Planning A Holiday In The Sun – Where Can The Best Deals Be Found?

With the grey and gloom of January you may be thinking of a warm and sunny destination for your next holiday. Finding good deals for travel outside of Denmark can be a challenge for expats. Our guide helps you chase the sun.

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By Louise Chamberlain                Picture: Bente D. Knudsen

Booking a holiday can be a frustrating experience. Choosing a destination is the easy part. Picking a hotel is also pretty straightforward.

Booking a flight departing from Copenhagen, on the other hand, can sometimes feel like mission impossible.

Denmark is a small country so the range of destinations of flights departing from Copenhagen (or any of the other Danish airports) is small in comparison to many other capital cities.

Flying to popular holiday destinations often involves connecting flights through other European hub airports, adding extra time and cost. However, there is a way around this; the Danish charterferie.

Charterferie are package holidays where the hotel, flights, airport transfers and the services of the tour operator’s representative in the resort are all included in the price.

They are still very popular in Denmark. As an expat, you may not have noticed them because they are targeted directly at the Danish market.

All of their advertising material and websites are in Danish, with no English button option. However, there are ways around this that allow non-Danes to benefit from these relatively inexpensive holidays.

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The Language Barrier
The first hurdle for non-Danish speakers is understanding what is and what isn’t included in the package price.

All of the information on the websites is only in Danish and, when you may be spending tens of thousands of kroner, you don’t want to misunderstand any of the small print.

The easiest way to get around this is to open the website in Google Chrome and choose the “translate this page” option. If there are still things that are unclear, all of the main tour operators have telephone numbers to call to speak to an advisor. Some also have a live chat option online.

You can book online but, if you would prefer to talk through your booking with an advisor, you can book over the phone. Some of the tour operators also have an office where you can book in person.

If you want to make sure that English is spoken in the hotel, the easiest way to ascertain this is to check if the hotel is also used by British tour operators.

A simple Google search will quickly answer this.

Type in the name of your chosen hotel plus “UK” to pull up a list of British package holiday operators offering the same accommodation.

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The largest tour operators in the Danish market are all part of international travel groups, so the likelihood of the hotel being offered across their international brand is reasonably high.

You can also check on Trip Advisor to see how many reviews are in English (and get an interesting perspective on the hotel from other travellers).

When your holiday documents arrive, they will also all be in Danish. You can use Google Translate to convert them to English.

If you are in any doubt about any of it, particularly if there may be visas or vaccinations required, call the tour operator’s customer service to check. Also, bear in mind that any information about visas will only apply to Danish passport holders.

You should always check what the specific visa requirements are for your own nationality, as they may be different.

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Tax-free Shopping
Charterferie companies usually use charter flights , this helps to keep prices low and ensures that there are direct flights available to popular holiday destinations in the peak seasons.

Tax-free shopping options on these flights are extensive. Prior to your departure, you may receive a thick catalogue in the mail.

It’s popular to pre-order items that you will need while you’re away such as alcoholic drinks, cigarettes and sun cream.

They will be delivered to your seat on the outbound flight, reducing the amount that you have to squeeze into your suitcase. You can also pre-order tax-free goods for the return flight.

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Only For Danes
When you arrive at your destination airport, you will be met by a representative of the charterferie company who will direct you to the transfer bus, and give you information about your holiday.

Bear in mind that the representative may not be expecting non-Danes and you may have to work pretty hard to persuade them that you are actually their client!

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Big Savings
While finding your way around the website of a charterferie tour operator might seem challenging at first, there are big savings to be made for those prepared to put in a little bit of extra effort.

For even bigger savings, check out the “afbudsrejser”; last minute deals at deeply discounted prices.

There are two types of afbudsrejser; specificeret and uspecificeret.

“Specificeret” means that you get all the information about hotel and location when you book, so you can decide if it meets your requirements.

“Uspecificeret”, means that you find out which hotel you will stay in and where it is located only when you arrive at your destination. You can be lucky and get what you want but you take the risk that the holiday may not meet your expectations.

Use the online site, travelmarket.dk, to compare package holiday prices.

This Danish-owned travel search engine gathers price information from a number of travel agencies and tour operators in the Danish market. It is only in Danish as that is their main target market, but you can use Google Chrome to translate it into English.

Whichever option you choose, Danish package holidays are worth considering as an affordable way to enjoy a holiday outside Denmark at any time of the year.

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Top five tour operators in Denmark

Spies  26% ( Formerly part of the Thomas Cook Group, Spies is an independent travel group owned by Nordic Leisure Group)*
TUI  21%
Bravo Tours  18%
Apollo  15%
Sunweb  7%

The market share is calculated in percent of total charter flights and charter seats sold out of Denmark by the Federation of Danish Tour Operators.

*Still the largest tour operator in Denmark, Spies it is now part of the group Nordic Leisure Group together with Ving in Norway and Sweden, Globetrotter in Sweden, and Tjäreborg in Finland, and the hotel chain Resorts & Hotels ( Sunwing Family Resorts and Sunprime Hotels).