Holidays without travel agencies. What an animal - travel agency

A relatively inexpensive vacation without the services of a tour operator is just right to arrange for yourself. There are more worries, but less expenses, especially at a time of financial turmoil that has affected most Russians. How to relax abroad without a tour operator in 2018?

It is better to take care of this now, pay attention to the "last minute" tours, it is best to opt for those countries where at least a few consumable items are cheaper. Where to go: housing prices, food, flights.

Turkish Antalya

It still remains a budget option, a round trip ticket can be bought for 400-500 dollars for two, about the same price as renting a room in an inexpensive hotel.

Thailand city Pattaya

Independent rest is also suitable to reduce the price if you purchase relatively inexpensive tickets from $ 460 in both directions per person. A room for two for a week is found for $ 100, meals - $ 15 per day for one.

Greece

Another good option is the Greek Rhodes. Clear sea, sunny summer, varied and healthy cuisine, a sea of sights. The flight is carried out by cheap carriers, it will take $ 200 in both directions. Room - 30 euros per night for two, meals - 15-20 euros per day. In connection with the crisis, Greece promises additional discounts in the summer.

Armenia

Few people remember that it is close, and more recently it was even closer. The most beautiful and ancient Armenia, colorful traditions, thousand-year-old sights. Housing in the capital is rented for 800 rubles. per day, dinner will cost 500 rubles, a bottle of "Ararat" - 120 rubles. Round-trip flight - from 10,000 rubles. round trip.

Bulgaria

Very reminiscent of our Black Sea coast is located in Bulgaria. A definite plus - there is no language barrier, this will help to rent housing in the private sector. A flight from the capital to the capital will cost 15,000 rubles. either way, you need a visa.

Advantages of rest without intermediaries

Self-organized vacation allows you to save up to 20-30% of the funds that could be spent if there was an intermediary. If they do without it, then why pay more? If we talk about reliability, then last year many domestic tour operators pretty much spoiled the holiday mood for thousands of Russians, although, as they say, nothing foreshadowed. The story is instructive, trust but verify.

Country selection

Choosing a place to travel is a purely individual thing, I usually focus on several points when choosing a country for a new trip. Firstly, it is desirable that this is a new country for me or a place where I have never been, and secondly, you need to think about what you can do there, what attractions are there or what you can do there (I prefer outdoor activities), and thirdly, you need to pay attention to various promotions from airlines, when the price of tickets to a certain place can be very profitable. Sometimes the choice of a country happens completely by chance: friends can invite, or I can get a cheap plane ticket, or I can read some interesting book about this country, there can be countless reasons, for me it doesn’t really matter where to fly, the main thing is that it be interesting . You can find basic information about different countries on the website.

Flight search

The next step after choosing a destination is to find a suitable and preferably cheap air ticket. First of all, you need to check whether discount airlines (low cost airlines) fly in the chosen direction, for example, in Asia it is AirAsia, and in Europe Ryanair, such companies usually offer the cheapest flights, but this is not profitable in all cases. After checking low-cost airlines, it is imperative to search for air tickets on regular airlines, it is impossible to check all airlines, so it is better to use search aggregators that collect price information from many airlines and ticket sales agencies and issue it in a convenient form. With the help of such flight search engines, it is very easy to find the cheapest options (offers are sorted by price) in the desired direction. There are several such search engines and for the most part they all have similar functionality, but I'm used to using it and have been looking for and buying tickets through them for 3 years now. Searching for a cheap air ticket is very simple, just enter the direction we need and select the flight dates. (You can read the detailed instructions on how). Promotions and special offers from airlines are also published on the site - this is very convenient for those who have not yet decided where they want to go on a trip. Sometimes you can fly to Europe for 5000 rubles with all round-trip fees for the promotion of some airline.

I have been buying tickets exclusively on the Internet for 4 years now - it's much easier and more convenient, the whole buying process takes no more than 5 minutes and you don't have to go anywhere. During this time, I have bought hundreds of air tickets via the Internet and have never had any problems with this. To purchase, you only need a bank card that you can pay on the Internet.

Another tip, for those who do not live in Moscow or St. Petersburg - check the price of an air ticket with a departure (arrival) from Moscow (or other major cities closest to you), it can be much cheaper.

If you are looking for an air ticket to a popular tourist destination, then you can also check last-minute offers for air tickets for charter flights, this can be done for example.

Hotel search and selection

Different hotel booking sites work differently, someone offers to pay for the hotel right away, and someone books without prepayment, and you need to pay directly upon check-in, the first option gives more guarantees that the room will be booked for you, and secondly In this case, it is easier to cancel the reservation.

The process of searching and booking hotels is similar to searching for airline tickets, the main difficulty is finding the most suitable option (in the case of hotels, reviews can help).

