For those who like to travel during the holidays, this dilemma is often worthwhile: it is better to purchase a ticket in advance or wait anyway, and buy a last-minute ticket just before departure. After all, then you can save a lot. As a person who has worked in tourism for more than one year, I dare to give advice on this matter.
To begin with, we will determine what a tour is and what its cost is made up of. And why this cost may be subject to a discount.
So, the cost of a tour trip is formed from the following components: accommodation in a hotel of the selected category, food, air ticket, insurance, transfer on certain dates, in some cases visa support and excursions (if included in the tour program).
The cost of a standard room in the same hotel may vary on different dates depending on the season: rise in high season and fall in low. The same situation is happening on the airline market.
Tours to popular foreign destinations (Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus) are usually sold in ready-made packages. Well-known foreign tour operators are Anex Tour, Pegas Touristik, Coral Travel. As a rule, their offers differ in the offered hotels, airlines, departure cities and a bit of cost.
Therefore, as soon as the possibilities for booking tours to popular destinations open up, the most economical tours are sold out first, and then all the rest. In this regard, of course, it is better to book a ticket in advance. So there is a chance that you can still buy places in your chosen hotel for the desired dates.
In addition, just during this period, well-known early booking promotions began to operate. Many consider this a dirty trick on the part of travel agencies. And the meaning of such actions is very easily explained. Everyone knows that tourism is a seasonal business. And so that travel agencies would not be at a loss during off-season, an early booking action was created. Its meaning lies in the fact that sales are opened several months before the start of the season of the direction being sold. At the end of winter / beginning of spring - to summer destinations and at the end of summer / beginning of autumn - to winter.
According to the terms of the action, tour operators offer discounts up to 45%. The only negative is that at the end of the promotion period any changes in the purchased tour are not possible. The positive point for the traveler is that at this time the booking of tours in the direction is just beginning. Therefore, all places are available and it is still possible to choose any option and with a good discount. Such a reservation is suitable for those who are sure in advance of a planned vacation.
If you doubt that the conditions of the “earlier booking” promotion are met, you can purchase a ticket on a general basis. In any case, it is better to do this in advance, as a last resort, 1.5 months before the expected departure date. Since, the closer to departure, the less opportunity to choose a suitable hotel.
Imagine, for example, that Turkey is becoming a popular destination for the summer period just when the holiday season begins in Russia. And from almost every major city in the country, planes fly to Turkey 2-3 times a week. And in some cities - every day by several airlines. All planes are usually full. And the offers of tour operators are the same for all residents of Russia. And this is not counting tourists from other countries. So think about how fast hotels are being sold out.
There are situations when there are places in the hotel, and plane tickets for the selected dates are already sold out. Or vice versa: there is a place for the plane, and the hotel is at STOP. So you have to either shift the dates of rest or change the hotel. And this is not always convenient.
And what about last-minute tours? A hot tour is a tour whose sale period is already expiring, so the tour operator reduces the price for it, sometimes below cost, so as not to lose the entire cost of the tour. But recently, almost all places have been bought up in advance, so sometimes hot tours are not offered in some directions during the high season. Such tours, as a rule, are not booked, but are bought immediately. Do not return or carry over dates. In addition, it can be a departure the next day and not on the dates most convenient for you. This must be taken into account.
Catching such tours is very difficult for the client. Only if he constantly monitors special offers of companies and is able to instantly pay for the tour and bring the necessary documents. Such offers will be relevant for unpopular destinations that are not sold out at the beginning of the season.
Here, another factor plays a role - the exchange rate of the euro or the dollar. You pay for the tour at today's rate, and after a month, for example, it falls, and then it turns out that you overpaid. But such cases are difficult to predict, especially when you consider what is often the opposite - the exchange rate is only growing.
All of the above applies to individual tourism services. For example, if you need to buy only a ticket, train ticket or book a hotel room. Closer to the high vacation season, hotels may no longer be available. So, for example, in the season of white nights in St. Petersburg there is nowhere to stop. But if you book in advance, for example, in April, you can still take the desired places. In this case, “in advance” will not mean “cheaper”, but will guarantee the availability of seats.
Same thing with air tickets. Very often airlines during off-season times hold various promotions. To track them, it is better to subscribe to the news of leading airlines and then you will certainly find out about such sales. So, for example, in February you can buy a ticket for flights in the summer months at an affordable price on certain conditions. And closer to the departure, if there are places left, then their cost will already jump several times. Two passengers can fly in an airplane on adjacent seats, but the cost of their tickets will differ markedly. And all because in tourism there is a principle: “I am ready to sled in the summer, and the cart in the winter”
Are you planning a vacation abroad, but the prices for good offers - to put it mildly, bite? Especially for you, we have prepared several tricks to reduce the final bill for a tourist permit. What travel agents will not tell you for sure.
