Hi all! Today I will tell you in detail about how to buy a tour online for all tour operators (forgive the author for this clumsy SEO-design: D) and along the way I will share my thoughts on why going to a travel agency in our time is not a panacea. But first, a small digression, which you can skip, immediately proceeding to the story of how, in fact, to buy a tour on your own without a travel agency.

Why Russians are afraid to buy tours online

A few words about what we do here in general. So, we write guidebooks, blog about our travels, and also share with our readers air ticket sales and last-minute tours. In addition, we personally assist in the selection of tours in our public in contact and on . This is not our main activity, we are still not professional consultant managers, but if people more or less know what they want, then it is not a problem for us to find them a tour at the lowest price on the market. However, after a year and a half of selecting tours, we came to the conclusion that 8 out of 10 clients are really frightened by the fact that the tour is offered to be booked online, and not at the usual travel agent office (the naive are not at all embarrassed by the fact that all these numerous travel agencies are regularly ruined, and tourists are simply thrown).

And the point is not that our site has a particularly shy audience, but that, quoting the well-known industry publication Travelhubr.ru, “According to market participants, only about 3% of tours are sold online to the end client in Russia. Whereas in Europe the share of online booking of tours in 2015 was on average at the level of 25%. Such a low figure for the Russian market indicates a technological lag behind developed countries.” In my personal opinion, the lag here is not in technological development, but in the development of Internet literacy. People simply do not know what tools to use in order to select and buy a tour on their own without a tour operator (travel agency), and in general they are distrustful of the procedure for buying something online.

But once there was a similar situation with air tickets - people went to the ticket offices, but then Aviasales and other online services appeared and the queues at the ticket office thinned sharply. Now more than 50% of air tickets are bought online. So the migration of lovers of package holidays online is inevitable, since all the conditions for the high-quality provision of such services via the Internet are already there.

Well, another important reason, in my opinion, is that a certain part of the tourists is simply not ready and does not want to take responsibility for the quality of their vacation. After all, if you refuse the services of a travel agency and work out the vacation yourself, there will be no one mentally to blame for a failed vacation all of a sudden (the hotel is shit, the place is shit, whatever shit). It turns out that you yourself are to blame, because you were too lazy to spend a few hours and figure out which hotels in the right direction are ok, and which are garbage, etc. 🙂

But let's try to understand Why are travel agencies needed? and whether you can really do without them (spoiler - you can).

Why are travel agencies needed?

If you exaggerate, then all the activities of a travel agency (TA) come down to issuing documents for the desired tour from a certain tour operator (TO) for you. If you build a more detailed chain of relationships between the tourist and the TA, then it will be as follows: contacting the TA -> getting advice -> booking a tour with the TO -> receiving confirmation for the tour from the TO -> issuing documents to you.

Those. in fact, a travel agent is just an intermediary, which is engaged in administrative and advisory activities, for which it throws its commission on top, to the cost of the tour. Due to this margin, an office is rented, salaries are paid to managers, etc.

Yes, for some, the opportunity to get advice and pay for everything in the office is a very useful option. For example, if you are with a computer, not only you, but you. If you have ever bought something online, then booking a tour online will be given to you without any problems. And even if not, everything is done for the first time. 🙂 The main thing is to figure out where they sell tours online and what services you can really trust.

Where to buy a tour online?

Lots of options, but we recommend using the three largest and most popular online services in Russia for the sale of tours are, and. All three companies have been around for several years, have proven themselves on the good side and, importantly, have high-quality and understandable sites through which even your grandmother will figure out how to buy a tour online.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW: all 3 services search for tours IMMEDIATELY FOR ALL reliable tour operators. Someone has more of them, someone has less, but everyone has the main ones, such as Anex Tour, Biblio Globus, Tez Tour, Pegasus, etc. This, by the way, is their difference from your favorite travel agency around the corner, which is unlikely to have such a variety of offers.

Each of these services is good in its own way, but we would separately single out - for two reasons:
1) As you know, there are fuel surcharges for some popular destinations such as Turkey, Greece and some others. So, both Level Travel and Travelata initially show the cost of the tour without fees, and only when you proceed to the booking process will you be shown the final price with all surcharges. Onlinetours, in turn, initially shows the cost of the tour with fuel surcharge included. This is very convenient, because if you fly in a group, then fuel surcharges can reach up to 15-20 thousand rubles.
2) Despite the fact that the prices for tours for all three services may vary, lowest cost for identical offers, taking into account a discount of 3,000 rubles (how to get it - below), in 97% of cases, Onlinetours will have it.

How to buy a tour online for all tour operators on your own?

Well, now let's move on to the main topic of the post - how to buy a tour online. We have long wanted to write detailed instructions, but because Most of the tours through our site are bought by people on their own, and the site editors are used to relaxing in non-package ways, so in order to write this case, we had to wait for the moment when one of the close relatives was going on vacation. 🙂 In addition, the average check for tours purchased through our website is in the region of 40-70 tr, and we wanted the budget for the purchase of the tour to be at least 100,000 rubles, so that the reader could clearly see that that such services can be trusted even more impressive amounts of money.

