Honeymoon help

09McSteph03

Ladies - I know some of you have referenced using a travel agency.  How did you pick yours?  Can you shop around with travel agencies?  I haven't ever used one and I am confused as to how it works.  We have a good idea of what we want to do, so should I price it all out myself before going to a travel agent to have them work on it?  Do I go in person?  I feel travel stupid right now.  Someone explain and point me in a direction.  Thanks!

SewInLoveWithDMB

We are using a travel agent for our honeymoon and used the same agent last year for a trip to Bermuda.

The way ours works, and I believe all should, is that you do not pay them a fee. They will do the research for you and book under their company, and their bookings are what get them paid.

I found that in some instances, I could have saved some money - but not necessarily.  For Bermuda, there were options that would have been slightly cheaper, but we had upgrades that were included in our base price that we would not have had if we hadn't used the agent. For the honeymoon, the rate for our hotel is cheaper than if we booked at that hotel ourselves, but of course there were other hotels that could have been cheaper. Some were slightly outside of the main downtown area, but had other perks (free parking, breakfast). Ours does not, but is in a "better" location, and the rooms are nicer. (Not staying at a chain, but rather a higher end private hotel...if that makes sense. The chain is cheaper, outside the city and has the other perks, but this is more "honeymoon" like and special for the occasion.) 

However, I trust her recommendations, and presume that there is some level of "screening" as to why she suggested the hotels/cruise lines that she did.

My mom works with a dog rescue group, and this woman is part of the group - so that is how I found her. 

09McSteph03

Thanks Sew!  Sounds like it cannot hurt to reach out to someone and see if they can organize what we want within our budget.

ashbay22

We used a travel agent that is amazing! My fiance and his family have used her forever! They said all of the trips that she has booked for them have been outstanding! She will go above and beyond to get upgrades for her clients. They get a lot more perks than if you book your trip yourself. Plus, it makes it very stress free for you. You give a budget and they will send you options so that you can decide if you want to book it or not. You should give ours a call or email. I don't think you have to live near her to use her. It can't hurt to see if it would make a good decision to go with the travel agent. 

Her name is Mimi Mulligan. Her number is (858)775-2585 and her email is mimiluvtvl@aol.com. She is with Cadence Travel. Tell her Ashley Bay and Evan Campbell sent you. Let me know if it works out!

libby18bell

FI and I have AAA, and were going to use their travel agent, but in the end it would cost at least 1k more than what we ended up finding on travelocity.  It doesn't hurt to go in and talk to the travel agent, that's what we did and got information on where the better places to stay were and what not.  In the end we just compared prices of what he could get us, and what various websites did and went with the best for the least.  

hardlyhannah

We are using an agent similar to Sew - with going to Australia/New Zealand we had no idea where to start so the guidance is hugely helpful. We just gave a budget and now we are working through the day to day details to get everything to work out!

I love it, it will be nice to not debate what we should be doing each day, which when we have traveled far in the past booking ourselves (we have been to Europe together) that's what we end up doing.

mochietoe

We did not use a travel agent as we are renting a house for a week and just found it online. Before we decided to rent a house though we were going to go to AAA and use one of their agents. 

mochietoe

Look into travel insurance, I am super glad we got it. It was only like $105 to cover the house rental in case for some reason we cannot go (work/hurricane/whatever). We went through travelguard.com.

libby18bell

@Coopergirl, we also have AAA, but because we are going to St. Martin they don't have discounts or anything I guess.  The agent was very helpful, but in the end it wasn't worth the cost, and he couldn't get us the best resort, not sure why.  We also did trip insurance, and it cost hardly nothing compared to the entire trip, and since we are going at the tale end of hurricane season we weren't taking a chance.

Since I have been working 10-15 hour days this entire month, at least 5/6 days a week, October can't come soon enough.  As of right now I'm not even planning on taking my computer, and I might splurge for an ipad to take instead, since FI already has one.

09McSteph03

thanks everyone - the advice is helpful. I am going to put some ideas together and then make some calls to see what we can do.