Cheap Lastminute Holidays

Looking for a last minute vacation is like looking for a needle in a haystack. You search the newspapers, you look online and you ask friends. Everyone says they got a great deal but no one has specific details so that you can get the same good deal. But believe it or not, aside from the sea of offers and confusion, there are very good deals out there if you are willing to leave last minute.

On the weekends, the major newspapers produce a travel section in which you will find hundreds of advertisements offering cheap vacations. This looks good on paper but the reality is it is quite time consuming calling all the places offering good deals. And if you do decide to telephone, be prepared to sit on “hold” forever, as the lines are very busy. But, if you have the time and patience to invest, if you do not care when the plane is leaving and where the plane is going, then you will find a good deal.

Most people, however, do not have the luxury of leaving immediately or even going to the country offered. It is these more common cases that make the search for last minute vacations infinitely tiresome. There are a two ways to eliminate most of the work and actually find a cheap last minute vacation.

The first method is to call a travel agent, preferably one that specializes in the area to which you wish to travel. Provide the details of what you seek. If you are not flexible in the location or the dates of the vacation, it will be more difficult but the biggest advantage to using a travel agent is that qualified and efficient agents will know where to look immediately. They might even remember seeing one of the announcements that came into their office or they might have booked something recently for another client.

They know what charters are available and what operators are more inclined to offer discounts and what times of the year this happens. There is another aspect to using a travel agent that most people do not realize. Some agencies buy tickets for popular events around the world. They hold a group of tickets so that when their own clients call, they have seats available. In the event that all tickets are not sold, they may offer them at reduced prices. You would not be able to obtain these tickets elsewhere.

The second successful method to finding a last minute vacation is through actual travel agent sites that list the different tour operators and continually update their database to include the newest sales. You can actually search for the all-inclusive locations and flights only by using their last minute selector and typing in the location of choice and the dates. You should be a little flexible in the dates and times of departure so that you can see what is available. You might miss a good deal by one day for example by narrowing your search too tightly.

Lastly, beware of:

• bait and switch – newspaper says it is one price, call the company and there is no cheap price so the real price is very high,
• prices that are only good for one day,
• cheap flights that have too many connections and overnight costs,
• cheap flights that have added charges,
• websites that are not travel agents but people just throwing up information in the hopes of hitting a sales commission.