 7 night Nile cruise on Full Board for less than 850 EUR for 2 people.

You do have to spend time researching and comparing like for like but this has worked for my parents and ourselves since 2004.

Shell
Limassol, Cyprus

The majority of times we've been out we've booked separately, booking the accommodation direct.
The main reason is because we would spend a week in Larnaca and a week in Pissouri.

It usually worked out a little more expensive, but it was worth the little extra.

Just priced up a "DIY" holiday to Kenya from local airport (Cardiff) vs Thomson package from Gatwick - couldn't make the figures stack up even allowing for transport /car parking/hotel in the UK -Thomson price was just too good

its not unusual... on several occasions i have booked a proper to package as it worked out cheaper than DIY.... you just have to check both, more work but quite a saving can be made

wizard