Anonymous
Post 02/07/2024 06:14     Subject: Traveling with family abroad without a travel agent- need help!!
Stop going down the rabbit hole of Google and strangers on the internet. Everything you have asked for is contained in neat, organized travel guides, like ones mentioned above -- Fodors or Rick Steves. Reading is fundamental.

Spread out big maps of London and Amsterdam on your dining room table and have the kids circle the places they want to see. Group the sites you want to see logically. No running back and forth across town.
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2024 21:50     Subject: Traveling with family abroad without a travel agent- need help!!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:??? I've been organizing my own individual and family trips ever since my late teens and I've never used a travel agent. Travel agents are a pre-internet thing. My parents used them.

Nowadays there are special ultra-lux agents that give you private access to popular spots, but unless that's what you want to pay for... they're worthless. You can create your own schedule online. Everything is at your fingertips. Just do the work, OP.

YOU are going to work on your own itinerary. You're going to look at maps, and make a schedule with what you're going to visit on which days, what time you need to wake up, how long it's going to take from A to B, by which transportation (and whether there are family passes, weekly passes, or it's just easier to pay a day ticket), and what times you are less likely to wait in line for museums, monuments and attractions (early morning, maybe evening tours).

This is travel 101, OP. Get going.



This

It has never taken DH more than a 20 or 30 minutes to book an entire trip, from his phone.


I certainly do all our trip planning and booking, and mostly enjoy it. But come on, it takes more than 20-30 minutes if you are going more than a couple places. Couple hours minimum if you look include researching, booking secondary things, figuring out transit, etc.
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2024 21:39     Subject: Traveling with family abroad without a travel agent- need help!!
Anonymous wrote:OP here--- thanks for all the great suggestions! I am feeling better about planning this without a travel agent. Appreciate all and any more helpful hints!


I am pretty impressed, OP! It looks like DCUM is the travel agent you were looking for. The tax up front is that some people have to be snarky in their mostly helpful replies!
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2024 20:37     Subject: Traveling with family abroad without a travel agent- need help!!
Anonymous wrote:??? I've been organizing my own individual and family trips ever since my late teens and I've never used a travel agent. Travel agents are a pre-internet thing. My parents used them.

Nowadays there are special ultra-lux agents that give you private access to popular spots, but unless that's what you want to pay for... they're worthless. You can create your own schedule online. Everything is at your fingertips. Just do the work, OP.

YOU are going to work on your own itinerary. You're going to look at maps, and make a schedule with what you're going to visit on which days, what time you need to wake up, how long it's going to take from A to B, by which transportation (and whether there are family passes, weekly passes, or it's just easier to pay a day ticket), and what times you are less likely to wait in line for museums, monuments and attractions (early morning, maybe evening tours).

This is travel 101, OP. Get going.



This

It has never taken DH more than a 20 or 30 minutes to book an entire trip, from his phone.
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2024 09:48     Subject: Traveling with family abroad without a travel agent- need help!!
Anonymous wrote:Also highly recommend context travel. If you just do 1 tour, get Lawrence for the family British museum tour. My kids were same age as yours. They did not want to leave and in fact we ended up booking him for the following day bc he was so good.
Also - get matinee tix to Matilda or wicked. Very fun.
How do I request getting Lawrence for the tour??
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2024 09:46     Subject: Re:Traveling with family abroad without a travel agent- need help!!
Anonymous wrote:Expensive, but great... and they buy the "Skip the Line" tickets:
https://www.contexttravel.com/cities/london/tours/tower-of-london-tour-for-kids?display_currency=USD
Wow! That is quite expensive! My husband keeps saying the Beefeaters do a great tour and no need for a private one here. We also hate standing in lines and dealing with crowds. I'll show this to him but think that it might be out of our budget.
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2024 09:44     Subject: Traveling with family abroad without a travel agent- need help!!
OP here--- thanks for all the great suggestions! I am feeling better about planning this without a travel agent. Appreciate all and any more helpful hints!
Anonymous
Post 02/06/2024 09:08     Subject: Traveling with family abroad without a travel agent- need help!!
Along with all the other advice, I also use sites like Viator to get an idea of different tours people do. Then I go from there. I almost always prefer to book directly through a tour's site as I've found it the easiest to deal with if plans change.