Getting a visa on your own

There are 130 countries in the world where Russians do not need a visa or a visa is issued upon arrival - this is more than half of the world! (The full list of visa-free countries can be found on Wikipedia)

At the same time, there are countries that are of great interest to travelers, but where you need to get a visa (USA, Europe, China, etc.), but the process of obtaining a visa is much simpler than it seems at first glance or how they want to present it travel agencies. I independently obtained visas to the USA (2 times), Europe (to France), China, Myanmar, and in this case, in no case was there a need to contact a travel agency. All the work of travel agencies is to send documents to the visa center and for this they take quite a lot of money. When I needed a visa to France, I saw offers from travel agencies that reached 500-600 euros for assistance in obtaining a visa, this is just a robbery! I myself collected the necessary documents and went to the visa center of France in Moscow. After 3 days I received a ready-made Schengen visa, it cost me 70 euros (35 euros consular fee and 35 euros visa center services). You can contact the consulate directly, then the visa process will take longer, but you can save 35 euros.

The process of obtaining a visa is very simple and is described on the websites of the embassies (or consulates) of the respective country. All you need is to find the website of the embassy (or the nearest visa application center if there is one), look at the list of documents required for obtaining a visa and make an appointment (if necessary). Most often, a passport, air tickets, hotel reservations and insurance are enough to obtain a visa. After that, you just need to hand over the documents and wait for the visa to be given to you. There is nothing difficult in this. It is especially easy to obtain a Schengen visa on your own, given the fact that many new visa centers of European countries have recently opened throughout the country.

It is worth noting that in some countries (such as Japan) it is much more difficult to obtain a visa without the services of travel agencies, so in this case, contacting a travel company may be justified.

language problem

One of the main problems that stops people from traveling independently is the lack of knowledge of English (de facto English is the international language) language. But it seems to me that most people overestimate the importance of this problem. Yes, not knowing English can make the trip a little difficult, but it cannot make independent travel impossible. I had to go to places where the local population did not speak English and then I had to explain myself with gestures - this is of course harder, but this makes it even more interesting. In Thailand, I often saw Russian tourists who came to rest on a tourist package and do not speak English at all, and so these tourists walk around the city perfectly, buy fruits in local markets, while they speak Russian, and Thais answer them in Thai and everyone understands each other perfectly. Sign language is a very universal language and can be used to explain almost everything. Let me give you two more examples from my own experience. In China, I once met an Irishman who was going to travel from Irkutsk to Moscow in a reserved seat, during our meeting, he learned five Russian words - that's all he knew in Russian. And another time, in a train compartment, I met a Swiss who was traveling to Tobolsk alone, not only did he speak English very poorly (but in Russia, knowledge of English can hardly help a foreigner, especially in the provinces), so he did not speak at all in Russian, but this did not prevent him from traveling from Moscow to Beijing by train, making stops in many Russian cities and studying them on his own. Upon returning to Switzerland, he wrote to me that he really liked this trip and he was simply delighted.

There is no language problem - there is only fear of this problem.

Search for information. What to do and what to visit.

If you prefer to go on excursions in an organized way, then in most popular tourist destinations such excursions can be ordered on the spot from local companies (with a Russian-speaking guide), most often it will be cheaper than ordering excursions from the travel company where you bought the ticket. In countries such as Egypt, Thailand, Turkey, there are many local companies that are happy to organize an excursion program for you, but I would suggest driving through the sights on your own, for this you just need to arm yourself with a guide.

But I would recommend hiring a local guide on your own for a private tour, it may be a little more expensive than a group tour, but you can get personalized service and, for sure, very interesting experiences. Programs from self-guided guides are often more exclusive and you will be able to visit places that you might never see on your own or with a group. There are several sites where you can find and book a tour with independent local guides, I recommend the Russian site, which has already proven itself well.

Travel insurance and security

Buying a ticket from a travel agency does not give absolutely no guarantees of safety. Your peace of mind is only in your hands, and the travel agency cannot provide any additional security. Most accidents happen to those who come on an organized tour, as they get a false sense of security and lose their guard.

When traveling abroad, always take out a travel insurance policy, this can be done quickly and inexpensively (less than $ 1 per day). To obtain a visa to Europe (Schengen visa) and to many other visa countries, the purchase of insurance is required. You can apply for an insurance policy in almost any insurance company or, even easier, you can apply for insurance via the Internet. You can compare the offers of insurance companies and apply for insurance online on the website, where you can choose the most advantageous offer from the largest insurance companies (you can find more details on the instructions for choosing and buying insurance in the article -). An electronic insurance policy has the same legal force as a paper policy. If you have an insurance policy, in case of an accident, you will need to call the phone number indicated in the policy and they will give all instructions on what to do next, and if necessary, they will call a doctor. Take care of your own safety, no one will do it except you.

