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So you have decided to go on holiday. The problem is that’s about as far as you got in the planning phase. Where exactly should you go? Which airline should you fly with and what hotels to stay at? If you find that researching all of these details is simply too time consuming or dauntingly complicated then you might need to look at packaged holiday providers. There are a number of such providers in the United Kingdom but for the purposes of this article, we will look into just four of them, focusing on which are better for long haul trips, short haul trips and which provide the best price ranges for different types of packages such as family, relaxation and adventure packages.

The first one we will look at is Expedia.co.uk, a web based travel agency with services worldwide and subsequently worldwide connections and know-how. Expedia offers the largest range of package holidays out of all of the travel agencies covered in this article. In addition to this, the holidays offered are often at very competitive prices. Expedia also offers the ability to build your own package holiday in an easy and convenient way on line and receive a quotation for this quickly and stress free. If you choose to opt only for a flight and hotel package, without destination activities included, this is also available. For travellers specifically interested in specialist activity holidays, Expedia offers a section dedicated just to this, with a convenient search engine that allows searching by specific key words such as rock climbing, wind surfing or wine tours. Long or short haul, Expedia is a good overall solution if you want just one place to find the right vacation for you, but it will not be the cheapest option. For that you may need to look at more specialized companies or providers of last minute deals.

Directholidays.co.uk provides such a service on their website with special deals for last minute bookings on packaged holidays to destinations all over the world. Most of these deals are for short haul destinations, although occasionally more exotic locales can appear. The way this works is that any empty seats on flights leaving by a certain date are worth whatever they can get for them as the moment the flight takes off, the empty seats are worth nothing. So, if you can be ready to leave at a moment’s notice then keeping an eye out for these last minute deals can be a great way to save money and possibly go to destinations you wouldn’t have considered or even thought of otherwise. Directholidays.co.uk also offers other services such as long haul deals, flight deals, hotel deals and early booking offers, all also available on their website. Their long haul destinations are especially interesting as they specialise in trips to the Americas, the Middle East and Central Europe.

The third UK holiday provider is Mark Warner, which specialises in providing packaged holidays in a specific set of locations at a number of their partner accommodation providers. Essentially, these are resort destination holidays, split into three broad categories; Ski holidays, Sun holidays and Winter Sun holidays. The Ski holidays focus on a number of well known destinations in France, Italy and Austria, such as Val d’Isère, Courmayeur and St Anton, with often more than one chalet type accommodation option available at each. The sun holidays are more varied in their locations and activities than the ski holidays, and often include watersports, golf, spa treatments, volleyball and tennis as the main available activities. Locations include Turkey, Corsica, Egypt, Greece, Portugal and Sardinia. One of the key factors differentiating Mark Warner from other providers is the much more tailored approach that they provide. By operating only a small select number of packages, they are able to attend to their customers much more closely. In addition to this, Mark Warner also offer a good childcare service allowing parents a much greater degree of freedom when holidaying without having to worry about where the kids are. Finally, Mark Warner holidays are packaged such that no additional expenses are necessary while on holiday, making it a truly all in one holiday package. If a stress free holiday is what you are looking for then Mark Warner is a very good option to go for.

Finally, we have MyTravel.com, a package holiday provider that belongs to the Thomas Cook group of companies. MyTravel.com offers a large number of options to cater for all tastes and budgets. These include options such as different board plans (self catering, half board, club board etc), car hire, insurance, hotels and holiday themes such as sun, ski and cruise holidays. Cruise destinations include Africa, Alaska, the Caribbean, Europe, North Europe, the Far East, the Mediterranean, Panama Canal and the Red Sea as well as Transatlantic and World cruises. What makes MyTravel.com a good option is that with the entire Thomas Cook group available to it, the travel agents have a very wide range of providers within their network that they can connect with to provide you with the package holiday to suit your requirements. The ski themed holidays are especially attractive as they give you the option to sign up with group packages where strangers are grouped together, providing both the savings of a group holiday with the social setting of a mixer holiday. Families, Couples and Singles are also catered for in their offerings.

Hopefully the information above should provide you with some idea of which travel agency will provide the service that you require. Whether it is the carefully packaged sun or ski holidays provided by Mark Warner, the last minute and long haul deals from directholidays.co.uk, the huge range of options available from Expedia.co.uk or the cruise and casual packages from MyTravel.com, there is bound to be the right package for your needs.