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Booking Holidays Online - Cheaper than Travel Agents?

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Booking Holidays Online - Cheaper than Travel Agents? by KeithBarrett The way in which many of us book holidays has changeddramatically in recent years. Ten years ago many of us wouldhave relied on our local travel agents to find us a good deal. When we came to think about our next trip away, we'd simplywander down the high street and nip into a few travel agentsshops, picking up a number of different holiday brochures tocompare prices offered by different tour operators. Comparing prices sometimes involved taking into account certainspecial offers that might be available, or any additional costscaused by the time of year (school holidays, for example) ornumber of people travelling. When thinking about destinations, resorts or particular hotels,our opinions might largely be shaped by what friends and familyhad told us, what we'd read in magazines, or maybe what we'dseen in holiday-related television programmes. The arrival of the internet and its increasing availability tomany of us has undoubtedly changed the goalposts. We now havethe ability to research our chosen destinations online - we evenhave access to the thoughts


travel,,Flights,,vacation package

of previous visitors to the hotelsthat we may be planning to stay at. We can compare prices relatively quickly and also have moreoptions in terms of how we structure our holidays. We're nolonger limited by the narrow boundaries of the package holidaymarket - we can now book our flights and accommodationindependently, with far less hassle. So everything has got better. Or has it? The internet has brought us a lot of information but how much ofthat information is really reliable? When I read reviews ofplaces that I've visited, I often find that other people'sexperiences are very different from my own. It's clear that we all have different expectations of what isinvolved in having a good holiday. It seems to me that, while holiday prices may well have comedown, many of us are left looking to trawl through masses ofinformation, much of which may be considerably less reliablethan that once provided by the good old-fashioned travel agent. Maybe we should take the "progress" provided by the internetwith a small pinch of salt. About the author: Keith Barrett writes about travel andholidays for Whatever theWeather .

Written by: Keith Barrett

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