Who do you book your USA holidays with? the good and the bad ?

[super1971]

I am looking for an agent who i can book throught but i want i talior made trip i know where and when but feels risky booking it all myself so who should i use? whos been good and the bad companies, thanks for info

I wouldn't bother with an agent. Maybe use one of the big ones to do flights + car, if you can use a package for that ... I use www.vrbo.com for self-catered accommodation, but there are plenty of other options in the US.

What sort of thing are you looking for?

Where do you want to go?

Iteniarey (sp?) is
fly london to miami
drive miami to fort laderdale for three nights then drive to florida keys for 6 night
therefore need flights car with car seat for little un and hotels,

I would go with virgin

but their direct selling customer line stinks

And they lie about what they have told you etc.

so go into a local indepdant travel agent and get them to do hard work for you

DO not use virgin direct bookings IMHO

Weve booked our trips through Virgin Holidays in the past and they have always been pretty good. I always ring up and tell them exactly what we want and all the accomodation cars etc have worked out well

TBH, it's not particularly challenging. You should be able to do all you need via the internet. You can compare whatever deal you find with the major tour operators - Virgin Atlantic etc. all do Fly-Drive via Miami.

Do you have a particular agenda for the Florida Keys? - that's where there are fewer major hotels on offer, and more independents.

did you pick hotels out of their brochure as we have picked one that isnt in the brochure but is one we want.

If you want to find out what a hotel is really like look it up on tripadvisor.com, its very enlightening!

You can use an airline for the flight and car-hire, then go your own way after that.

If you go through the virgin atlantic website they have a much wider selection of hotels than the holidays brochure and you will probably find the one s you want. If not just ask, they are pretty flexible

and how would we book the hotel - direct witht hem? but they all quote in us dollars do i just pay with Dhs credit card ? sorry if this seems dim

You can book directly with the hotel and give them your CC. It shouldn't really be a problem.

to add:

normally hotels aren't bothered about your credit card no. If you don't show up by a certain time, they give away your room!

If you book direct you will be billed in dollars charged back through your credit card, it might cost an exchange charge but the advantage is that you probably wont pay the bill until you check out just a guarantee. We are doing this in October as I had to book the flights and accomodation direct as none of the travel companies could do us a package

how exciting its just that its the first time that i'll have done it all this way so am feeling scared without the safety of an agent but i suppose it might be cheaper this way, thanks for info everyone whay would i do with out my mumsnet friends

Some hotels do online "deals" as well. Also, there are websites that claim to offer discounts on lots of hotels (I've not used them though - we always travel self-catering these days, and there are some lovely villas etc you can rent).

We booked our holiday through kuoni (using going places trav agents). Fantastic service, quite flexible. We wanted to travel around and were able to buy travel vouchers for our accomodation (Think they are called Freedom vouchers) - this was a separate company but we bought them through kuoni who then sent us their brochure of hotels/motels which accepted the vouchers. Flights were with American Airways.

thanks for the trip advisor website the forums are great, thanks

We went on an independent trip in 2004. Bought flight via phone but all car hire/hotels etc on internet. If you book hotels through a UK brochure they will charge you per person, while the hotel will charge per room. (we checked one hotel and the difference in price direct and via virgin was about double!) We paid very little for hotel rooms and had no nasty experiences.

It may be easier to book it all yourself and put your whole package together. For the last two years we have flown to Miami with BA and arranged a car through them on the web site. You can also take out an annual family travel policy for a very good price. If you book hotels yourself you will get exactly what you want. If you are in the keys for several nights why not book an appartment, VRBO is an excellent site.