How to get a burning ticket. services for finding inexpensive tours. Well very cheap deals

Of course, it's great when you can plan your vacation several months in advance, buy tickets or a tour and calmly wait for the cherished date on the calendar ...

But what if you can’t plan your vacation exactly in advance? For example, in recent months, a dog has given birth to us, a close relative has fallen ill, several urgent work orders have happened, we had to look after the turtle of friends who left before us ... Well, how to buy a ticket in advance with such initial data?

If you have - about the same picture - read the tips below.

If your goal is the sea or a popular city in the hot season, and you want to fly away in the next week or two, then most likely it will be more profitable and certainly faster to find a cheap, so-called "burning" package tour.

Of course, if you have a visa and your goal is European city, you can look for low-cost flights, book a hotel yourself, etc., but in this article we are primarily considering the situation when there is no time and travel dates are determined only a week before it or even less.

For those who are already itching, you can start searching for a cheap tour through this reliable form:

Where to look for a cheap tour with real prices?

The general answer is the Internet. Only through the Internet you can quickly view dozens of offers and choose the best and most inexpensive option for you. Another thing is that the prices on the sites often do not correspond to the declared ones, and it’s a bit scary to buy a last-minute tour via the Internet for the first time. (Looking ahead - you can buy the options below in the office, but it’s better to find it via the Internet).

Very often, companies sin by not including fuel surcharges in the total cost of the tour. Like, these are costs from another category, and in general - the main thing is to attract a client with a low price, and come what may ... But we don’t care what category it is from, we pay out of our own pocket!

In general, now I will give several working tested options with the final price, where you can definitely choose and buy.

1. Website Online Tours

That's what I call a "site with a human face." shows us all offers with already final price. With flight, accommodation, selected food system, insurance, transfer from the airport. You don't need to add anything in your mind.
Moreover, she shows precisely on the basis of all those traveling - not some kind of hypothetical “for one”, but for everyone, including children, if they are traveling with you. The search system is very flexible.
The company, of course, is the most humane, has been working for a long time, with physical offices in different cities Russia, 24/7 telephone support (more than 250 operators in different cities) and the winner of many competitions in the field of tourism.
Just go to the tab "", choose right direction, departure city and see all offers.

Here sooooo convenient system setting parameters in comparison with other companies. The main thing is that you can immediately look for holidays with children, while on most other sites you can see last-minute tours only for one or two.

If you have very specific preferences (for example, you want to relax in April, only in Kemer and inexpensively), but there is no tour you need, leave your email address - as soon as something appears, the system will send you a notification.

And what after you have chosen a tour? The easiest option is to pay immediately bank card. But not everyone immediately has the necessary amount in the account, and indeed it can be scary to transfer such money online. Exit? The company offers to immediately pay only 30% of the cost of the tour, and the rest - by card or in the office within 3 days. Moreover, in large Russian cities a courier with a payment terminal can come to you free of charge. Well, isn't it a fairy tale?

After payment, you will receive a contract, and if you pay in cash at the office, you will also receive a check.
Moreover, the system supports bonuses from Mnogo.ru cards, and also accrues its own bonus miles for each purchased tour, more than 30,000 rubles.

I also really like the opportunity to purchase the “Extended insurance” option with one click, which is very convenient, especially for families with small children. After all, children are always unpredictable - they can get sick right before the trip, and then you have to stay at home ... Extended insurance in this case allows you to return all the money for the failed trip, and not lose it. Moreover, a refund will be made even if your child who does not fly with you falls ill.

Personally, I am very pleased with how the company develops and constantly improves its service.

2. Website of Level.Travel company.

The company works on a similar principle as the previous one, but with slight differences. So, for example, here you can’t immediately find a last-minute tour for a family with children, but you can set other parameters, for example, the type of food or the number of stars in the hotel.
It's also nice that you can immediately see the time of arrival and departure, and thereby save yourself from unpleasant surprises like getting up at 2 am for an early flight to the airport. Moreover, if the proposed flight does not suit you in time, you can immediately choose another one.

