How to book a family holiday
Most family holidays are booked one of two ways, as a package or by putting the pieces together yourself. A package is one company selling the flight, hotel and transfers together. Doing it yourself means booking the parts separately. Which route you take changes the price, the choice of hotels and what protection you have if something goes wrong, which is the part worth getting right when you're travelling with young children.
On this page
What you book
The two ways a family holiday is put together, and the different kinds of seller you can buy one from.
A package means one company is on the hook for the whole holiday, with the protections that brings, covered below. Booking the flight and hotel together on a single site, where you pick the parts but pay once, usually counts as a package too, as long as it's sold as one booking with one price. Booking it yourself, a flight straight from the airline and a hotel from its own site or a platform, is separate bookings, so nothing covers the trip as a whole.
The tricky case is the one in between. If a site sells you a flight and hotel for one price and sends you an ATOL certificate, you're usually protected like a package. If it passes you to a second company and you end up with two separate confirmations, you're not.
The sellersWho you book through
You can buy a package from several kinds of seller, and for a standard family holiday the protection is the same whoever it is, as long as you get the ATOL certificate. Where they differ is price, choice and how much help you get.
- Tour operators like TUI, Jet2holidays, First Choice and British Airways Holidays build and sell their own packages. They're the simplest route for a beach holiday, and they run the free child place deals.
- Online travel agents such as loveholidays and On the Beach sell packages too, often a touch cheaper, and assemble them from a wide range of flights and hotels. Booking.com and Expedia mainly sell hotels and flights as separate bookings, so check whether you're getting a package or two contracts.
- High-street and phone agents like Hays Travel do the work for you and can usually match the operators' prices, which suits anyone who'd rather talk to a person than do it online.
- Family and luxury specialists like Tots Too, Kuoni or Scott Dunn cost more, but the advice pays off on villas, long-haul trips and anything complicated with young children.
What a package protects you against
The legal cover a package carries, and what you take on yourself when you book the parts separately.
A package brings legal protections that booking separately doesn't. When a holiday is sold as a package, UK law, the Package Travel Regulations, attaches a set that can't be signed away.
- One company is responsible for the whole holiday. If the hotel is a building site or the transfer never comes, it has to put it right or compensate you.
- If it goes under, you're covered, with a refund before you travel or a way home if you're already there.
- The price can only rise in limited circumstances, mainly fuel, taxes or exchange-rate changes, and only with notice well before you travel. If a rise pushes the price up by more than 8 per cent, you can cancel and get back what you've paid.
- You can cancel free of charge if something extraordinary hits the destination, the rule that protected many package customers during Covid.
The financial side of that, for any holiday with a flight, is ATOL, the Air Travel Organisers' Licensing scheme run by the Civil Aviation Authority. Any UK company selling flight-inclusive packages must hold it, and it's what refunds you or flies you home if the company fails. You should be sent an ATOL certificate when you pay, so keep it. ABTA is a travel trade association rather than a government scheme, and its cover applies mainly to holidays sold without a flight, like cruises and coach trips. A flight booked straight from an airline, or a flight and hotel booked separately, has no ATOL between them at all.
The DIY routeBooking it yourself
Doing it yourself is often the only way for a villa, a city break, an unusual length of trip or a destination the operators don't cover. You can fly any airline at any time from any airport and stay as long as you like. No single company is responsible if something fails, though, so you have to cover that yourself. Paying by credit card brings in Section 75, a rule that makes the card company equally liable with the seller when something goes wrong, as long as what you bought cost more than £100 and no more than £30,000. So if you put a flight or a hotel over £100 on a credit card and the supplier fails, you can claim from the card company as well as the supplier. Travel insurance helps too, but only if it specifically covers supplier or airline failure, so check the wording. Paying through a third-party booking site rather than the airline or hotel direct can make a Section 75 claim harder, because the card company may argue it didn't pay the supplier directly, so it's worth checking who you're actually paying.
Worth knowing with children
Free child places and transfers, how far ahead to book, and why the protection matters when a company fails.
- Free child places. A handful of big operators let one child travel free in a room with two full-paying adults, on selected hotels and dates.
- Transfers. Most operator packages include the airport transfer, and some always do. Arriving with a buggy, car seats and tired children, you won't have to hunt for a taxi. On a self-booked trip you sort it yourself.
