sshulem

Here is the good and the bad...We as travel agents get paid a small percentage from the vendors that we work with. Many travel agents also charge a small fee to put the trip together. If you are on a tight budget sometimes it's just not worth the travel consultants time to put a trip together. So the bad is that it just might be a lose/lose. Travel agent is doing a lot of work for pennies and the client is not happy with the travel agent because they might be pushing you to hotels that only work with agents or not wanting to help out with components of the trip that don't pay commission.

YET, as travel consultants we have some great resources that could possible save you money! And then it's a Win/Win. We have discounted air, we have over 800 hotels where we throw in breakfast and a $100 resort credit, we have cruises where we can get you upgrades and cruise credits and many times a better price.

So yes, my services COULD be valuable for travelers NOT with a big budget. The best way to assess that is to be upfront with your budget with the agent and give them a general idea of what you are looking for. The agent will then tell you if it would be worth their time to help you out on the trip.

There are some super cool trips from http://www.gadventures.com They are in all price budgets and we get nothing but rave reviews from them.

Make the trip something to look forward to and plan it a year out. So that should give you plenty of time to save some money. I just don't know about cheap flights. Sorry.

I remember about 25 years ago hearing my cousin who was an doctor tell me how wonderful his job is now that there is 911! He no longer has to run back to the hospital to take care of his patients at some gaw-awful hour now that people call 911 and get taken to the ER and the ER doctors handle things.

Same thing with these low cost travel websites. it's been a god send! Why? Because I now don't have to handle all of the little cheapie trips and can focus on trips that need some TLC! I have trained my clients not to call me for the little weekend getaways. But that if you need some help deciding on a hotel or you are looking for a 4 or 5* property and want to be taken care of when you get there that they need to call me!

I have a staff of 3 plus me. So we are very small. My staff has also travel extensively so the clients love to talk to agents that have been there!

My favorite place is always the last trip! Just yesterday I came back from a Crystal Cruise that went to Singapore, Ankor Wat, Vietnam and Hong Kong. I went with my 19 year old son and we had a blast!!!

You would be surprised how two people can go to the same exact city and come back with two totally different reactions. WHY? Planning! It's hard to show up in a city and just walk around and understand that city. A city is more than just reading a blurb about it and doing it on your own.

So I am a big fan of finding a local person to show you their city. So my point to your question is that you can find almost ANYPLACE on this planet and if you can get a "local" tour of that area you are going to enjoy it so much more! How do you do that? First you can start with the concierge of the hotel and ask them for a private walking tour or a car and driver for the day. There is a another company (that I have not used, but my clients rave about them) http://www.toursbylocals.com

So knowing that...you can really pick ANY city and have a great experience. I like to start with the BIG cites first and check them off your list: London, Berlin, New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Beijing, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Rome, Venice, Florence...you get the picture..and then once you have checked those off the list move on to the smaller, (possibly more interesting) cities like Lisbon, Madrid, Santa Barbara (my home town), Chicago, Reykjavik, Chang Mai, Melbourne, Tuscany, Dubai, Cairo, and Seattle. Hope that helps.

Great questions! The half million dollar trip was a family of four going on a 108 day round the world cruise with Crystal Cruises. They were in the top suite and their kids were in penthouses. The top suite is called the Crystal Penthouse and it's over 1300 sq. feet!

Here is the diagram and some photos of it.

http://www.crystalcruises.com/guidebook/crystal-serenity--10#link2

There are only 4 on the ship and they are the first to sell out!