DIY holidays, where do I start

[jomarise]

Our first two visits we have gone on package holidays, these have cost around 4K for 3 adults and one child (17) Staying at Vista Cay just off IDrive in a 3 bedroom apartment.

We are thinking of a diy trip next October for half term and the following week. (probably 10-11 days)

How much is reasonable for a direct flight? Who would you recommend?


Villas - we don't do Disney that much (more Universal) what areas would you recommend. I have had a quick look and the prices seem to vary quite a lot.


Any tips on where to start gratefully received. Thanks

[Procrastinator]

Different people will book in different order.

Personally i would start with the flights. Start tracking prices. So use skyscanner, kayak, whatever ones work best for you and just keep trying the flights most days to mco and tpa. Not all carriers have released flights yet so i would not book now. But just start watching prices. Again, it is personal choice but i would watch until Xmas to see what happens with the sales at the end of the year.

Nothing to stop you looking at villas at the same time. When we looked i struggled to find any close to universal. Had to go further towards disney in the end.

[mouli1]

I always start with flights and add on after that .we usually go for a condo in lbv area not too far from universal down the back road or i4 if not too busy

[Stan1805]

we stayed at Vista cay in 2011and found it great for universal. We booked through destination America who have loads of Vista cay accommodation on their site. They are great to deal with and always have live chat for advice and to answer any questions you might have. We have always booked our flights first then accommodation.

[jomarise]

Thanks all, had a quick look at flights, the cheapest was BA at 2500 for the 4 of us, it seems alot given we pay 4K for the holiday in total. What do you think? Thanks

[Thorpy]

You start by breaking down the 3 biggies, flights, accommodation and tickets, and start to get a feel for what they are going to cost you and you make notes. You will do that many queries you will lose track unless you make notes.

This gives you an understanding of where you might compromise one area to gain in another. Spending a bit more on accommodation might make for a much better holiday, but mean indirect flights, or an increased budget...etc. . If you refuse to go indirect, then you might need to compromise on the hotel. Choosing which parks might make a massive difference in quality and/or price. We often drop universal.
The biggest difference from a package is that you get options and you have to do your homework on them and know what each part of "your" package costs what. Do that reasonably well and you almost always get either more for the same or the same for less.

You've done one search for flights... chances are that's not going to be the best price, just the best price right now. I've watched prices for our usual dates for years, admittedly with varying intensities, but only over time to you build a picture of the range of prices, top end can be double the cheapest, and that's when you book not what you book. changing what you book also makes a big difference. Then there is the variation between direct flight prices and indirect prices.

Kick off a thread asking what people paid that just went in your weeks this year... that will give you an idea of what prices can be achieved especially for flights.

[Kasalic]

Thorpy gives some important advice. I find keeping notes, and a spreadsheet helps keep things clearer. For example I might get an early indirect flight cheaper, but this will mean I would need to stay overnight the night before the flight to ensure I am at the airport on time. In this case I would price up Hotel & Parking together, and also separately. I might also look at options like getting a train to the hotel and back rather than driving and paying for parking. Then you have the option of flying out of Gatwick and back indirect to Heathrow which may be cheaper

I've not been half term week in October, so cannot help with flight prices, although we did fly into Tampa from Gatwick on 29th September 2016 and paid £450 per person direct per adult.

If it was me I would be looking at the following budget for the holiday. 4 flights for £2,000, a 3 bedroom villa should be under £1000 for 10-11 days (£500 a week is possible), car hire £350-£500 and Universal tickets are coming out around the £1056 for 4 adults. This should be around £4,500, but you get a whole villa with private pool to yourselves.

Do you have a preference on which airport you fly from?

Flights are the most expensive item, but also offer the opportunity to save money. We tend to stick to BA as this earns us Avios points. I have setup a family account so we pool our points and we then wait for them to have offers/sales. We managed to get 2 adult flights Gatwick to MCO for £244 each by waiting for the right time and using Avios as part payment. BA also do some good Fly/Drive deals which can be a good option. Having said that, if Norwegian, Virgin, TUI etc offered a good deal I would fly with them without a second thought.

[Lancer01]

I would suggest looking at flydrive prices also (if you are planning on driving). We just got back from a 3 week trip including half term and paid £600 each for flights and car for the whole period. That was flying into Fort Lauderdale though with BA.

[cornishfrogboy]

Thorpy has given good advice (imho).

