What is your favorite travel company?

[FutureDisneyEventPlanner]

Trying to plan a trip to London and Paris for next year. At the end of the trip, we will spend a few days in Disneyland Paris. What is a good, and affordable, travel company you recommend?

Or do you recommend planning everything yourself?

Edit: I used to work for AAA so I know how to book things myself. I just can't decide which company to use.

 

[AndreaDM]

I usually plan everything myself, BUT I just booked a trip to Italy for October through Tripmasters. That is a good site to use for multi-city trips, the whole thing, flights, hotels for 8 nights and train transfers were less than just the flights had I booked on my own. They give you "suggested" hotels, but you can search through hundreds of them to choose what suits you best.

 

[tcufrog]

Planning a trip to London and Paris isn't very difficult and there's tons of resources online plus lots of great advice givers here. We went to the UK for a month last summer and I got a lot of great advice from the Disers and from online research. I do use a travel agent for more complicated trips. We're going to Costa Rica for a week right after Christmas. For this trip, I hired a travel agency that just plans trips to Costa Rica and has been doing so for 30+ years. Having them do that was invaluable because they were able to get us rooms that we would have had trouble getting ourselves. They are also able to handle transfers between remote eco-resorts and offer 24/7 assistance by phone if there's an emergency. Given the fact that we'll be in the middle of nowhere for large part of the trip with kids, I feel much better having that life line.

 

[nkereina]

When I worked for AAA, we often booked European travel with Trafalgar. They have guided tours and also packages that have some flexibility.

It may be best to go to a travel agent you trust. Agents have relationships with various tour companies and he or she can price out which one works best for what you want, and book the entire thing for you. It would definitely streamline the process for you.

 

[Meriweather]

I use AAA and usually go with their recommendations

 

[fla4fun]

I have done two trips to the U.K. and planned everything myself. Part of the reason for that was that I used Hilton points for the hotels, but it was simple to do the planning for the most part. I am not sure I would have felt as comfortable making plans in a country where I did not speak the language fluently though because I might not understand the terms and conditions properly.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Do everything DIY

In the Disneyland Paris section here on DIS we have a very active group of Europeans who are regular visitors to Disneyland Paris. We have helped many Americans plan their trips.

There are also a good number of UK active members on DIS who can help you plan your UK visit. We recently helped a member plan a honeymoon trip to Scotland, London and Disneyland Paris.

 

[RangerPooh]

We’re currently visiting DLParis (already toured Paris and spent a few days in Normandy), then onto the UK for a week. DH and I have planned everything ourselves. It was easy. The Dis is a great resource for DLP related questions.

 

[RUDisney]

I just got back from London and planned everything myself. I did the same last year when I went to Italy with stops in Florence, Venice and Rome.

I don't think I've used a travel agent since the first time my DH and I went to WDW together in 1997. I only used one then to get the charter flight. The time before that was in 1986 when I went to London for the first time and had no experience planning trips... plus there was no internet to help me then.

 

[disykat]

I generally plan myself and use expedia.

 

[BadPinkTink]

I generally plan myself and use expedia.

Just a warning for the OP about using third party sites like Expedia or even Travel Agents. When you book with a third party you booking whether hotel, flight or excusion is owned by the third party. You pay the money to the third party and they hold it for a time period, usually up to a few weeks before departure date. They then transfer the money and confirm the booking with the airline, hotel or excursion company.

This means that should you have issues with flights, hotels or excursion, then you have to go through the third party to fix any issues.

For example, I booked flights once to California from Ireland with a travel agent, and paid the travel agent for the flights 6 months before departure. I turned up to the airport to find that while the airline could see my booking on the system, it was only reserved and not confirmed. The travel agent had not transferred the money to the airline. The airline could not let me board the flight or even re book me to a later flight. I had to contact the travel agent and try to figure out what had happened, There is only 1 flight per day from Ireland to California, so by the time everything was sorted out I had missed the flight. The travel agent rebooked me for the flight the following day, but I had lost a day in California. I had to ring my hotel and amend my reservation and I had to reschedule actives I had planned for my arrival night.

The ladies at the airline check in desk were very nice but they told this happens alot. They said they see alot of people crying and missing flights due to mistakes made by third parties.

After that stressful experience I now make sure to book everything direct, flights with the airline, hotels through the hotel website and excursions through their website. Th

 

[CapeCodTenor]

I've never used a travel agent when booking my trips, domestic or international and did just fine. I am, however, planning on using a travel agent for my next Disney World trip.

 

[soccerdad72]

I just sent a $500 check in to a random travel agent I found on the Internet - that should work out well, right?

 

[Squirlz]

I do everything myself. I follow a Facebook group that is run by an agency. Just for fun I sent them the details of my 2 upcoming Universal trips and they told me they couldn't have done any better.

 

[CynBeth]

We will be leaving on a 2 week London and Paris including 2 nights at DLP trip in 8 days! I wanted to do it myself but my DM who is coming with us insisted on using a TA and we have been miserable. She uses a 3rd party vendor who was slow to book everything. I would say do it yourself.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Except for Disney World or cruises, I plan and book all other type vacations like that myself.

 

[okeydokey]

I always plan my own trips. I do a lot of research on day excursions and want to pick the companies myself and not just get whoever the trip planner chose. For me, the planning is fun.

 

[portocall]

I planned my trip to England myself. It was easy and I had a great time. I tend to avoid travel agents but would seek one out for more complicated trips in the future.

 

[Magical2017]

I like to do the research and book myself. I love the Rick Steves travel guides and website. They offer good information for independent travelers. We have considered doing a one week tour when we take our boys for the first time, and then doing a second week on our own. Companies that have been recommended are Adventures by Disney (these is a board here on Disboard) and Tauck. These are pricey tours. Rick Steves also offers family tours.

 

[FutureDisneyEventPlanner]

Updating for any confusion: I will be planning the trip myself, not using a travel agent. My question though is if I should book all my tours and things through a travel company (i.e. Trafalgar, Adventures by Disney, Tauck, etc), or if I should just sight-see on my own and book all my hotels and things separately.