You can pay part of it right away, and then part of it is not possible in every tour, but there is an option to buy a tour in installments. You can mark it, fill out a short questionnaire - and within 15 minutes you will receive a response from the company. Installments are given at 0% if you pay for it within 50 days.

You can also fully pay for the tour at one of the company's offices (available throughout Russia). But in the case of last-minute tours, you need to understand that while you are driving to the office, someone else can buy a ticket, so it’s better, of course, to pay online.

For the purchase of any tour you get points. 1 point = 1 ruble. You can spend them when buying next round. The system also works with Mnogo.ru and Kukuruz cards.

See what tours are available now.

3. Sites of major tour operators

Sometimes it makes sense to watch last-minute tours also on the sites of large tour operators, such as Biblioglobus. directly with individual tourists they do not work, but you can always find the address of the agency closest to you directly on their website and ask them to sell a tour from them.
Life hack: if you came to an ordinary travel agency with a clear and specific option, a la “tour to Kemer, hotel such and such, dates such and such, price on the tour operator’s website such and such”, you can ask them for a discount for the time saved - after all, you did all the work on the selection of the tour yourself.

But in order for the selection of the tour to be successful, read a couple more tips.

Important points to pay attention to when looking for a last minute tour

Visa

If you need a visa to the country of your dreams, but you can’t decide on the dates yet, do it in advance, separately! And then, with full right and pride, look for a burning tour. You can contact a travel agency or apply for a visa yourself. Often it can be more profitable to make a visa separately, and then buy a cheap last-minute tour. Well, or at least more predictable for people with busy schedules.

The only thing that is extremely important for you to remember is that you need a visa with a good corridor of days - so that it does not expire before you get out on a trip. Example - You are planning to visit Spain for 10 days within the next three months. So, you need a visa for 10 days with a corridor of 90 days. Or multiple entry visa.

Well very cheap deals

Pay attention to the number of days on the tour, as well as the type of food. Very often, cheap last-minute tours are a vacation for 3, 4 days without meals. And this is not always the best option.

seasonality

Remember about seasonality - the closer to the peak of the season, the higher the price, even for the hottest tours. For example, a ticket to Cyprus in June could be found for $700 for two, at the end of July it was difficult to find a last-minute tour cheaper than $1,000 with the same parameters.

Getting to the city of departure

If you still have to get to the city of departure, it is very important to think about how you will do this before buying a tour. During the high season, there may not be optimal tickets for intercity train / bus - in this case, you will have to pay or extra hours expectations, or paying more than expected. Of course, there is often an option to get there by your own car, but there are also nuances here - for example, how safe it is to leave it for the whole vacation in a foreign city.

When is the best time to buy tickets to Turkey? What is an early booking of tours to Turkey, how does it differ from buying last-minute tours, when to order tours. What is the cheapest way to fly to Turkey?

It is profitable to buy tickets to Turkey for the summer in two ways:

• resort to early booking;
• wait for last minute tickets.

Tours to Turkey are best taken in May - June. European schoolchildren are still studying, so there are fewer tourists and prices are lower. The most inexpensive, but comfortable in terms of weather and sea temperature months: May and September. In July and August, tours to Turkey become more expensive.

Price statistics for tours to Turkey by months

© aymeric_san / flickr.com / CC BY 2.0

When is the best time to book trips to Turkey?

In January - March, travel agencies really make tangible discounts when buying a tour for the summer, but in most cases this is a “discount on a cape”. Those. the tour operator artificially inflates the price and makes a "discount" on it. Closer to May-June, prices begin to fall to adequate values.

It makes sense to book early if:

• you know exactly the vacation dates for summer or autumn 2018, and you will not be able to move them;
• you want to check into a certain hotel and are afraid that closer to the season all the rooms will be sold out. This is how it usually happens. And prices for a particular popular hotel, as a rule, grow in season.

