This is a guest post by Lee Tillyer
The thought of a fantastic holiday in the sun is always an exciting one. But the effort of visiting a travel agent, or sitting down for an evening’s worth of trawling the internet for a great deal is not everyone’s idea of fun. I find that when I’m looking for a holiday I find it’s really hard to know whether I’ve found the best price, and more importantly whether that ‘deal’ will land me and my wife in a pokey one star apartment in the back of beyond (yes – this has happened to us more than once!). Recently I discovered a way to get a late holiday that combined both luxury and a fantastic price by buying a Getaway Fare on a P&O Cruises holiday.
I had previously signed up for P&O Cruises Cruise Offers e-bulletin, so when the email dropped into my inbox it came at just the right time for me – I’d worked up the will to go away and now I had the deal to make the temptation irresistible. There were a number of amazing deals on offer but a clear winner for me was sailing to the Iberian Peninsula with Oriana.
After a quick phone call to my wife (she didn’t take much convincing at all!) I was soon speaking to one of cruise experts of P&O Cruises who talked me through the booking process and made sure I had all the information I needed about my holiday. I was soon able to use my Cruise Personaliser online to arrange all of the extras to make our holiday just perfect, including booking shore excursions and requesting our on board dining preferences from the comfort of my sofa.
Departure day came around before we knew it! Our springtime cruise whisked us from the dreary and wintry weather of the UK to the warmer waters off the coasts of Spain and Portugal. Oriana took us as far south as the coast of North Africa, stopping in at Casablanca in Morocco. We explored the age old souks in search of some souvenirs to remind us of our adventure (and to make my friends back home jealous, I have to admit!). All in all it was just what we needed after a busy Christmas and New Year. Our holiday came just at the right time for us both and helped us recharge and face the rest of the year with renewed vigour.
The best part for me was that the Getaway Fare I paid was not only great value for money but with the late deal I was able to secure a holiday leaving in just four weeks. This was the perfect timescale for me – it gave me a chance to plan out my workload with my team but it also gave us plenty of time to get together all of the bits we would need for our holiday. Most importantly, we didn’t have to wait months between deciding to go away and being on board ship – a massive plus for an impatient soul like me!
Now I call it ‘tactical holidaying’ as with P&O Cruises late deals we can book our breaks around our busy workloads and family commitments without causing too much disruption – exactly how a holiday should be!
