Best travel agent for trip to Florida.

jaykay2

Folks, just wanted to look for some advice regarding upcoming honeymoon to Florida in August.

Have spoken to gohop.ie but wanted to know if anyone could recommend another company to speak to as I like to shop around before making a major purchase like this.

Thanks in advance.

Uncle_moe

usuals like Tour America, American holidays, Trailfinders, or do it yourself by booking flights and accommodation separately through sites like budgetair, e-dreams, expedia, ebookers etc. Hotelscombined.com is handy for hotel deals but usually travel agents probably will have the bets deals to Florida.

Lyre61

Tour America worked out the best for us last year, very keen on price and accommodation was good, flew with Virgin. Would use them again. We booked it about 8 weeks before we went.

jaykay2

Thanks for the suggestions folks. Have contacted tour America for a few options and will make contact with some others.

Much appreciated.

athtrasna

Usually do trips to the States on my own, Tripadvisor is a valuable tool.

If you would be happier using an agent I would highly recommend Trailfinders and highly advise against GoHop. We booked our honeymoon and several long haul trips with Trailfinders, and all went perfectly.

A friend used GoHop for hers, she spent far too much of her honeymoon in tears because of cockups and wouldn't recommend them to her worst enemy.

jaykay2

athtrasna wrote: »

Usually do trips to the States on my own, Tripadvisor is a valuable tool.

If you would be happier using an agent I would highly recommend Trailfinders and highly advise against GoHop. We booked our honeymoon and several long haul trips with Trailfinders, and all went perfectly.

A friend used GoHop for hers, she spent far too much of her honeymoon in tears because of cockups and wouldn't recommend them to her worst enemy.

Thanks very much for the advice. Will take a look at Trailfinders so. Appreciated.

owenc

Don't book with them, do it yourself. They charge really expensive prices for things that you can get significantly cheaper.

owenc

Lyre61 wrote: »

Tour America worked out the best for us last year, very keen on price and accommodation was good, flew with Virgin. Would use them again. We booked it about 8 weeks before we went.

Yes thats what they do and I refuse to fly from England. I am not adding an extra hour on to my flight time.

mickysquint

Ive been to Orlando 3 times now and only went with a travel company the first time and just booked the flights and hotels the other two times. I found the only difference we got that was the travel agency provide the transfers from the airport to the hotel and back at the end of the holiday, I just didn't feel that I was getting enough to justify the extra 300-400 euro.

Me and the wife went last summer for our honey moon and got a great deal on flights with aer lingus and hotel when we booked in good time.

Although a Florida holiday is a massive holiday I can honestly say that every thing is easy enough to arrange yourself like flights, accommodation, transport, insurance and cut out the middle man and save some money.

By the way, I'm not sure if you've been to Florida before but it's the ultimate holiday, enjoy.

jaykay2

mickysquint wrote: »

Ive been to Orlando 3 times now and only went with a travel company the first time and just booked the flights and hotels the other two times. I found the only difference we got that was the travel agency provide the transfers from the airport to the hotel and back at the end of the holiday, I just didn't feel that I was getting enough to justify the extra 300-400 euro.

Me and the wife went last summer for our honey moon and got a great deal on flights with aer lingus and hotel when we booked in good time.

Although a Florida holiday is a massive holiday I can honestly say that every thing is easy enough to arrange yourself like flights, accommodation, transport, insurance and cut out the middle man and save some money.

By the way, I'm not sure if you've been to Florida before but it's the ultimate holiday, enjoy.

Thanks for the response. Just wanted to ask you something about booking it on your own, what happens in the scenario that you miss a connecting flight or something like that. We're just worried about something like that happening.

Last time we went to the the states, on our return flights there was a close call.

Having taken a look at prices in the past, you are right of course and there are def savings to be made. Are there other things we would have to worry about if we booked on our own?

I'm betting you are right regarding Florida being the ultimate holiday. We were in LA and Vegas a couple of years ago and were blown away. This time we are planning on taking it up a notch.

Ridiculously excited already!

srfc19

owenc wrote: »

Yes thats what they do and I refuse to fly from England. I am not adding an extra hour on to my flight time.

You're either loaded or mental.

Last time I went to the states we flew through London. Saved about €400 between the two of us, for the sake of an extra couple of hours in a day which is basically devoted to travelling.

Nelly 21

Try skyscanner.ie We went to florida the last 2 years and booked it ourselves through skyscanner and hotels.com and got it quite reasonable.

Florida is amazing, can be very warm. Orlando is brilliant, couldn't recommend going there enough!!!

mickysquint

jaykay2 wrote: »

Thanks for the response. Just wanted to ask you something about booking it on your own, what happens in the scenario that you miss a connecting flight or something like that. We're just worried about something like that happening.

Last time we went to the the states, on our return flights there was a close call.

Having taken a look at prices in the past, you are right of course and there are def savings to be made. Are there other things we would have to worry about if we booked on our own?