Only proven tricks that save your hard-earned money.
The article is relevant when choosing popular, “all-inclusive” destinations: Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Dominican Republic, etc. And for those who are accustomed to buying comprehensive packages containing: transfer, hotel, flight and insurance.
All-inclusive voucher is cheaper than usual - how to save money on a purchase
A complex approach
Oddly enough, but a vacation in hot countries for a couple of weeks is much more profitable to buy a “package” through a travel agency or online travel service. Independent, phased: booking airline tickets, hotel accommodation, buying insurance and transfer - justifies itself only on long trips for a period of a month. Why is that?
The fact is that with the wholesale "purchase" of hotels and tickets for the air transportation of passengers, the tour operator receives decent discounts. Of course, so that tourists would turn to him, and not embark on a "free swimming", he shares part of the discount with you.
Can I see it all?
To save on a ticket to hot countries, we do not recommend focusing your attention on one tour operator. It is much more logical to look for package tours in tourist aggregator companies, where offers from all popular tour operators are presented. Every tour. the operator sets its prices. The difference in the cost of the voucher, including the same items - can reach 30%.
A tour operator is one who organizes tours: establishes contacts with representatives of hotels, air carriers. The most popular examples are TezTour, Biblio Globus, Anex Tour, Pegast touristic.
Travel agency - an organization that offers for sale ready-made tours from tour operators. It has its own bonus for the sold tours to the final consumer. Exactly on the same principle, online travel agencies work - they simply collect all the information from all tour operators.
In advance \u003d cheaper
To reduce the cost of trips to popular destinations, pay attention to early booking. As a rule, a pre-planned purchase helps to save up to 40% of the cost of the trip + gives a head start in choosing hotels and rooms.
Early Booking is a program that runs from January to April. You buy much in advance, in the first months of the year, and hotels in return offer up to 40% discount on the cost of tours planned for May-April. What is noteworthy, tour operators allow you to pay with such tours in installments, without interest and overpayments.
A famous place is worth more
Chain hotels are much more expensive than local ones. Want to save on an all-inclusive package? Study the sites of small hotels, read reviews on them and make a choice in favor of such housing.
Overpayment "for the name" can reach 10-30% under equal living conditions and the provision of services. The cost of the hotels can also be seen in the application below.
Right time
Holidays will be just as amazing, but much cheaper if you choose the right dates. The beginning and end of the season: May and September - will always be 20-30% cheaper than in the midst of holidays and school holidays.
Want to do well? Do it yourself!
But, you should make some correction: before going to the manager, we advise you to independently review the various hotels to choose from. And to do this through a resource in which all tour operators are offered.
Also, if there is no desire to communicate with the manager directly, you can buy a tour online through an aggregator (the same as booking with a manager, only select the tour yourself). By the way, sometimes on online sites there are additional discounts that will not be offered in travel agencies.
The travel agent is not interested in your savings. Perhaps you will find something more profitable?
Any such search engine has a rating system. All chain or popular hotels will be located higher than non-advanced, economical alternatives. Sometimes, not rated, but very successful offers generally do not “throw out” in the general search. In this case, you need to check the specific hotels.
Of course, having previously found them on the Internet. This trick will not only save on the purchase of tickets, but also choose a great offer, not for sale at trips.
Every day counts
If you have already begun an independent preliminary search of the hotel, “play around” with the dates. Very often, vouchers can differ by 2% -5% in cost only from the fact that a day earlier or later you fly out.
Travel agents are too lazy to do such "busts". And you can win a couple of extra thousand, thanks to pressing a couple of buttons.
Dollar $ and its value
Pay attention to the dollar exchange rate. All trips to hot countries are tied to this currency. If today for a ticket worth $ 1000 you will give 57.600 rubles, then tomorrow, with a possible fall, you will have to pay only 56.300 rubles. A trifle, but nice, right?
The exchange rate for tomorrow is set in the afternoon. Is the dollar rising? Buy today? Is falling? Pay for the ticket tomorrow.
A bargain?
Few people know, but you can bargain with managers at a travel agency. Of course, not like the market in Egypt, but throwing a couple of thousand rubles out of every thousand dollars is quite likely.
They have their own margin of the cost you paid. If the manager is interested in the client and does not want to let him go, he will offer you a discount. They are less willing to trade during early booking - their benefit is much lower, less wrap on the tour.
