Travel Agent or going it alone online?

I have always been under to impression that it is cheaper to book your travel needs online through websites like expedia or orbitz. However, last spring I took am all inclusive trip with my high school to London and Paris for 7 days for relitivley cheap ($1600) throuh a travel agency. In others experience what would you recommend? Is it cheaper to go it alone and book online or book with a travel agent?

I formerly worked for a major travel website, so you will probably expect me to say "everyone should use the Internet". Wrong!

The Internet works well for many people but is NOT the best or cheapest option in all cases. Some types of trips can't even be booked on website. Try and find an escorted tour through Europe on one of the major travel websites. (You can't.) Try booking your own cruise online if you've never been on one and don't know anything about them. (You can, but it's not easy.)

Most of our customers booked their trips with no problems. However, I also saw some customers overpay for tickets or make amateur mistakes that a travel agent would never make. They simply didn't know what they were doing and didn't want to put the time and work into proper research. Instead, they saved a service fee and cost themselves much more to do it.

Some of the mistakes were minor, such as booking a $69 a night hotel in an area where all the other hotels were $129 and then complaining that it was three blocks from the beach and hadn't been renovated since 1960. (What did they expect?) Some were catastrophic. People showed up at the airport for a foreign trip without a passport and were mystified that the airline refused to transport them. (The website had the information prominently displayed, but they didn't bother to read it.) In one case, a couple went to an underdeveloped country, ate and drank in a local restaurant, spent the week in the hospital, and demanded a refund for their lost vacation. (They didn't get one. They picked the destination and websites don't give advice. You are your own travel agent.)

In short, the Internet is great if you are a knowledgeable traveler, someone who doesn't mind doing their own research, or if you're booking a simple trip. It's not a good choice if you're inexperienced and need advice or if you need to book a complex itinerary.

I understand that people dislike paying service charges to travel agents. However, some people should. They work hard all year and look forward to a vacation, then screw the whole thing up in order to avoid paying a few bucks to a travel agent. In my opinion, that's silly.

Great answer above from The Shadow - I completely agree with the comments.

You should choose how you book and who with to suit the trip you are taking. A good travel agent can help with your planning and give advice. I've also found on more than one occasion that the local bricks and mortar travel agent is prepared to match the online price offered by expedia or travelocity.

There's a review article about the different online vacation and travel websites here:

http://europe4vacations.com/blogsection/vacation-websites.html

Hope that helps

I feel booking it on-line yourself is definitely the best way to go for saving money. 15 years of vacations, some times 2 and 3 times a year, all of them i have always gotten cheaper prices by far than my friends who go through travel agents.

I wouldn't call a travel agent unless the locations are hard and remote.

I would do both. Get a quote from a travel agent and then do research online. Sometimes travel agents can get better deals but you're also paying a premium for using their service. That's how they make money. Shop around!