Self-Organized
vs. All Inclusive Holiday Packages
Source: http://keepdestination.blogspot.com/
The summer is coming so a lot of us are just starting
thinking about a holiday destination. That is why I would like to introduce you
to my presentation about self-organized vs. all inclusive holiday packages. In
my opinion it`s right time to begin discussion which choice of holiday will
bring us more benefits. I will identify core advantages and
disadvantages in both approaches to planning your holiday time.
All Inclusive
Holidays
Source: http://www.caribbeannewsdigital.com/
First of all, let me present my point of view about
all inclusive holidays. It`s a really good move to go to a travel agency and
buy your dream trip if you don’t have enough time to plan it by yourself. Holiday
packages could give you everything you need to pack your baggage and have free
mind of other things. If you choose this way of spending holidays you have to only
decide on your destination and look over the catalogue to find a good hotel.
After payment, you don’t have to take care of transfer, insurance,
accommodation and nourishment. Everything seems to be great but we can’t forget
about some disadvantages. What would happen if your travel agency went bankrupt?
You would lose all your money if you didn’t buy extended insurance coverage. Moreover,
there is a risk that we could be unable to travel. Ok – let’s assume that we
are already there. When we want to eat something using all inclusive package we
have to stay in a long queue to get poor quality dishes. From my experience
this kind of food is really distant from local traditional dishes and you have
to fight for it and for a table in the majority of cases. In addition, all
inclusive package limits your possibilities to try local cuisine at
various restaurants. Of course, you can
choose some optional excursion and explore interesting places. After a few days of doing nothing beside a hotel`s
swimming pool it’s time to come back to home. Have you already charged your
batteries?
Self-Organized
Holidays
Source: http://vlsproductions.com/
This way
of planning holidays makes you prepare more things than only purchasing package
tour and packing your luggage. You should organize all aspects of you holiday by
yourself -from the kind of transportation to buying insurance etc. Of course,
you have to spend some time organizing it but look at how much satisfaction
it brings. You are independent and free of some unexpected events. When you
chose to travel by car, for instance, to some European country you have a chance
to visit interesting cities en route. When you have arrived at your
place of destination you may do everything you want to.
In many cases you don’t have to book accommodation before you start
your journey. This excludes buying a pig in a poke. All local restaurants are
open for you and offer real local’s dishes. You could change your location
whenever you want to. There aren’t guidelines and you can do exactly what you
need and want to. This is a real adventure and you will get a change to see its
real beauty
Which way
is better?
Source: http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/
I`m presenting those examples directly from my
experience. I have been in many places with tour operators and it has been all
inclusive package as well. I have also planned a lot of trips by myself. When I
compare both ways of spending your holidays I must admit that I am tired of all
inclusive ones. Twice I have organized trips to Croatia. This showed me advantages
of self-organized journeys. Of course
both approaches have their own benefits and limitations but I am a young person
and I really like challenges. After reading this article you`ve already know
what I prefer but I really want to hear your opinion? Share with us your
experiences please.
I feel you do not treat those two types of holidays equally, because for me it’s completely different kind of spending leisure time. When I was smaller I used to go on vacation with my parents and they didn’t have time to plan our whole trip, so we bought trips with travel agencies and I must say I have very good memories of that holidays. Of course you’re not able to try local food, see unusual places, but my parents were tired and they loved the idea of lying on the sun with book, drink Mojito and chill for two weeks. They didn’t have to look for restaurant, plan anything, we used to go to water parks, go on themed trips etc. Disadvantage of that is it was more expensive then self-planned trip, but at that point, their time was more valuable for them.
ReplyDeleteNow I’m still young , so I want to travel as much as I can. This weekend I was with my girlfriend in Berlin, we walked 48 km in 48 hours and I must say we saw pretty big part of German’s capital. In march we saw Brussels and Bruges (68 km in 3 days) and Barcelona last year (116 km in 6 days). I also presented how I prepare my trips in this article:
http://konwersatorium3.blogspot.com/2014/04/week-3-my-trip-to-budapest.html
So I will copy most important thing, because it’s still valid:
- I prefer hostelworld.com and budgetplaces.com rather than booking.com, because I find their prices slightly lower than the last one mentioned. Trivago.pl is a nice option as well, sometimes they have an offer, which can't be found on the first two sites.