So given:

Group of 4: 65, 61, 31 and 7 years old
Budget: 120-140 thousand rubles
Accommodation: 5 stars, all inclusive, the presence of children's entertainment on site
Departure in 3-4 days

Compare prices from online services and travel agencies

I must say right away that none of my relatives have ever bought a tour online, and although they did not experience much skepticism in terms of reliability (I will not advise them something that cannot be trusted), however, they had doubts that prices offered by online services can be competitive with travel agencies. It was not my task at all to sell them a tour by any means - I just wanted to demonstrate to both them and myself (once again) that the prices when buying online are at least not higher, but most likely lower than those of TA. Therefore, we agreed that they go to their usual TA, where my sister took tours before and find out the prices for tours to those hotels that interest them, after which we will immediately compare them (I was in touch at that time). And then, depending on where the prices are lower, a decision will be made from whom to buy a tour.

That same evening, my sister and her parents went to TA, and we had this exchange of messages on Whatsup:

An inquisitive reader will note the late time of the correspondence and think - “Yeah, they are trying to fuck me - what kind of travel agency works so late! Everything is fake and staged." In fact, the author of these lines lives in Krasnoyarsk, while my sister is in Moscow - considering the time difference, everything is ok.

As can be understood from the correspondence - the prices that I looked at Onlinetours were either the same (taking into account the discount of 3 tr, in fact, cheaper) or significantly lower - I found a tour to Raymar Hotel in Side for 125tr, and in TA they offered for 165 tr. The thing is that this travel agency simply did not work with the Intourist tour operator, which at that time had such low prices. So, simply due to the wider coverage of tour operators, online services are able to offer more profitable options. Yes, probably in another TA you could find the same price, but this is the advantage of online - you do not need to run around different travel agencies comparing prices🙂 Of course, I looked at the cost of this tour on both Travelata and Level Travel, but taking into account the discount, OT had the lowest price. Therefore, it was decided to buy a tour online through them.

Step-by-step instructions on how to buy a tour online

In principle, I just needed to buy a tour to a specific hotel, but because for most of you, this procedure will be new, then I will describe the whole process in as much detail as possible.

Step 1: go to and enter data to search for a tour. We select the city of departure (Moscow), the desired direction (Turkey), the number of nights (7-8), the number of vacationers (3 adults + 1 child) and the date of departure (from August 2 to 4). Click - "FIND A TOUR".

After the search is completed, you will see all the available tours for your destination.

Be sure to wait until the search bar reaches the end and disappears - the cheapest tours are often loaded at the last moment.

Step 2: use the filters to narrow down your selection of hotels. In my case, I checked the boxes in the "Food" section, opposite "All Inclusive" and "Ultra All Inclusive", and also set the star rating of the hotel - 5 stars. If you click on "detailed filters", then you will have even more options for a more accurate search. Also, do not forget about the function of sorting prices for tours by price and popularity.

Step 3: we received a selection of tours that more accurately reflects our requests. Now it's time to learn more about the hotels offered to us. What is needed for this? - Check ratings and reviews. IMPORTANT! if you are a person with requests, then you may not even look at those hotels whose rating is below 7-7.5 points, as a rule, there are a lot of complaints about them. If you are not very picky or the quality of accommodation plays a nominal role for you, then you can consider all accommodation options.

You can check reviews for hotels on Online Tours itself, but I noticed that the ratings there are usually somewhat inflated. Therefore, for more relevant reviews, I always turn to Tripadvisor and Booking. If a hotel has a rating higher than 7.5-8 on these resources, then you can take it after reading the negative comments in order to understand what kind of claims they are making. If they are not critical for you - book. If the hotel rating is higher than 8-8.5/10, then this is already a very good hotel where you can safely go. Of course, this algorithm is slightly exaggerated, in fact, you can carefully read a huge number of reviews, look at true photos from tourists on Tripadvisor, etc.

For some, the process of choosing a hotel can turn out to be a rather tedious task, which is why many people apparently want to shift this procedure to a travel agent, but I personally sincerely like to do this every time. 🙂 After all, no one but you yourself will choose a better hotel for you.

Step 4: Let's move on to booking. So, after reading the reviews, I decided that the Raymar Hotel would be the best - I’m moving on to booking. To do this, click on the orange button with the price, which is 125,402 rubles for everyone.

Next, we see a complete list of all possible tours to this hotel from different tour operators, with different accommodation options (standard room, mountain view, sea view, etc.) and types of food (in this case, only ultra all inclusive, but usually in column "type of tour" there is a choice of different types of food).

Here you can click on "show all offers with flights to this hotel", then you will see even more options available. You can also click on the “low price chart”, which reflects the prices for tours to this hotel for neighboring dates. It may turn out that prices are lower for the next dates.

note that the cost of the tour for Intourist and Anex Tour differs by almost 10,000 rubles, although the offers are identical.

Because I was given the goal of buying a tour online at the lowest price, then the option for 125,402 rubles was chosen. Press the orange price button again.

Step 5: get acquainted with the detailed information about the tour. Here you need to once again check in detail all the information on the selected tour. If everything is in order, click "book".

Step 6: enter data about tourists and apply a discount on the tour.

So, now for paperwork, you need to enter passport data for everyone who is going to rest. However, if suddenly someone still does not have a passport ready, then the data can be filled in after booking the tour.

Also at this stage, you need to apply a discount that can be obtained using. In order for the discount to be activated, you need to check the box “Your bonus miles and discounts”.

The new price will be displayed immediately after the activation of the discount. In my case, it became 122,402 rubles. After applying the discount, click again - "Book"

ATTENTION! despite the fact that medical insurance is already included in the tour price, if your company includes people over 65 years old, you will have to pay about another 500 rubles for insurance. Since my father turned 65 just the day before, this amount had to be added to the cost of the tour.

