Land-only pricing, explained

A price for an eight-day trip to Bali that includes the flight looks like a simpler number than one that does not. It is also a number that is wrong for most of the people reading it, and it hides the part of the cost that moves the most.

Land-only means the ground. On every international departure we run, the figure on the page covers what happens after you arrive at the start point: accommodation, the transport between places, the guiding, the entries and permits listed in the inclusions, and the meals we name. It does not cover your international flight, your visa or entry fee, or your travel insurance. Those three sit in the "not included" column on the trip page, individually, so you are never guessing what the price does.

Why we split it. An airfare from Delhi and an airfare from Kochi to the same city on the same day are routinely thousands of rupees apart, and the same seat on the same flight can move by half its value between a Tuesday and a Saturday. A packaged price has to absorb all of that, which it does the only way it can: by quoting the worst case and keeping the difference. If you have miles, a credit-card voucher, a low-cost carrier from your own city, or the flexibility to fly a day early, an inclusive price takes all of that away from you.

There is a second reason, and it matters more than the first. A land-only number is checkable. You can put our inclusions next to somebody else's and see the difference in what is actually being delivered on the ground — the hotel category, whether lunches are in or out, whether entries are covered, whether the Bhutan Sustainable Development Fee is inside the price or waiting for you at the border. Once a flight is folded in, none of that is visible any more.

How to compare fairly. Take our figure, add a real quote for the flight from your own airport on your own dates, add the visa fee from the destination page, add insurance. That total is the one to hold against an inclusive package — and when you do it, check what the package includes on the ground before you decide which is cheaper. In our experience the gap is smaller than it looks, and it is usually explained by two hotel nights and four lunches.

One practical note. Book your seats with us first and your flight second. Departures have a minimum group size, and a fixed date only runs once it is met. Nobody should be holding a non-refundable airfare for a departure that has not yet been confirmed — the desk will tell you the moment yours is.