DIY savings are down to ..

A good knowledge of the product and it's pricing.

Diligent, thorough research over a period of time, rather than a spare half an hour on a Saturday in November. Prices go up and prices go down. Offers appear.. and disappear. You need to know just what price on any element will trigger a 'buy' situation and then act quickly.

Flexibility on dates In my job, I can select pretty much any dates in the year.. (but dependent on kids school hols). I am very fortunate in that 11 people have the same job description as me, but that I am the only one with the wage, a Police Pension and a small mortgage. I am therefore in probability the only one seeking a big block in the School Hols.

Having the cash put aside to pay there and then, when necessary, particularly flights as they are generally 'up front' unless a flydrive.

Reading the DIBB very regularly. Opinions, advice, good deals, quick accurate answers to questions you may put up, trip reviews. The site is amazing and without it, I would never have attempted to achieve some of my more recent vacations. The DIBB is the best travel advice and planning centre around!

Now, how to do it..

As always, opinions vary and I have taken note of what you are seeking. I absolutely agree with Thorpys, the '3 elements', only adding carhire and out of park activities.

I almost invariably go Flights, accommodation, tickets, car. (Other than next year).

Flights. They vary greatly and from day to day. Research is the key. I am dummy booking and recording on flights in Easter, Summer and XMas every year, whether going or otherwise. I have a spreadsheet that I record my thoughts on. I research Opodo, Skyscanner, Kayak, Delta Airlines, Expedia and most of all, Google Flights. There is a reason for my favouring Google.
You can put in the single elements of your return flights, I.e 'out' and 'in'.
You can then look at the best value flights on 'that day' and any other day, right back to the day you are researching, looking at the findings in calander boxes, or even a bar graph. From this you get a feel for monthly trends and even daily trends. You may find that Wednesday with BA is best to go out, but that a Friday with TUIis best to return.

Remember that search engines go out to 330 days on long haul flights, but that Norwegian go out to 350 or so. If looking at Flydrives, you can go out even further, I believe.

You can view nearby Airports for both Departure and arrival on either 'out ' or 'in'. You can even multi search them on a one hit by inserting them in the search bar. You may find that the best deal is to fly into Tampa direct with BA, but to depart from Fort Lauderdale with Norwegian (who only fly Fort L on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays)

In short, the world is you buttercup on this site and having found a great set of flights, you can then compare those flights on Opodo, Skyscanner etc as well as the host airlines in order to get best price.

We will assume that I have found my flights, have a 15 day flight and have booked them. That is the difficult bit.. made more difficult by the need to also chance your arm with BA. Who often have great flydrives, deposit only and with adequate insurance included in the price (unlike certain others).

Accommodation in October.
I have my flights, now I look at accommodation. If looking at Villas, then with a lot of experience, I can say that there is a massive oversupply other than maybe at Easter and Summer Hols.. and even then I have been spoilt for choice with a plethora of great homes to choose from.
The DIBB is obviously a good place to look, but do not forget all of the search engines. For me, I have had great success with Holidaylettings.co.uk, mainly because they were great when a Villa owner sold from under me and cancelled my booking. Holiday.ettings were great in resolving this issue that can happen on any site. If you want a particular villa on a particular site, then of course, booking early will tend to prevent disappointment.

Tickets. I try pretty much all of them, Floridatix, Attraction tix, ATD etc etc and draw up a spreadsheet. I generally but not always end up with ATD because they generally pricematch (and on the phone sometimes a tiny bit more) and also have some great freebies such as Underwater cameras, Free Legoland tickets, Free Airboat rides etc. Sometimes, they will even move them onto your purchase even though you don't strictly qualify. I have also never had a problem with them in California, New York or Orlando.

Car hire. Many swear by Britcars? I simply research all of the sites and take the best deal. In recent years it has generally been 'Budget cars' , a part of Avis and through Expedia as I get a further company discount through a portal of 10-14% (It varies month to month).

Hoping this helps. The key words are research, viewing the DIBB and when necessary, flexibility in both product, length and dates.
Bad or lazy research is utterly pointless. I found this as a career Detective. . If you want to be good at it and more importantly, save money.. then you have to put that time in.

[martyn321]

For us booking the flight and hotel together on Expedie has always worked out the best value. They must have some deal with the airlines as the price they gave us last time was waaaay cheaper then the hotel could offer us even with knowing a member of staff there.