Step 7: now it remains only to enter your card details and the tour will be booked. We especially note the fact that after that your funds will only be frozen! The actual write-off will be carried out only after the tour has been confirmed by the tour operator. If the tour operator does not confirm the tour, they will be unfrozen in the near future.

After entering all the data, an SMS with a code will be sent to the phone linked to the card, which will need to be entered, after which the amount will be frozen.

As a result, you will receive a notification that the payment has been made.

Well, that's all - the tour is booked. You will immediately receive an official legal contract for the provision of relevant services by mail. It can also be downloaded from your personal account.

After that, within 1-2 hours, the manager of Onlinetours will call you and once again talk about all the details of your order. Further, within about a day, information will be received from the tour operator about whether your tour is confirmed or not. As soon as this becomes known, the manager will dial you again, and the relevant information will appear in your personal account - see the "Order Status" section.

What to do if the tour is not confirmed? Usually in such cases, the manager contacts you and tries to offer an adequate alternative. If it suits you, then, depending on the cost of the new tour, either the difference is returned to you, or you pay the missing part. If a compromise is not found, then the money is fully returned to your card.

If everything goes according to plan and the tour is confirmed, then about a day before departure you will be sent all the necessary documents (tour voucher, insurance, etc.), which, among other things, will indicate the exact time of departure. Previously, documents are not sent due to the rules, according to which, passenger lists are formed only on the eve of departure.

All procedures, in terms of confirming a tour with a toroperator, forming a package of documents and receiving them, are no different from those practiced by ordinary travel agents. In fact, in this case, Onlinetours acts as a travel agent, bearing exactly the same legal responsibility in case of failure to provide its services, so you should not worry in this regard.

On this, in fact, everything! We hope that in our example you have understood how to buy a tour online for all tour operators and that it is no more difficult and no more dangerous than buying in any offline travel agency. And no matter what the cost of the tour you need, the procedure is in any case as transparent and safe as possible.

If you still have any questions - be sure to write in the comments or

Every person wants to spend his vacation in such a way that later it would not be excruciatingly painful for the wasted time. What to do for those who are going to use the services of a travel agency to organize their vacation?

The author of this story has been working on the automation of travel agencies for a long time, and in total he had to spend several years in several dozen travel companies: large ones that send thousands of tourists a week, and small ones, for which each client is a holiday.

1. Statement of the problem: where do you want to go?

Before you start choosing a travel agency, or at least a direction, you need to sit a little and think: What do I want to get from my trip? Try to write, at least mentally, an essay “How I would like to spend my vacation”, it will be more convenient for techies to write a “technical task”. Most ruined vacations do not start at the travel agency, not at the airport, but at home on the couch.

Classic Opening: WOW!!! Great! Türkiye for 199uev, last minute tour!!! Super! Departure tomorrow! This is a sure sign of a bad ending :-) What awaits you there? Some will be delighted with the music blaring around the clock in a nearby disco, others will like a cozy quiet hotel far from civilization. Some do not digest their compatriots, others will be indignant: one nemchura has come in large numbers. There are many such examples.

Many mistakes with the choice of a tour arise due to a manager who cannot explain the intricacies of a holiday in a given country, a hotel, advise how to avoid problems and offer a worthy alternative. But if tourists came with clearer requirements for their vacation, then the probability of a mistake would be much less. And in this case, the dialogue was built on the principle:

How much does it cost to rest?
5* all inclusive - 1000u
Expensive!
Then there is 5 * with breakfast 900ue
Too expensive!
4* all inclusive - 800
Suits us.
We are making out.

The result is known. Some liked it, others didn't.

2. Budget and its distribution.

As you know, the cost of the tour consists of several components:

air ticket price
hotel cost
nutrition
medical insurance
visa (if any)
transfer - delivery of a tourist from the airport / train station to the hotel and back
excursions
current expenses

Usually, when buying a tour package, most of the components are already included in the package. But there are some "little things" for which you have to pay extra. Usually, a visa is not included in the standard tour package, and this is 10-50 euros, which you must add to the cost of the tour. Surcharge is made either here at the agency, or at the airport or elsewhere when crossing the border, it all depends on the rules for obtaining a visa in a particular country.

The second “little thing” is food. There are several types, here are the most common ones:

BB– breakfasts
HB- half board (breakfast and lunch or breakfast and dinner)
Facebook– full board (3-4 meals a day)

Moreover, food happens according to the system "Buffet" And "ala carte"- according to the menu. In the first case, you eat everything you see, everything you can eat. True, in some hotels the number of approaches to this “buffet” is limited (my friends observed this in Italy). If the hotel restaurant operates according to a pre-calculated menu, then get ready for what kind of drinks (tea, mineral water, etc.) you will be asked to fork out.

AI (All inclusive)- "All inclusive". Well, a very popular type of food lately :-) At the sight of these two letters, the tourist begins to feel a little dizzy in anticipation of receiving manna from heaven, which will fall on his head throughout the journey. However, AI is different: it usually means eating around the clock and drinking local drinks, both soft and alcoholic. A number of free services at the hotel can be attributed to “non-food” AI additives: Turkish / Finnish bath, exercise equipment, towels and sunbeds on the beach. Moreover, AI can be very different depending on the star rating of the hotel. If in hotels of low categories you have all 5-6 dishes included and some beer and mineral water, then in good five-star hotels, you can really eat “from the belly” and very diversely.
Maxi AI (Ultra AI, Super AI, etc.)- This is an extended option, where everything is truly all-inclusive: first of all, foreign-made alcoholic drinks. With Maxi AI at the hotel, other additional services are free, as well as other additional services: motorized water sports, tennis, golf, hairdresser, etc. The specific set again depends on the hotel.

