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Of beach vacations and travel agents
DrZiplock
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Looking to take a bit of a 4-6 day break from the world someplace where the water is very very blue, the drinks are good and there aren't many other people around, as this will be with my lady.
I've been down to the Caribbean a few times and it was great, but I also here wonderful things about Costa Rica, etc. Obviously I'd like it to not entirely break the bank so I've been looking at things like Living Social, Groupon Travel and all that. And then it occurred to me that travel agents still exist.
Anyone have any experience with them? I used one long ago, but I'm thinking that it wouldn't be bad to show up and kinda lay out what i'm looking for. Of course, if anyone here has suggestions that would be awesome as well. Any online agents out there? Find a local one?
Send me your wisdom!
Thanks.
I've been down to the Caribbean a few times and it was great, but I also here wonderful things about Costa Rica, etc. Obviously I'd like it to not entirely break the bank so I've been looking at things like Living Social, Groupon Travel and all that. And then it occurred to me that travel agents still exist.
Anyone have any experience with them? I used one long ago, but I'm thinking that it wouldn't be bad to show up and kinda lay out what i'm looking for. Of course, if anyone here has suggestions that would be awesome as well. Any online agents out there? Find a local one?
Send me your wisdom!
Thanks.
0
Posts
Living social/Groupon does have good deals, but i'd be so nervous something would go haywire and i'd have a lovely round trip plane ticket to the caribbean and no hotel.
I'd recommend checking living social daily as they have a vacation section, but yeah follow up with a travel agent too, see if they can get you a comparable deal, never hurts to check!
They are not always cheaper, but they are convenient and are rarely much more than buying the same thing yourself. The real savings is usually in selecting "off" airlines or going to hostels and other places that are looser with their reservations. LivingSocial, Gilt, Groupon, and other sites follow the same model where they reserve a section of rooms for their deal and then offer those at the discounted rate. Typically these are cheaper because they entice people to select a location/hotel that they may not select if they chose on their own, and when you DO choose on your own, you usually don't get any discount because these places figure you were going to travel there anyway.
Example: Booked a recent trip for me, my wife, my Mom, her sister and brother in law, and a cousin. We were all traveling from different starting points and working with different budgets. I gave the travel agent the run down, and she took care of everything. On the way back weather delayed our return for a day, and instead of having to call 4 airlines and re-book six tickets, I made one call and she took care of the rest (including filing claims with our travel insurance). I figure we probably paid about $400 more through her than I could have done online (total for the 6 people including airfare and accommodations) but it was well worth it in my opinion.
If you're just making plans for you and your girl, you can almost certainly do it cheaper than an agent will, and the hassle isn't that huge.
It's my understanding that a lot of these places have local property managers who can manage/recommend transportation to and from the airport, and are great at recommending local activities. We definitely found that to be the case with our trip.
Just throwing that out there.
http://www.dreamsresorts.com/drepc/
I have a hard time reading this post without imagining the Una-bomber kickin' it poolside in swim trunks a hoodie and aviators.
I work for Sun Country and with our international flights you can buy a package through apple vacations, or if you own a place down there you can buy just the airfare
Oh, I'm sure I could put it together as well, but you actually hit the nail on the head. We'd be traveling from different cities at different times to try and get to the same place at the same time. I'm not looking to save that much money, but I am looking to remove a bit of the hassle.
I'm a fan of vrbo. Hadn't realized that they did international. Hm. A small cottage on the beach would be nice. Really, I just don't want to deal with a whole lot of people.
A decent travel agent probably won't save you much money but they'll have your back if things go wrong. I was very glad we used an agent to book our honeymoon - when we ended up having flight delays, we called them (off hours!) and explained our situation and by the time we'd landed from our puddle jumper to LaGuardia they'd already taken care of rebooking everything and getting us comped rooms and meals.
So they're not necessary but man are they helpful when you're in a jam. I'd suggest looking through AAA if you're a member because then you're already paying for their services and I have nothing but good things to say about our local office.
The only sport I practiced there was eating, swimming and sun bathing. The Gym was kind of small, but decent though.
My wife and I just went to Aruba in November - highly recommended if you stay out of the "Highrise hotel" area - we had an apartment-style hotel room literally across the road from a beautiful beach.
>edit - this is making me want to go back, especially with this week's crappy NYC weather. Here's a shot of where we stayed, in case you're interested:
This.
The all-inclusive joints in the DR, Jamaica, etc. have a notorious reputation for dicking you around re; your room upon arrival. They might conveniently forget your upgrade, or ask to put you in one room for one night only to bounce you around once your real room is "ready".
In most cases all you need to do if you find yourself getting the short end of the stick when checking in is to politely say "Oh let me call my travel agent and put you on with them" and the odds are the problem will get quickly resolved.
They don't want to get on a travel agents shit list, so they will usually work to fix the problem immediately.