As a result, early booking is always a lottery. You don't know if you can go on vacation in six months. Will tour prices really go up? And they can become 1.5 times cheaper for your hotel, and it will be a shame.

Usually, early booking starts in January and ends in April, with some tour operators at the end of February or in March.

Last minute tours are for you if:

• you are not tied to a strict schedule - it does not make much difference to you when to fly to rest;
• you are not going to spend a lot of time on the territory of the hotel and will return to the room only to spend the night;
• Price is the deciding factor for you.

© the_gonz / flickr.com / CC BY 2.0

Conclusion: when is it more profitable to buy tours to Turkey?

If you are going on vacation with your family and small children, it is important for you to get to good hotel with a proven service, then catch discounts on tours to Turkey with early bookings in January - April.

If the hotel is not important to you, then wait for the moment when last-minute tours appear. The closer to the day of departure, the more prices fall.

Intro image source: © the_gonz / flickr.com / CC BY 2.0

Today I decided to describe my algorithm for searching for last-minute tours. I used it to find a last-minute ticket to Turkey in late July, early August 2015. I must say right away that the attempt was successful, although this is more of a discounted tour, since it is still the height of the season. I will be glad to comments.

PS. in the article, prices are given taking into account the exchange rate of approximately $ 1 = 60 rubles.

1. What is a "hot tour".

In simple terms, a last minute tour is a tour that is cheaper than it should be in a normal situation. Many people think that in this way you can buy a very cheap ticket to an initially very expensive hotel. But in fact, the discount can be 10-20-30%. Therefore, when you subscribe to the hot tour mailing list, keep in mind that you will be offered the cheapest and worst hotels at starting prices.

For professionals (employees of the tourism industry), last-minute tours are called SPO (special offer). They appear when the tour operators remain unfulfilled a large number of places on airplanes and in hotels. Since they buy them in bulk, because it's cheaper. And now, to sell, reduce prices.

Most often, a burning tour can be found at the beginning and end tourist season selected direction. And also at the intersection of high seasons in many directions at once. For example, in August it is equally hot in Turkey (on the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas), in Greece at any resort, in Cyprus, in Egypt, Tunisia, Spain, Italy, France, Montenegro, Bulgaria, southern Russia, Ukraine and many more where. Not to mention Southeast Asia, where it is warm all year round, although it is very rainy in places. I take this opportunity to invite you to our website about Thailand.

2. What you need to understand about "hot tours".

1. Be prepared to fly to the wrong country and almost always to the wrong hotel where you really want to go. Really cool hotels are sometimes booked 2 months in advance. Prepare for an inconvenient mid-week departure time. By the way, if you wait until the last price drop, you can miss out on a really good hotel that will go to Stop Sale (stop sales).

2. Hotels with good value price quality. So, closer to the departure date, either bad or expensive ones will remain.

3. It would be nice to have a Schengen visa. Tour operators are forced to sell tours to the Schengen countries at a significant discount, more than in visa-free country. It is important to understand the following, if you are a Schengen visa holder, you have much more choice places for recreation. Burn tours most often ten days - a couple of days before departure. And it will be hard to do it.

4. If the tickets from the tour operator are on fire, then the prices will be reduced for tours with any hotels.

5. If blocks of places in hotels are on fire, then there can be a very attractive price for a particular hotel. From here come different stocks" best hotels"," the tour operator recommends. "In addition, they offer an increased commission for travel agencies that will strongly advise you.

6. If tickets and blocks of places in hotels are burning at the same time, then in this case, tours with hotels where blocks of places are not sold out will have the lowest prices.

3. How to search for last minute tours.

Approximately 2 weeks before your date, you should start monitoring tours. The algorithm is approximately the following. You need to determine for which countries of interest you are burning tickets from tour operators. As soon as you start to notice that flights are starting to end rapidly for everyone, you need to buy a tour.