- I'm also looking for budget flights (especially on esky.pl and kayak.pl), because I like to spend more in the city rather than on plane.
- and as for planning my trip... I always put a lot of effort into this, take a look on my plan about London and Amsterdam (I also have one about Madrid and Paris if someone is interested. And I'm going to write about Rome and Barcelona as well soon.)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7KpZ4muf5ixZWRuQjNtNlhaSXc/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7KpZ4muf5ixc1lqaDRFOXo3cFU/edit?usp=sharing
So I would put an equal sign between those two types of spending free time. Because one week of SPA, lying on your bottom next to the pool can be as much refreshing as walking around city for 12 hours.
Thanks for your comment. You are right with it and i didn’t want to compare those situations when someone has a family and only thing that they want is rest. In this presentation i was trying to show a difference between two possible ways of planning holidays and benefits and disadvantages of those approaches. In one point I can’t agree with you – self-organized holidays could be more expensive when we look at possible cost of eating in restaurants and spending time out of hotel area. Nice presentation about Budapest – this may be a great destination for a trip and hope so I will be able to visit this city and Hungary.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFor the last few years I've been tralelling a lot around Europe due to the plane tickets being handed out nearly for free all the time. Those trips were always eslf organised because this way I could save lots of money and fortunately I had someone to organise them for me, as my friend was planning genious. Still, if I were to choose myself and had unlimited amounts of money I'd probably go for the all inclusive option as it's nice to go on vacation care free and just relax without having to worry about paying for stuff and planning activities.
ReplyDeleteThanks Maciej for sharing your opinion. I don`t eliminate possible option to choose all inclusive package in a future as you but my current experiences drive me in to another option.
DeleteIt's really interesting presentation. As far as I'm concerned I see advantages in both ways of travelling. But why we have to split it? We can go on a trip using travel agency which take care about a flight, insurance, transfer from airport, doctor in emergency and then... do whatever we want. There is no need to take all inclusive option.
ReplyDeleteIs one point I have to disagree with you...
"(...) we have to stay in a long queue to get poor quality dishes (...)"
Well... maybe it's true in some hotels but from my experience I have never staid in queue and always food was pretty well. What's more in some hotels the manager eat the same food as guests.
Hi Przemek. Your sentence about manager and eating the same food as guests bring me back to great polish movie named “Kilerów 2-óch”. There was a scene where director of the jail was eating soup made from fermented rye flour from Sheraton when prisoners received poor one from canteen. Thanks a lot for you comment.
DeleteA topic is very nice, thank you. I think everything depends of your personality and condition. So, If you want to "charge your batteries" don't worry about things like place to sleep etc, just fly and lay on a beach it's ok, why not.
ReplyDeleteBut If wa wanna to plan an individual trip to foregin country we should be well prepared, and I take some time and energy :). We can hear about a lot of graphic accidens in media. So, traveling bu ourselves is ok, but we have to be responsible enough.
Ewelina, I take your point - everything depends of our needs. Thanks for comment and have a nice holidays.
DeleteThank you, and have a nice holiday too!
DeleteThank you for this topic of presentation. You have described the most important factors of travelling with the tourist organization and organized by yourself. I fully agree with you, that All inclusive travelling can be sometimes boring and doesn’t give you such satisfaction. It’s for people, who don’t have time to think about all parts of travel, are tired and want just to lie in the swimming pool. Last month I were in Rome. Everything were organized by ourselves – the flight, hotel, using of public transport. Maybe not everything was the best option (f.ex. we had to take a taxi, because we hadn’t bought the bus ticket from airport to our hotel, which was full and it was the middle of a night), but we can always learn something new and next time we will remember about that... :D
ReplyDeleteNow I’m planning my vacation trip. I know, where I would like to go and I have checked the both options in the Internet. Better option (for now when it’s about money) is organizing on my own way. Especially that I want to go there for 2 weeks. I can decide, which hotel I take; if I will stay on one island or two etc. I can rent a motorbike and go around the island for whole day, not thinking about dinner at the hotel which is waiting for me. I have still time – I want to go in September – but I’ve already started planning, so I hope I will manage to plan everything what is needed;)
Tomek, thank you for nice words about my presentation. You didn’t write about which destination you have chosen but I wish you great trip with only positive experience. Moreover own planning give us more options to set multi-destination accomodation. If you are planning holidays in Croatia i could give some tips if you want. Let us know.
