Travel Comparison Sites

Travel

Can a travel comparison site really help you get the best deal. Travel writers Marcus Waring and Chris Leadbeater – two of the UK's most experienced travellers – talk about the sites they use online to get the best value holidays.

Make sure you explore all the options deals change all the time

I discovered Kayak.co.uk when I was looking for a flight to Salzburg to go snowboarding in Kitzbühel. The site not only searches across hundreds of airlines quickly to find the cheapest options, but the fare tracker lets you know when a fare drops to the price you want to pay for it. For accommodation, I use Trivago. Most recently I used it to book a hotel in Nice for a weekend and the site was excellent at quickly and clearly checking hundreds of hotels and finding a three-star gem near the flower market for £70 a night.
Marcus Waring

Be realistic and you might be surprised by the deals you can find

People can be quite sniffy about holiday comparison websites. But they can be a good source of cheap deals – if you know exactly what sort of break you are looking for and aren’t too concerned about specific details. Let’s say, for example, that you wanted a week of sand and sun at one of Egypt’s Red Sea resorts. This would be an ideal break to search for on a comparison website as, without wishing to sound critical, there doesn’t tend to be a great deal of variation between the resorts on offer, whether in Sharm El Sheikh, Naama Bay or Taba. You are likely to find four- or five-star luxury and a not-too-crowded beach, yet little in the way of local culture or colour. But there’s nothing wrong with that if you simply want to top up your tan. And with price therefore likely to be your deciding factor in choosing a hotel, a holiday comparison site works well here. The same principle applies, to a certain extent, to city breaks. If you know the city you want to visit, plan to spend most of your time sightseeing, and have a star-rating in mind, then your exact choice of hotel (assuming it sits in a reasonably central location) probably doesn’t matter. I would advise, though, that you read through a selection of independent opinions on hotel review websites before you get as far as confirming your booking. And if you are planning a holiday with any sort of touring element, plan to stay in more than one location, or want to see specific sights in a certain region or country, the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink responses of a comparison site will not yield much joy.
Chris Leadbeater

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You can also view our winter sports insurance page for details of our winter sports holiday cover when you’re on the slopes.