What are the advantages of independent travel compared to tour packages?

The main advantages of independent travel are freedom and cheapness. You are in complete control of your journey, you go where you want, not where your guide tells you to go. You don't have to live in the same place for your whole vacation, if you want to move to another place or hotel, you can easily do it. When traveling on your own, you will never find yourself in a situation where your tour company went bankrupt and did not pay for your hotel stay. I think everyone remembers when hundreds of tourists around the world could not return home and were not allowed out of hotels, demanding to pay for their accommodation - this is basically impossible with independent tourism, since only you control everything.

Traveling alone is cheap, the price of your trip depends only on you and your preferences. You do not need to pay for unnecessary services of travel companies, you can always choose the best offer. Let's compare the cost of an independent trip and a tour package using a specific example. Let's take one of the most popular destinations - the resort of Pattaya (Thailand) and the largest tour operator TezTour. Let's say we want to go to Pattaya in early November for 7 days (departure on November 6th), one of the tour company's offers includes a flight from Moscow, transfer and 7 nights at the WELCOME PLAZA 3 * hotel with breakfast, the price for this tour package is 68086 rubles for 2 people. Now let's see how much it would cost if we went on our own. We go to the site and look for a flight Moscow-Bangkok with a departure in early November for 2 people, as a result we get a price of 42,880 rubles for two. Then we look for a hotel on the site, enter the name Welcome Plaza and dates in early November into the search bar, we get the price of 9035 rubles for 7 nights with double occupancy. The bus from Bangkok airport to Pattaya costs about 100 rubles per person. Thus, the total cost of the trip with independent planning is 52,115 rubles, which is 15,971 rubles cheaper than the tour package offered by the travel agency. It's simple math, it's up to you.

Or, for example, another popular destination - Cuba. At the beginning of October (departure 2.10.12) a package with a flight, transfer and accommodation at the Vedado 3 * hotel (reviews about the hotel, by the way, are not very good, but you won’t have a chance to change it) TezTour costs 113,256 rubles for two. If we conduct a search, as we did above, we get that the flight Moscow-Havana-Moscow to dovih for these dates is for 72381 rubles, and the same hotel for 7 nights costs 11311 rubles, which in total gives 83692 rubles, and this almost 30,000 rubles less than the offer of the tour company.

And if you take a non-standard route, which is very easy to organize with independent planning, then buying it from a travel agency can be many times more expensive.

In rare cases, it happens that there are no cheap air tickets for a particular destination, and then it turns out that it can be more profitable to use a tourist package. But this happens quite rarely, and over time it will become even rarer, especially against the background of the fact that tour operators have significantly increased the cost of tour packages this year against the backdrop of bankruptcies of large travel companies and the appreciation of the dollar.

In fact, you pay travel agencies for the following services:

Flight. Often old planes with poor maintenance, but you can't change anything and choose an airline.
Hotel. You can't change the hotel if you don't like it or if you want to go somewhere.
Transfer from the airport to the hotel by shared bus.
Visa. If the country is a visa country (and there are not so many of them), then your documents will be collected and sent to the visa center, but they cannot guarantee the successful receipt of a visa.
Excursions. You may be offered excursions, but the price for them will be many times higher than if you went to the same places on your own or through local tour agencies.

This concludes the services of tour operators. No one will help you communicate with the store or the market if you do not know the language, you should also not wait for help from the guide if you have an accident, they are not obliged to help you, this is not included in the list of their services. Really, after reading this article, you will not be able to organize your trip on your own, making it cheaper and more interesting?

If, however, I still didn’t convince you that it’s better to travel on your own, and you still intend to go on a package holiday, then I recommend that you read the instructions - "" so as not to waste time traveling to travel agencies, but easy and convenient to find and book everything online.

Conclusion

The most difficult thing is to take the first step, but once you go somewhere on your own, you will never want to buy package organized tours again. Do not put it off until later, start planning your next trip on your own and you will see that it is much easier, cheaper and more interesting than it seems at first glance.

PS: If you have any questions or want to clarify something, ask in the comments, it is important for us to know whether this material turned out to be useful and how it can be supplemented. Share this article with your friends through social networks, let them also know how easy it is to go abroad on their own.

You are in a luxurious resort, in an all-inclusive hotel, enjoying the sea, the sun and a tropical cocktail. And you are so cool and good that you can’t even believe that there are still two weeks of vacation ahead. But then suddenly you are asked to look at the hotel manager. He reports simply amazing news: the travel agency did not pay for the hotel room and you have two options - pay yourself or spend the next night under a fence. Two hours later, it turns out that the flight home was also not paid. You understand that those 3,000 bucks that you paid off for a trip for your family ended up on the accounts of a bankrupt travel agency. And you will have to find another bag of money to get out of this mess.

