Great Value Vacations

Who is Great Value Vacations?

Most of the time when I travel, I am more of what you might call an “adventure traveler” than a resort guy. In other words, I like to hike, climb, ski, backpack, etc. The ruggeder, the better. However, I do understand that there is a time and a place for everything. Sometimes what’s needed is exploration and adrenaline. Other times you just need a little relaxation, rest. Every once in a while, even a thrill-seeker like me needs to dip his toes in the calmer waters of a luxury resort.

There is something, I will admit it, very comforting about a vacation package. It is nice to be able to just pay one price up front and know that everything has already been accounted for, for you. You don’t have to shop around to different travel sites and scurry to find the best flights. You don’t have to worry about doing the research of figuring out where the best (or most affordable) place to stay in your destination city will be. With vacation packages, everything is figured out for you!

Even though I usually prefer to forge my own path, free to adjust my plans or, say, explore adjacent cities for a few nights even if they aren’t on the itinerary, occasionally I do thoroughly enjoy having everything taken care of for me. It can sometimes be easier than one would think to forget the fact that, at the end of the day, vacations are supposed to be about enjoying yourself; they aren’t supposed to be stressful or unnecessary taxing, right? And although going off the beaten path can be incredibly fun and rewarding, things can go off the rails in an instant, and your fun little adventure can do a 180 to become a nightmare. Believe me, I’ve been lost in the rainforest before; there might be nothing more stressful than that!

This is why, every once in a while, I need to force myself to take a step back and allow myself to just sit back and chill. Vacation package sites are perfect for this. All I have to do is click a few buttons and, just like that, my whole vacation can be planned – often for unbelievably low prices. Are you ready to take some time to pamper yourself and enjoy a no-stress vacation from start to finish? If so, I have the perfect travel site for you.

Great Value Vacations is a great site for … well, finding great value vacations! Can you even believe it? … Although the name may come off as a little used car salesman-y, Great Value Vacations excels at helping you find the best deals on vacation packages; in fact, they have been doing so since the 1980s, making them one of the longest-running, most reputable sites for vacation packages on the web today.

For nearly 4 decades straight, Great Value Vacations has been aiding travelers in finding the most affordable vacation packages available. This is not just another random travel site; this is the real deal. They are widely considered to be the authority on value vacation packages. Any time that I am considering a vacation package, I always look to Great Value Vacations before all other vacation packages sites (and I have done so for years).

What makes Great Value Vacations a top contender for finding the best vacation packages? Well, other than, of course, the site’s Great Value, that is? Great Value Vacations really ticks all of the boxes of what it takes to be a great travel site. It offers user-friendly site design, plenty of ways to search and find precisely the perfect vacation for you, and even a top-tier travel blog to get you inspired and excited for your next trip.

Great Value Vacations not only has some of the best vacation packages out there, but the site is also a joy to use. But don’t just take my word for it. Let’s take a closer look at this incredible travel site so that you can see for yourself why it has everybody raving, from The New York Times to Fodor’s Travel.

Who is Great Value Vacations For?

The Great Value Vacations site is elegant, professional, sleek, and easy to use. Every page of this site is expertly designed to be both aesthetically pleasing and as intuitive as possible. As soon as you land on the homepage, Great Value Vacations wows you with a banner that takes up the whole page (until you scroll, that is). Here, you will find high-resolution images of beautiful destinations, featured deals that draw you in. Spending just 5 seconds on this site, I came dangerously close to booking a Hawaiian getaway that I had no intention of taking this year!

At the top of this beautiful banner is the site menu bar, making it quick and easy for you to browse vacation deals however you see fit. Discover vacation packages via the following categories: destinations, limited time offers, or travel inspiration. Each tab has a responsive and dynamic dropdown menu with tons of options to choose from.

One thing, though, I will say, that is notably missing from this site is a search engine. The only way to browse deals on Great Value Vacations is to, well, browse rather manually. Most sites that offer vacation packages enable their users to input some sort of search queries, like departure date, destination, number of guests, etc. Here, though, you have to choose from a predetermined list (and then filter results from there).

Speaking of, once you do get to the vacation packages results page, there are plenty of filtering options for you to customize. Choose multiple destinations, if you like, and filter by city, vacation type, interest, departure month, departure date, trip length, and a number of travelers. All of these parameters are conveniently and cleanly spanning the left-hand side of the page, making for a very nicely organized browsing experience.

How are Great Value Vacations so cheap?

As far as features go, save for being able to find and book the best vacation packages on the web and keep up with a world-class travel blog, there aren’t all that many features to mention. Then again, what more could you ask for?

Each travel package, as one would expect, comes with ample information. In fact, Great Value Vacations even breaks your hypothetical trip down by day, showing you everything that is included and various activities that you can partake in during your stay. Most vacation packages on the site come with the option, too, to adjust the number of days on the fly, as well as to change your departure airport at any point in the searching and browsing process.

Sign up for Great Value Vacations’ newsletter to have plenty of cheap vacation packages sent directly to your inbox as soon as they become available.

One feature that I would like to see Great Value Vacations offer in the future is a loyalty program. I am of the belief that any site that asks you to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars at a time should offer some sort of perk once you patronize them several times. Some kind of additional discount, for instance, after you accumulate a certain number of points would be a good place to start.

Does Great Value Vacations have an app?

Every site has at least its Achilles Heel. For Great Value Vacations, that happens to be the fact that there are no mobile apps available (at least as of the time of this review). That means no app for iOS or Android users; there isn’t even an APK download available anywhere (at least not that I was able to find). This is a bold move, if you ask me, to have a travel site in 2021 that doesn’t offer a mobile app.

That being said, the mobile version of the site is optimized well enough for mobile devices. So, if you don’t mind having to use your phone’s internet browser to access Great Value Vacations, perhaps this won’t be a big deal for you. In my opinion, though, an app is always better.

What could be better on Great Value Vacations?

Well, naturally, I would suggest that Great Value Vacations develop mobile apps for better on-the-go vacation package booking. Once again, I would also like to see the site enact some sort of loyalty program to reward longtime customers (such as myself). Lastly, the addition of a search function prominently featured on the homepage would make for, I think, a smoother user experience overall.

What I Like about Great Value Vacations

-Longevity; company has been around since the 1980s

-Full-service online travel agency (no 3^rd-party bookings, etc.)

-Unique and affordable vacation packages

-Great travel blog as well

What I Dislike about Great Value Vacations

-No mobile apps

-No loyalty/rewards program

David Jones

I am a professional travel writer and travel enthusiast who traveled the world twice, so I am sharing my firsthand knowledge about everything related to travel and spending time abroad.