My husband and I travel every year at least 2 times abroad aside from local trips. We usually get the travel package that includes the airfare, accommodation and airport transfers. On our first trip to Singapore, we were like pampered tourists because my husband is scared that we would have a problem with the transportation. But in our later travels, we have learned to buy plane tickets by ourselves, get hotel bookings online and take the taxi from the airport and from thereon when touring. When we computed the expenses, the figure showed that we have saved at least 30% from the usual travel package that we were availing of. Now our travels anywhere are on our own and we just try to make research on our needs in the destination like transportation.
I think that this is a prime of example of when a consumer really needs to examine the costs and figure out what exactly they are buying. Chances are are that a lot of the money is tied up in things that can be done alone and with the package deal, meaning that you can probably save some money. I am thinking of travel packages as the main example, here, and I think that the benefits of saving a little money and also being in more control are just a better way to go than a package deal. Of course each case is different though.
I've personally never been a huge fan of packaged holiday deals, even though I know they save you a lot of hassle and in some cases money. I much prefer the flexibility, being in control of everything and knowing that I can change things round if I need to. However, some packaged holidays are too good to resist. What we tend to do is gauge it on an as and when type basis because obviously each time you do a search, you get all sorts of different deals. It goes 'in swings and round abouts', so to speak.
In some instances, yes, vacation packages can be expensive. However, there are also times that you can spot certain deals and save some money. But you have to know when and where to find these deals. They're usually during off-peak seasons, where there's not much travellers or tourists that go to that certain destination. And once you're able to find these affordable packages, better take advantage of it because chances are, some other people might take it away from you. However, tour packages might be a bit restrictive. For me, that's the downside of it, you cannot go anywhere you want to go at any time you might want. You have to stick to certain schedules and the company's itinerary for you. The upside is that it might be cheaper, there's free breakfast, transportation and you are also hassle-free from planning your trip. So you really have to decide for yourself what you will choose. For us, we go for different choices for different places. If it's a local destination, we opt to get the ticket, the hotel and the itinerary by ourselves. If it's a foreign one, then we'd try and get package tours.
Somehow we can say vacation packages are expensive but not in all cases. I enjoyed my vacations with travel packages to go with GetBusTours and had lovely time to go with it and take an affordable tour package for fun.
I do everything separately as well whenever I travel. Sometimes the packages can be an efficient choice and they can even be the cheaper choice in some cases but I think for the most part it's much better to just build your own if you can especially when you are traveling to a far away place because those often entail package deals that are not the most efficient. Sometimes the travel agency has a good enough structure wherein they have good relationships with the best resources and in this way you could get much better deals with their packages than you could on your own but you'd have to find the right one.
I think the reason why vacation package deals are expensive is because of the convenience that they're offering. If you're willing to do everything yourself then you will save money indeed.
You have to understand that travel packages are being offered by travel agencies who are bent on making profits from their services. With that said, of course, the packages are usually more expensive if you compare it to the expenses you would’ve made if you traveled without a package. However, travel packages have benefits. For instance, almost everything will be handled by the agency.