"Vietnam up and down with a small child ... Well, you are monsters! Yes, my tourists are afraid to go to Turkey in a five-star all-inclusive hotel on their own!". I received a similar comment from a blog reader. But really, where does this fear of doing something on your own come from? What makes people give money to intermediaries for something that is so interesting to do it yourself? Plan a trip, a real adventure - and see the whole country instead of one resort town!

Very soon we will go on a new journey of seven months. I planned it in just a few weeks. Everything is spelled out perfectly. For example, I know that on December 29 we will fly from Goa to Bangkok, and on March 20 - from Krabi to Kuala Lumpur, and then to the island of Java. Air tickets bought, hotels found. It is this clear planning and early booking that saves a lot of money. Now tell me, how much would such an "individual tour" to four countries and a dozen cities ordered from a travel agency cost? A lot of? So many? So why are you paying a lot of money for a two-week vacation with nothing to plan?

Three reasons to go on vacation without a travel agency:

You are sure that your tickets and hotel are exactly paid for, because you yourself bought a ticket from the airline and rented a room in a hotel room.
You may not be limited to standard and densely populated resorts, but instead of one city, see the whole country, or maybe even two or three.
By learning how to organize a small two-week trip, you have acquired skills that will last a lifetime, so next time you will not be afraid to go even around the world. Why not!?

Now I will teach you how to do everything yourself and absolutely free.

Choosing a vacation spot

If you just want to extend the summer and go to the sea no matter where, the main thing is inexpensive, then you can use the "Travel Map" service on the Aviasales website. This is how she looks.

You specify your data in the settings:

The city you want to fly from.
Holiday time: you can select exact dates, you can set a blurry filter, for example, "autumn", "October", etc.
Visa-free stay in the country, you need a visa or Schengen countries.
Length of stay - number of days.
Travel budget. Here you indicate the amount that you are willing to pay for a round-trip flight per person.

Then click search - and right on the map, see the options on the map where you can go. While searching for tickets on the map, I immediately recall my childhood, when I sat for hours with a globe and poked my finger at small islands in the hope that when I grow up, I will definitely go there.

Important clarification! If you live outside of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, or other major cities in Russia or Ukraine, you may not see budget flight options. In this case, try looking for flights from neighboring metropolitan areas with major international airports. It will probably be much cheaper to fly from there.

How to buy a ticket online

In order to buy a ticket, it is not necessary to leave the house and look for a ticket office. Go to the website of the Aviasales ticket search engine and look for a suitable flight option there. I have already written a very detailed search and purchase of air tickets. There are many screenshots, it explains what and how to do, so you can figure it out without difficulty.

If you are traveling within Asia, for example, from India to Thailand, then you do not need to know the websites of all Asian low-cost airlines by heart. It is enough to use the Makemytrip service, which finds the right flight and compares prices from all discounters and regular airlines. And in some countries there are such universal search engines that look not only for air, but also for train and bus tickets. For example, in India it is Cleartrip.

Of course, sometimes it is easier and cheaper to buy a ticket for a charter, which is ordered by tour operators. My friend, a very experienced girl, recently revealed to me a terrible secret that you can buy such tickets directly from a tour operator, bypassing intermediaries in the face of small agencies that wind up their percentage on this. I don’t know at all how the situation is in Russia, I will give a couple of useful sites for my countrymen - Ukrainians. So, catch burning offers at Pegas, Joinup, Teztur. By the way, there are also tours to Egypt for 300-400 dollars for two a couple of days before departure. I saw it with my own eyes about a month ago.

How to book a hotel online

In order to reserve a room in a hotel, even 10-15 years ago it was necessary to look for hotel phone numbers, call them, find out prices. Now everything is very simple. You go to the Hotellook website and choose from hundreds of options that suits you personally. There will also be filters, just like on the flight search site.

You will be prompted to choose:

The price per night you are willing to pay.
Whether or not you need WiFi.
If you need a hotel with breakfast, also do not forget to check the box.
Swimming pool, fitness center, restaurant and laundry... Choose the items you want.
If you do not want to live in a hotel, but do not mind renting an apartment or house, check the box next to the appropriate type of accommodation.

Detailed step by step instructions. Feel free to read this post. There are many nuances.

Or maybe an apartment instead of a hotel?

Renting an apartment even for a couple of days in an unfamiliar city can be not only more convenient, but also more profitable than a hotel. Judge for yourself, if you are in an exotic country in Asia, then having a kitchen can be just a huge plus when traveling with children. No need to think about what to feed the child, because you can cook anything on your own.

