Booking a Non-package Holiday

When booking your holiday separately, you can get a good deal and save some money compared to paying for a package holiday. This is especially true if you’re staying in an Airbnb. You can tailor your holiday to suit your needs by choosing your flights, accommodation, transfers, etc. There are some unique places you can stay compared to selecting a package holiday, for example, right in the centre of Rome overlooking the Colosseum. It might be a bit daunting if you haven't booked a holiday yourself before, but here are some tips and things you need to know.

Research

The main thing you need to do before booking a holiday is to do some research. A good place to start is figuring out where you want to visit; narrow this down to a city or area in a particular country. While researching areas you’re interested in, look at things you can do in the area, the weather, nearby restaurants and reviews. If you’re unfamiliar with a location, reviews are critical; they can tell you if it’s a lively area, ideal for people looking for atmosphere, or if it's a more secluded area, suitable for a relaxing vacation. Once you’ve narrowed down a place you want to visit, it's much easier to get everything booked. If you’re on a budget you should also check out the prices of local restaurants and bars, you could get a bargain on your accommodation and flights but need lots of spending money whilst you’re on your holiday. Research should also include looking at the costs of flights and accommodation. It is also important to consider the distance between your accommodation and the airport. If you’re only planning on staying for a few days, you might want to minimise the time you spend travelling and choose somewhere closer to the airport to visit.

Booking

Ideally, you should book the accommodation and flights as close together as possible. This will avoid a situation where you have accommodation but no flight, or have a flight but nowhere to stay. Most booking websites give you a set period to complete your booking; this allows you to reserve and book your accommodation and flight at the same time. Once these two things are booked, you’re pretty much sorted. You will still need to look at travel to and from the airport each way of your journey, but often it's much easier to book this than arranging your accommodation and flights.

Airport parking and travel

You should consider how you'll get to and from the airport when booking a trip. Many package holidays include airport transfers in the holiday price, but when you’re booking things separately, you will need to do this yourself. It’s straightforward to book airport transfers and airport parking. You can find cheap parking at Stansted airport and parking for many other UK airports online, simply do a search and look around for the best prices. Parking at the airport is probably the easiest and most convenient way to travel to and from the airport. You have complete control over the time you leave and can travel at your own pace. There will also be no issues with the cancellation of public transport, which can happen if you travel by train or bus.

When you get to your destination, there are loads of options depending on how far away you’re staying from the airport. If you’re staying in a popular destination, you could opt to get the train or the bus; we recommend you ensure there is a service before arriving on holiday. Many people choose to book airport transfers separately through a private company; this gives you peace of mind that a bus or taxi will be waiting for you at the airport to take you to your destination. You simply need to input your travel details using a website offering airport transfers, and they will do all the rest for you. If you’re staying in private accommodation such as an Airbnb, you may need to use the address of the nearest hotel; some airport transfer companies don’t recognise private accommodation. Once you have all this reserved, just make sure you can access all of the information you need on your phone, and you’re ready to go and enjoy your holiday. The process of booking things separately is really simple; once you've done it once, you'll find it much easier to repeat.