Forget the wasteful packaging

This time of year many Britons will be making their New Year's resolutions and booking their holiday in the sun.

This year, your resolution should be to forget about buying your package holiday from the High Street travel agent, and book it online yourself instead.

Most packaging is wasteful and usually is a trick by the retailer to make you think a few cheap components deserve a much higher price when bundled together for your convenience. A package holiday is no different. Picking a holiday off the shelf means it's hard to find one that fits. Finally, package holidays sold by UK travel agents in 2009 are going to be up to 40% more expensive than last year.

As we will find out on my blog over the coming weeks, with the internet you can find a hotel... see photos of your resort... book the cheapest travel tickets... buy holiday insurance... print out maps... download public transport schedules... read guidebooks... and compare comments from other holidaymakers.

"The all-you-can-eat buffet was a tad disappointing."

The internet is a terrific way to have a better holiday. Best of all, you can cut out the middle man and save money!

Here's my personal example. The basic idea was to fly to Malta for a fortnight's holiday, with one week in a basic 3-star hotel, followed by one week in a self-catering villa with car hire. This particular jaunt was for 3 adults.

A reputable high street holiday company provided me with the following quote for accommodation, flights and transfers. The basic holiday price (just accommodation and flights) came to £623 per person. A week's car hire was another £94. Then we each would have to pay £49 for under-occupancy because there would only be 3 of us in a villa built to house 4. Then we would have to pay £59 each in flight supplements for not flying from a London airport.

Total holiday price for the 3 of us was going to be £2199, or about £733 per person.

"Tough tittie, I don't see your name on it."

With this in mind, I browsed a few websites and did my own research.

I found daytime return charter flights from our local airport departing on the 1st of May for £219 each. A bit steep, but I discovered that by travelling one day earlier and therefore outside the peak season, the price of each ticket went down to £169 each. The £177 of flight supplements the travel agent wanted to charge could have bought a ticket at this price, with change left over.

"Still getting over that jet lag."

Time to find a hotel. I searched Malta's tourist office website for 3-star hotels in a resort which had been recommended. I emailed each one I could and impressed upon them I was booking months in advance by email and that we'd be staying 7 nights, so what deals could they make us? Most replied within 24 hours and about half offered 10- to 25% off their advertised rates. One hotel offered such good value on a B&B basis we opted for 2 rooms, a single and a double. This worked out to £14.50 per person per night.

Finally, time to book a villa on the smaller island of Gozo. A websearch came up with many properties, most with photos and descriptions. But one organisation stood out by offering a full holiday service. They would fetch us from our resort hotel and bring us to our villa which would require two taxi rides and a ferry crossing. They would provide car hire once we arrived. They would take us all the way back to the airport for our return flight. Best of all, their total fee was about the same as what the travel agent wanted per person.

The major difference between the property on the website and the property offered by the travel agent was that the cheaper option didn't have a swimming pool. We figured we'd have more fun on a beach.

"Swimming pools are overrated anyway."

My independently arranged holiday with flights, accommodation and transfers came in around £1100, or £367 per person. That's half of what the travel agent quoted.

One thing a travel agent offers in return for your cash is peace of mind. You are guaranteed what you booked, or you receive compensation if something goes wrong with your booking. Also, in the unlikely event of a fire, natural disaster or other emergency during your holiday the travel agent will arrange for alternative accommodation or repatriation at no cost or worry to you.

But here's the bottom line - those same guarantees can be obtained by buying the proper holiday insurance. And as we all know, holiday insurance is almost always cheaper anywhere other than the travel agent.

"No dogs allowed??"

For my tips on booking holiday insurance and all the other ways the internet is proving a boon for independent travellers, stay tuned!