![]() For charter flights, try or For accommodation, companies such as Alpha International (0114-268 7000 and Med Hotels (08, are useful. Don't overlook the huge number of charter-flight seats that are on sale this summer these are particularly useful for departures from regional airports not served by the no-frills airlines. For flights, you may want to check out the low-cost airlines, or try Opodo ( for scheduled flight deals. To choose a resort, you can read impartial user reviews of many properties at and at You don't have to book everything through one website. Expedia ( Travelocity ( and ( are good places to start. ![]() You can do this either by sourcing components (eg flights, accommodation, car hire, travel insurance, tours) separately, or by taking advantage of the websites that offer what is sometimes known as "dynamic packaging" these allow the client to build their own package, but to book it all through one source. The big tour operators are talking about introducing more flexible packages, but say that they've managed to keep costs down over the years because of set departures for fixed blocks of time, allowing them to maximise the occupancy of flight seats and hotel beds. The problem with traditional packages is their rigidity: the price, dates and hotel might suit, but the flight times and/or the departure airport might be inconvenient. If you book components separately, you should always try to pay by credit card for anything costing over £100 (even if there's a surcharge), as you then have recourse via the credit-card company if the supplier of a component fails. This means they have the pick of the hotels, and can offer very competitive prices - especially away from the peak late-July and August season. Tour operators exercise a lot of financial buying power, especially in the big Mediterranean resorts. Secondly, with your flights, accommodation, transfers and maybe even meals paid for upfront, the likely total cost of your holiday should be much more apparent from the outset. Not everyone has the time or inclination to trawl through guide books, flight timetables or the internet for the best deals. Granted, beach package holidays may not suit everyone, but before you turn your nose up you should consider the many advantages of buying one. I'M NOT SURE I WANT TO JOIN THE BUCKET-AND- SPADE BRIGADE But package travel is indisputably declining relative to the rest of the market. Until this year, the figures have always confounded the doom merchants: sales of Mediterranean packages stand at around 15 million annually. The imminent demise of the package holiday has been predicted for at least a decade. Things continued relatively unchanged until recently, when the package industry was wrong-footed by the low-cost airlines boom.
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