Pre-prepare a list of hotels where you want, or at least read the reviews in general. If you liked a certain one, then check if there was a stop in sales for some dates. If you see that it is not available for the next week, and there are still places for your dates, then the difference of days is about as much time as you can wait (but not always).

After you have selected hotels and tour operators, you begin to monitor tours, for example, on Travelata.ru. Real last-minute tours are bought a day or two before departure.

It is worth mentioning such a thing as exchange rates. I personally encountered a rather unpleasant situation when a tour in dollars is getting cheaper, and in rubles it is growing. This should be taken into account, and if you see that the currency has gone up, then perhaps you should not expect a decrease in the dollar price of the tour.

1. We determine which tour operators are engaged in a particular country.

The main tour operators in Turkey are:

• Coral Travel and Sanmar (included in the same holding, last price may be lower on the same tour),

In addition to them, there are a number of "reseller" companies posing as tour operators, although in fact they are ordinary travel agencies. The most famous: Troika Travel, Eagles Tour and others. They also include the discount system Turskidka. Buying vouchers from such "resellers", you can save up to 3-5% of the cost than if you do it directly from the tour operator. But as it turns out, their tours can be even more expensive. I will also try to talk about this.

You can find out which tour operators sell tours to your cherished country, for example, on sletat.ru. Since there is information not only about the cost of the tour, but also about a specific tour operator.

Polar Tour shows something similar, the only thing is that it is limited to those tour operators (all the main ones are there to understand where it is cheaper) with which it has an agreement.

After you know the tour operators for a particular country, you need to go around all their sites for "burning tickets". If there are none, then the tours do not burn for the dates you are interested in.

2. Find out how hot flights are.

On the website of each tour operator there is a section where you can see the availability of seats on airplanes, in any direction. It is not always obvious where to look for this section. Therefore, I recommend in the Google or Yandex search bar to score "availability of seats on the flight" and add the name of the operator of interest.

Burning tickets from Moscow to Dalaman. Already at the time of writing the article on July 30, and there are still a lot of tickets for August 1 (green plane).

Air tickets to Antalya are burning up, though there are not the most convenient flights for the second half of the day.

Likewise with Cyprus.

From this we conclude that for the next few dates you can fly cheaply with Pegasus only to Dalaman and relatively cheaply to Antalya. Other tour operators may have other destinations on fire.

We see that the price of the tour with the MC Beach Hotel Park Resort Hotel & Spa (room type New Standard) minimum for August 1-3 - 66337 rubles. It reaches its maximum on the 6th and 9th - 78297 rubles. The difference is obvious - about $200.

A similar situation is on the Intourist website, where tours to Antalya are also burning up.

In principle, this is the last-minute tours to Turkey.

Then it remains to choose a hotel in a given direction. The most serious online sites with hotel reviews: tophotels.ru, otzyv.ru, booking.com, tripadvisor.ru.

3. Sites with last-minute tours from tour operators.

Last minute trips and who sells them can also be tracked on the sites tourdom.ru and tourprom.ru. In general, they are focused on travel agencies and there are just open source software from tour operators. Sites are freely available, anyone can use and track what is "burning" on your dates. I must say right away that there are no unique offers, they are all available through a standard search on the site of the tour operator itself. Treat these sites like message boards.

For example, let's look at Tez-Tour. This is what a typical post on the site looks like. You can immediately figure out how much vouchers for the most budget hotels start from.

On the website of the Tez-Tour tour operator, you can see that such an offer is available and it really costs money, as in the ad in the screenshot above.

Everything is the same with Annex Tour.

For the high season, these are very good prices.

4. Where to buy.

The time when you had to book tours only in a travel agency is gradually disappearing into history. If you are good friends with a computer or phone, then now most of the actions can be done without leaving home.