Back to the hot
If you missed the opportunity of early booking, but would like to save on vacation, turn your attention to last minute packages. By the way, the most advantageous offers can be found in the groups of social networks of major travel agencies in your city.
Unlike typical vacation sales sites, they publish “free” refusal tours or really “burning” tours with a departure tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
We hope that these tricks will help you save at least not a large, but a pleasant amount of money when buying a ticket to a hot country. Do you know more about some chips? Maybe they found other savings opportunities? Share your opinions and stories in the comments!
When it’s time for vacation, the question is, how to relax at sea cheaply? It is very necessary to take a break from work, fuss, life, and spend time with benefit. Try to leave for a vacation from the city, and from the country in general. Often, at the stage of planning a vacation, we are faced with financial problems when I wanted to go to a completely new area or to visit some exotic place.
We can have small savings for travel, we can take a loan, but we usually need to find the cheapest tour. How to do it? How to understand which offer from a tour operator is profitable? Our search for cheap tours selects automatically in the automatic mode the cheapest tours from Moscow from all tour operators.
There are several ways:
. Find a burning package. You will have to pick up very quickly, because the manager can call you almost a few hours before departure.
. Search for special offers from tour operators. You can get lost in the search engines, not see the real cost (as this may not include surcharges for visas, fuel surcharges).
. If luck smiles and someone refuses the already paid tour, the manager will give you a good discount in order to avoid fines.
. Fill out an applicationon the website for selecting vouchers at a good price and travel managers will write a list of hotels for your trip, these will be the cheapest offers and tours at the moment.
. For those who are engaged in the search for inexpensive tours online, we give information on the search for tours page for all tour operators.
There are inexpensive trips to Turkey, Thailand, Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Dominican Republic, Cuba. Mexico and other countries at a price not exceeding 20 thousand rubles per person. Better prices can hardly be found, on our website you can really buy a cheap tour.
We offer cheap rest in summer, autumn, winter, at any time of the year, in September, October and November. We present the maximum range of offers for holidays in 2019. Choose vouchers in the "Geography" and you will be satisfied with the service and cost.
Instructions on how to find and where to buy cheap tours abroad. 8 secrets of the correct purchase of tours online, which will allow you to relax on a package tour cheaply.
- How to buy a burning ticket?
- Where to look for tours in all tour operators for free?
- How to choose and buy a tour online on your own?
- What tricks to use to find cheap packages?
Detailed answers to these questions - in our material!
1. Buy tours online
Searching and buying vouchers via the Internet is cheaper than in travel agencies on the street. In travel agencies, the price can be higher by 10-20%.
Why is a travel agency more expensive?
Firstly, agencies add a mark-up to the price of a tour operator. They need to rent an office, pay salaries to employees, and bear other overhead costs. For companies operating over the Internet, these costs are significantly less.
Secondly, the managers in the agency are not interested in selling you the cheapest tour - the lower the ticket price, the lower their commission. Therefore, they will unobtrusively offer more expensive options, focusing on their advantages and belittling disadvantages. Buying a ticket online, you yourself find the right option and decide for yourself whether the price and conditions are right for you.
Where to look for cheap tours?
There are three reliable services -, and. All three have proven themselves well and have sent more than ten thousand tourists on vacation. See which one you like best.
These search engines compare the prices of tours among 130 tour operators, allowing you to find the most profitable options.
Photo: © Hrvoje Grubisic / unsplash.com
How is the purchase
The process of buying tours online on your own looks like this:
- You choose a suitable tour on the site.
- If the price and conditions suit you - book; If you have questions, you can call the manager for free and consult.
- Fill in contact information and tourist data.
- You pay for the tour either online (with a credit card) or in cash at the company’s office. You can buy an installment plan right on the site.
- Immediately after payment, all the necessary documents (vouchers, tickets, insurance, etc.) come to your email. They have the same legal force as if they were issued in the office.
Tour search sites for all tour operators make it easy to find cheap packages thanks to thoughtful filters. You can set the number of stars at the hotel, rating on reviews of tourists, type of food, price range, tour operator and other parameters - the service will only show results that match the specified criteria.
An alternative is to use the filters "vacation with children", "close to the beach", "suitable for couples".
Why buy tours online
2. Use promotional codes and promotions
A great way to save on buying trips abroad is to use promotional codes and promotions.
Promotional Codes allow you to get a discount up to 1500-3000 rubles. Enter them in a special field on the tour payment page - and it will become cheaper by the declared amount.
How to find promotional codes?
