What Is A Package Holiday?

It may seem like a strange question – “what is a package holiday?” – but it’s one that is searched for by search engine users with surprising regularity. The term ‘package holiday’ has become such common usage in modern society that few people ever explain what they mean when they use it, but for those who don’t know, here’s a quick guide.

The term ‘package holiday’ is used to describe the kind of holiday that takes care of everything itself. You book the entire holidays: flights (or whatever mode of transport you will be using to reach your destination) and hotel package holidays are the most common. These usually include transport to and from the airport; so essentially, it’s the simplest way to go on holiday, and is booked ‘all in one’ rather than paying for the flights, hotel and transfers separately.

Package holidays, however, can mean more than just flights and hotels. They can also include sightseeing or theater trips in the overall price, usually at a discounted rate. Sometimes package holidays can include transport to and from the airport in your home country, so everything really is taken care of.

The beauty of package holidays is the simplicity of them. You simply choose your destination, and the travel agent – be it online or in store – will put together the rest for you. You don’t need to worry about getting to the hotel from a foreign airport, and everything is included in one lump-sum price for ease of budgeting. It’s no wonder, given the convenient one-stop-shop method of holidaying they offer, that package holidays are so popular.

Online Travel Agents vs. High Street Travel Agents

Once upon a time, when people wanted to book a holiday they went to see the travel agent. Usually found on a high street with heavy pedestrian traffic, the travel agent was the start of vacation dreams for several decades – until a new, flashier kid arrived on the block.

With the advent of the internet age, life for travel agents and holidaymakers changed forever. Now, we can go online and find the best deals to suit us, all without paying a hefty arrangement fee to a travel agent. It’s simple, easy and can be done from the comfort of your living room – but the travel agents aren’t going out of business just yet… so what’s stopping everyone converting to internet holiday booking?

Clearly, the biggest difference between online travel agents and personal, high street conventional travel agents is the face-to-face factor. With a conventional travel agent, you can sit down and discuss your needs with an actual person, and you can get recommendations as you browse. The internet loses this personal sense a little, and may explain why some have yet to discover the joys of internet holidays.

The main concern, however, appears to be concerns about internet safety and passenger protection. Holidays are expensive – that’s a given – and many people just don’t feel comfortable tapping their credit card details in to a faceless computer.

If that’s why you’ve yet to book a holiday online, rest assured. Use the usual security checks before entering card details, such as a ‘https’ is the web server or a small padlock icon on the address bar – these usually mean a site is security protected, and you’re good to go.

Survive The Travel Agent Hard-Sell

Estate agents have a worldwide reputation for exaggerating the good points of something they are trying to sell and downplaying the bad – but they’re not alone. This ’selective editing’ tactic is used by any professional company trying to sell something; the trick is to learn to see through their statements and find the truth.

When it comes to travel agents, it’s all the more difficult to trust them. For a start, unlike when you’re with a realtor, you aren’t there to view the hotel you will be staying at – so you have to rely totally on what the travel agent says and what the photographs of the hotel suggest. Therefore it’s all the easier to be lead down the garden path, and end up staying in a hotel that makes your entire holiday a misery.

The important thing when it comes to booking a holiday is to give yourself time. Do not be pressurized in to buying a holiday in your first visit to a travel agent; even if they are offer one-day-only exclusives. These deals rotate, so providing you give yourself enough time, there’s no need to snap one up there and then.

Always get the information from the travel agent then go and check the hotel out for yourself online. Look at sites such as TripAdvisor.com, where genuine consumers who have stayed at the hotel give their feedback. This gives a much more objective opinion of a potential destination than a travel agent – with one eye on their commission – ever could.