How do we do it cheaper?

[SEVANS2208]

We (hubby, self, 2 kids, 3 parents!) went in August last year and we're desperate to go again next year. (Normally manage to go every other year).

However, looking at the prices I don't think we can afford it. We want to go for 3 weeks instead of 2 from about 15th August & stay in a 4 bed house. So far I've looked at doing a flydrive and renting a house seperately but it still looks too expensive. (roughly £4k for us 2 adults & 2 kids for the flight/car/house; obviously cost of house, car hire etc is split between us all but I'm looking at how much it would cost us as a family rather than the overall cost for the 7 of us)

Any suggestions anyone? I don't want to wait until 2006!

 

[juliebro]

Why not consider booking flights and car hire separately, rather than a flydrive. We got prices from Travel City Direct for our trip this Easter - but we felt they were too high. We shopped around and found flights with Expedia for £400 each (indirect scheduled flights on US Airways), got very reasonable car hire (including all insurances) from Airline Network and managed to book a 3-bed apartment on a resort for £300 per week.

It has worked out much cheaper than a package, even just a flydrive.

Happy to give more detail if you like.

Julie

 

[MichelleUK]

Hi,

We recently were booking flights and car hire for our trip in October.

When we looked on Expedia just for flights, the seats were around the £450 to £530 mark. When we searched for flights and car together you really save an enormous amount compared to booking each item separately.

We ended up paying £1,186 for two direct (Heathrow to Miami)adult flights on American (they had BA but we wanted the extra leg-room!) with a full-size Avis car, all insurances etc. included for 3 weeks.

Normally, we would expect to pay £600 for that level of car hire for 3 weeks alone!

It really is worth trying out different connotations on Expedia, you can make some excellent savings.

Best regards,

Michelle

 

[belinda_r]

Michelle,

Excellent tip about trying out different combinations of flights/car hire. I've just priced our flights to Tampa in September with Expedia and included the car hire (which we would usually get anyway with another company) . Worked out £250 cheaper in total!

And I thought I knew all the money saving ideas.....

Belinda

 

[spm23]

If you are prepared to hold out, you will always get a Villa cheaply if you book in late July/August.

Because American childern start going back in August, Villa's have spare capacity, they are then desperate for any types of bookings/offers.

A friend of mine goes every year and books a villa with about 3 days to go, always finds one, just a case of internet surfing at the right time.

 

[dawsy]

Hi, Yes that is true, we did we booked a day before we were due to go last August, spent hours on the net, and found a 4 bed villa for £550 for 2 weeks!!

You will always find someone with availability (there are so many)

Just type in aug availability florida in your search engine and away you go!

Hope it all works out for you, we had a great time even though it can be a little scary not booking in advance.

Have a fab time

 

[RedShorts]

This will be our first stay off site and managed to book a villa with pool for less than £600. Lots of searching until I found one that quoted in US$ so that I could also take advantage of the excellent exchange rate. My bother in law often stays at the same gated community and pays £900 for 14 nights. That's with his frequent user discount. I found it at http://www.a1vacations.com/ but look carefully there are some expensive ones on there.
Direct flights with Travel City Direct came in at £1870 with car & ins. for the 4 of us.
My brother-in-law got a great deal on his car from this site http://www.carhireagency.com/index.php
Have a great time

 

[UKPhil]

Funny thing this, but a few minutes ago there was another reply on this thread which has now gone. It said something about listening to your doubts and not getting into debt. Seems to me it was good advice. If you don't think you can afford it then don't go, Disney will still be there the year after next.