One person travel agent.

[Drawweight]

I'm thinking of a decent holiday after I retire.

Possibly Asia, maybe just a cruise in that area, nothing too complicated.

There's a guy I know who's a one man band travel agent.

For a simple thing like finding a decent deal is it worth going to him and would his cut make it more expensive?

Will he have any more access to better/different deals than going to a big travel agent or even the newspapers or looking on the net?

[RC1807]

It could be that he can offer better deals as he doesn't have the overheads, or, conversely, he can't get better deals as he's buying such small numbered rooms / cabins, etc. ....

As with anything, shop around.
You may be surprised what some of the larger names can come up with, or, indeed, this one man band!

[xx99xx]

As I understand it, in very simple terms, travel agents tend to subscribe to 1, possible 2, 'systems' a bit like a reseller trade website. So they can pick and choose the flights and hotels and create their own packages or fulfill the specific requirements of a client.

Basically I'd do a quick internet search to get a ballpark figure of cost and then go to an agent to see what they come up with.

[WyrleyD]

I went to a one-man-band travel agent who had been recommended by a friend who'd used him on several occasions in the UK. I had an itinerary consisting of several flights commencing in Stockholm (Sweden-Switzerland-Singapore-Auckland and return, we were making our own way to Sweden) but he couldn't find the flights on either of the systems he used so it was a waste of time and I knew more about airline reservation systems than he did as he just didn't understand some of the terminology, which was a bit of a surprise. Anyway, ended up going to a larger on-line agent that I'd never used before and all was booked in a few minutes using the flights, airlines and times I was looking at. I think these one-man-bands must buy a franchise and then just get basic training (well that's the case for the one I went to anyway).

[Yetski]

When I used to live in the UK I always used Travel Counsellors, as previously stated, do a bit of your own homework online to get an idea of the prices, then let them know what you 've found/been quoted and give them ago at beating it.
I was always very impressed by the savings they managed to get for me, apart from one occasion when I found an excellent deal on the internet, I informed the lady I was dealing with, she was perfectly OK with this, and advised me to book it as she could not beat it, and there was no hard sell etc from her behalf.
Just go on their website, put in your post code and a counsellor will be assigned to you.
We have some friends meeting us in the Maldives in November, I advised them to use TC , and to be honest the deal they got is much better than I have managed to get including the flights, and I'm much closer.

Edited by Yetski on Sunday 19th January 11:00

[mikeiow]

As someone approaching that time, I feel that a small chunk of the fun will be researching and planning my own such jaunt.
I was skimming a travel supplement from the paper only yesterday marvelling at how outrageous some of the prices are for what looked like (in some cases) simple combinations of journeys (fly, short cruise, short overland).

I figure if I’m retired, then I ought to be able to travel for longer, no stress on timings, for less £££.

Am I mad?!

Don’t get me wrong: I can see big value in stopping work and then going on something that is fully organised.
I would think if someone is a 1-man band, why not do a bit of research with Kuoni and others yourself for the broad idea of what, when and how much that looks like.....then challenge the fella to beat it, or get you out there for longer for the same cost?