Why a European vacation package isn't right for me is what many of my friends and I say anytime we think about traveling somewhere in Europe together.
Whenever I look over the package deals I see that I have to do many of the things I would normally have to do when I plan the trip myself with a few exceptions.
The exceptions are that I don't have to decide which airline to use and I may not have to spend a lot of time finding a hotel.
To me those exception aren't enough to choose a package deal, first off I want to choose which airline to fly because maybe I may have a frequent flyer program set up with one and the other is I want to be able to choose which airport I leave and return from.
Many vacation packages have only selected airports to leave from and if I were to go with a package deal I would have to spend extra money to get to that airport if I weren't close enough to drive.
As far as a hotel is concerned some package deals may list many hotels to choose from, in that case I would need to do as much research as I would do if I were planning everything.
But would I be able to find out what I need if they don't provide me the information I need.
Some other deals may only have a few hotels to choose from and maybe none of my choices would be in the part of town where I want to be.
Also when looking at hotels choices in a package deal often you don't know where any of the hotels are located making choosing one even more difficult.
In order to find the location I would have to take the name of the hotel and put it into Google to see where it is, if I have to do all that work to find the information I need I might as well do the research myself.
It is much easier to use a European hotel listing site to do research because they will show you where the hotel is when looking at that hotels listing on their site.
I would also be able to see the amenities the hotel offers as well as knowing if the hotel has air conditioning or not because not all hotels in Europe do.
You can also get other valuable information from these sites like how close are you to a bus stop or a subway station depending on which city you are in because some have both.
Who wants a hotel that is 10 blocks from the nearest transportation.
One thing I noticed about many vacation packages is they are often for short periods of time ranging between 4 day stays to maybe 7.
For myself if I am going to fly 4000 miles or more one way I want to be able to stay as long as I want so when choosing a package deal I wouldn't be able to do that either.
Also depending on the package I could end up with an all in one package where everyday a tour bus shows up at the hotel and picks me up and takes me sightseeing.
This may be great for people who don't have any idea of what they want to see or where they want to go but I am a planner and when I go somewhere it is for the sites I want to see.
Other things I noticed about some of the package deals is that they are not deals.
I chose a few deals going to different destinations and put in all the information they needed for flight and hotel and after doing my own research I would often end up with a similar or lower price.
Someone might say it was because I was choosing a much cheaper hotel but I wasn't I was choosing the hotel based on where I wanted to stay in relation to the sites I wanted to see in that city and availability of transportation.
Overall for myself the only way to go on a vacation is to do all the research myself that way I can get the flight from where I want and when I want, as well as finding the kind of hotel I want in the location I want.