An excellent service for booking apartments around the world is Airbnb. It is very comfortable. Enter the city, choose the price range within your budget and go ahead to look at the pictures. We are planning to rent a two-room apartment in Bangkok in NG for only 190 euros per week. And this is in a compound with a pool. Well, isn't it a fairy tale?

Just fill in the city in this form and choose the right apartment in any city in the world!

If you're not yet an Airbnb member, you can use our affiliate link and receive a free $15 coupon. to receive such a gift.

How to organize transfers from the airport to the hotel and back?

In many hotels, when booking a room, it is possible to order a transfer from the airport. For example, in our favorite in Bangkok, where we stay all the time, the transfer from and to the airport costs 2-3 times cheaper than a taxi, just a couple of dollars. But this is rather an exception to the rule. It is usually cheaper to take a taxi or take the airport bus to the city center. In most cities around the world, you can get from the airport in at least three ways: by bus, aeroexpress or taxi. Read the forums and decide which option is best for you. So score in Google: "How much does it cost to get from the airport to the center of Ho Chi Minh City", for example. There will be many answers.

If you want to plan everything in advance and not think about how to get to the hotel upon arrival, you can use the international airport transfer system. Fill in the form below with the city of arrival and destination and find out the cost and conditions of the trip.

How to organize self-guided tours?

Many tourists buy excursions along with tours in agencies. I want to upset and surprise you, but on the spot the same excursions are MUCH cheaper. For example, in Russian travel agencies in Moscow, an excursion to the Southern Islands of Nha Trang is sold for $60 per person. On the spot in Russian travel agencies, it already costs $ 35. But if you buy the same one-day boat tour from the Vietnamese, you will pay only 7 bucks. Unexpected, right?! Yes, on an expensive tour you will be given a free bottle of wine, and the food on the ship will be a little more extravagant. But think, is it worth $53 per person?

We organize all our excursions very simply. If the attraction is on land, we rent a scooter (I am writing about Asia now), stock up on a map and go to our destination. We buy entrance tickets on the spot, sometimes, when we really, really want some interesting story, we hire a guide. Believe me, such an independent trip is much cheaper than a purchased excursion, where you are taken on a bus along with two dozen compatriots. At any moment we can turn around and go to another place or, on the contrary, stay somewhere longer. And if you're tired, go home. By the way, if you don’t drive a scooter, you can rent a car for a couple of days and drive around the whole country on your own.

If the excursion is by sea, you can always try to find a boat for rent or, in extreme cases, buy an excursion from local agencies. Experience shows that Russian-speaking guides are usually more expensive.

Quite another matter - author's excursions. For example, a guide lives in Bangkok, Nha Trang or Hong Kong and is ready to show you such interesting places that are hidden from the eyes of ordinary tourists. There are many thematic excursions in this service: you can look only at architecture all day long, plunge into the culinary world of a new country, or go to visit unusual people. Also, excursions organized by a guide make sense if you have little time, but there is a desire to see as much as possible. For example, only one day in Bangkok. If you try to see everything on your own, then spend a lot of time moving from place to place, looking for attractions on the map. With a guide, this issue is solved quite simply. He himself knows how to see more in a short time and get to the right place faster.

Car rental abroad

If you don't drive a scooter but don't want to depend on dishonest taxi drivers, then renting a car is a good way to drive further and see more. It is best to use an international booking service that monitors the health of your cars, arranges accident insurance and allows you to take a car at one end of the country and return it at the other. For example, you rented a car at Bangkok airport and returned it in the southern province of Krabi.

Rubles. These are real examples of cheap holiday packages that I have found over the past year. Find out where and how to find such last-minute tours.

This guide is two years old. Being an avid traveler and hunter for cheap tours, I have presented my experience and knowledge on finding cheap tours. Learn how to relax without spending too much!

Rules for finding and buying the cheapest tours:

1. Buy tours online

Travel agencies on the street sell tours for more than online tour search engines. The last time I bought a ticket at the office of a travel agency was back in 2012. Then convenient and reliable online tour search services appeared - now I use only them. I no longer go to the offices of greedy travel agencies - it is more convenient and more profitable to buy tickets on the Internet.

Why are travel agencies more expensive? The reason is the human factor - cunning managers in travel agencies in every possible way untwist the client to buy a more expensive tour package. They fundamentally do not want to sell tours for 5, 10, 20 thousand - a percentage of such transactions is not enough for them, they need more gold!

Where to look for cheap tours online? I use three search engines: , and . All three are reliable and very comfortable. Choose which one you like best.

Install mobile app. Travelata has an excellent application: download it for or and use the current promotional code when buying a tour MobilizeMe- you will receive a discount of 1000 rubles for any tours costing from 50,000 rubles. Valid until August 14, 2018.