- Travelata - current promotional codes can be viewed
- Level.travel - sometimes give promotional codes in certain directions (see)
How to get a discount? We regularly collect all relevant offers on the page Promotion codes for tours - Before buying a ticket, be sure to see what discounts are active now.
Sometimes companies are happy special stocks - for example, increased accrual of miles, discounts on tours, bonuses for installing the application or sending links to friends, contests with a paid tour as a prize.
3. Choose the right season
When choosing a tour, consider the tourist season in the country where you want to go.
How does the season affect the cost of tickets?
- In the low season, vouchers are cheaper. In winter directions ( Thailand , Vietnam etc.) prices are lower from May to October, for summer ( Cyprus , Turkey , Montenegro , European countries) packages cost less from October to April.
- The cheapest tours in the summer are at the beginning and end of the tourist season. At this time, prices for tours are lower, the resorts have fewer tourists, and the weather is milder. For example, buying a tour to Turkey is better in May-June or September-October.
Remember that the low season is not so called for nothing - in the summer destinations you can’t swim and sunbathe, and in the winter it can be cloudy and rainy.
The velvet season has no drawbacks - traveling to summer destinations in June or September is both cheap and more favorable in terms of weather (there is no strong heat like in July and August).
Photo: Resort Area © Josh G / Unsplash.com 4. Fly from major cities
As a rule, the larger the departure city, the lower the price of vouchers from it. A tour from Yekaterinburg or Novosibirsk usually costs less than from Omsk. And the cheapest trips abroad are from Moscow.
When searching for tours online, compare prices from your city and from neighboring cities - perhaps the difference in the cost of a ticket will more than cover the costs of traveling to a large city. Do not forget that the matter is not only in money, but also in the time spent on the road.
How to get to another city inexpensively
- look for cheap flights through Skyscanner and Aviasales
- train tickets - on the Russian Railways website
- buses - through the service
- travel companions by car - Blablacar
Fresh example. A tour for two people to Cyprus from Voronezh costs 115,000 rubles. A voucher with the same conditions from Moscow - 79,000 rubles. Cheaper by 36,000 rubles.
How much does it cost to get from Voronezh to Moscow and back for two:
- by plane: 22,000 rubles
- by train: from 3700 (reserved seat) to 5200 (compartment)
- by bus: 3200 rubles
Savings when buying a tour from Moscow - from 14,000 to 32,800 rubles.
Of course, not everyone wants to travel to another city for several hours, but the benefits can be tangible. You decide.
Image: the difference between the cheapest tour from Moscow and from Voronezh 5. Experiment with your search terms.
To find cheap trips abroad, try different conditions when searching for a tour - resort, tour duration, departure date.
Resort. Tours to two resorts in the same country can cost differently. Look for permits to different cities or enter the whole country in the search field - the system will select the cheapest options automatically.
Tour duration. Look for vouchers with different lengths of rest. In some areas, tours for 7-12 days can cost less than trips for 3-6 days. For example, tours to Thailand for 3-4 days are rare and expensive; At the same price you can relax for 7-10 days.
See an example of the price difference for different lengths of rest in the widget below.
departure date. The price of tours with the same conditions, but with different dates of departure can be very different. If you planned to fly on Saturday, look at the prices on Friday and Sunday, and better on other days. The difference can reach up to 5000-10000 rubles.
6. Buy at the right time
You can find the cheapest tickets either 4-6 months before departure (early booking), or at the last moment (hot tours). What to choose?
Early booking allows you to purchase a ticket at a discount, albeit not the largest. You will have time to choose a country, carefully study photos and reviews about hotels, plan your vacation. In addition, almost nothing but the exchange rate affects the price of an early booking.
Hot tours - the cheapest tours, the discount on them is maximum. But there are a number of disadvantages:
- There is no guarantee. Last minute packages to the desired destination may not appear closer to the dates of your vacation. Then you have to buy a tour more expensive than early booking.
- The best hotels are already taken. As a rule, good hotels are filled in advance, and on the last-minute tours the remaining options are offered. Worthy options may come across, but usually the level of hotels is much lower.
- No time to search for information. Last minute vouchers are bought up very quickly. If you are in a hurry to buy a tour before someone else sees it, you don’t have time to study information about the resort, hotel, etc.
Where and how to look for last-minute tours yourself? Each service has separate pages for selecting last-minute packages:
Remember how to buy a tour cheaper
- Buy online - it's safe and convenient
- Use promotional codes, keep an eye on promotions
- Choose a velvet season for relaxation
- View prices for tours from neighboring cities
- Try different dates and dates
- Book in advance or catch last minute tours
- Sign up for price changes
- Pay for a ticket with a cashback card