Opodo.co.uk

I've used Opodo a few times and whilst they may not be the cheapest (they are not affiliated with the budget airlines), I can always get to my destination, to the airport I want from the airport I want., at a time that is good for me. So if I have to pay a little extra, that's fine by me. Opodo is owned by BA, Air France, Alitalia, Iberia, KLM, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus, Austrian Airlines, Finnair and Amadeus. So there's plenty to get you to where you want to go.......

To start, you can navigate your way around by using the red tabs - Home - Flights - Hotels - City Breaks - Tailor made Holidays - Holidays - Cars - Ski.

I'm more of a Flights and Hotels tabs kinda guy for reasons explained later.

I recently booked a flight to Rome, from Heathrow to Fiumicino. It would be cheaper to go from Stanstead to Ciampino, but I can't be bothered with all the tube and train journeys to Stanstead, then a 30 km taxi (30-50 euros)/bus ride from Ciampino to central Rome. I guess it's all a matter of how you want to travel, the time it takes to get there and convenience. I'd rather get to my destination quickly and spend my time discovering the city/country, than spending as much time getting to and from there.

So, I get 1 tube to Heathrow and 1 train from Fiumicino ( 8 euros return) to Central Rome, then I walk to the hotel. What could be easier.

Opodo supplies the selection of flights and hotels. I choose and off I go. I will say 1 thing though. I have found it cheaper to book the flights and hotels separately rather than as a package. I save about £100 doing it this way. The advantages are that you get a better choice too - more flight times and more hotels.

For example - booked separately - I will leave Heathrow at about 9:30am and arrive around midday in Rome. I will stay in a 4 star central hotel. Total cost is around £600.

To book as a package - leave Heatherow at 6:30am (YUCK!!) and stay in a 3 star hotel, not as central was going to cost £600 -£700.

When choosing your hotel, Opodo have marked certain hotels as recommended. These are hotels that Opodo have been to themselves and checked out the facilites. This is by no means the entire list though. You also have tabs for - price - Star rating - name - Chain - Distance to city centre and distance to airport.
I like to be in the city centre so I click on the distance to city centre tab and you are supplied with pages of hotels, the distance to the city centre and airport, a brief hotel description, a link for full hotel details, the total number of rooms, the hotel address and symbols which show the hotel facilities, ie - restaurant, pool, bar etc.
Click on the full hotel details tab and you can then see the full details - funnily enough!!!!!! This include a location map, things the hotel is close to - ie - beach, activities, sites etc. It gives a full ist of the hotel amenities, so if you need a laundry service, check it's available. Room facilities such as cots and the hotel policies including accepted credit cards (Opodo accepts - Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Switch/Maestro, Delta) check in/out times and child rates.

Once you have decided on your hotel, click the select button and you will see a page with the availabilty and prices. Click on the summary that best suits you and you then have a choice of registering with Opodo or booking without registering.

Once booked you get confirmation direct to your email account. If you want to contact your hotel to confirm the details, you can by mail, phone or email as all contact details are supplied. If you're a travelling family, you can check to see if the hotel offer facitlies for babies and young children too.
You can also choose either paper tickets or e-tickets on most if not all flights.

So look around on the website and see what suits you. All I will do is email my flight times to the hotel so that they know when to expect me.

For additional info, they have a Maps tab. Input the city and country you are going to and up pops a map of the central area. zoom in/out, move around the city at your will.
They also have travel guides and you choose your region of the world - Europe for example. The country and then the city. Up pops some information which hi-light the main tourist sites. At the bottom of the page you'll find the best prices for fares for UK airports and the time of year the prices are allocated to. And if you want to check the climate, there's a little chart on the side. Run your cursor over the different months and the temperature changes.

For those who register with Opodo as I have, you can also get fare alerts emailled to you. Input your departure/arrival airports, the dates you want to go and Opodo will email you each time the fare changes. This is extremely handy if you don't want to buy your flight immediately and have time to wait for a better price.

I always look around on other well known travel/holiday websites and always come back to Opodo.

I have to say - what could be easier!!!!!!!

Have a good journey wherever you go.........

A Quick Update......
I emailled the hotel to confirm the reservation and they offered to send a car to the airport to collect me!!!! (for a price!!! - I'll stick to the train!!!!)