Booking a beach holiday

[Luci]

Bear in mind that anywhere in Western Europe is not cheap anymore and if you are on a B&B basis you'll probably spend a fair few quid on food and drink.  Gone are the days where you used to pay £1 for a beer!

Turkey wise, I'd avoid the likes of Marmaris, Bodrum etc. - really built up and prices hiked for tourists. 

[Amir]

Echoing what Luci said, anywhere that's got the euro is obviously going to be pricey given the current exchange rate.  Went to Santorini in Greece a couple of weeks back, really nice little island with the right amount of life.  Spent a small fortune though really.

Dalyan in Turkey is spot on, and I'd imagine there are loads of great places outside of the main resorts.

[Luci]

Dalyan in Turkey is spot on, and I'd imagine there are loads of great places outside of the main resorts.

Yup - Dalyan is nice as is Fethiye and Belek!

[joteddyred]

Went to Lara Beach, Turkey in April. Paid 520 for a weeks stay, 5 star hotel, all inclusive + flights.

Beach was fantastic, weather was good, hotel and hotel staff were brilliant and the food was exceptional.

Probably cost a fair bit more in school holidays though...

Which hotel did you stay at DV.  We were looking at Lara Beach for next year?
Last month we went to Lanzarote and paid half of some people we met who had gone through Thomas Cook.
Back to the original question, the last couple of years, I've booked flights and hotel separately and saved a lot of money on package prices.  Skyscanner is good for flights and Travel Republic for hotels.  You will obviously need to put in a destination though.

[london_red]

Are there better sites that I've missed?

Always found some decent deals on here OF

http://www.travelzoo.com/uk/holidays/

[Bob's Orange]

The new mrs Bob owns a 3 bed apartment in kusadasi somewhere. Supposed to be nice there.

[oxford_fan]

Always found some decent deals on here OF

http://www.travelzoo.com/uk/holidays/

Ta, will have a look.

At the moment the original place in Madeira is looking alright.

[Berniman]

Try travelsupermarket.com

[dell returns]

Try travelsupermarket.com

Travel republic, lowcostholidays etc etc .... watch out for the add ons though, suitcases, transfers bla bla

[Arriba]

fantastic beach holidays are also available without leaving britain. Of course the weather isn't guaranteed to be good though

[DV]

Which hotel did you stay at DV.  We were looking at Lara Beach for next year?
Last month we went to Lanzarote and paid half of some people we met who had gone through Thomas Cook.
Back to the original question, the last couple of years, I've booked flights and hotel separately and saved a lot of money on package prices.  Skyscanner is good for flights and Travel Republic for hotels.  You will obviously need to put in a destination though.

We stayed at the Limak Lara hotel - as I said in my previous post, very very impressed with it all - http://www.limakhotels.com/lara/en/index.html

Lara beach literally has hotel after hotel after hotel on it, all next to each other - all trying to out do each other in order to get the most business - I cant remember the names of the other hotels (royal wings, something robin hood related, a couple of russian named one) literally all next door to each other.

Other side of the road there is dodgy turkish shopping malls, old blocks of flats and wasteland.

Not alot to do outside the hotel at all - hence why the hotels are all 5 stars and have almost everything you could want inside them.

[Jamiesfuturewife]

Eugh so jealous would love a beach holiday so much right now - moving in a couple of weeks though then saving for a NYC Wedding/Oz honeymoon hopefully next year

[Mark Hanrahan]

Lastminute.com then head out to Barcelona. Cheaps as chips to get there, amazing weather, incredible welcome from the locals, quality clubs, restaurants and bars, decent enough beaches (recommend Botoga of the five on offer) and the added bonus of one of Europe's most stunning cities. You'll also catch a game at the Camp Nou I'm pretty sure.

[woolster]

kalkan in turkey is superb, not a pikey to be seen

[leefer]

I'm having a bit of a nightmare trying to sort this out.

Basically I want to go away with the missus for a week on the 25th or 26th August, to somewhere with a sandy beach, ideally on a B&B basis. Initial thoughts were Italy or Greece because they both have amazing food too, though we're willing to consider Spain/Portugal/Tukey etc. - just nowhere too pikey. I've looked on teletext holidays (seems to be the best site so far), lastminute.com, Groupon, expedia, guardian travel, Thomson, Thomas Cook, but I can't find anything ideal. Thomson and Thomas Cook in particular all look pretty bog standard and not very good value.

The best bet so far is this accomodation which costs £460 for the week

http://www.i-escape.com/hotel-da-vila/overview#overview

With a return flight to Funchal (Madeira) bought separately at £215 per person.

Its a bit more than I'd like to spend and we don't need the accomodation to be as swanky as that, but its all I've found. Is it a rip off? I've never really done this kind of holiday before, in the past I've just booked flights and backpacked it.

Are there better sites that I've missed?

Go into at least four travel agents and tell them what you have/want to spend....they will try and get you to spend a bit more but stick to your guns.
Guarantee that one of them will come up with what you are after....show them your money them let do the work on getting you a nice holiday.