How do tour search engines work? They compare prices among 130 popular tour operators and find the cheapest tours. Finding and booking a tour on your own is easy. You see the full information on the tour: hotel, flight, meals, reviews of tourists and so on. You choose the tour you like. Got questions? Ask them to the consultant in a chat or by phone. Secure online payment by credit card. The tour can also be purchased in installments.

Offices and consultants. All three search engines have offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and other major cities. There is also a hotline support service. So it's easy to interact with them.

Advantages of buying tours online:

Big choice. Compare prices from all tour operators to find the cheapest tour. Compare - save!
Convenient and fast. No need to go to travel agency offices, waste time on the road, waiting and communication. You can find and book a tour in 15-30 minutes at home or at work. When buying last-minute tours, speed is especially important: I found a cheap ticket - I bought it in a couple of clicks, until it disappeared.
Safely. Search engines work only with reliable tour operators. Payment is made using a secure protocol. There is a 24/7 support service.
Independence. I recommend looking for and buying tours on your own. So it is more reliable - you know better than any person what exactly you need and at what price. There is no interference from others - there is no possibility to confuse you. In offices, managers are often cunning or simply incompetent.
Documents - immediately. When buying a tour online, all bookings and confirmations will be sent to the mail immediately after payment. In an ordinary agency, employees like to delay issuing documents - we passed, we know.
Reliably. Large online search engines, and with a large customer base and a well-known name, I trust. Tour agencies with colorful names like "Cactus", "Sea of Dreams" or "Marina Travel", scattered along the streets of Russian cities - no.

(Photo © club-med-discover / flickr.com / Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.)

2. Be flexible with deadlines and dates

Often we have many restrictions: rigidly fixed vacation days, personal affairs and obligations. However, try to achieve as much freedom as possible in choosing dates - this will save you money.

See different departure days. Vacation starts on Monday and you found a tour for that day for 50 thousand? Check departures on Tuesday or Wednesday - suddenly there are tours for 30 thousand. I encounter this on a regular basis.

Change your rest time. Often (not sometimes, but often!) tours for 7 nights are cheaper than tours for 5 nights, tours for 10 nights are cheaper than tours for 8 and so on. Do not limit yourself - check all the options!

Take a look at the site's price calendar. Often vouchers for 7 nights are cheaper than vouchers for 3 nights:

3. Be flexible in choosing a resort

If you are monogamous, who prefers to go on vacation to the same place every year, then the question of choosing a direction is not worth it for you. I recommend to everyone else to consider different resorts - your chances of buying a cheap tour will increase.

How does direction affect price?

There are traditionally expensive destinations ( , ). There are cheap directions ( , ).
Seasonality plays an important role: it is cheaper to fly to some resorts in summer, to others in winter, and to others in spring or autumn.
There are also random factors. For example, a tour operator sold few tours in one of the directions and decided to lower prices - last-minute tours appear.

Do you want to buy the cheapest tour? See as many directions as you can. Compare not only countries, but also individual resorts of the same country.

(Photo © RyanMBevan / flickr.com / Licensed CC BY 2.0.)

4. Buy tours from Moscow

It is for flights from Moscow that you can find the cheapest tours. Competition and a developed system of air transportation reduce prices. Sometimes the difference in price compared to other cities is colossal.

What should a non-capital tourist do?

First, check if you can find a cheap tour from your city. Found? Great - take it! If not, then it is worth expanding the geography of departure cities.

See if there are cheap tours from neighboring cities or from Moscow. You can get to the point of departure on your own: by bus, train or plane. Pobeda flies to Moscow from many Russian cities - tickets cost from 1000 rubles. I myself live in the provinces, and I fly from Moscow on vacation.

All situations are different - there is no one solution. Compare prices and decide what is best for you: pay more and fly from your city or save money but spend time on the road to another city.

Look at the examples below. I compared the cost of trips to Cyprus from Moscow and Yekaterinburg. A tour from the capital can be bought much cheaper. If you fly to Moscow on your own, you can save a lot of money.

5. Use Smart Search

(Photo © Fred Postles / flickr.com / Licensed under CC BY 2.0.)

6. Trust fortune

For those who want to buy the cheapest tour, prudent tour operators have come up with the Fortuna system.

How it works? You do not buy a tour to a specific hotel, but only choose its level: 2 stars, 3 stars, and so on. The tour operator himself decides in which hotel of the selected category you will be accommodated. You don't have to be a psychic to guess your future hotel. Just find the cheapest one in the list of options - they will send you there. There is only one exception - the hotel is already full. Then you will be settled in the next one at a low price. Tour operators do not always offer "Fortune": if tours for this system are available, you will see them in the search results.

How much can you save? A tour of "Fortune" usually costs 2-3 thousand rubles cheaper than other tours. Look at the description and reviews for the cheapest hotel in the desired resort. If the hotel suits you, buy a tour of "Fortuna".

