On the eve of the peak summer months of July and August, the UK’s biggest travel firms are selling hundreds of packages holidays to Greek and Turkey for under £300 per person for a week.
Jet2 Holidays, Tui and easyJet Holidays have cut prices for eastern Mediterranean packages to fill aircraft seats and hotel beds in early July. Unlike some holidays sold by online travel agents, they include checked baggage and transfers as well as flights and accommodation.
The cheapest deal is with Tui from London Gatwick to Kavos in Corfu for £228 on 13 July. But this is branded a “Scene” holiday, aimed at younger travellers, and may not appeal to those seek a more relaxed Mediterranean stay.
Also from Gatwick, Tui is offering a week in Side, east of Antalya in southern Turkey, for £260 on 1 July. The price includes a room-only stay at the Gazipasa Star Hotel close to the Temple of Apollo, a landmark of the Mediterranean coast. The distance travelled on the round-trip by air and road is 3,700 miles – further than from London to New York.
Jet2 Holidays, the biggest package firm in the UK, has deals under £300 this week for a week from London Stansted to Parga in northwest Greece (2 July), East Midlands to the Turkish resort of Bodrum (3 July) and Birmingham to Marmaris in Turkey (4 July).
The third-largest package firm is easyJet Holidays, which has Manchester to Rhodes on 2 July and Liverpool to Antalya on 4 July for £268. These could appeal to Scottish travellers, since the school holidays have begun across Scotland.
From other UK airports, Tui has plenty of deals to the Greek islands, including Bournemouth to Kefalonia for £268 on 13 July, which also includes breakfast. On 11 July, holidaymakers can go from Manchester to Corfu for £272.
Demand for holidays in the eastern Mediterranean is believed to have dropped due to concerns about the recent upsurge in conflict in the Middle East. But Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of the Advantage Travel Partnership, told The Independent’s daily travel podcast: “What we work really hard at doing is ensuring that people understand that these places are safe.
“They are far away from where everything is happening and [people] can continue to travel in the knowledge that they are destinations that you can still enjoy.”
All prices researched between 7am and 8am on Monday 30 June