One way or another, but you have 3 options:

• go to a travel agency - drink tea and chat with your tongue,
• on the tour operator's website,
• buy on sites online agencies, for example, Travelata.ru and Level.Travel .

5. Conclusions.

You can buy a last-minute tour to Turkey, but don't expect a freebie for 3 kopecks. The cheapest offers are found at the end of April - until May holidays and the month of October. True, at this time, many hotels do not work at full capacity (little food, few fruits, etc.), the sea is cold, the weather is rainy. In a word - low season.

With a discount, you are also unlikely to buy something if you are tied to a specific date, country, and especially a hotel. And if you have a family and you want a Family Room, then I recommend not even trying to experiment with your loved ones in this way. Also, by the way, with different VIP hotels and some non-standard types of rooms.

6. About myself.

So, I had a budget for two adults of 80 thousand rubles ($ 1330) for a hotel + flight. The flight was scheduled for August 1-2, 2015. Wanted 7-8 nights on BB, HB, FB or ALL meals. From the rest I wanted clean and warm sea. It is desirable that there was somewhere to take a walk in the evening. He examined Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, half-eyed looked at Egypt. I have a Schengen visa.

Only Turkey was on fire, partly Greece. Cyprus was redeemed in a week. There were delicious proposals for Spain and Italy, but they generally need a larger budget.

Greece fell away as many decent budget hotels were in Stope. Yes, and there were few flights on August 1, but I wanted not 7, but 8 nights.

I managed to buy a tour to Kemer, to such a MG White Lilyum Hotel 5 * (formerly Novia White Lilyum 4 *) for 79,600 rubles (in this amount, $ 80 fuel surcharge for 2 and $ 30 surcharge for a convenient flight) from August 1 for 8 nights. Tour operator Pegasus. Intourist was a little cheaper, but the flights turned out to be less convenient. The savings amounted to about 10 thousand rubles, when compared with non-burning dates.

Say little. Yes, a little, but it's high season and not exclusive hotel Pegasus has a very good reviews. Plus, I did not take a hot tour to Dalaman, since in general, the price level for hotels in Dalaman is higher. By the way, the cost of tours started there in the region of 40,000 rubles for 3-star all-inclusive hotels, in fact, at the price of air tickets.

Hello friends! Today I'll show you how to buy cheap tour online, compare prices for all tour operators and purchase the most advantageous option without getting up from your chair. Read, apply, and may inexpensive rest come with you!

In many cases, a tour can be cheaper independent travel. It happens that only tickets for the price come out as a ready-made package with a round-trip flight and accommodation. This is especially true for popular tourist countries, where there are many charter flights - Turkey, Thailand, Vietnam, the Black Sea coast of Russia, Bulgaria, Montenegro.

Anya on Railay Beach in Krabi (Thailand)

For example, for the two of us to fly to Thailand on our own from Siberia to short trip at least 70,000 rubles will be released for two weeks, most of of which will go to tickets (and then, not direct). For recreation, it will be more convenient and profitable to buy immediately ready tour. After all, the tour operator redeems in advance charter flights and there are a lot of places in hotels at once, so it comes out cheaper. Not to mention last-minute tours, when the seats on the planes are not sold out, and the tour can be very cheap.

Let's now look at several ways to buy a tour cheaply.

How to buy a cheap tour: ways to save money

1. Search and buy a tour online

It is gratifying that now it is no longer necessary to go to the city's travel agencies in search of the optimal and inexpensive tour, all information is available without leaving home - online. In addition, buying online often turns out to be cheaper than buying in the office, because the agency bears the cost of renting the premises, salaries for managers, and consumables.

It is especially convenient to buy hot tours online, because places on them tend to run out very quickly. By the time you get to the office, there will be nothing left, and so you saw, decided, paid, flew off to rest.

Prices for tours abroad change very quickly and depend on exchange rates - another argument to buy quickly, because the ruble keeps falling. All information on vouchers on the sites indicated by me is always up-to-date.

