travel agency for sandals or do it yourself?

BrideColby

My fiance and i are thinking about going to St. Lucia/Sandals for our Honeymoon. In terms of saving money and getting the best deal, is it better to book yourself or go through a travel agency?

Thank you for your help!

Also, any advice on which ST Lucia Sandals property is best to stay at for beach, pools, romance, excursions?

[Deleted User]

I always book on my own. I book the resort first,only putting down the deposit and then I book the airfare later. I wait to pay off the final balance until the end. That way if sandals runs a better deal (for that resort)than what I originally booked at, I can call them and get that better deal(as long as that room category has not been booked up).

We have Whitehouse booked for next year and I have yet to pay off the balance as I know that cyber Mondays sometimes Sandals runs really good specials. Providing our room category is not booked up and Sandals runs a good special on cyber Monday I plan on calling them and getting the reduced rate.

So far we have been to the Grande St. Lucian twice Negril once, Antigua once and Whitehouse once.

I have reviews and pictures from all of our Sandals trips in the link above my siggy pic if you would like to check it out( if that is no longer working I poserdd it in the sandals thread below yours).. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

caitlinmca

We booked our HM on our own, granted we had a bit of help through the sandals chat, but its only because we had a military discount on top of the "up to 65% off" discount that they were already running.

dolewhipper

Travel Agents do not cost anything to you. Research yourself then find a TA you believe to be good (based on experience) and see if they can find you something better. Good news is they will constantly be checking for better deals (like the Cyber Monday) if they are a good TA.

msuprincess04

In my experience, travel agents are great if you are going to more than one location. Otherwise, I have found they don't have the buying power of a major travel website, and can't offer as large of a discount. This goes double if you are ready to book your flights with your hotel, which can give you a larger discount with a major website over what a travel agent can get you booking them seperately.

dcbride86

We did it ourself.  I'm fairly good at negotiating, so I managed to get a couple tiny extra things thrown in (a little extra for a spa treatment), but I also just wanted to get it booked because my mom was able to use her miles to get our flight so we had to go on our honeymoon on exact dates

BrideColby

Thanks everyone!

dolewhipper

msuprincess04 said:

In my experience, travel agents are great if you are going to more than one location. Otherwise, I have found they don't have the buying power of a major travel website, and can't offer as large of a discount. This goes double if you are ready to book your flights with your hotel, which can give you a larger discount with a major website over what a travel agent can get you booking them seperately.

That major travel website is a travel agency. Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline.....all TAs

ddoane

I went to Sandals last March in Jamaica - booked it myself.  It was super easy, seemed like a good price.  The thing I did not realize is how close our room was to the entertainment.  The music was so  loud, our windows in our room vibrated.  Most nights we were in by 10, so if you are a night owl that may not bother you.  But after all day in the sun with some drinks we were tired early.

Maybe a travel agent would have talked us into a more quiet room.