Holidays for Less

It is written into the DNA of Deal Locators to seek out and find the best deals. Our yardstick is always the best value for money possible whether it is in the form of goods or services.

This includes Holidays and Travel. So here we take a look at package holidays as we are sceptical as to whether they provide the best value for money for holidaymakers.

We have done our sums and, as an example, worked out the cost of a holiday for 2 adults for seven nights in Play de las Americas in south Tenerife this September in order to compare the difference between a package holiday and (let’s call it) a DIY holiday.

For the DIY Holiday we used the suppliers and operators recommended by Deal Locators in our travel section. Starting with accommodation, we used Booking.Com which we believe is arguably the most competitive website for hotels and other forms of accommodation.

Here we looked at the Chayofa Country Club which has over 550 reviews and is rated 7.6 on the Booking.Com website so it is clearly classified as “Good”.

It is located less than five minutes from the beach and has its own swimming pool, children’s play area, as well as a tennis academy, a sauna and a fitness centre. For some of these you may have to pay extra especially the personal trainer who can arrange a special training program for you during your stay.

All the accommodation in the hotel has satellite TV and a rental safe; some accommodation even has a small kitchen with a microwave and fridge, and sometimes even a dishwasher. There are two restaurants to choose from with the main bar and restaurant offering live entertainment in the evenings. There is also free Wi-Fi in the bar area and in reception. Language is no problem as hotel staff, between them, speak 5 languages, including English.

The cost of this accommodation for seven nights in September is £375.00 including breakfast.

For flights to Tenerife, we looked at Thomas Cook Airlines. Currently they fly from numerous airports across Britain and Ireland including Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, Cardiff, Doncaster/Sheffield, Dublin, Edinburgh, East Midlands, Exeter, Glasgow, Heathrow, Luton, Humberside, Isle of Man, Leeds Bradford, Manchester, Newcastle and Norwich.

A return flight from Gatwick for two to Tenerife would cost £454.00. So the total cost of the holiday including transfers (but not airport parking at Gatwick) would be an estimated £879.00.

So how does this compare with package deals? Finding a direct comparison that is similar in quality, location and facilities is not easy. So we looked at two different packages being offered by Thomson Holidays to Playa de las Americas this September:

One week to the Las Piramides Resort in Playa de las Americas costs £1,146 for two adults. This holiday is self-catering and when we translate the reviews on found for it on Trip Advisor to the same standard as Booking.Com, by our calculations it works out at 6. This suggests that whilst this holiday from Thomson Holidays is going to cost you more, the accommodation is less good than in our less expensive DIY option where it was 7.6.

Alternatively, one week at Hotel H10 Garn Tinerfe, also in Playa de las Americas, would cost £1,564 for two adults on half board. Here the accommodation is clearly of a higher quality, translating (by our calculations) to 9 on a Booking.Com basis. But the cost of this holiday is nearly twice as much as the DIY option.

Now, don’t get us wrong; we are not “having-a-go” at package holiday providers. It is merely, as we have said before, the remit of Deal Locators is to locate value. This is why we like to promote the more DIY approach to holidaying. Not only is it cheaper but you can go where you want, when you want and create for yourself a much more flexible holiday.

Watch this space; we will continue to identify the best deals for great ways to go on holiday, to travel and to see the world.