2. Advantages of buying tours online:

• Cheaper than in the office, or the same price.
• Fast: no need to go to the other end of the city or go to the nearest, but not verified agency, the purchase process takes place from any place convenient for you.
• Reliable: more than 120 verified tour operators, and payment is made only through secure protocols.
• You choose everything yourself (and some travel agents may advise exactly the hotel or tour operator where they have more commission, and not where you would be best off relaxing).
• Reviews of hotels and destinations, as well as photos will help you decide which place to stay.
• Convenient price calendar, you can choose the date with the lowest price.
• All tours are available from your smartphone on the way to work or home, on your computer at home or at work: look and choose where and when it is convenient.
• All documents at once: we pay bank card and all vouchers, air tickets and other documents immediately come to the post office. We exclude the notorious human factor when a manager can forget something.
• The tour can be bought in installments.
• If you need a visa, the support service will tell you what documents are needed, and within the Moscow Ring Road, the courier will pick up the documents and bring ready visas for free.
• Online consultants will help you make the right choice, support works around the clock.
• The service department at any time will help to resolve all issues, if something went wrong.
• Bonus programs, promotions, discounts.

3. Search for all tour operators

Search engines look for options and compare prices for 120+ tour operators at once, so that not a single tour escapes your attention. All this works on the principle of the air ticket search engines well-known to you. When choosing a ticket, I recommend looking at all three services at once, so you definitely don’t miss anything.

4. Search for neighboring dates

It's good if you can move the start or end of your vacation by a few days - this often saves a lot. To understand which dates the tour is the cheapest, the calendar will help low prices.

5. Search for tours from neighboring cities

The cheapest tours are always from Moscow with rare exceptions (with the same initial data: the same hotel, the same dates, the same duration). In addition, there are many more directions from Moscow to all parts of the world, there are plenty to choose from. Well, if you live not so far from the capital, a few hours by train or bus, and you are already flying to rest at the lowest price.

From Siberia, for example, it is not so easy (and not cheap) to get to Moscow, so see departures from neighboring cities. For Omsk, these are Novosibirsk, Tyumen and Yekaterinburg. Thus, you not only get a cheaper tour, but also have the opportunity to choose other countries and resorts that are not available from your city.

Here, for comparison, prices for flights to Turkey from Moscow and from Kazan, where it's cheaper, guess for yourself :-)

From Moscow

For the same number of nights, in the same region, but from Kazan

6. Choosing a different direction

Of course, you are unlikely to be able to relax for 10 thousand rubles in Bali, the Maldives or the Dominican Republic. It's traditional expensive destinations for departures from Russia. Having decided to fly there to rest, you should understand that this is a more respectable and status holiday (although there were all-inclusive tours to the Dominican Republic at the end of this winter for 30,000 per person - this is a good price!).

But Turkey, Sochi, Crimea, Greece, Montenegro, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and many others beautiful countries are located much closer, there are much more charters there, and the prices for tours are much lower.

For example, even at the height of the season in August, there are tours from Moscow to Greece for a week for 8-9 thousand rubles per person (yes, this includes flights, accommodation, transfers and insurance!). Or to Thailand in October-November for 10 days for 25-27 thousand rubles (that is, at the price of a flight).

Tour to Thailand at the price of a flight, the price is for two

7. Season selection

Holiday packages in the low season or velvet are always worth it cheaper tours at the height of the season. For example, tours to Turkey, on Black Sea coast Russia, Greece, Spain, Montenegro reach the peak of their value in summer, but in September they fall sharply in price. At the same time, the weather is excellent, there are fewer people on the beaches, fresh delicious fruits appear - some pluses.

According to statistics, the lowest prices for tours before and after New Year holidays and May holidays.

With this widget, you can see prices for different months:

8. Plan ahead

If you do not live in Moscow or St. Petersburg (or near them), where there are many tours at the lowest prices at any time, then I recommend planning your vacation in advance.

