NOT EXPEDIA! Any other options?

Expedia, Orbitz, etc. are all a form of a travel agency. Have you tried Travel Zoo? Sort of a discount travel package group. There are others like Travel Zoo.

Individual airlines sometimes offer package deals, too. Depending on where you want to go, you might check with Aer Lingus, Delta or others to see what they offer.

I've had excellent experience with Orbitz on a number of occasions. Priceline has let me down BIGtime. I try and book directly with the airline when I can, and sometimes actually get an awesome deal. IcelandAir springs to mind as a good airline to deal with - so is Air France.

Tia, why not just book your hotel and airfare seperately yourself? I have never done a pacakage deal, but I have looked at them and usually I don't like the hotels they use anyways.. always bigger chain ones it seems and they usually say "centrally located " but they often are not that central..

But sometimes the package can be a very good deal even with the limitations. We just snagged a package deal out of New York to Rome for 9 nights, May 9th to Rome, for $1600 including all hotels, car rental, and a couple of other benefits. Saw it at 11 am and had it booked by 2 pm. That is almost the price of the airfare alone.

Frank, you have a real home now and are no longer living in a van down by the river. No need to go globe trotting around in search of free wifi.

We had over 400 packed boxes. The majority are still sitting in every room with only a hundred or so unpacked. It is BORING and horribly slow to unpack boxes and try to find place to put the stuff. We always knew where are travel boxes are so when this popped up we said, WE are out of here !!!!

EuropeanDestinations.com is another one with European travel packages to popular places. They advertise heavily online, and the prices appear very reasonable.

Check out some European airlines for package deals if that's what you want. Air France is a good starting point followed by British Airways or Lufthansa. We prefer to book our own air and hotels going to London or Paris or anywhere else for that matter. It's really easy to find deals on air then contact hotels individually on their websites. You might get on www.tripadvisor.com and see what the veteran travelers on there say on the Paris forum. We have used Orbitz in the past and were very pleased with them.

I like skyscanner.com for booking European flights. I also really like booking.com for hotels.

Unless it's really important to you to stay in a formal US/business-style hotel, I'd suggest booking flight and lodging separately. I'm perfectly happy in simple lodging, but want a central location, very near the sites. I always do better booking my own hotel... better location, cheaper, more convenient, part of the local culture. The lodging usually has fewer "stars" than what the package deals offer, but I find the experience much better. I commonly locate lodging using the Rick Steves guides or the website Eurocheapo... and then check their reviews on various websites (looking mostly for recurring themes in recent negative reviews, since positive reviews can be faked). And it's easy to book directly using email.

Try farecompare.com. It will give you several websites fares, and you select the best price with a site you feel comfortable with. I received a great fare going to Paris this summer.

@Karen, "you have a real home now and are no longer living in a van down by the river." LOL! I sure enjoyed those Matt Foley skits on SNL! @tia, I find it easier to book air tickets directly on the airline website for domestic travel, and using a Travel Agent for international trips. When going to Europe, I book on the hotel websites and deal with them directly. As you've had problems with Expedia, you could try Orbitz, Priceline or any of the others. You might also try Hipmunk for flight searches. Cheers!

I likewise vote separate flight and hotel bookings. For the most comprehensive flight booking information, I find that the app "ITA On The Fly" is best for a look at a 30 day window of prices and time slots using most of the major carriers. No link available to the airlines...just flight numbers, layovers, price etc. You just use this information when you contact the airline directly. Was able to use the information found using this app in Dublin to help the Aer Lingus desk person find flights for us after hurrican Sandy! Was able to come up with flight information much quicker on my iPhone than he could on his computer!!! Dan