Buy it yourself holidays made easy

The internet is spelling the death for many package holiday operators, with some twelve million Brits bypassing the travel agents and creating their own packages last year. These buy it yourself holidays are created by shopping around the internet for various suppliers and making bookings for dates that fit together – you may well find that you’re able to save ££s. Take a look below for some quick advice on how to make a quick B-I-Y holiday.

If you decide to be your own travel agent, than here are a couple of simple tips to help you get the most for your efforts. Tracking the cheapest airline tickets online is a tricky thing. You might be able to find a cheap deal at Expedia or Travelocity, only to check out the lesser known Cheap Flights.com and find better priced flights a month later. This might shock you if you are unaware of the functioning of online airline ticket vendors.

Travel agents struggle to compete with online air ticket sellers that are able to sell larger volumes of tickets at lower margins due to the employment of fewer workers. Also online companies purchase tickets in bulk and sell the tickets online for a margin thereby passing the saving onto you. Even with these advantages you will find that online agents are not always able to provide the best deals on airline tickets. You should always try to consult at least three sites that can compare travel deals for you.

If you would prefer to deal with operators directly, consider going direct through one of the better budget operators such as Flymonarch. Flights such as short haul EU destinations are very well serviced by these types of operators. Two popular honeymoon locations, Spain and Cyprus, are well serviced by FlyMonarch who provide some really cheap flights most times of the year.

The following guidelines might help you to keep the price of your airline tickets at a low level:
- Travelling on a Wednesday can be the best for cheap tickets.
- Stopover on long haul flights - stopover flights are for the most part cheaper than direct flights.
- Fly to the second airport in a city - This tip will only save you money if travelling from the second airport to your destination costs the same or less as travelling from the main airport.
- It is very difficult to keep a tab on airline ticket fares. If you are lucky enough, you may get some last minute offer - a first class journey at cargo shipping price.

The last important thing to do is book a hotel (unless you have a luxury villa to stay in courtesy of a friend!). Online hotel sites get their information from a small number of sources. So while you may think that you are shopping around and that there is in no real variation in price, you may be greatly mistaken.

Depending on your destination, try breaking away from this monopoly by using a lesser known regional site such as Athens Hotels - if travelling to Athens, or a lesser known site such as Travel XL, to find a hotel and then consider contacting the hotel directly and comparing the online rate to the direct rate. You may be pleasantly surprised.

The final piece in the puzzle is travel insurance, but do try and avoid getting it from the travel agent or website and try to shop around for the best deal. The price variation when it comes to travel insurance is extraordinary. Buy your travel insurance directly from Go Travel Insurance, AA Travel Insurance or the Post Office for the best deals.