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The vacation packages featured by Costco Travel make a familiar, super-sized promise to Costco shoppers: Y'all can save by prioritizing quality and buying in majority. And for value-seeking travelers looking for a niggling bit of luxury, the wholesale giant delivers.

These vacation packages, which more often than not include posh accommodations, select meals and basis transportation, aren't available at bargain-butt rates. But they're quick to book and competitively priced. For some, they might exist the nearly toll-efficient ticket to a lavish getaway.

Earlier you book

To book one of these vacation packages, you demand to provide a Costco membership number at checkout. Memberships get-go at $60 a twelvemonth, plus tax. With the Gold Star Executive membership, which costs $120 a twelvemonth, you lot'll get additional Costco Travel benefits and ii% back (up to $ane,000 in annual rewards) on qualifying Costco, Costco.com and Costco Travel purchases.

Why the holiday packages are worth trying

With a holiday parcel booked through Costco Travel — which also offers a la carte booking services for hotels, theme parks, auto rentals and cruises — you tin can visit destinations like Rome, Paris or Cancun.

Ginka Poole visits St. Lucia during a trip booked through Costco. (Photo courtesy of Ginka Poole)

The logistics are covered

On the Costco Travel website, it'due south possible to book a full itinerary — fifty-fifty including the auto ride from the airport to your hotel — in just a few minutes. For Ginka Poole of Nashville, Tennessee, this was a big draw.

"For a vacation, information technology'due south good to kind of plow your encephalon off for a while and not have to worry," says Poole, a travel blogger and photographer. "You pick your destination, and there aren't besides many other choices you lot need to make."

In 2017, she used the service to purchase a trip to St. Lucia , a Caribbean area island, with her hubby. The package she bought, which cost most $6,000 for a weeklong stay, included ground transportation, the resort stay, breakfast every day, get-go-class flights and a credit for a tour.

The benefits and accommodations are top-notch

Say you lot booked a seven-twenty-four hour period holiday parcel from San Francisco to London and Paris for two. For $4,900, yous'd get these goodies:

• Nonstop economic system flights

• Transportation to and from the aerodrome

• A superior queen room in a London hotel with a daily English breakfast, three-course dinner for two, champagne afternoon tea service and an appointment with the hotel concierge

• A $400 tour credit in London

• Standard premier railway tickets from London to Paris

• A premium room in a Paris hotel with a daily breakfast buffet

To exist sure, you could easily book a similar trip for less than $iv,900 if you nixed some of those extras. But you'd be hard-pressed to find the same level of amenities and benefits at a lower price on other travel aggregators.

Nerdy tip: When booking through Costco Travel, y'all tin can become 3% greenbacks dorsum on your buy when you pay with your Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi . If you don't have that card, attempt using one that offers extra rewards for travel or apartment-rate rewards.

Parita Kuttappan and her husband, Vishnu Kuttappan, visit the Haleakala Crater in Maui on a trip booked through Costco Travel. (Photo courtesy of Parita Kuttappan)

For Parita Kuttappan of Chicago — who booked a trip to Maui and Kauai  for herself, her husband and her mother-in-law and father-in-law through Costco Travel — those fancy stays were worth the toll.

"Our accommodations were amazing — exactly what we thought we were going to exist getting," says Kuttappan, who founded the lifestyle weblog My Inner Shakti. The resorts they stayed at were beautifully decorated, spacious and comfy, she notes.

Itineraries are somewhat customizable

Vacation packages on Costco Travel come up with a basic itinerary, just you generally handle the details yourself. After selecting your dates and destination, you can add flights, upgrade your room or brand other tweaks. And then, it'south up to you to program daily activities.

In Kauai, "We took a helicopter bout of the island, and that was something I will never forget," Kuttappan says, noting that she booked the tour separately from her package. "It was absolutely breathtaking. Nosotros got to come across the canyon there, and the unlike waterfalls and an aerial view of the entire island, which was admittedly astonishing."

The downsides of vacation packages

Here's why you might not desire to book a vacation parcel through Costco Travel.

It's not cheap

Vacation packages tin offer a neat value, but don't expect clearance prices. While the website features select packages for less than $499 per person, multiday trips with airfare by and large run well over $1,000 per person.

"I would say [it's] a great deal if you're looking for convenience and willing to spend a little bit actress," Kuttappan says, who besides used the service to book a trip to Italian republic with her husband.

If trimming costs is your priority, yous might be ameliorate off booking cheaper accommodations and flights elsewhere.

Not all expenses are included

Holiday packages frequently include some meals and benefits, but they don't cover everything.

Poole and her married man were surprised to notice they spent an average of nigh $400 a day purchasing alcohol, dejeuner and dinner at the resort in St. Lucia, she says. (Breakfast came included in their package.) While online reviewers noted that the food at the resort was expensive, Poole says she didn't realize how plush it was until she got the final nib for their stay.

"I practice wish at that place would accept been a trivial more than data either from reviewers or from Costco themselves saying, 'This is what you're going to spend,'" she says. To avoid surprises like these, inquire the holding yous're staying at about food costs beforehand and rails expenses during your stay.

You'll mostly go to major hotels and resorts

Well-nigh of the hotels and resorts listed on Costco Travel are relatively large, oft boasting hundreds of rooms. These properties tin can get you lot easy access to coffee, food and a gym — but they might non take you very far off the beaten path.

"You're going to get a big resort. You're non going to get a nice bazaar hotel," Poole says.

The verdict

If you lot'd happily stay at a depression-cost cabin while traveling away if it meant saving coin, booking a vacation package through Costco Travel but doesn't brand sense. But for those who desire to land a swanky hotel and set-made itinerary for a reasonable cost, information technology might be the fastest and most cost-effective option.

How to maximize your rewards

Y'all want a travel credit bill of fare that prioritizes what's of import to y'all. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2022 , including those all-time for:

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Source: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/costco-travel-vacation-packages-luxury-value

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