Monitor prices, try on hotels and regions, and as soon as the price is acceptable, take it. Do not wait for the summer to buy tours to Turkey, book early in the spring, because last-minute tours from the regions of the Russian Federation are a lottery: they may or may not be. In addition, you will have to choose from the remaining hotels, which are not always good.

9. Subscribe to price changes

Online tour aggregators offer to subscribe to a change in the price of a tour. You already know the vacation dates, just leave your e-mail address, and as soon as the price changes, you will receive a notification by mail.

10. Promo codes

All the sites I have described now and then send various promo codes with discounts to the mail. Often these are the same discounts that the manager will give you when buying at the office.

11. Hot tours

Well, if you are not tied to dates. So you have the opportunity to buy a last-minute tour online and soon find yourself on the beach in a sun lounger and with a cocktail in your hand :) Choose tours with instant confirmation.

As a rule, last-minute tours on visa-free destinations appear a week or a couple of days before departure, and for visa destinations - a couple of days before the deadline for submitting documents for a visa.

12. Have a visa on hand

The following follows from the previous paragraph: having, for example, an open Schengen visa, you can buy a last-minute tour a few days before departure at a super price!

Keep a few more useful tips about buying cheap tours:

• Even independent travelers may come in handy tour: in popular countries(Thailand, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria) it may be cheaper than tickets- take and enjoy a trip around the country on your own.
• How longer tour, the more profitable the rest is (in terms of the cost of one night). And all again due to the fact that the price of air travel is a significant part of the cost of the entire tour.
• In most cases, it is more profitable to rest on a tour together than one / one. The cost of a single room is almost the same as a double room.
• To Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia and some other popular countries, when traveling with children or a large company, it makes sense to buy an all-inclusive tour. After all, cafes and restaurants near the hotel may not be.
• In Europe, on the contrary, avoid " All Inclusive". Firstly, it is expensive, and secondly, you miss the opportunity to have a bite to eat at local authentic cafes and restaurants.
• With children, it is more profitable to relax in Turkey and Egypt, because air tickets there for a child + two adults cost the same as just for two adults. Flying to Asia is more expensive.
• If you want good service then choose the simplest rooms in good hotels. So you get excellent service at a reasonable price.

Now you know how to buy a cheap tour and find the most profitable one for all tour operators, good luck in your search and enjoy your vacation!

Here are just a few cities from which tours are searched for: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Astrakhan, Barnaul, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Volgograd, Voronezh, Vladivostok, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Tyumen, Krasnoyarsk, Kemerovo, Samara, Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Chelyabinsk and many other centers of regions of the Russian Federation.

Popular countries: Turkey, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Bulgaria, Sochi, Crimea, Anapa, Gelendzhik, Greece, Montenegro, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Tunisia, Abkhazia, China, Sri Lanka.

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 online booking tours in 2015 was on average at the level of 25%. Such a low rate for Russian market speaks of 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 you desired tour from a specific tour operator (TO). 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, for some popular destinations, such as Turkey, Greece and some others, there are fuel surcharges. 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 access to more more possibilities for a more precise 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 seem to want to shift this procedure to a travel agent, but I personally sincerely enjoy doing 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 full list all possible tours this hotel from different tour operators, with different accommodation options (standard room, mountain view, sea view, etc.) and types of meals (in this case, only ultra all inclusive, but usually in the “tour type” column there is a choice different types nutrition).

Here you can click on "show all offers with a flight to this hotel", then you will open even more available options. You can also click on the "low price chart", which reflects the prices for tours to this hotel on 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 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! although medical insurance already included in the cost of the tour, if your company includes people over 65 years old, then you will have to pay 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 in personal account the corresponding information will appear - 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 Required documents(tour voucher, insurance, etc.), which, among other things, will indicate and exact time 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