Self Booked Honeymoon vs Travel Agent booked honeymoon... what are you doing?

We will be self booking or I will be doing the booking. I love to read reviews first.

We'll be using a travel agent, like I almost ways do. I've had issues checking in before, and I've called my agent and they dealt with it (wonderful thing to be able to do when in a different country!)

Just an FYI....Liberty Travel does price matching. For a trip to Mexico a few months ago, we found a good deal on Expedia. We booked using Liberty but got the Expedia price.

I think FH is using both to plan the honeymoon. I am not sure if travel agents are worth the price.

We had planned on self-booking but my aunt is giving us a honeymoon to Aruba through her timeshare. I'm used to having a lot more control over the process but it was a blessing financially to not worry about it!

Travel agents make their money on commission paid by the hotel or cruise, not you, you pay them nothing. The industry changed, and unless you are taking a cruise, they likely can't get you a better deal, but they can get you the same deal PLUS some perks.

My family has always used travel agents. We go through the ones at CAA (Canadian Automotive Association-similar to AAA) since we have memberships and it doesn't cost us a thing. We used one for our honeymoon to Mexico. Was just so much easier and I wasn't in the mood to go shopping around a million websites on the Internet since we didn't know exactly where we wanted to go, just a rough idea. Our travel agent was fabulous.

To echo Pezzy, travel agents are paid a commission by the hotels/airlines/cruises etc. you may want to visit. The thing about travel agents is that there is actually a lot of training available to agents with information that's not readily available to the "casual" traveler. For instance, as a Disney Earmarked agent, I get the list of upcoming specials sooner and since I would be tracking your vacation for you, I would be looking for open meal times (important if you want a nice sit down meal at Disney). If someone were to ask me about a location I didn't know nothing about, I could take a course through the travel agent university and have more than just quick hit facts within 10 - 15 minutes for you. For me, the vacation doesn't come down to price, it comes down to value and if I am going someplace new, I want help planning by someone that has access to different information than I do!

It totally depends on what kind of vacation you want and how much knowledge you have of the area, and how much time and effort you're prepared to give up to save a small amount of money. Travel agent's prices vs booking yourself are usually about the same.

My sister is a travel agent but she specializes in religious tours in Europe. Traveling between countries, in a place you don't know the language... she has physically been to these places and has inside information. For something like that, yeah, I would use a travel agent.

We booked our honeymoon ourselves (to Universal Studios resort). I did check with a regular travel agent and her prices were about the same, slightly higher. I would have booked with her just to save myself time and effort, except I just plain didn't like her, and in my area she's it. Booking at a major tourist-y place like Florida resorts is pretty straightforward anyways.

Normally I'd always book myself, but for our HM I went through a travel agent with the airline. Mostly it was because we were traveling to 2 different locations in the country and had quite a few transfers and I figured if there were any delays or issues, they'd be responsible to get us back on track. As far as price, I was able to get a better rate but only because they held a last minute promo which discounted the airfare for us.

We won't book the honeymoon through a travel agent - we will book the hotel and the flights direct. (It isn't a hard trip to book)

However I have used travel agents before. Actually I just booked a holiday through one, yesterday. (They seem to be way more used in the UK- big companies and small ones as well)

It really depends where I am going and what I need to book.

We are using a travel agent to book everything for our destination wedding/honeymoon. The agents alway have access to perks regular travelers don't. And they get paid to know the areas.

We have an agent so we can register for that in addition to normal stuff. We already live together so we don't need blenders and toasters. We are paying for our wedding so what we do need is a Honeymoon. I don't have the time or knowledge to do it myself. I agree with one of the previous posters that a TA can get you a good deal and some extra perks sometimes. Ours is really nice and doing whatever she can to get us a deal because she knows we have a budget.

I'm planning ours...I'm pretty travel savvy and I have a close friend that has traveled internationally for the last 30 years or so and she is my advisor.

If you are planing multiple stops I suggests sites like booking.com to use...you can book most rooms for free and cancel up to 3 days before the check in date which is great for finding better deals and not being out deposit cash. Flights are a bit tougher and depending on when you are flying look for sales (Tuesday mornings) to get the best rate.

On a side note I got a rewards credit card for travel so I could start racking up points now. Several companies have them and of your vendors take cards than you just bill the card and pay them off so you get all those points!

Double check with your cards that you can use them internationally too...some have fees. I've had my capital one for years since they were one of the first ones to have no international transaction fees!!! Good luck!

I've only used a travel agent when going to Africa until my honeymoon planning. We're doing Hawaii and I was getting overwhelmed by the options and wanting to make sure we were at a nice place, etc. It doesn't cost us anything extra for her to do the work of finding and booking flights and hotels and I couldn't find anything less expensive than she did at the same places.

I guess one of the plus sides is also what happened to my one friend on her Hawaii honeymoon. When they reached one resort they weren't happy so they called the travel agent and she had to deal with fixing, rebooking, etc. They could lounge by the pool.