How far ahead to book
For peak summer, the school holidays or a free child place, book early and you'll have more choice. Deposits are usually small, with the balance due a couple of months before you fly, so booking ahead doesn't tie up much money. Last-minute can be cheaper if you can travel off-peak and aren't tied to a particular place. With young children, though, you usually have a list of must-haves, a specific resort, a cot, connecting rooms, a shallow pool, and those are the first things to sell out.
When it goes wrongWhen a company collapses
The clearest case for protection comes from the times it was needed. When Thomas Cook failed in 2019, around 150,000 UK customers were abroad, and the Civil Aviation Authority ran the biggest peacetime repatriation to bring people home. A large share of those affected had no financial protection, because they'd booked flights or rooms on their own rather than as a package. The airline Monarch collapsing in 2017 went much the same way. The government brought stranded travellers home both times, but that was a decision taken then, not a guarantee written into any scheme.
The options side by side
The three routes compared at a glance, then the questions parents ask most and the official pages worth a bookmark.
| What you get | Package | Flight and hotel together | Book it yourself |
|---|---|---|---|
| ATOL protection, if it includes a flight | Yes | Usually, if you get one ATOL certificate | No |
| One company responsible for the whole holiday | Yes | Usually | No, each part is its own contract |
| Refund or a flight home if a company collapses | Yes | Usually | Not automatically |
| Free cancellation if the destination is hit by something extraordinary | Yes | Usually | No, each booking's own terms apply |
| Airport transfers included | Often | Sometimes | You arrange and pay separately |
| Free child places | Yes, on selected hotels and dates | Rarely | No |
| Choice of hotels | The operator's range | Wider | The whole market |
| Flight times, airports and length of stay | Mostly fixed | More choice | Anything you like |
| Often cheaper for a standard beach week | Yes | Comparable | Can cost more once extras are added |
| Work to check it suits a family | Low, the operator narrows the range | Medium | High, you research it yourself |
Whichever way you book, put the deposit on a credit card. On a package it adds a second layer of cover, and on a self-booked trip it's one of your only protections, and it costs you nothing extra over how you'd normally pay.
Common questions
Is a tour operator different from a package?
They aren't the same kind of thing. A package is what you buy, a holiday sold as one product with the flight, hotel and usually transfers together. A tour operator is one of the sellers you can buy a package from. Jet2holidays is the biggest in the UK, then TUI, with First Choice and British Airways Holidays among the rest. You can also buy the same sort of package from a travel agent or an online travel agent.
Where should I actually book a family holiday?
For a standard beach package, booking direct with an operator like TUI or Jet2holidays is simple and usually has the free child place deals. An online travel agent such as loveholidays or On the Beach sells packages too, often at competitive prices. A high-street or phone agent like Hays Travel is useful if you'd rather someone did the legwork and talked you through it, and they can usually match operator prices. For a villa, a long-haul trip or anything fiddly with young children, a family specialist like Tots Too, or a luxury agent like Kuoni or Scott Dunn, is worth the extra for the advice.
Who does free child places, and how do I get one?
TUI, Jet2holidays, First Choice and On the Beach run them. The usual deal is one child going free in a room with two full-paying adults, on selected hotels, dates and board basis, so any other children pay full price. The operators have search tools that filter for the free places. They sell out, especially for the school summer holidays, so the way to land one is to book early, which the low deposits make easier.
I booked a flight and a hotel separately. Am I protected?
Not by ATOL or the package rules. Two separate bookings are two separate contracts, so if the airline or the hotel fails, that part is yours to sort out. Paying by credit card gives you some cover through Section 75, and travel insurance that specifically includes supplier failure helps, but neither is as complete as a package.
Do I pay extra for a baby on the flight?
It depends on the airline. Some carry a lap infant under two free, others charge a small fee per flight and it changes, so check at booking. Most airlines take two pieces of baby gear, like a pushchair and a car seat, in the hold for free. A cot at the hotel is a separate matter, and many charge for it whether you booked a package or not.
Useful links
- ATOL protection (Civil Aviation Authority): what ATOL covers and how to check your booking is protected.
- GOV.UK package travel rights: the official summary of what counts as a package and the protection it carries.
- ABTA: is my money protected: a plain guide to which bookings are covered and which aren't.
Last updated 14 June 2026. Protection schemes, fares, operator deals and deposits change, so check the official sites above and confirm the detail with the airline or operator before you book.
