Why your perfect holiday might not come as a package

Package holidays can be brilliant. Flights, accommodation and sometimes transfers are neatly brought together, making it easy to choose, book and look forward to your trip.

But what happens when the holiday you actually want doesn't quite fit into a ready-made package?

Perhaps you've found the perfect hotel, but the available flights aren't ideal. Maybe the cruise you want sails from Barcelona, but you'd rather fly from Glasgow than travel elsewhere to catch the flights offered. Or perhaps you want to spend a couple of nights exploring a city before joining your cruise.

That's where personally planning the different parts of your trip can open up considerably more choice.

More than 200 travel suppliers

At Port & Place, we have access to over 200 travel suppliers, including familiar names such as TUI, Jet2, easyJet and Virgin Voyages, alongside cruise lines, accommodation providers and specialist travel companies.

That means we're not limited to the holidays available from one particular tour operator or booking website.

Sometimes a ready-made package will be exactly what you're looking for. When it isn't, we can explore whether different elements of your trip can be brought together to create something that works better for you.

In the travel industry, you'll sometimes hear this referred to as dynamic packaging.

For you, it simply means more flexibility when planning your holiday.

What could a personally planned trip look like?

Imagine you've found a Virgin Voyages sailing from Barcelona that ticks every box.

The cruise is perfect, but you still need to work out how you're getting there.

Rather than being restricted to a particular flight option, we can look at suitable flights from airports such as Glasgow or Edinburgh, arrange accommodation in Barcelona before you sail, consider transfers and incorporate the cruise itself into the overall trip.

The same principle can work for a traditional holiday.

Perhaps Jet2 has the flight times that suit you best, but the hotel you really want is available through another of our suppliers. Depending on the trip, we may be able to bring those elements together rather than asking you to compromise simply because they don't appear together as a ready-made holiday.

Why does that matter?

Choice is probably the biggest advantage.

When you search directly with one airline, tour operator or holiday website, you're naturally limited to the products and combinations available through that particular company.

Having access to more than 200 travel suppliers gives us a much wider starting point.

It can allow us to consider:

• different departure airports and flight times
• a wider choice of hotels and room types
• different cruise lines, ships and itineraries
• pre or post-cruise accommodation
• transfers and other travel arrangements
• combinations that better suit your dates and requirements

It isn't simply about finding the cheapest combination.

It's about finding the right trip for you.

Particularly useful when you're cruising

Cruises are a great example of where a little more flexibility can make a big difference.

Many fantastic cruises depart from ports such as Barcelona, Rome, Athens and Miami. Getting from Scotland to the ship can therefore be an important part of planning the overall holiday.

We generally recommend arriving at your cruise departure destination at least one day before your ship sails, rather than relying on a flight arriving on embarkation day.

That might mean combining your cruise with flights from Glasgow or Edinburgh, a night or two in the departure city and transfers to the port.

It can make the journey feel like part of the holiday rather than simply something you need to get through before reaching the ship.

And if you'd like to stay for a few days after your cruise? We can explore that too.

Sometimes the package is still the best option

Having the ability to build a trip from different elements doesn't mean that's always the right answer.

There are plenty of occasions when a traditional package holiday from a supplier such as TUI or Jet2 offers exactly the combination you're looking for.

If it does, great.

The difference is that we don't have to start with the assumption that your holiday needs to fit into an existing package.

We can start with you.

Where would you like to go? When would you like to travel? Which airports work for you? What sort of accommodation do you enjoy? What's important to you when you're away?

Then we can look at the options available.

One enquiry, lots of possibilities

Of course, you could try to piece all of this together yourself.

You could have an airline open in one browser tab, several hotel websites in others, another tab for your cruise, one for transfers and perhaps a spreadsheet somewhere trying to keep track of the total cost.

Some people genuinely enjoy doing that.

If you don't, that's where Port & Place comes in.

Tell us what you have in mind and we can explore the options available through our network of more than 200 travel suppliers.

Sometimes the answer will be a ready-made package. Sometimes it will be a combination of different travel arrangements.

Either way, the aim is the same.

Your trip, personally planned.