Travelling to the US- do it yourself or use and agent

PierremontQuaker03

Hi, I am looking to travel to the US with the family in July, and want to go to New York, Florida (Disney land and Universal studios) and then Las Vegas.  In total about 2 weeks.  Just wondering as it personalised shall I book it myself or should I use an agent to book everything through - as they may get discounts for flights, hotels, disneyland tickets, plus I get additional help if there are flight cancellations etc. Any recommendations on who to use?

eskbanker

I'm not convinced that an agent would necessarily secure better prices, but you can always go to several for a quote, and compare it with what you can obtain on a DIY basis - having said that, there is certainly value in having everything bundled into a package holiday with protections under the Package Travel Regulations.

That sounds an ambitious itinerary for two weeks by the way!

jackieblack

Pedant alert...

Disneyland is in California, if you're going to Florida make sure any tickets you book are for Walt Disney World 

And I agree with eskbanker, that's an ambitious itinerary if your want to do more than a cursory flyby of any of the destinations on your itinerary, particularly in the kind of temperatures likely in July. 

davelewis

Years ago, we booked San Francisco, LA and Vegas with a car as a package with Virgin Holidays. Then the volcano went off over Iceland and we were stuck in Vegas. Virgin Holidays were amazing - moved us to another strip hotel and paid for everything. If we had have booked independently, we would have had to fend for ourselves!! If you intend to do a multi stop USA holiday, I would recommend a package holiday. 

jackieblack

davelewis said:

Years ago, we booked San Francisco, LA and Vegas with a car as a package with Virgin Holidays. Then the volcano went off over Iceland and we were stuck in Vegas. Virgin Holidays were amazing - moved us to another strip hotel and paid for everything. If we had have booked independently, we would have had to fend for ourselves!! If you intend to do a multi stop USA holiday, I would recommend a package holiday. 

We were caught in that too, we’d flown into San Francisco, driven across to Yosemite and then back to the coast at Monterey and down the PCH to fly home from LA - we’d only booked a flydrive with Virgin Holidays but they sent us to a Hyatt Regency in Garden Grove for a few days, followed by a few days in Long Beach before flying us home 8 days later than planned. I was very glad we’d booked as a package, we had it much easier than friends who’d booked flights only

Voyager2002

Do make very sure if you book through an agent that you get a proper package holiday, with an ATOL certificate.

If you book flights with one agent and hotels with another then you are at great risk.