I'm betting you are right regarding Florida being the ultimate holiday. We were in LA and Vegas a couple of years ago and were blown away. This time we are planning on taking it up a notch.

Ridiculously excited already!

We flew with Aer Lingus which do direct flights from Dublin to Orlando MCO airport so there was no worry about connecting flights. At the time when we was going we searched with different airlines and the direct flights worked out around 200 more expensive for the two of us but to be honest it was worth it as out bound and in bound travelling would have been an extra 15 - 20 hours weather it was a connecting flight in the UK or US.

I can only speak from my own experience as I'm no travel expert and I'm sure other people have their own opinions but for me the travel companies did nothing extra that we couldn't do ourselves. Also the staff at any hotels that I've stayed in have been more than helpful when it comes to any questions I've had about the area, and most hotels have a tourist information desk any way.

Getting around the international drive area is easy with buses, and most hotels provide buses to theme parks, some charge, some don't, the last hotel I stayed in provided free buses every where including Kennedy space centre which is a good hours drive. There's also car hire, we hired a car for a few days but to be honest we was that busy with theme parks we didn't get the use out of it.

Also one last thing, I found buying your theme park tickets worked out cheaper buying them here, there's loads of websites that sell them.

I'm sorry about the loooooong reply but I love the place and love talking about it. I'm 34 but you can't help turning in to a kid when your feeding dolphins, flying through Springfield on the Simpsons roller coaster or standing by a real life space shuttle amongst other things. It can be an expensive holiday even if you do save money here and there but it's totally worth it!

owenc

srfc19 wrote: »

You're either loaded or mental.

Last time I went to the states we flew through London. Saved about €400 between the two of us, for the sake of an extra couple of hours in a day which is basically devoted to travelling.

My father refuses.

lil_lisa

I hate flying through London. Its an hour flight over, usually around two hours at the airport and then adds another hour onto your flight to the US. That's at least 4 hours added on to a flight. If you can avoid it and its not too costly, I think its definitely worth it. Especially if you're flying to the West Coast. Why put 4 hours extra onto a 12+ hour flight?

duck_77

Well until there is an SFO flight, the West coast still needs a change in an airport. Whether that means:

Heathrow: 1 hour + 2 transit + 11 to SFO = 14
Chicago: 8 hour + 2 transit + 4 to SFO = 14
Boston: 6 hour + 2 transit + 6 to SFO = 14
New York: 7 hour + 2 transit + 6 to SFO = 15
Washington: 8 hour + 2 transit + 6 to SFO = 16

Not really much difference and I prefer:

- longer international flight to domestic US where possible (food, entertainment)
- I like the shopping in Heathrow

lynchie

duck_77 wrote: »

Well until there is an SFO flight, the West coast still needs a change in an airport. Whether that means:

DUB - SFO Aerlingus 11hrs direct. No need to go through London

spideog7

duck_77 wrote: »

Well until there is an SFO flight, the West coast still needs a change in an airport. Whether that means:

Heathrow: 1 hour + 2 transit + 11 to SFO = 14
Chicago: 8 hour + 2 transit + 4 to SFO = 14
Boston: 6 hour + 2 transit + 6 to SFO = 14
New York: 7 hour + 2 transit + 6 to SFO = 15
Washington: 8 hour + 2 transit + 6 to SFO = 16

Not really much difference and I prefer:

- longer international flight to domestic US where possible (food, entertainment)
- I like the shopping in Heathrow

Well you miss out on immigration preclearance if you fly through London, so give yourself at least an additional 2hrs to stand in line to go through it in the US. In addition many airports bring you in to the domestic terminal if you have already cleared so you don't need to change terminals or go through security again (Chicago does not however). In general though don't worry about missing your flights as long as they're booked as a single trip the airline will rebook you, unless it's your own fault for missing it.

foggy

We're in the process of booking our holiday to Florida at the minute. We checked out Gohop.ie and Tour America and doing it all ourselves. In the end, we actually went with TravelCounsellors.com.

They were the cheapest option by far and the lady we're dealing with is so helpful about different hotels etc.
I think it's basically self employed travel agents who work from home. We got a lady who is local to us but there are loads of them around Ireland.

duck_77

lynchie wrote: »

DUB - SFO Aerlingus 11hrs direct. No need to go through London

But it doesn't start until April and is then not 7 days a week. It is typically more expensive (as already discussed) and have no airline alliances to earn qualifying miles with.

Plus the check in time is lower for a London/European flight.

All things being equal, of course I would prefer a direct flight but other reasons prevent me from using it.

owenc

But then you don't have immigration in London and you have to add another three hours to your journey.

duck_77

owenc wrote: »

But then you don't have immigration in London and you have to add another three hours to your journey.

I think I was clear on that and immigration is not that bad in all US airports ( I avoid LAX, JFK and ORD definitely). The longest part at my destination was normally waiting for my bags.