What makes a Good holiday Great?

Returning from a “Great” 7 nights holiday to Goa this week, I was struck by an age-old question faced by many holidaymakers. Would I go back next year or explore somewhere else?

Which in turn leads to a more fundamental question “What makes a Good holiday Great?”

Undoubtedly, whom you travel with and share these holiday moments with is a key element, as holiday memories with the kids, friends, and family are precious gifts few of us can top in normal life.

However, as I’ve aged and the kids have grown up, my holiday needs have switched from “All Inclusive” hotels, with lots of kid’s activities, to exploring destinations and local cultures, showing how holidaymakers' needs evolve and change, sometimes making their own “Black book” of knowledge irrelevant.

Good weather will always be a major factor, as many of us want to spend lots of hours unwinding with a good book, whilst we soak up the sun on our loungers by the pool or watch the waves coming crashing over sandy beaches. Conversely, many of us have experienced the boredom of being in a beach resort beset with several days of wet or cloudy weather. Sunshine is often a foundation of a “Great Holiday”.

The quality of the hotel can be a major factor if you’re traveling on a budget or have specific needs that are not satisfied. However, with TripAdvisor or other social media reviews guiding our choices these days, it's rare we chose bad hotels, although of course things can and do go wrong, particularly as the leisure industry recovered from the Covid-19 shutdown.

Last year for a friend’s 60th Birthday celebration, we pushed the boat out, splashing the cash on a trip to the highly rated boutique “House Hotel” in Barbados, only to find that even though we were booked on an “All Inclusive” package, it had no onsite kitchen and was shipping food in from sister hotels. Not surprisingly, this did not work at all well, forcing us to negotiate a promised (but not yet paid) refund on the food element of the holiday. Ironically, this ended up making it a holiday “Great” as we then toured the island, exploring the fabulous restaurants on offer and seeing many of the natural beauties, whilst meeting many of its friendly people that we would otherwise have missed.

Personally, I think the destination and experiences offered outside of the hotels, are key factors in turning a good holiday into a great one. You cannot beat wandering barefooted down Goa’s 10 miles long sandy beaches, stopping to eat and drink at different beach shacks, where no matter what you drink or eat, the bill for 6 people never tops ￡80. ?Goa is clearly an outstanding destination for value for money and yet it still ranks behind Ibiza, Majorca, and Barbados in my favorite holiday destinations.

So, although like most people “value for money” is a factor in a good holiday it rarely decides whether it’s a great one.

For me, a good range of activities, from sailing catamarans to shopping and the quality/variety of food options, is crucial for enhancing a good holiday into a great one.

These all come at a cost, but when it’s the few precious weeks of the year that you’re escaping the office, it’s a cost well worth paying.

Yet, holiday brochures and now online booking sites, pay scant attention to anything outside of the hotel and use price as the dominant booking motivation. It’s no wonder that the “physical” travel agents working from home or out of a high street shop, has remained so popular. Personal experience of a wide range of holiday destinations and what they offer outside of the hotel is a valuable commodity that customers are willing to pay extra to access.

Homeworking specialists like Travel Counsellors constantly remind their homeworkers of the value their service represents and have never offered impersonal websites that set price expectations, specifically because they believe it restricts what homeworkers can charge. With average commissions of 16-17% on tailor-made holidays, dwarfing the commission offered by traditional tour operators they seem to have got the model right.

Valuing the expertise that can turn a good holiday into a great one, has never been more important, and nor has creating it.

I am therefore pleased to see that the tourist boards of emerging destinations, such as Qatar, recognise the importance of attracting travel conferences like the “Institute of Travel and Tourism”, by funding discounted flights and arranging pre/post-conference activities.

Whatever, you think about a destination like Qatar, it’s important to share our experience of what UK customers expect and explain that anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes or human rights abuses are unacceptable to most western holidaymakers. Travel is a great influence for good and we should never forget the power the industry can wield.