Package Holidays
Package holidays are basically holidays that include both your accommodation and transport to and from the destination and transfers to and from the accommodation to the point of travel (ie: airport). Although the world is getting smaller and more people than ever are booking both facets seperately, in general buying the two together will get you a better deal.
In fact I’ve just been testing this theory myself on my forthcoming trip to Hong Kong. I’ve set up alerts at Sidestep to email me flight prices daily and I’ve got my ideal holiday bookmarked on Expedia, combining flight and hotel. What is interesting is that the flight price has been fluctuating daily (I want to fly direct from London Heathrow) while all the package holidays on Expedia combining the hotel I want to stay at (Langham Place) have remained constant. Even with the lowest flight price I’ve seen, the cost of the package at Expedia is still slightly cheaper, and at “normal” flight rates, it’s basically a bargain!
It’s difficult to actually credit the first tour operator to offer the concept of package holidays. You can go back to a chap called Thomas Cook (yup - you guessed what happened next!) in the 1840’s who chartered a train to take a group of people to Loughborough of all places (strangely, not on my recommended list of package holidays folks!) , although the first trip abroad for a group of people was alledgedly organised by the founder of the now defunct Horizon Holidays Group, Vladimir Raitz who lugged a load of unsuspecting Brits to Corsica for a glimpse of sunshine.
As of today, well, package holidays are still one of the most popular ways of getting a good holiday deal and there are plenty of companies offering them. In the UK, First Choice and Thomas Cook lead the way on cheap package holidays, while companies like Kuoni tend to go a bit further, both in air-miles and class of accommodation. In fact I did a Kuoni package to the Maldives in 2001 and it was bloody good! So were Kuoni themsleves for that matter. I’ve also been with First Choice more recently and they were also very well organised.