“Current expenses” is a very vague concept, so everyone puts their understanding into this phrase. These are expenses for excursions, entertainment, ski pass or food and drink. You just need to remember that they depend not only on your habits, but also on the general level of prices in a particular country.

3. Travel transport

The vacation itself largely depends on how you get to the place of your vacation. Let's start with the most popular way in our country: we buy a plane ticket and fly.

First of all, first of all, planes: regular or charter?

Regular flight- usually it is a large airline that operates such flights, regardless of the flight load, regularly during the season. Tickets for such flights can be purchased at any airline ticketing agency using global booking systems, and the price for them will be the same at all points of sale. Depending on the fare, tickets for regular flights can be returned, exchanged for a different name or date. Service on such flights, as a rule, is somewhat better than on charters, it is possible to choose a ticket for yourself depending on your preferences: economy class (Y), usually cheaper, but in business class (C, J), the distance between seats is much greater better fed, watered, and cared for. At the airport, you can not jostle in the general crowd, but calmly drink coffee and get other services in a separate VIP-lounge. True, this pleasure is much more expensive than a regular ticket.

Charter. Our compatriots, who regularly read about the swindle of travel agencies, this word leads to a slight trepidation: well, that's it! There is a chance not to fly or not to fly.

Charter flights- These are flights operated outside the main schedule. They can also be carried out by airlines operating regular flights on these routes, in order to receive additional income during periods of mass demand for these destinations, and by independent airlines that have concluded agreements with travel companies. Travel agencies buy the entire aircraft in advance, and the price is calculated from 100% of the aircraft load, while it is significant (sometimes 2-3 times lower than for a regular flight). True, charter tickets are sold immediately in both directions (the return flight is also paid), and for periods multiple of hotel check-ins of 7 and 14 days, if the board flies once a week. Super hit destinations are placed 2 or more times a week, respectively, tickets appear for 10, 11 and 3-4 days. The type of aircraft can be determined 1-2 days before departure, depending on the load: many tickets are sold - the Il-86 will fly, if there is a shortage of passengers, then the Tu-154. Tickets for charters are not rented, and are issued 1-3 days before departure. Another unpleasant feature of charters is the floating schedule. For example, in the morning the plane flies to Barcelona, then returns and flies to Antalya. If in the morning the plane was delayed in Barcelona, then it almost automatically falls out of the landing corridor planned for Antalya. The number and time of use of terminals at airports is limited, and your board arriving half an hour late can shift 2-4 hours before the first “window”. Especially “dangerous” are the peak dates of the holidays and weekends in the high season. The probability of delaying flights of small airlines on December 29, 30, 31, April 29, 30 from Sheremetyevo-2 in the middle of the day is almost 100%.

Another aviation term that scares our brother - bad flight. This is a charter that flies with tourists, usually for 10-14 days. At the same time, the aircraft does not return to its airfield on the same day, but stands at the destination airport, waiting for rested tourists. Tickets for such a flight are slightly more expensive than for a flight in a charter chain, but still cheaper than for a regular flight.

Hot tours and special offers.

What are last minute deals and where do they come from? Usually, before the start of the season, tour operators pre-pay for hotel rooms and buy seats on charter flights on the basis that they can subsequently sell all this at a profit for themselves. But unfortunately, high competition, sharp fluctuations in demand caused by factors that are difficult to predict (wars, terrorist attacks, natural disasters) do not allow these places to be sold evenly throughout the entire sale period. So there are situations when the travel agency has already paid for the tickets and the hotel, but cannot sell the ticket. So that the money does not disappear, it is sold at the last moment as “burning”, sometimes much cheaper than the cost.

However, such situations when both tickets and hotels are on fire usually occur on the so-called low dates (immediately after the May holidays, after the New Year, at the very beginning or end of the season - in late autumn and early spring). These are the periods of the lowest prices, and if you really want to save money, then it is better to go on vacation in the off-season.

When vouchers are burning in season, there are some peculiarities. Tour operators raise a large number of flights to popular destinations, and demand far exceeds supply. If empty hotel rooms can somehow be resold to Western partners (usually, the flow of German, English and other tourists significantly exceeds Russian volumes), then no one needs tickets from Moscow to Antalya or Hurghada. And the operator sells cheap air tickets in a package with cheap hotels, then Turkey appears for $199 and Egypt for $149.

Sometimes there are justified price cuts. These are the so-called special offers. No matter how large the company is, it cannot buy blocks, for example, in all Turkish hotels, so several hotels that are most liked are selected and a discount is “knocked out” on them. There are special offers for such hotels and tours.

There is another reason to sell tours below cost: price wars. The Napoleonic ambitions of the leaders of our tourism industry have not yet dried up. One of the cool businessmen will take a loan of a million or two and begin to crush the market with prices. The logic is simple: I burn - and let others burn. Whoever has less financial reserves burns to the ground

reference Information

Here are articles on tourism. In these articles we will talk about the features of tourism as an industry and travel companies.
All articles are our personal opinion. You can listen to them or ignore them... We do not impose our opinion on anyone.
All articles are divided into sections for easy reading. You can see the general list of articles with their announcements in this section.