Is it worth the risk? My opinion is no. It is better to overpay a little and choose an adequate hotel without surprises. Usually the cheapest hotel has a bad location and many shortcomings. But often does not mean always! If you want to save money and are not too pretentious, then you can go on vacation along Fortuna. Look at reviews of cheap hotels and decide according to the situation.

(Photo © Unique Properties (UP) / flickr.com / Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.)

7. Book early

Buy a tour in advance or catch a last minute one? This question is asked by many tourists. Both early booking and buying a tour at the last moment provide an opportunity to save money. Each option has its pros and cons.

Early booking. Minus: discounts are usually not as big as when buying last-minute tours. Plus: you can choose any hotel to your taste, relax beautifully and pleasantly. This is a winning option in terms of price - quality ratio.

Hot tours. Buying a tour at the last moment is often very profitable. Pros: big discounts, sometimes vouchers are generally given for a penny. Minus two. Firstly, there is no guarantee that a cheap last minute tour will appear for your destination on the dates you need. At the last moment, prices can either go down or go up. This game is quite exciting. The second drawback is that in the high season all the best hotels will be already booked, you will have to choose from second-rate options.

Conclusion. If you need a tour anywhere and as cheaply as possible, catch last-minute tours just before departure. If the quality of rest is a priority, then buy a tour in advance (optimally - 2-3 months in advance). You will receive both an early booking discount and a wide selection of hotels.

See also others about how to travel cheaper and more interesting.

Tour operators with whom it works (in terms of reliability): Coral Travel, TUI, Tez Tour, Sunmar, AnexTour, Pegas Touristik, NTK-Intourist, Biblio Globus, Mouzenidis Travel, PAC group and others.

Cities, with a departure from which you can pick up a tour: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Ufa, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, Perm, Tyumen and many others.

Leisure destinations: Russia (Sochi, Adler, Crimea, Anapa, etc.), Abkhazia, Cyprus, Greece, Thailand, India, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Tunisia, Vietnam, Israel and many others.

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What a beast - travel agency

How to buy a tour so as not to be left without money and vacation

Roma and his friends were going to the Dominican Republic for the New Year.

Konstantin Golubev

traveler

Roman, injured

In November, he paid for the tour, but the agency manager forgot to transfer the money to the tour operator on time. Roman found out about this already at Domodedovo, when he was not allowed on the flight. Friends flew away on vacation, and he stayed at the airport.

A month later, Roman returned the money, but the holidays were ruined. How to avoid such situations and what to pay attention to when working with travel agencies - we will tell in the article.

What does a tour operator do

There are two types of travel agencies: operators and agents.

A tour operator is like a travel producer. He comes to the country and sees what hotels, excursions, transport, entertainment and everything else that may be of interest to tourists is there. He negotiates with all these suppliers, checks their licenses and certificates, makes an advance payment to them, agrees on some quotas and discounts - the result is a tourist product, aka a tour.

In popular tourist destinations, tour operators collect ready-made vacation packages: they negotiate in advance with hotels and airlines. Usually, a ready-made tour includes flights, medical insurance and ground services: a hotel room, meals, transfers, guided tours and entertainment. A tourist does not need to waste time and plan a trip himself - he buys a ready-made tour, takes a passport and goes on a trip.

Such travel packages are called package tours. Operators sell them on their own or through intermediaries - travel agencies.

What does a travel agency do

If the operator is a manufacturer, then the agency is a ready-made travel store. The agency buys ready-made tours from the operator and sells them to tourists.

The task of the agency is to help the tourist choose and buy the right tour. It usually goes like this:

A tourist comes to the agency and says: “I want to go on vacation! Where will you send it?"
The agency shows him ready-made tours and explains what they include: where the tourist will live, how many days, when he leaves and returns, and what else is included in the cost of the trip.
The tourist chooses the tour he likes, and the agency books the tour with the operator: “Reserve this tour for my tourist. Here are the passport details.
The operator confirms the reservation: “The tour is booked. I'm waiting for payment."
The tourist pays for the trip at the agency, the agency buys the tour from the operator: “Here is the money for the tour. You reserved it for my boyfriend."
The tour operator receives the money and sends a ticket for the tourist to the agency: “Guys, everything is ok! Received money. Tomorrow I will send tickets, hotel reservation number, insurance policy and travel program.”
The agency passes the ticket to the tourist - the tourist packs his suitcase and flies away on vacation.

If the agency and the operator were people, then it would look like this:

Before booking and paying for the tour, the tourist and the agency sign an agreement on the provision of tourist services. How it looks and what to pay attention to in the contract - we will analyze in the next article.

