Last Minute Holidays

Ifd you’re anything like me, then you tend to decide at the last minute where you want to go depending on factors like how crap the weather is for August, or is the diabetic cat going to need any vetinary attention sometime soon. Actually yes, we do have a diabetic cat, poor old thing…but it’s a bit of a tie with injections needed twice a day. Oops…I digress. Anyhow, the message I guess is that last minute holidays tend to be our thing.

Being in the UK, we do have a good choice of online travel sites to book wih. The most popular ones on this side of the pond are Last Minute and Expedia, although the highstreet tour operators are also pretty active in the last minute deals field. I’ve used Kuoni, Thomas Cook and First Choice in recent times, all of whom have late deals and special offers, although on balance Last Minute and Expedia have got most of my late business.

The key of course is to weigh them off against each other. Prices often change by the day and you’ll even find sometimes it pays to ignore the whole package holiday thing and book flights and accommodation seperately. I did this last time I went to the Maldives (2005)…found a great cheap flight for like £150 and emailed Asdu Sun Island and got a room for £35 a night! £485 each (incl. taxes) it was and worth every single penny. But mostly I’ve gone the package route as it’s normally a big saving.

I have to say I get a bit frustrated with Last Minute.com - I can’t put my finger on it exactly but I always seem to have to spend hours trying to find what I want. I’ve actually reverted recently to Sidestep, which is an affiliate site and has a much better layout, although being US based it’s all in dollars. It’s especially useful for flights and you can set up daily price alerts delivered by email. Expedia is obviously very well known - probably not as good as Last Minute for last minute holidays, but marginally better for seperate flights and hotel deals I find. I slightly prefer the cleaner layout too.

But don’t ignore the more standard travel agents - if you know a “high street” brand in your area, check out their website as invariably it will have special offers and late deals. You want to see the size of my “Favourites” folder in Internet Explorer - packed with travel agents, sites and all sorts of junk.