Licensing of tourism activities has been canceled...
Who's Who in Tourism
Tour operator, who is he and his tasks
Types of tour operators
Travel agency, who is it ...
Types of travel agencies
Who is better to buy tours
Who is responsible for what and who to blame.
Where to find tours and their prices
Special offers and last minute tours
How much does a good tour cost
Tour purchase technology
Time plays against...
Hotel Rules
Base hotels of tour operators
Chartered flight
Flight delay and compensation
You are being replaced by a hotel, what to do...
Overbooking Options
Discounts in tourism

A huge number of people believe that traveling is expensive and put off for years in order to take the accumulated money to the office of the tour operator and overpay two prices for a ticket.
On the street, the 21st century and a last-minute tour can be bought without leaving home, and you can independently organize an ideal trip for yourself, exactly to the country you wanted, at the price that suits you, with the set of services that suit you easier than you think. Don't believe? Today I will tell you in detail about how to buy a last-minute tour online at the best price, without overpaying a single extra penny.

Hot tour online - travel cheap!

Let's assume that you have no experience of traveling abroad on your own.
And if organizing an independent trip requires a lot of work and a waste of time (find air tickets, dock, get a visa, book accommodation, buy insurance, transfer, etc.),
then buying a ready-made tour ticket online is as easy as shelling pears, you will only have one thing left - to relax and enjoy life.

Your age, the number of trips is not important, there is no secret knowledge, everything is very, very simple.
In this article, I have collected our experience of online booking last-minute tours, which will help you find the best tour package at the lowest price.

It's amazing how hard it is to introduce some novelties into people's lives that make life easier and cheaper.
I'm just talking about online booking. In the minds of the majority, buying a vacation ticket is necessarily associated with a trip to the office, where an employee selects a tour for a long and dreary,
along the way trying to vtyuhat what he needs to sell in the first place.

As a result, most often you get not what you wanted, with many reservations, agreeing to a higher price, because “What to do? You need to go on vacation! Leave has already been taken."
Did you know that you no longer need to go anywhere, pay from your own pocket the rent of travel agency premises, the salaries of their employees, taxes and other expenses?
What can and should be spent 15-20 minutes of time at the computer and now, a burning tour at the best price in your pocket. Or rather, by email.

Here are some tips that will help you save a lot of money, effort, time.

Hot Tour Online - When to look for a last minute tour

If possible, start looking for a last-minute online tour in advance. A few months before the trip is ideal.
On the online tour search site, you can see the gradation of the cost of tours, compare and select the dates when tours are the cheapest.
Did you find what you were looking for? Satisfied with the price? Book and pay, prices for last-minute tours mostly only grow, rarely fall.
Didn't find or the price doesn't fit? Then subscribe to the newsletter in your direction and wait.

Hot tour online - Seasonality of destinations

Surely you understand that there is a season and not a season for the country. But this is a conditional unit.
For example, why are trips to Thailand cheaper in summer than in winter? Why is the peak season for Thailand tours from November to February?
The explanation for this is simple, and has nothing to do with the weather. Tour operators have priority destinations, and in the summer it's definitely not Thailand. In the summer if you go to buy a tour in the office
they will try to sell you Turkey, Crimea, Cyprus, Greece, at worst, the resorts of the Krasnodar Territory. Because the prices for tours there are peak at this time.
Who benefits from selling Thailand in the summer?

The same goes for all other countries. Do you know that you can go to Turkey in autumn for a penny?!

The cost of a last-minute trip to Turkey at this time is 8,000 rubles per person (!!!), and if you choose the all-inclusive system, only from 11,500 rubles per person per week!
This price already includes direct flights, accommodation, meals and insurance. Incredible!
(Keep in mind that photo prices are current at the time of writing and may change, vary dates, search and find!)

Here is the price for online tours in October-November:

Only no one will offer you such an option in the office, moreover, they will dissuade you, talk about the weather and other inconveniences.
You know, we flew to Turkey in the fall, my mother flew to Turkey in February, and how did we rest? Great!

Türkiye is not Crimea. It is quite comfortable there in autumn and winter. In February, in Turkey, my mother walked in a T-shirt, enjoyed the excellent all inclusive, excursions, the fact that there were minimal people in the hotel,
in general, I was very satisfied!
And we flew to Turkey for the May holidays and flew terribly. The hotel was full, we paid the maximum for tours (at that time we were not yet aware of booking and buying tours online), we were extremely disappointed and dissatisfied.

That is, do not be afraid to relax in different countries in the so-called "off season".

Why is a hot tour online cheaper?

I will say more, you can buy a last-minute tour cheaply only online!
Why? Because all tour operators post prices for last-minute trips in real time. While you are going somewhere, trying to stake something, what you need will simply be bought out.

Competition between tour operators.

Hot tour online - Saving time and effort

The advantages of buying a last minute tour online are obvious.

You save a lot of time and effort, choose what is interesting and you need. No one is standing over you and pushing outdated advertising booklets with outdated photos of hotels that
They don't even look close to what they look like in the picture.

You decide where to go. When to go. It’s hard for shy people to ask the manager 100 times to try different dates, different hotels, different cities and countries, finally (I know for myself).
The office will offer you several options, that's all.

Online everything depends on you. You know what you want, found it, ok, then the whole design will take 5 minutes.
Do you like to think, postpone, “sleep with this thought”, weigh everything and think it over carefully? No problem, sit and study as much as you need, no one pushes or rushes.

Look carefully at reviews. Remember that bad reviews are written a hundred times more often than good ones. And very often our tourists are unfair and fastidious.

“Breakfast was meager, only one hundred and five hundred types of ham, scrambled eggs, coffee and tea, buns and 5 types of cheese” “the food was monotonous, we were hungry.”
You might think that these people have breakfast at home with at least freshly caught sturgeon and hazel grouse from the Marriott Hotel.

