Hunting for a Spot in the Sun

These last three weeks I’ve wasted hours upon hours on the internet looking for a deal and a suitable place for a holiday in the sun. Last year we were in Cuba. We booked our holiday already in November with Red Tag Vacations, believing we’d get a better deal if we booked early. What a huge and costly mistake that was. Had we waited we could have saved about $1,000.00. Unfortunately, Red Tag Vacations didn’t make any effort to compensate us. I don’t believe I will book with them ever again.

So now this year we figured if we wait long enough we’ll get a good deal. Again, we made a mistake. It seems we outsmarted ourselves. We waited too long. Because of the cold winter  more people seem to be booking a holiday south. And the prices are not favorable to vacationers. The worst are the taxes. Now they charge about $416.00 taxes for the Dominican Republic and the same for Mexico on a single ticket. Cuba is fairly ‘cheap’ with $316.00. Taxes are nearly 40% of the cost of the ticket on the lower-priced resorts. I consider that outrages. An additional cost in Cuba is still the airport tax which is 25 Cuban Dollars, that’s about $30.00 Canadian per person. Our low Canadian Dollar doesn’t help either. It seems taxes and fees are rising to a point where people may finally say: We’re not paying that. We’ll stay home and go away in the summer with our car. That’s the way I feel right now.

We missed a couple of deals only by a few hours. Monday, I found one in Cayo Coco, Cuba, a new resort, and it was reasonable, but we waited for the price to go down more. When we made up our mind to book in the afternoon it wasn’t available anymore. An hour later it was available again with a price drop of $100.00. We started booking but got the message: Sorry, this product is not available.

Then we found one in Varadero, a five star resort that is regular $ 1,700,00 on sale for $669.00 for 2 weeks. That’s right $669.00. We checked out reviews and there were the usual negative things. But then we said we’ll book and guess what: The price was now $1,550. Then I found it for $775.00 a couple of days earlier departure. I went up for supper and we decided to book. Well, you guessed it, that one was also $1550.00. That’s where it is right now. I hate playing games like that. I didn’t sleep all night, blaming myself for hesitating and not acting immediately. Now we are waiting for another one or the same one to go down, but I have no hope. It is getting too late. We don’t want to go in March. Even then prices are too high. They added another fee of $35.00 per ticket at the end of January. So we might just stay home this year.