Pleasures and Pitfalls
Inclusive package holidays are certainly tempting; you will know within a reasonable degree of certainty what the overall cost of the entire holiday will be. There are many different tour operators offering inclusive deals for trips to a number of popular locations including Greece, Spain, Mexico, Cyprus, Turkey and The Canary Islands.

Most packages offer facilities such as restaurants, bars, swimming pools and children’s clubs along with many activities such as tennis and cycling, these are nearly always included in the price. In general, your flights, accommodation, meals, local drinks and entertainments as described in the brochure are included.

There will always be slight disadvantages of all-inclusive packages  are that you basically spend most of your time in the resort complex to avoid unnecessary additional expenditure. This can mean that some of the more appealing tourist locations go unvisited because of the additional cost of providing the family with food and refreshments. It also means that you are stuck with whatever entertainment the hotel offers - which might be very good, or might be not so good. The same goes for the food. For the price you’ll be sure to experience a good portion of your destination and keep well within your budget.

Always make sure that before you book, make sure that you know exactly what is and isn't included. See if you can view sample menus to make sure the food will be to your liking. Also bear in mind that if you are dieting, it is easy to eat way too much on an all-inclusive deal. If water sports are what you’re looking for in the package, check exactly what equipment will be available as part of the deal. Also check the policy on tips, are they included in the price or will you need to budget for them?

The one big advantage of package holidays in general is that the whole holiday will be covered by ABTA if you are buying through an ABTA member. Most holiday companies are members of ABTA, but it is wise to check. What this means is that the flights and accommodation are both covered. If you book your flights separately and independently, you may suffer hassle and possible financial loss if the airline concerned suffers problems, e.g. industrial action (think of the recent BA threatened strike action). ABTA’s main aims are to maintain high standards of trading practice for the benefit of its Members, the travel industry at large, and the consumers that they serve, and to create as favorable a climate as possible for its Members.

Popular Holiday Pitfalls
There are some tips that you should check out whether the holiday is all inclusive or not. These include:

• Travel insurance - don't feel that you have to buy the insurance offered by the tour operator. Shop around yourself for the best deal. Also be wary of deals that include free travel insurance - rest assured that you will be paying for it somehow
• If you are hiring a car, check what's included very carefully. In particular, check whether local taxes and collision damage waiver are included in the total cost.
• When you arrive at the airport, keep hold of your luggage. In some locations, "helpful" locals have packed your belongings into their decrepit and overpriced taxis before you have had chance to blink. Either get the coach your tour operator has provided or book an official and licensed taxi at the airport.
• Avoid the charms of beach vendors selling branded goods - these will most likely be fake. In Cuba, avoid any sellers offering you cigars. All cigar sales are regulated by the state - if you buy "cigars" from a beach vendor you will most likely be buying dried and rolled banana leaves.
• Don't think you have to book any trips you want to take with your tour operator's rep - it may be cheaper to book the same trip directly with the merchant.

A history of package tours
A primitive form of package holiday was planned by Thomas Cook in 1841, offering customers a return trip between Leicester and Loughborough. The first package tour of Europe was organized by Cook in 1855, and by 1872 he was undertaking world-wide tours, although was this only with small groups.

Vladimir Raitz, the co-founder of the Horizon Holiday Group, pioneered the first mass package holidays abroad with charter flights between Gatwick airport and Corsica in 1950, and organized the first package holiday to Palma in 1952, Lourdes in 1953, and the Costa Brava and Sardinia in 1954. In addition, the amendments made in Montreal to the Convention on International Civil Aviation on June 14, 1954 was very liberal to Spain, allowing impetus for mass tourism using charter planes.

 By the late 1950s and 1960s, these cheap package holidays which combined flight, transfers and accommodation — provided the first chance for most people in the United Kingdom to have affordable travel abroad. One of the first charter airlines was Euravia, which commenced flights from Manchester Airport in 1961 and Luton Airport in 1962. Despite opening up mass tourism to Crete and the Algarve in 1970, the package tour industry declined during the 1970s. On 15 August 1974, the industry was shaken when the second-largest tour operator, Court Line which operated under the brand names of Horizon and Clarksons, collapsed. Nearly 50,000 tourists were stranded overseas and a further 100,000 faced the loss of booking deposits.

In 2005 a mounting number of consumers were avoiding package holidays and in its place travelling with budget airlines and booking their own lodging. In the UK, the recession in the package holiday market led to the consolidation of the tour operator market, which is now dominated by a few large tour operators. The major operators are Thomson Holidays, part of TUI AG, Thomas Cook AG and First Choice. Under these umbrella brands there exists a whole range of diverse holiday operators catering to different markets, such as Club 18-30 or Simply Travel. Budget airlines have also created their own package holiday divisions such as Jet2 Holidays.

The trend for package holiday bookings saw a comeback in 2009, as customers sought better financial security in the wake of a number of holiday and flight companies going under, and as the real problems came to light with hidden costs of no-frills flights as the prices increased. Coupled with the search for late holidays as holidaymakers left booking to the last minute, this led to an increase in consumers booking package holidays.