If the goal is to save on a ticket, then in countries where all inclusive is not represented, do not take meals other than breakfast. This applies to all of Asia.
Thailand is full of inexpensive and delicious food in the area. The same is true in Vietnam.

But in Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt (if they open), other Arab-African countries, on the contrary. Half board (breakfast-dinner) or just breakfast can be a disaster, as we have in Egypt.

We bought a ticket to Hillton Sharm El Sheikh for myself and my mother. We had breakfast in Hillton, which is on the first line, with my mother in Hillton across the road and all inclusive. Our ticket cost more.
And if mom had an ideal buffet around the clock, eat as much as you like, then we really wandered around hungry, because there is not a rich choice of cafes in Sharm El Sheikh, we had to dine at Fridays, then at McDonald's, dine at local restaurants and this nonsense to us poured into minus $ 100 daily.

Hot tour online - Departure from Moscow

If you want to buy a really cheap and good last-minute ticket to any country in the world, then get ready for the fact that the flight will be from Moscow.
Yes, perhaps this is not fair, but it is from Moscow that the lion's share of flights, charters in different directions flies and, naturally, the minimum price for tours will be from here.

Travelata and Level Travel have flights from different cities, there are several dozen of them, but there is nothing to compare in terms of prices.

Even residents of St. Petersburg are cheaper to get to Moscow by train and fly away from the capital. After all, the difference of 30,000-40,000 rubles for a ticket is significant, you must agree.
Here is a photo for comparison. Departure to Pattaya from Moscow:

And a flight to Pattaya from St. Petersburg:

Hot tour online - Smart search for online tours

Even if you have never been to the site and you have no experience of online shopping, do not be afraid. Everything is intuitively clear, both offices had websites made by professionals,
no questions arise.

I’ll add on my own that we use it more often, in my opinion it is a little more convenient, and I found almost all the tours at the best price there.

On the site you can use the smart search. Choose hotel rating, food, type of beach (pebble or sand), proximity to the sea, options for children, flexible departure dates, from which city of departure and other usefulness.

Summarize:

How to buy a last minute ticket at the lowest price and make your trip unforgettable? Got 7 tips:

Try to look for a last minute tour in advance
Do not pay attention to seasonality, it is much cheaper and better to go to Turkey during the velvet season or to Thailand in the summer
When buying a tour to Asia, take meals - breakfast, to Turkey and other African-Arab countries - all inclusive
Do not overpay for the name of the tour operator. Presented tour operators on and proven and all worthy
Direct flights will cost more than those with connections.
Departure from Moscow is always cheaper, very often 2-3 times cheaper than from other cities.
Buying a last-minute tour online, you save time, money, effort and get what you wanted, and not what was imposed on you.

Happy and budget travel! Comments and questions are welcome!

How to save money on a hotel or apartment on vacation?

I'm looking on the Rumguru website. It contains absolutely all discounts on hotels and apartments from 30 booking systems, including booking. Often I find very profitable options, it turns out to save from 30 to 80%

How to save on insurance?

You need insurance abroad. Any admission is very expensive and the only way not to pay out of pocket is to choose an insurance policy in advance. For many years we have been making out on the site, which give the best prices for insurance and selection, along with registration, takes only a couple of minutes.

To travel as often as possible, you need to be able to find the best prices for tours, flights and hotels. I have already written about the independent search for tickets and choosing a hotel more than once, but I have not yet talked about vouchers. Today I will give out all the services and sites where I look for cheap tours, and tell you how you can save money on a vacation organized by a tour operator.

How to look for cheap tours?

When going on vacation, I always consider both options - an independent trip, and buying a tour. From Siberia, it is cheaper and more convenient to get to many places by tour (although this limits you in choosing a hotel and rest period). At the same time, I do not trust the choice of the country, resort and even the hotel to a travel agent - I select everything exclusively on my own and very carefully. To do this, I have several sites in my bookmarks, special mailing lists come to the mail, and an application is installed on my phone. As soon as the next trip appears in the plans, I begin to study all the offers in all services, and in the end I find the perfect one.

Subscribe to all newsletters in advance, even if you have not yet decided on the dates, budget and vacation period
Do not limit yourself to one country - you can have a good rest everywhere, so keep track of all possible resorts
Play with the timing - often a tour for 13 days costs only a few thousand cheaper than 10
Consider neighboring regions - there are no cheap tours from Omsk? See Yekaterinburg or Novosibirsk
In the search, fill in not only your favorite "All inclusive", but also "FB" (breakfast, lunch, dinner) or even "HB" (tomorrow + dinner) - with a sufficient difference in price, this option may well pay for itself. In addition, some good hotels in Europe do not work with all inclusive, so you may miss them.
Keep an eye on hotel ratings, but don't get stuck on them - often newer hotels with no rating at all are offered at a good price, and in order to earn a good reputation, they will try to please the first customers. Also check the rating on several sites, and be sure to read the negative reviews (often people give low ratings completely unreasonably)
Do not discard options with (when you are sent to any hotel of a certain star rating), but do not take risks if the price difference is not high. It is worth traveling around Fortuna only with tour operators with a good reputation, and be prepared for the fact that you may not like the hotel. This is a good option for countries where you spend most of your time outside the hotel.
Do not mess with , especially if they offer very low prices.
Sometimes it is beneficial to take the cheapest tour and use it as a ticket, and book the hotel yourself. Just keep in mind that often you need to show yourself to the tour operator so that you are not removed from the return flight. In general, tell the meeting guide at the airport that you are planning to live in another hotel, and he will tell you what to do in this case.
From my experience, good prices for tours are usually in late April-May and after mid-September-October.
Vouchers to visa countries often burn, so it makes sense to make a Schengen in advance and watch for offers (just keep in mind that if this is your first entry into Europe, you must definitely go to the country that issued the visa). And by the way, you can enter Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania using the Cypriot multivisa, which is done free of charge in just a few days

