SKYSCANNER has launched its first ever package holiday searcher – but is it as good as the rest?
The website has long been used by holidaymakers wanting to find the cheapest flights out there.
And with a boom in package holidays, they have now added a new option which lets you search for package holidays.
Claiming to scour the internet for 25million deals a day, it is certainly a gamechanger when it comes to finding the best deal.
Trying it out for myself, at first glance it definitely offered up some bargains.
For example, a week in Benidorm came up as just £232pp, including seven nights and return flights with lastminute.com.
Or for seven nights in Antalya, it was a bargain £168pp when travelling in March.
Yet when it came to destinations further afield, it didn’t seem to bring up anywhere near as many cheap deals.
The cheapest for a week in Dubai in February I found was £1,638 with Skyscanner, using loveholidays.
While TravelSupermarket has deals for more than half this, costing £782 via Southall Travel for the exact same date.
This is likely to be because of the lack of deals they are searching.
When looking for this Dubai deal, Skyscanner had 896 results while Travelsupermarket had 2,133.
And one key feature missing is the “Anywhere” feature.
While Skyscanner has this for their flight search options, it isn’t yet an option for their package holiday searcher.
And TravelSupermarket has their own ‘Anywhere’ which makes it much easier if you know the dates you want to book, but aren’t sure on where to go.
This meant I could find a load of deals for everywhere from Costa Brave and Tuscany to Morocco for a bargain, rather than limiting myself to a destination per search.
I appreciated Skyscanner’s search tools such as being able to order the holidays by being cheapest.
Also being able to choose a price range and board option were useful, as well as choosing whether they were direct flights or even what airline and tour operator to include.
However, I also like the option of being able to see which times of year are cheaper – again something they offer with their flights.
It is also something other websites offer such as loveholidays, so you can compare dates to see if there is a nearby cheaper day to fly out on.
I have no doubt that these functions will eventually be rolled out by Skyscanner, as it evolves.
And when it comes to short-haul holidays like Spain, it definitely came out with some bargains.
But until then, I would suggest price checking their holidays before booking with other holidays, just in case.
Here is also what I think of using Google Flights as an alternative.