the Cost of Travel Agents

The service was a visit to an old fashion (not internet) actual travel agency. We were required to go through this particular agency because the trip was a group trip and the contract we were under required us to use this travel agency. Otherwise we probably would have booked online. The service from the travel agency we used included everything related to our trip, including airline tickets, hotel, and rental car. It was a big package deal.

We came in pretty skeptical because of our "comfort zone" of booking on internet sites. We had some sort of gut feeling that it saves money to book online and that the travel agency would rip us off. However, we came out of the experience pleasantly surprised. We got what we thought was a good overall deal, charing a $30 fee overall per person with everything included. We remember paying similar prices online. Perhaps a bit less online but this service was very convieient and did take a lot of stress off of us and let us relax more before the trip. For that the small increase in fees was well worth it.

My tip would be to consider the actual agency if you want to be able to relax more. If booking online is easy for you, do it because it does save money. If it stresses you out, go to an agency because it isn't that much more.