A TRAVEL expert has revealed the huge mistake tourists make when booking flights which could ruin your holiday.
Frequent flyer Dawn Gilbertson found that even making the most of the best holiday hacks when securing plane tickets can leave you disappointed when arriving at your destination.
GettyTourists have been told to do more research before they fly[/caption]
She has now issued advice to other travellers after her experience during a Thanksgiving break in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Despite benefitting from cut-price fares around the festive season, she came to regret not booking in advance – before setting off – tickets for some of the most popular tourist hotspots.
And she has offered travel advice to others to not only secure their places on planes but also book admission to attractions even before leaving home and setting off for the airport.
In a newly-published six-point guide for holiday-makers, she includes the instruction: “Research must-see attractions before you book.”
Dawn’s Dutch disappointment came after landing at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport but being unable to buy sold-out tickets for the city’s Anne Frank House nor Van Gogh Museum.
She wrote in an Wall Street Journal entry: “They book up weeks or months in advance.
“The concierge at my hotel told me she doesn’t even try to get last-minute tickets to the Anne Frank House.”
Other advice Dawn offers includes “Prepare to pounce” – describing how the £430 flight she nabbed setting off on Thanksgiving Day was being offered online – for the same date – for £1,000 24 hours later.
She also encouraged winter holiday-makers to “make peace with off-season weather“, describing conditions in Amsterdam as “less than ideal” as they “putting “put a damper on things”.
And Dawn urged people to be flexible with travel dates, with an option to return home on a Sunday rather than a weekday potentially taking her £430 fare to almost £800 instead.
She suggested fellow Americans make the most of a new wave of “cheap flights” to Europe – tipping similarly-priced capital cities such Dublin in Ireland, Oslo in Norway, Lisbon in Portugal and Prague in the Czech Republic.
Dawn’s guide follows a new warning that travelling with hand luggage only could actually make your flight more expensive.
A former flight attendant has given guidance on which queues to avoid when going through security.
Other recommendations include how to stop your luggage going missing and on avoiding the errors which marred a family’s trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Tourists have also been offered tips on how to ensure your suitcase emerges first on an airport carousel after landing.
Other recommendations cover securing freebies during trips away, getting around liquid rules at airports and saving space packing.
Meanwhile, a top 10 festive breaks in Britain this month was shared.