TRAVEL AGENTS

Matt,
I am afraid you have picked the wrong helpline to ask for recommendations for a travel agent. Most people here work without a travel agent and prefer it. I am not sure how the travel agent world is these days so I have no recommendations, but why not ask your questions and see what we can tell you. Even those without travel industry credentials are quite savvy and perhaps we can all pitch in and get you started. Do you want to do a tour or travel indedpently? If you care talking about September this year you need to get started and you can do do by checking the airline websites for the fares. You can arrive in a German city (Munich/Frankfurt) and leave out of Italy so save having to backtrack. Good luck.

Thanks Nadine. We're going to pass on the tour and try to do it ourselves. I welcome any travel tricks (airfare, trains, places to stay, places to eat or off the path places to see), as this will be our first time to Europe.

Matt,
You are posting under the wrong topic.
Why not got to the relevant tabs and ask your questions? Give us an idea of what you want to do - the cities you want to visit, the duration of your trip, and how long you want to spend in each city.
On this tab you can ask you transportation questions.
If you are in Texas then you should check AA website and see what the fares are traveling to Europe.Maybe fly into Munich and out of Rome? We can't advise you unless we have an idea of what you want to do. You can also read the various posts and see if that helps you answer some questions. Right now you have to decide the cities you want to arrive at and leave from, and what you want to do between those two points. September is a wonderful time to travel in Europe so you are already on the right track.

Hi Matt,

This is not an answer to your question about a recommendation for a travel agent but, another option is to plan your own itinerary.

Many travelers on this site enjoy the planning and anticipation of a trip to Europe almost as much as the actual journey! If you and your wife have some time and the help of good guidebooks, you might enjoy putting your trip together.

Just in case that's something you'd consider, here's some info on itinerary planning to get you started!

Itinerary Skills

Best wishes!

Get a copy of Rick Steves' "Europe Through the Back Door." Consider it a beginning class in European travel. It will answer many of your questions.

Matt...
If you really do not wish to do all the "homework" involved in an independent trip to Europe try contacting your local AAA office and ask for an agent that has a CTC. These are agents who have worked long and hard to improve there knowledge and usually have been an agent for years. Be aware that many agents will charge for a custom tour.

Good luck

Rather than repeat what other have said, here is why most do not use agents on this forum: To book a flight, hotels, trains, and other transportation for an independent trip takes time, knowledge and effort. In your previous trips to Mexico, you may have went the all-inclusive route or stayed at a hotel that caters to tourists. In these cases, the Agent makes a commision for selling the tour package, basically helping you pick the one that sounds best to you.

For an independent trip, each element is picked separately. There no longer is a commision on air fares purchased from airlines, the agent only gets what small fee they can charge you above the cost of the ticket. In looking for rooms, an agent is most likely going to come up with a mainstream type hotel that will be costlier, less quaint, and probably via a roomfinding service that offers a commission to people who book rooms. For train tickets, do a search and see what comes up. Raileurope is the premier ticket site for US customers and will help you or an agent book your itinerary in one easy place...for a hefty mark-up on tickets over going to the individual country rail sites.

In summary, an agent has very little incentive to spend hours planning the trip (unless you arrange a fee for hours of service) and coming up with the best lowest cost itinerary. Add to that the rooms and even train tickets that many on here get, simply do not show up on the sites mentioned above. They require contacting individual Hotel owners, looking for rail specials, doing the work yourself.

I will add that a number of people, even on this site, use a travel agent to purchase Airfare. They feel that the extra dollars nominally spent are returned in the agent having more knowledge of where to get lower fares (though search on your own to know if it is a lower fare),For using someone experienced that will correctly book tickets (connections, name correct, etc.) and for having a single point of contact in case something goes wrong. Whether this is for you is up to you. Myself, I no longer use an Agent.

As an Industry Professional, I am still convinced that a GOOD Travel Consultant is a Traveler's Best Friend. I'm not currently a Travel Consultant. I'm not a fan of being chained to a desk arranging for fabulous trips that I'm not taking. I'd much rather fly.

Besides, it can be hard to make a go commission wise. Internet savvy travelers can book online so easily now. It seems that many of us have forgotten the value of a Travel Professionals advice. It's a DIY world until it gets complicated.

Ask your friends and family for a referral. If they have received good service I'm sure they will be happy to pass on the good word.

Safe Skies,

f/a

I use a travel agent for air travel and insurance. I arrange my own hostels, hotels, internal travel etc.

If you do need one, my travel agent handles European travel arrangements very well and is budget-conscious. She will do all the bookings and provide additional information vital to making your trip as good as possible, but charges for the complete service. Still saves you money and the time savings while in Europe are even better.

I always do alot of the research myself so I know what I want and what it should cost but when it comes time to actually booking the airline tickets, I have still found that an agent finds the better deal - and is insured in case anything goes wrong.

Thanks to everyone for their insight. I was able to book airfare for two into Franfurt then leaving out of Rome for under $1,500...I think I got a fair deal. Thanks again!