DeleteMy Girlfriend is fell in love in Croatia so I have good source of information but thank you for your proposition. If I have some additional questions I will go directly to you ;)
DeleteI’m planning to visit Fuerteventura. The flight has been booked for two weeks, so probably one week will be on this island and the second on the Lanzarotte – they are really close to each other.
I strongly agree with you, All inclusive travelling is boring. I've tried it, but I prefer to spend some time and organize trip by myself. I feel happy when everything is going smooth and as planned. It's more flexible, schedule is made by me and for me, not for a group. Of course you need a lot of time to prepare good trip, but in my honest opinion it's worth the effort. I'm planning every single trip for 5 years now and I was never disappointed.
ReplyDeleteTo summarize, keep calm and organize it by yourself :)
Mateusz you`ve just written about one of the best thing connected with self-organized holidays – satisfaction!!! Using some templates (created with previous trips) to planning holidays could save a lot of time. The most difficult is the first time when we don’t have enough experience and knowledge about points to plan - Nice to share the same opinion like me. Thanks for comment
DeleteI don't know how old are you but, really? :) Thing that traveling without a travel agency is much better is clearly official for any person who thinks independently..
ReplyDeleteI don’t know exactly what you mean with this sentence “I don't know how old are you but, really?” Really what? Could you explain that?
DeleteIt's great time for topic you presented, as most of us is currently planning some kind of vacations :)
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit lazy so obviously I prefere travel-agency option with booked hotel and all-inclusive option :)
Recently I've been thinking about self organized trip because of flexibility of that solution. I'd like to rent a car in Greece and visit a lot of interesting places.
You can travel by yourself on spent each night in different place - it's great vision but I'm a bit afraid about the reality - what if there won't be any vacancy and I will have to spend a night without shelter?
But I'm sure that I will try it!
Again - best timing with the article!
Spending a night in a car could be an interesting experience. Of course we should do a research about conditions in destined country to eliminate possible situations like this. Thanks for comment
DeleteI choose all inclusive because I'm lazy :) I don't want to look up for the hotel, restaurants or plan everyday time on my holiday.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion this is the point of vacations - you want to relax and get everything out of your mind. The best thing is to get full package and eventually buy local trip organised by travel agency - so you won't be bored. It is also possible to rent a car without any extra persmissions if the place is located in the EU.
What did you mean in this sentence? "Moreover, there is a risk that we could be unable to travel." I don't get it. What's the risk and of what exactly?
Long queue for the dishes? Where have you been on your all inclusive vacations? In third world country? :) I've never seen long queue for the dishes.
If you want local food you can always go outside the hotel and find nice restaurant. Moreover, you can choose package with hotel that includes local food! I think you exaggerated disandvantages a little ;) Of course I don't think that self organised vacations. Whatever you like ;) I just wanted to point out that packages are not so bad.
I have seen a long queue for dishes and it’s a fact. Everyone has different experience and needs so thank you very much for sharing your opinion.
DeleteNice topic, Jan! I'm all for the semi-travel agency stuff this summer, as I'm going to Budapest in July and I was looking for a good hotel near the city. I tried to find the cheapest plane and a good hotel looking by my own but when I found out about Wizz Tours and compared the total prices prices (insurance included), the WizzTours offer is just unbeatable for my needs. I suppose it is the best to organize the trip all by oneself when luxurious accommodation doesn't play major role because it is the most expensive part of most trips. With my Budapest trip, the company only provides me with flights, hotel and insurance - the rest is up to me and I think it's the best balance between all-inclusive bonding and freelancing in the city. But of course it all comes down to what a person expects from the trip ;)
ReplyDeleteMy point in this presentation wasn’t about which way is cheaper. Sometimes we could spend more money with self-organized holidays.
