By clicking a retailer link you consent to third-party cookies that track your onward journey. This enables W? to receive an affiliate commission if you make a purchase, which supports our mission to be the UK's consumer champion.
Guy is an award-winning travel writer with 20+ years experience. He runs a crack team of researchers, unearthing everything from the best beaches to the worst car hire companies.
In the past few years, our holidays have been increasingly disrupted by world events. That’s why the experts at Which? Travel advise you to book a package holiday where possible, rather than booking flights and hotels separately.
People often think package trips are available only in touristy areas and are inflexible or not customisable. But that’s not true at all. Any type of holiday can be booked as a package, giving you the protection of both the Atol scheme and the Package Travel Regulations if anything goes wrong.
Mass travel disruption in recent years has been caused by jet fuel price increases, wildfires, volcanic eruptions and air traffic control failures, and these protections have become even more important.
Read on to find out what package holiday protections mean in practice, and how you can sometimes save money by booking a package.
Get super-useful advice on who to book with, how to get the best deals and inspiring destination ideas from the experts, all year for just £36.75.
Buy and saveSave 25% - was £49, now £36.75 for a year, with each purchase. Offer ends 15 April 2026
If you buy two major elements of a holiday – flights and accommodation, for example – in a single transaction, from the same travel company, then you’ve booked a package.
The nature of that holiday is entirely up to you. You could spend a week sunning yourself in the Canary Islands, skiing in the Alps, cruising on the Med, or cycling across Sri Lanka on a guided tour. All are packages, as long as you booked two elements of the holiday with one company and it lasts for longer than 24 hours.
Any package holiday booked in the UK automatically benefits from the Package Travel Regulations (PTRs), which help to ensure that you get the holiday you paid for.
The PTRs also protect you if anything goes wrong. For example, if there’s a problem at the destination, like civil unrest or flooding, the package organiser has to either make alternative arrangements or get you home.
Find out which package travel companies we recommend in our survey of the best and worst package holiday providers.
If you've booked a package that includes a flight, you will also benefit from Atol protection.
All travel companies that sell package holidays with flights to UK customers are legally required to hold an Atol licence. You can check a travel company’s Atol licence using the CAA’s Check an Atol tool.
If a travel company with Atol protection goes bust, the scheme protects its customers, making sure they don’t get stranded abroad or lose money.
Read more about Atol protection and other logos you need when planning a holiday.
Flight cancellations are a massive headache. In the wave of delays and cancellations that have plagued the past few years, many customers have been stranded abroad and had to arrange additional accommodation and transfers. They’ve also had to bear the expense themselves until they can claim on travel insurance.
Package holidays offer the best protection against flight disruption because the Package Travel Regulations make the tour operator responsible for the whole trip. You have the same rerouting rights as any other passenger if your flight is cancelled, but if you are significantly delayed (usually more than 12 hours), or you're given no option to get to your destination, the protections in the PTRs will come into play.
If you’ve booked a package and your flight is cancelled, your package organiser is responsible not just for getting you home but for all the other elements of your holiday, including sorting transfers and any extra accommodation that’s required – at no extra cost to you.
And if it fails to do any of these things, it will have to offer you a refund for the entire package.
Get your trip off to a flying start – read our guide to the best airlines for 2026 (and the worst).
Holiday companies have long argued that packages are cheaper than booking all the elements of a holiday separately, because they have access to discounts that they can pass on to consumers, and their exclusive holidays can’t be booked anywhere else.
But can this be true? Can you really get all of this financial and legal protection at a lower rate? When Which? Travel last checked, we found that in many cases it is true, but it depends on the destination.
Our research looked at all-inclusive packages (arguably the more expensive end of the package market) and found that they were cheaper than independent holidays in seven out of 10 popular destinations.
If your holiday company goes bust while you're away, you’ll be brought home under the protection of the Atol scheme. Holiday companies going under happens more frequently than you might expect.
When the original Thomas Cook collapsed in 2019, more than 140,000 holidaymakers were flown home by the UK government as part of the biggest repatriation in the UK’s peacetime history.
Thomas Cook package customers also had their accommodation costs covered by the government until they were able to board a repatriation flight.
In most cases, if the company fails while you’re on holiday, package holidaymakers will be allowed to continue with their holiday and be flown home at the end.
Similarly, if there’s a crisis while you're away and it's not safe for you to stay, your tour operator should help you get home – if you’ve booked a package.
The law states that if something happens that 'substantially affects the performance of the package', the package organiser must repatriate the traveller without undue delay and at no extra cost. If the tour operator is not able to immediately get you home due to 'unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances', it must bear the cost of accommodation for up to three nights.
You shouldn’t need to do anything. Your tour operator will arrange flights, get you to the airport and refund any out-of-pocket expenses. And if your holiday is cut short, you’ll receive a refund for the unused days.
The Atol scheme also protects your money if the package provider goes bust before you depart. In the case of the Thomas Cook collapse, around 300,000 customers whose holidays had been cancelled got their money back.
And if the UK FCDO issues a warning against all but essential travel to your holiday destination, you’ll also be given the option of deferring your holiday or going elsewhere.
Those who have booked their holiday independently don’t have these guarantees and will be reliant on the goodwill of their airline or hotel to get any money back.
During the pandemic, travellers who had booked flights and hotels separately found it much harder to get refunds. Often this was because the flight was still operating, even if there was barely anyone on it. Generally, if the flight departs, airlines will refuse a refund.
The Package Travel Regulations are there to make sure you receive the package holiday you paid for.
We’ve all heard the horror stories of holidaymakers finding a building site where their hotel should be, or a pool filled with algae. If any of these things happen, your package organiser has to put it right, at no extra cost to you.
Even if it’s not that extreme, if your accommodation doesn’t look like the pictures online, it should be put right. Examples include your ‘beachfront hotel’ being a fair walk from the beach, being given a lower-standard room, or a key facility such as the Kids Club being closed.
And if the package organiser fails to fix it, you have the right to claim compensation for any out-of-pocket expenses and any loss of enjoyment (the disappointment and distress caused by things going wrong).
Read more about the Package Travel Regulations.
If you book independently, you’re dealing with several companies and multiple moving parts. It takes a lot of time and trouble to make sure you match up your flights, transfers and accommodation. And if, for any reason, one element of your holiday has to change, you’ll find yourself stuck on the phone, trying to reassemble the other elements.
Packages, on the other hand, are often hassle-free. All you have to do is pay for the package and turn up. And if you need to make any changes or require assistance along the way, you have just one point of contact.
Of course, this is only true if you’ve booked with a reputable company. We’ve reviewed dozens of package holiday companies, from Audley Travel to Virgin Holidays. Read our package holiday company reviews.
For some people, packages conjure up images of throngs of people armed with towels, racing to secure a sunbed around the pool. But the idea that packages are available only for fly-and-flop holidays is a myth.
Any type of trip can be a package. City breaks, ski trips and even cruises can be sold as package deals, provided you book two elements of the holiday and pay for them in one transaction.
And with a good escorted tour package provider, you could climb Kilimanjaro, cycle through Cuba or go wildlife spotting in the Shetlands, with a group of like-minded travellers and the full financial protection that packages afford.
In our last package holidays survey, we asked more than 12,119 Which? Connect members about their recent experiences, and have rounded up the best and worst providers of all kinds of package holidays below:
Before planning your next trip, read our holiday checklist – 18 essential steps to a hassle-free holiday.