Package or DIY

[Simba05]

Hi,

i was just wondering what everyones thoughts and and advice was on which way is better to book my trip?

using a company to book it or doing it myself.
not sure how to go about it if i do it myself. any help appreciated

thanks

[loopyloo33]

I would book whichever is cheapest. Book on a credit card if you can so you are covered by section 75 protection is anyone goes out of business.

[Fraggle35]

It took me until my 4th trip to pluck up the courage to go DIY, I always went with V H. It saved me over £1000 for 1 adult and 2 young adults for 2 weeks in disney and 1 week at Universal.. well worth it on my opinion.

[AhoyShipmates]

Start by working out when you want to go (ie are you limited to school holidays) and where you want to spend your holiday - Disney, Universal, both? Do you want to stay onsite and maybe get free Disney dining if it's offered later this month or rent a condo or villa? Direct flights or indirect, which are cheaper but add two to four hours on to your journey? Once you've decided your rough itinerary get quotes from a few travel agents eg Pillinger Travel, Charter, My Magic Holidays, Kenwood Travel, Disneyworld.co.uk then separately price up the cost of your hotel or villa, car hire if needed, tickets and flights - flights are released 11 months in advance and if you have to fly from the north they have gone really expensive since Thomas Cook collapsed.

I was going to go DIY this year but the direct flights from Manchester stayed at £1000-plus because only Virgin and TUI were flying that route. It may be cheaper to book a package in that case.

[Moorlandman]

I have always done DIY but it’s now becoming cheaper to buy a package as the flights can be so expensive!

[spikeybee]

I always do diy, as this is part of the fun of booking, looking around finding the best bits to suit you. This way it tailored direct to you. Always using my credit card for the extra cover.

[catherinesian]

I think I would always prefer to DIY America, it's so easy.

We did a very complicated multi centre holiday in 2019 which was my first USA trip I've booked myself, and it couldn't have been easier. Yes it was a lot of time researching everything, but that was exciting too. I did get a quote for our trip and parts of our trip from a couple of travel agents, the price difference was shocking - thousands of pounds more through an agent.

I also like being in control in case you need to make changes, etc. Some agents will charge amendment fees and generally be slow / inflexible.

However, I won't always go DIY, for example I would say our trip to China in October (if we go...) is part DIY and part package, in that we have signed up for a packaged land tour but opted to buy our flights ourselves so we could go out a few days early to go to Shanghai Disney. So booked part of that ourselves. I think the main thing stopping me booking all DIY in countries other than USA is the language barrier.

[NewtoOrlando]

We always to DIY holidays, Europe and USA. We always book everything deposit only, on a credit card, and make sure that our insurance covers all eventualities. I've never found a tour operator to be any better price wise than what I can book myself and like the flexibility of DIY.

[dad2700]

DO NOT USE PILLINGER WORLD TRAVEL. Our own personal experience has been awful with them.

[Bal]

We’ve used both, and we’ve done package after diy so not a learning curve for us

As others have said, sort of depends on what you want. Lots of complex options and destinations, probably easier and cheaper to go diy. However a few years ago we went with TUI, with a villa package and because of an offer they had at the time we couldn’t get anything close using diy. Couple of years ago we went back to diy though as wanted to go into Tampa, spend some time on the coast then up to Disney.

Important thing with diy is make sure you have protection in place, paying on credit card, travel insurance for failure etc.