Summer 2012 is still for sale
School’s out – and you STILL haven’t booked a family holiday? Don’t panic,
MOST schools have now broken up for the summer, but if you haven’t sorted out a family break yet, all is not lost. Far from it, in fact. For while the lousy weather we’ve been suffering over the past few weeks has helped boost bookings for overseas trips, there are still lots of holidays waiting to be snapped up – many at discounted rates. Here are some pointers:
Sun and sand
GREECE is an obvious target for deals, although bookings have picked up lately as anxieties about disruption this summer have waned. Try Olympic Holidays (olympic holidays. com) for trips to more popular islands such as Rhodes and Crete. For less developed parts of Greece, turn to Sunvil Holidays (sunvil.co.uk), where the best savings are to Samos and the Peloponnese.
Thomas Cook (thomascook.com) highlights Turkey’s Antalya region and the all-inclusive hotels in the Lara Beach area for availability and deals. Meanwhile, Thomson picks out Cyprus and Tenerife as destinations where it has lots of summer holidays at knockdown prices – browse deals for those departing in the next six weeks at thomson.co.uk.
Villas and gites
FOR Europe-wide rentals, James Villa Holidays is a good bet: the late deals section at jamesvillas.co.uk shows many properties with unbooked weeks and worthwhile discounts – up to 25 per cent in Nerja in Andalucia, for example. For Greece, Ionian & Aegean Island Holidays (ionianislandholidays.com) has deep price cuts on some superb looking villas – I browsed one on Skopelos with a saving for a family of four of nearly £1,600. For France, Brittany Ferries (brittany-ferries. co.uk) has discounts up to 25 per cent on ferry/gite packages at about 65 properties, with some availability in the school summer holiday weeks.
Camping abroad
THE big camping operators appear underbooked in the early part of the holidays. Eurocamp (eurocamp.co.uk) is offering 25 per cent off mobile-home stays at 36 European campsites for stays through to August 10, while its sister company Keycamp (keycamp.co.uk) has reduced a week’s package at many campsites to under £1,000, again for stays before August 10.
Prices also look very enticing with Canvas Holidays (canvasholidays.co.uk), and bear in mind that rates are keen right at the end of August too. The good thing about camping is you can drive to France. While August air fares booked at this late stage are generally exorbitant, you can still take the car, family and kitchen sink from Dover to Calais with P&O Ferries (poferries.com) for less than £80 return in August, travelling at civilised times in midweek.
Activity holidays
PGL (pgl.co.uk) is leading the way with tempting offers. For bookings made by tomorrow on some of its family activity breaks in France and the UK this summer, a ‘parents go free’ offer applies. That reduces the cost of a week in the Dordogne for a family of four to £938, excluding travel.
To fill the remaining berths on its flotilla sailing breaks around the Greek islands, Sailing Holidays (sailingholidays.com) has cut the rate for a week during the school holidays from £895 to £595 per person. The price is based on four sharing, including flights but excluding food.
UK cottages
IF YOU’RE willing to take a gamble on the weather, there is still lots of availability and deals for cottage rentals across Britain during the school holidays.
A good starting point is cottages4 you.co.uk: tick the ‘Seasonal discounts’ box in the availability search to find those that have cut their prices.
Rentals in Scotland, which tend to be cheaper than those in honeypot areas of England, appear undersold. Last week, Cottages4You was showing more than 400 properties in Scotland sleeping four or more people still available for a week in early August.
You could also turn to premier cottages.co.uk. All of its featured properties are four or five-star, and some have shared indoor pools, which may prove a godsend.
In the ‘Super Summer Special Offers’ section, you’ll see plenty of late July and August rentals offered at reduced rates.