With so many package holidays on offer it can be daunting when looking in the high street or on the internet for holidays. Most of us work hard and save for our main holiday, so it’s frustrating and disappointing when it all goes wrong.

So, here are my tips for booking a package holiday:

Shop around

It really does pay to shop around – a work colleague saved around £300 by booking his family holiday a week earlier, same destination, same accommodation and tour operator, just a week earlier. Sites like cheap holiday deals, travel supermarket, and Henoo are very good at comparing holidays from a number of travel companies.

If you have a date in mind when you want to go on holiday, try and be flexible by 7 days either way, and this is where you will see the difference in prices. For many of you, you’ll have no alternative but to book through the school holidays, so take time to compare the dates.

Check bonding membership

This is extremely important now that ABTA aren’t paying out to those holidaymakers who book a holiday with a company which turns out to be a scam. So, if you see a travel association member number like ABTA, Travel Trust Association, AITO, ATOL, make sure you visit the website and check them out – if you have any concerns at all, contact the association [or me]

Make sure you ask what protection you will receive when booking through them – from my own experience travel companies don’t mention this, and you wouldn’t want to come up against any problems and find out that the travel agency or association cannot help you.

As I always say – make sure you take out adequate travel insurance, especially if you are going to be taking part in water sports and skiing etc. If you are travelling within a ECC destination then make sure you apply for the European Health Insurance Card.

Read reviews before you book

You might have gone into a travel agency and seen a holiday you like – don’t jump straight into booking, instead take the details of the hotel / accommodation and then search sites like Trip Advisor, Holiday Watchdog, etc to find reviews.

You can visit travel forums and ask other consumers opinions on the destination, resort and accommodation to build up a good picture of the holiday before booking. This might sound time consuming, but it’ll save you a lot of hassles if it turns out that the hotel is on a building site.

Check spelling and booking information

I cannot stress this enough – when making a booking offline or online make sure that the names of your party, your address, dates of birth and all booking information is correct. I am receiving a large number of emails from consumers who have booked flights, holidays and have had to pay out large amounts of money to get the tickets changed.

Travel agencies promote holidays offered by tour operators, so not only will you have to pay an admin fee to the travel agency, your likely to have to pay a fee to the tour operator and airline if you find your tickets and booking information is incorrect.

Plan before you travel

Friends and family say I am too organised when it comes to my holiday, but I can go away and feel confident that everything is taken care of. I always copy my booking information, tickets, visas, passport and travel insurance documents, and give this to my dad or mum in case anything happens whilst I am abroad.

I download a Google Map of the hotel nearest hospital, doctors and chemist and take this with me, and emergency numbers of the destination. I visit forums and ask for advice about the destination, i.e. where not to visit at night, recommended restaurants, and look up the nearest banks, and what the currency is.

Sounds crazy huh? Well, I don’t want to be wandering around looking for banks and chemists when I need one – I can either walk straight to them, or jump in a taxi – which reminds me I always look up which taxes are the local ones and which are the equivalent to our black and white taxis [because they cost a fortune!]

• It won’t be a cheap holiday if it’s a Scam
• Consumers Let down by Travel Agency
• The Travel Rants Planning Guide for Holidaymakers
• Unpacking a package holiday booking nightmare

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