9 services for finding inexpensive tours

1 Moihottur.ru

Last minute site Moihottur.ru

I want to start with my favorite site - www.moihottur.ru When I have free time, I like to go to it and even just see what the deal is at the moment with prices for tours in my and neighboring cities. It was on this site that at one time we found our mega for Fortuna, and then a ticket to Dubai for 8000 rubles per person, which we used just as tickets (although according to reviews the hotel was not bad, but it was in Sharjah, and we needed be in Dubai). It is convenient that on this site, in addition to ready-made selections, there is also a search engine with which you can select a ticket according to the desired parameters. That's exactly what we were looking for ours this year. I also want to note a very good support service - I asked a question, they called me back quite quickly, and then they sent several hotel options to the post office according to the parameters I mentioned. At the same time, the service cannot be called intrusive, the girl called back once, but after finding out that we had already purchased the tour elsewhere, she said goodbye to me very nicely.

More hot tours on bankturov.ru

The website Bankturov.ru is similar to Moihottur.ru, but personally it seems to me less convenient and, to be completely honest, less beautiful. Vouchers both sites post about the same, but the price may differ by a couple of thousand. It is convenient that Bankturov.ru has an e-mail newsletter, which allows you to receive all last-minute offers directly to your mail every day.

3 level.travel

Selection and purchase of tours online at level.travel

Now, services for online ordering tours are gaining more and more popularity, thanks to which you do not need to leave your home at all and go to a travel agent. You select a tour on the site and immediately pay for it by card. All necessary documents are sent to you by mail. It seems to me that the future belongs to such services, at least for those people who can choose a hotel on their own. But it will take time for the sites to earn a serious enough reputation that you can safely buy tours through them. In the end, it was also once scary to buy air tickets on the Internet on “some obscure sites”.

There are two services in my bookmarks at the moment - and When we were looking for a tour to Rhodes, I noticed that the results on these two sites are different, so I recommend viewing both. Even if you do not dare to buy a ticket online, you can use these services simply as search engines.

4. Mobile application and website Travelata.ru

I recently installed an application for searching and buying on my phone - I used to use their website, but the application is many times more convenient. I love services that are constantly developing and supplementing, while they look stylish and, to be honest, help me find cheap tours. Go and download the application (or use the site - as you are used to).

It is very convenient that the cost of the tour is shown on Travelata immediately with the fuel surcharge (unlike, for example, the same moihottour) - it annoys me wildly when, after loading the tour, its price increases by several thousand due to the surcharge.

And one more nice bonus - a tour in Travelata can be paid for in two payments of 50%. One payment is made when booking the tour and the second - within 3 days from the date of confirmation. Not the biggest delay, of course, but still convenient. I myself have not yet bought tickets through this service, but since I decided to participate in their lottery for 100 rubles and received a 1000 rubles coupon for any tour, I may soon try to buy a tour on Travelata.

5 Sletat.ru application

This is a version for computers, but I like the Sletat.ru app

It was with his help that we found our superb hotel in Rhodes for quite reasonable money, although before that, of course, we had to look at a whole bunch of options. It is convenient that the application is always with you on your phone, and you can poke around in tours at any convenient time. You can sort the results by hotel names and, for example, remove tour operators that you do not want to fly with. Each hotel in the application has a rating and reviews, which is very convenient at the initial stage of selection (later, of course, you need to read reviews on other services). In addition, you can sign up for a tour and if the price for it drops, you will receive a notification on your phone. By the way, this is also true for already purchased vouchers, for example, our friends talked to the tour operator to change their hotel to a more expensive one after the price of the purchased voucher decreased by several thousand rubles.

The main assistant for independent travelers Piratesru.com

Almost all independent travelers are subscribed to the site, as the most interesting offers for air tickets and tours are posted here several times a day. Personally, I really like their air pickups from Moscow and St. Petersburg, but more on that another time. For those who are looking for cheap tours, it is very useful to view publications in the TOURS section. Most of the offers, of course, come from the capital, but sometimes there are interesting options from other Russian cities.

Not very convenient professional travel portal Tourdom.ru

I have the exchange of the professional tourist portal Tourdom in my bookmarks and occasionally I look at it, but I have never really used it. Every day, information is collected here about last-minute and canceled tours, as well as charter tickets that can be purchased without paying the hotel. Some tours can be purchased here on the site online.

8 Triphunter.club (Instagram)

All interesting tours and tickets in Triphunter.club profile

I follow these guys on Instagram, and often they replace all of the above resources. Every day on the site and in their own social networks, the cheapest tours (and air tickets) are posted, however, mainly with a departure from Moscow or St. Petersburg. Many offers are taken explicitly from the same Piratesru.com, but if you are most often on Instagram, then subscribing to this profile will be very useful.

9 Instagram

And a few more tours here Uletimru

Travelers Anton and Irina Konstantinov maintain a very useful Instagram account (as well as a Telegram channel). The guys themselves daily look through the promotions of the airline and the offers of tour operators and post interesting finds. Most of all here, of course, it is air tickets, but tours often slip through, so I highly recommend subscribing.