DeleteI couldn’t agree with you more:)
ReplyDeleteThe food part I really identified with. A huge part of why I travel is to soak up the culture of a place. What better way than to go to a local diner and grab whatever the locals are eating? In those situations Google Translate is my best friend - I’ve recently discovered the visual translation option. All you need to do is point your smartphone at something written in a foreign language and it translates it for you and overlays it over the original letters. It’s amazing. I use it all the time when trying to decipher menus in small joints without an english menu - I’ve found those to be by far the best places to eat - they are way less touristy and don’t try to stand out with gimmicks. They cater to locals so they have to serve good food for them to return.
All the trips I’ve taken I organised myself. I’ve never found a compelling reason to pay someone for something I love doing myself. The one I’m most proud of is Greek island hopping. Nowadays, with booking.com, tripadvisor.com etc, it’s extremely easy to plan almost every aspect of a trip. Thing is, some smaller greek ferry lines don’t allow you to book tickets or pay for them over the internet. (My theory is that they are doing it for tax evasion purposes - the same reason why most credit card terminals there miraculously break when Greeks figure out you are a tourist) I had to call them up and arrange the tickets that way. It was an extremely confusing experience (Greeks do not speak English well) which made me appreciate the internet even more but also gain a lot of respect for people doing those sort of trips before the advent of tripadvisor.
Menus without English description is a part of local flavor. Thanks for sharing your experience with Greek people but I think similar situation could happen all over the world. The best solutions to come to understanding in some situations is having piece of paper and pen. Nice long comment – thanks for your effort
DeleteWell, very nice article.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was I child I went for a vacation with my parents. If we travel abroad there were mostly organized vacations by travel agency. And that was cool when I was a child. Now I prefer to travel on my own. I start from buying flight ticket(WizzAir or RyanAir) and then looks for a travel guides of my destination. And then I choose a hotel or hotels and plan trips for the most interesting places.
As you mentioned in your presentation, this type of spending holidays is very flexible and gives many oportunities.
I usually choose all inclusive holidays. It's mostly because it's easy and saves my time. I don't have any bad experience with travel agencies, hotels or anything connected with an organisation of my holidays. I know that I lucky because many of my friends have no trust in that kind of agencies. I think that there are some places, like Egypt or Israel that is much better to visit with help of travel agencies and some that is easier and cheaper, when we organize by ourselves, like Prague, Berlin, UK, and so on.
ReplyDeleteI prefer self-organized holiday. In my opinion it is the best way to spend time the way you want and see thing you want to see with no rush and stress . Secondly, it may sound surprising but self-organized holiday is usually cheaper than packages. For example this year I am going to Japan for 15 days and it is going to be cheaper that 2-weeks organized holiday in Gdańsk.
ReplyDeleteNot a topic for me :) I don't remember when I had any holiday with some kind of trip. But if I have a few days off I always organise them by myself I hate takin orders in my free time :) If I want do something I will do.
ReplyDeleteAll inclusive may sound more convinient but as for me, self organised holidays are far more interesting
by the way...a bit strange topic ;)
Definitely John I agree with you that self-organized trip pays back with the satisfaction. Of course if you go by car you will see lots of beautiful things, you can stop whenever you want if you see something interesting, that's even better because during that time - car is your shelter and you don't pay for it and you don't have to book it lol! I traveled from Poland to Sardinia by car, through Czech Republic, Austria and Italy and it was a beautiful experience, I would recommend this to exact trip to everyone... and the best time for that is february or march, because it is challenging to go through Alps in winter :D Anyway! I must say I have never been on all-inclusive holiday and I will never be, it's too simplistic... I see no sense to lie somewhere in the hotel at the end of the world, because we have a very cool hotels in Poland... But! to go through the slums of India or try the handmade Indian cuisine at home with Indians - HELL YEAH!
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ReplyDeleteThe choice probably depends quite a lot on where you want to go and what you want to do there, If you want to spend your all time laying on the beach you should definitely choose all inclusive holiday. If you like to be busy and make sure you see all tourist attraction you should choose self-organized trip.
ReplyDeleteI'm travelling all the time one self-organized trip and I have to tell that it gives me more fun than all inclusive. The big advantage of that type trip is that I can do what I want. For example I can visit that tourist attraction, that interest me.
This year I'm going to Japan on self-organized trip and can't wait fo that !