Help needed on D.I.Y trip

[Clarey]

We have decided to book our own villa, flights and car hire for our trip next October.
We flew with Virgin this year and would like to fly with them again.
So if anyone could point me in the right direction I would be very gratefull.

Clare

 

[Scottish_Maleficent]

Hi Claire

We are also doing a DIY trip next year, in July.
We have booked our flights with United Vacations. The villa be got for a magazine called holiday villas magazine, you can get it form WHSmith and the like. There are also loads on the internet, just put orlando villa into a search engine to fine plenty.
Our car hire we have from Autos Abroad who are offering free travel insurance for the whole family for the trip. I think there are cheaper ones, but we liked the idea of the free insurance.

We have always went with package holidays before, but this time I feel we are in control. The villa price is usually for the villa, not per person so it usually works out cheaper. And with United Vacations and Virgin yopu get unlimited child prices, unlike charters where you may only get 1 or 2 child prices.

Enjoy the planning - it's one of my favourite bits!!!!!

 

[UKDEB]

Hi Clare,

We've been booking DIY for a while now. For our upcoming trip we booked Virgin through Virgin Travelstore, although we've used Expedia and Flightbookers in the past. We find phoning around is the best bet - the one that was cheapest last time won't necessarily be so this time. We also find that phoning seems to elicit better deals than booking online.

We usually book villas through one of the villa magazines available at WH Smith, although I like to get a good idea of what's about by surfing the net. I usually use Google and then keywords such as <b>Disney + villa, Orlando + villa, Kissimmee + villa</b>, etc.

In the past we've booked car hire directly with Dollar, but this time we've booked Dollar via Sunchase and obtained a substantial discount.

 

[Clarey]

Thank you both for all the info.
Is it to early to book now for next October?
Clare

 

[UKDEB]

We booked our villa for this October in April 2001! You can only book scheduled flights approximately 11 months in advance (so if you want flights only with Virgin Atlantic you'll have to wait a little longer), although you can book a fly-drive through Virgin Holidays as soon as the brochure is out, so you could certainly do that now.