How agencies mislead tourists

Natalia Golubeva

worked for a travel agency for four years

Suppose a client comes to the agency and asks the manager to pick up a tour. The manager has not been anywhere, but in order to sell the tour, he says that he perfectly represents the room, the beach, the pool and the entertainment in the area. It turns out that the manager is misleading the tourist.

This is the most disgusting thing: when you go to a hotel with the same expectations, and get a room with a non-working air conditioner or mold on the walls. Therefore, we called and found out if everything suited the tourist; studied the descriptions of hotels and excursions from the tour operator; read reviews about hotels from others.

An adequate manager is always aware of a construction site near the hotel or a long-standing renovation in the rooms and will not lie frankly. The main thing is not to sell the tour at once, but to get a satisfied tourist who will return and book the tour again.

How to buy a tour cheaper

It is better to book a tour according to the season: choose a place in advance and contact the agency. Four to six months before the holiday, tickets and accommodation are cheaper and there will be many free rooms. If you take a tour a month or a couple of weeks before the trip, you will have to choose from what is left. For example, for cherry blossom in Japan, good hotels are booked six to seven months before the tour.

Relax at the beginning or end of the season to save on accommodation. Hotels give operators discounts to fill rooms before and after the main influx of tourists, so early or late season stays are usually cheaper. You can find out the right time to travel to different countries.

Follow the promotions "Early booking". At the start of sales, operators want to raise money faster in order to pay for the purchased rooms and charter flights. Therefore, they attract tourists with promotions and discounts.

Charter - a plane rented in advance. The operator and agencies sell tours specifically for this flight in order to fill the board and recoup the rent. Often, charter tickets are cheaper, but the flight can be rescheduled for another time.

Until August 30, Tez-tour operator sells tours in the UAE for early booking with a discount of up to 40%. Screenshot from tour operator website

Usually you can buy early booking tours to summer resorts from January to April. For winter - from July to October.

Check out canceled or last minute tours if you are ready to break into vacation in a few days. When a tourist cannot go on a trip, he tries to get some of the money back and resells the tour at a discount. Operators also reduce prices for charter tickets two to three days before departure in order to completely fill the board.

How scammers cheat

Unfortunately, there are scammers among travel agencies, and simply incompetent people among tour operators. Here's what to watch out for when dealing with an agency.

Work without a contract with the operator. According to the law "On the basics of tourism activities", an agency must conclude an agreement with each operator. Without a contract or a power of attorney from the tour operator, the agency works illegally: it sells fictitious tours and is not going to buy them from the operator. Most likely, in a few months, the scammers will close the office and hide with the tourists' money.

In order not to donate money to scammers, before buying a tour, ask the agency manager to show the contract with the tour operator and check this information yourself on the website of the Turpomoshch association. This can be done in two ways:

open the list of partner agencies in the register of tour operators;
in the register of travel agencies, see which operators the agency works with.

Cancel booking. To confirm the booking and buy the tour from the operator, the tourist first pays for the trip at the agency, then the agency transfers the money to the operator. After that, the operator sends a tourist voucher and itinerary receipts. Without these documents, the tourist will not be able to go on vacation: he will not be allowed on the plane and will not be accommodated in a hotel room.

This is what the itinerary receipt looks like:

Number of ticket

How else are tourists being scammed?

They lure you with promotions and discounts. The agency earns on the resale of tours: it buys from the operator at the same price and sells for a little more. Usually the agency receives 5-10% of the cost of the tour.

Fraudsters offer tours at bargain prices, accumulate the required amount and go into the sunset. In order not to fall for the tricks of scammers, check the average prices for tours with different operators in advance.

They take money without a contract. The travel service contract is the basis for partial or full payment for the trip. When an agency takes money without a contract, it works in a black way. Therefore, if the manager is in a hurry with payment and offers to draw up a contract after, it is better not to take risks and immediately go to another agency.

Do not provide payment documents. When the tourist pays the agency, the employee is obliged to give him a payment document: a cash receipt, a cash receipt with a seal and signature, a note with passport data, the purpose and amount of payment - any document confirming the transfer of money. Without payment documents, it will not be possible to return the money even through the court. If you paid for the tour, but did not take the documents, they gave money to scammers.

Remember

The tour operator creates a tourist product, the travel agent sells ready-made tour operators.
The tour operator is responsible for the quality of the tour and the reliability of information, the travel agent is obliged to explain to the tourist what he will receive for his money.
Package tours are more profitable than independent trips to popular tourist destinations.
It is better to book a tour several months in advance, and accommodation is cheaper at the beginning or at the end of the season - so you can save money.
Before paying, check the tour program and the contract, after - take the payment documents.
If the operator has not sent a travel voucher and itinerary receipts, make sure that the agency has transferred the money to the operator.