If you contact the hotel direct you may not have to pay until you arrive.

You will probably have to pay upfront for airline tickets though.

Hi Glynis

Thanks for replying. I have already approached them direct and the cost with the flight is about £200 more expensive.

Trish

I've used http://www.venere.com to book hotels all over. They reserve the room on your credit card but don't take any money - you just pay for the hotel when you check out. Check for scheduled flights using the flights page on http://www.travelocity.co.uk but also find out if any of the low cost carriers like Easyjet, Jet2, etc fly to Rome from your local airport. This way you would pay for the flight up front but not the hotel.

It might be possible if you booked your break as a package from one of the brochures to just pay a deposit up front, you could check that at your local travel agent.

Thanks Maria for those links. Unfortunately neither of them covered the hotel we want to stay in. I have considered the travel agents but I don't think we will have the flight flexibility and looking at the costs for this years Easter break I think it will be so much more expensive. I think we will have to pay up front for the expedia deal - a bit of fund management is needed.

Thanks for the help anyway.

Trish

Hi Trish - so far I've done ours independantly - cheapo Easyjet flight and booking direct with the hotel after an extensive online search and recommendations from HT!! The hotels have all just taken CC details and we've paid upon departure.