Packaging vacations vs a-la-carte.

[pezzy84]

So previously I would a-la-carte all my bigger vacations as I kinda enjoyed the project (worked as a vacation travel agent for a couple years way back in the day) so that was kinda what I stuck with over the years even after I moved out of industry. Well come to find out I overpaid all the times I built it all myself, then had to deal with the headache of keeping track of multiple confirmations and if anything went wrong you were screwed because none of is was tied together.

Last 4 beach vacations I booked with my airline of choice vacation package company and compared to booking a-la-carte and the savings were anywhere from $200-$600 per booking for beach destinations (3x Mexico and 1x Bahamas). These are not just beach vacations as two colleagues reported similar savings for a single destination Paris trip and a Las Vegas trip. All my situations I compared Delta Vacations versus Costco but ultimately ended up with Delta Vacations being the best overall value - Costco had some slightly cheaper options but they were Frontier or Spirit flights connecting in Florida versus nonstop.

Long story short shop your preferred airline vacation company - its very much seamless in my experience and just one itinerary to keep track of versus multiple. I have not tried it for a multi-stop vacation yet so cannot comment there but imagine you could book something like if you book with an actual person versus booking online.

 

[Oillover]

We've always done vacations "a-la-carte".
As a result, we've done what we wanted, when we wanted. Also allowed experiences/places that no pre-packaged offer could provide.

Sure, this method probably (usually) costs us more than a package, but then you aren't wasting time on attractions/situations we'd find unfavorable.

 

[RooflessVW]

"Vacation itinerary" sounds like an oxymoron.

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

Wife and I do one big trip a year and have done both several times.

Europe, or other first world areas without a huge language barrier we will do our own thing. Asia, South/Central America, Africa, we usually do a small group adventure tour. We find with the latter you see more in less time and still typically have a good amount of free time, plus you have others around to help with translation and things like that, and you usually meet come cool people too. It’s also cheaper and/or you stay in much nicer hotels for the same money. Not having to plan anything is both good and bad. Unfortunately with our work schedules it’s not easy to just wing it and blow a few days here and there if you run into issues so we try to avoid that as much as possible, which guided tours helps immensely with.

We’re not really beach, all inclusive types. Prefer to see nature and do more things out in the wild.

 

[Lyman]

The best vacation I ever went on was taking off with my Wife on my Harley Eleactraglide and heading to Tahoe with not a single reservation. We winged it the whole time and loved every minute of it. We spent a week there and went where we wanted when we wanted. We were forced to change our Hotel once but it worked out perfectly for us.

 

[zzyzzx]

I will assume that package deals are only applicable when a flight is involved.

Personally I just take the car to Atlantic City and it sits there in a parking garage the whole time while I enjoy the beach and boardwalk.

 

[pezzy84]

"Vacation itinerary" sounds like an oxymoron.

When I say itinerary I meant really the flight, airport transfer and hotel - we do any add on tours/experiences outside the package based on what we want to do so those are booked outside the flight/transportation/hotel.

I will assume that package deals are only applicable when a flight is involved.

Personally I just take the car to Atlantic City and it sits there in a parking garage the whole time while I enjoy the beach and boardwalk.

Yeah pretty much flight is involved. We have done pretty much all the drive to stuff that is within a 5-6 hour drive of Atlanta - anything outside of that we are hopping a flight due to work time constraints.