Looking for Help from the Bargain Hunters

[albionmoonlight]

This summer, Mrs. A and I are planning to go on a European (or possibly Hawaiian) vacation. Neither of us has "purchased" a vacation before. We want something between a backpack, granola bars, and youth hostels, but something less than jet setting with the rich and famous.

I am in the stages of beginning to look for deals, etc., but realize that I have no idea how to do this. These are the kinds of situations in which I get my shirt handed to me (buying something with which I am not familiar). So I come to you for help.

Is it cheaper to go with a pre-packaged tour group? Should we get everything separately? Where do the bargain hunters shop for these things? What should I avoid?

Right now, I would be willing to pay a bit of a premium to avoid the hassle of planning this thing for 6 months, but I don't want to get screwed by paying too much for a tour. How much value do they add?

Anyway--you can see I am confused. Anything you can add will help.

[John Galt]

It depends on what you want out of the vacation. For international travel, I tend to think travelzoo has pretty good listings (and includes tours). It is helpful to check their top 20 list every Wed.

For Hawaii, I think the best way to go is priceline for the hotel (using the cite biddingfortravel as a guide). Also, joining frequent stay programs like Starwood can help get upgrades (even when you have no points). We managed to stay at a beautiful hotel overlooking the beach using the priceline bid and Starwood upgrade. Of course, different islands are harder to get good prices on.

[digamma]

Expedia offers decent packages at pretty good prices. At the very least, they can give you a good base price for what to judge other "deals" by.

Hawaii is definitely safe to go with the pre-packaged event.

Europe has a lot of small, charming places that may not show up on an internet search engine and may require a travel agent.

[Glengoyne]

If you are considering Hawaii, I'd suggest you take a look into Tahiti as well. The cost is not too much more, or wasn't when I last looked at it, and Tahiti is more exotic. This trip would pretty well require a Travel Agent though, as I don't think some of the ready made travel packages are the best of deals. You can treat the various packages like a menu, and build your own tour with a travel agent.