Bonus

Since I look through all these services every day, my head is torn from a variety of cheap tours and air tickets. I recently realized that I can't keep it to myself and launched an Instagram profile. travel_price.com. Here I post offers for the inhabitants of the "trans-Urals", and many of them I myself look for especially for my instagram. Subscribe and travel cheap!

For many of us, travel is the best kind of vacation, the best way to have a good time, a vacation. Many of us like to spend time by the warm sea, on the beach. There are good resorts in Russia, but the opportunity to travel abroad greatly expands the choice. A trip to another city, another region or another country is a great solution to have a good vacation or weekend.

How to successfully buy a tourist ticket

Solo trip or package tour

It is more profitable to buy package tours to mass resorts, it is better to organize trips to interesting cities and non-standard routes on your own.

Buying a package tour is often the best choice for organizing your trip. The tour operator takes care of all the arrangements for your holiday. The tour operator redeems tickets for charter flights, books hotels in resorts, organizes a transfer (a bus from the airport to the hotel and back). The tour operator will also offer you guided tours at your destination. Among the most famous tour operators are, for example, Biblio-Globus, Pegas Touristik, Anex Tour, Coral Travel, Mouzenidis Travel TUI, TEZ TOUR (this is not an exhaustive list).

Vacation to the sea: from where, where, when, to which hotel, at what price? (search for travel packages online.)

The main part of the work on organizing your trip is done by the tour operator. But tours are usually sold by travel agencies. They search for a tour that suits you according to the offers of many tour operators. The travel agency receives a small percentage of the sold tour. As a rule, for ordinary buyers, the cost of a package tour in a travel agency and directly from a tour operator will be the same. (Sometimes travel agents charge extra for their services.)

Buying a tour online

Information about travel packages available to everyone on the Internet. Information about tours is posted by tour operators. Specialized online services collect offers from tour operators, sort them for your convenience and help you find the deals that suit you. You can compare the cost of tours, choose and buy the tour that suits you on your own, online, without leaving your home.

The tour search tools available on our website are provided by the most famous Russian online travel agencies Onlinetours, Travelata and Level.travel. These companies have their own offices or partners in many Russian cities.
(has an office only in Moscow as of July 2017.)

If you hesitate to buy online! Companies and have own offices in St. Petersburg. You can select and book your travel package online and then complete the checkout at the office (and pay in cash). The office of the Onlinetours company is located next to the Moskovskaya metro station, the Travelata company has three offices in St.

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In most cases, there is no significant difference where to buy a tourist ticket. The result will be approximately the same (tours are sold by the same tour operators, there is no additional markup). The differences are only in the design and the interface provided to users. You can leave your feedback about the work of these companies in our Vkontakte group (link at the bottom of the page).

In most cases, you can pay for the selected tour both by credit card and in cash at the office. Sometimes it is possible to pay only a part of the amount online (approximately 30%) in order to book a tour. Paying by credit card online has advantages. This gives you the opportunity to buy the tour you like before someone else buys it.

Advice. If you buy a tour on your own, carefully check and double-check the information. Even if you bought a tour on the tour operator's website. Even if you have already paid for it. Please visit the website occasionally and check the status of your booking. (There were cases when a tour purchased from a reliable tour operator was canceled, but the client was not warned about this.)

When choosing a tour to the resort, you need to take into account many nuances.

Choose a resort suitable for your vacation time (check the weather at this time of year).
Specify the class and location of the hotel (type of room, type of food, distance to the beach, availability of air conditioning).
Specify the date and time of departure, the start time of check-in for the flight, the conditions for carrying baggage, whether it is possible to check-in for the flight online.
Specify the availability of a transfer, insurance, the need to obtain a visa.

Buy tours on your own, the Internet is becoming more and more "fashionable" in recent years among young residents of large cities. It's really very convenient. But, if you are not an experienced traveler, then it would be better for you to contact a travel company.

Most popular destinations: , .

Do not rely only on a bank card, even if you are heading to European countries. Take some cash. Sometimes they are absolutely necessary.

The Travelata company has its own application for searching and buying tours. Upload: or

Most often, tourist vouchers are bought on the Internet by residents of Moscow, people under the age of 35. Online tours are most often sold with a small cost - up to 40 thousand rubles. and with departure in the coming days.

Solo travelers

You can organize a vacation trip on your own if you have at least a little travel experience. You can easily find and book a hotel room and buy a plane ticket on the Internet.

If you are a beginner traveler, contact a travel company. If you are confident in your abilities, then you can do everything yourself.

If you are planning a vacation in a resort, where charters fly, it is more convenient and usually more profitable to buy a package tour.
If you want to fly somewhere not as part of a group, on a non-standard route, or visit, for example, Paris (and other famous cities of the World), then it may be more profitable to buy tickets, book a hotel room or rent an apartment on your own. You can choose any hotel or cottage (tour operators offer not all hotels).
You do not need to travel with a group of other people.

For those who are looking for the very best

Not everyone is looking for where it is cheaper. There are people who can afford the best. Instead of Vietnam and Thailand, they choose the Maldives, Bali, the United Arab Emirates or the Dominican Republic (as well as California). Not everyone likes to fly charter flights. There are people who prefer to choose flights and airlines that are convenient for them. Your personal travel agent probably already knows your tastes. But for wealthy people too, sometimes it may be better to take care of your trip on your own and in advance (while the best seats are not yet taken).
Don't forget to select "Business Class" when searching for flights.

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On the travel aggregator Travelata.