Deals on trips to the Caribbean and elsewhere

The week’s best travel bargains around the world !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LAND

●Windjammer Landing Beach Resort on the island of St. Lucia is offering discounts of 25 percent on stays through Dec. 20. Room rate starts at $120 a night plus $22 taxes, a savings of $40. The 60-acre, 247-room resort, built into a hillside facing the sea, offers several swimming pools, tennis courts, spa and fitness center. Info: 877-522-0722, www.windjammer-landing.com.

●The 346-room Renaissance Dupont Circle in the District is offering a “Relatively Close” special this holiday season of $99 a night (plus $14 taxes). The promo reflects a $50-per-night savings and applies to stays Nov. 20-27 and Dec. 22-26. Guests must book Thanksgiving or Christmas night to qualify. A 14-day advance purchase is required, and the deal is nonrefundable. Info: 888-803-1298, www.renaissancedupontcircle.com. Request promo code HOL.

SEA

●Take a four-night Western Caribbean cruise from Miami aboard the 1,950-passenger Celebrity Millennium starting at $279 per person double (plus $78 taxes). The guarantee rate (Celebrity chooses the specific stateroom) applies to an inside cabin on the Nov. 10 sailing, with a stop in Cozumel, Mexico. Brochure rate started at $349. Info: 800-647-2251, www.celebritycruises.com.

●Disney Cruise Line has discounted fares for veranda staterooms on two week-long Caribbean sailings aboard the Disney Magic. Price is now $999 per person double plus $73 taxes (a savings of about $930) for the Nov. 26 Western Caribbean itinerary (visits Key West, Fla; Grand Cayman; Cozumel, Mexico; and Disney’s Castaway Cay) and the Dec. 3 Eastern Caribbean cruise (visits St. Maarten, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Castaway Cay).

AIR

●American is offering introductory fares on its new nonstop service between New York’s JFK and Antigua. The round-trip fare starts at $376, including taxes of $76; fare on other airlines starts at $612. Lowest fares apply to Monday and Thursday flights between Nov. 17 and Feb. 13; other days have slightly higher fares, and some dates are sold out. Blackout dates include departures Dec. 15-24 and 26-30 and returns Dec. 26-31 and Jan. 1-8. A two-night minimum stay is required.

●Air France has sale fares to Europe. For example, fly round trip from Washington Dulles to Istanbul for about $634, including taxes. Depart Oct. 23 through Dec. 14. Restrictions include a minimum Sunday-night stay and a maximum one-month stay. A seven-day advance purchase is required. A surcharge of $30 each way is incurred for Friday and Saturday departures and Friday-through-Sunday returns. Some dates are sold out. Other airlines are matching.

PACKAGE
●Insight Cuba is offering free round-trip air from Miami to Havana, valued at about $500, on select tours departing by Dec. 31. Several itineraries are offered, including four departures of the seven-night Havana & Colonial Trinidad tour, starting at $2,995 per person double; eight departures of the seven-night Havana & Scenic Pinar del Rio tour, starting at $2,495; two departures of the eight-night Cuban Music & Art Experience, starting at $3,395; and one departure of the seven-night Bay of Pigs (Havana and Playa Giron) tour, starting at $2,745. Trips include in-country escort, four- and five-star hotels, all meals, ground transport, domestic flights in Cuba (where required), entry fees, local guides, travel insurance and a U.S. Treasury Department license and letter of authorization.

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Travelers turn back to travel agents

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On New Year’s Day, James Vaughn gave his travel agent a tough assignment: Book a 10-day trip to India. Departure date: Jan. 13.

It took David Rubin of DavidTravel in Corona Del Mar, Calif., just 48 hours to book flights and hotel rooms and hire tour guides. He even called the manager of a sold-out hotel and finagled a room out of him.

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But the work didn’t end once Vaughn and his husband boarded their flight from Los Angeles to Delhi. When their flight from Delhi to Agra to see the Taj Mahal was canceled, Rubin came to the rescue. “They would have been on the phone for the next several hours trying to sort out what to do,” he said.

Instead, they went sightseeing while Rubin’s local contacts did the sorting. By the time the couple returned to their hotel, their bags had been packed and loaded into a car, and a driver whisked them off to Agra.

The irony, Vaughn said, is that Rubin had initially tried to get them to drive to Agra rather than fly, but they hadn’t taken his advice. “Ultimately, he was right,” said Vaughn, a public-affairs consultant. “Seeing a camel going through a toll booth on a highway is not something you get to see while you’re flying.”

For years, it looked as though the travel agent had gone the way of the milkman. As online booking sites such as Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity and others soared in popularity, travel agents became the butt of jokes. A scene from a “30 Rock” episode this season said it all. Desperate at the prospect of losing her writing job, Liz Lemon is invited to live in a subway tunnel with people whose occupations have become irrelevant: an American auto worker, a rock band saxophonist, the CEO of Friendster — and a travel agent.

But the travel agent has been given a reprieve. That’s because many vacations have become as hard to plan as the name of last year’s traveler-stranding Icelandic volcano was to pronounce. Natural disasters cause flight cancellations. Revolutions put tourist destinations off-limits. Airlines and rental car agencies confound with ever-increasing fees. And the Internet spews so much information that it manages to hurt consumers as much as it helps them.

Travelers are starting to need vacations from planning their vacations.

“Not only are customers confused and frustrated by new airline fees and events, but they are bombarded by social media,” said John Clifford, president of the luxury travel consultancy InternationalTravelManagement.com. “Everyone is trying to tell you where you should stay, where you should eat, what you should do.”

A study by Forrester Research found that the number of leisure travelers who enjoyed using the Web to plan and book their vacations dropped from 53 percent in 2007 to 47 percent in 2010. And in an American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) survey, 44 percent of agents said that they had more clients in 2010 than they’d had the previous year, with the strongest rebound in rail and hotel reservations.

Travelers “don’t have hours to spend on research to compare multiple flights, multiple cruises, multiple packages,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Forrester Research. “It’s not unlike doing your taxes. Depending on who you are, what your priorities are, there are some people who will choose to do it themselves or to use a professional.”

resource : http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/travelers-turn-back-to-travel-agents/2011/04/25/AFZcLM8F_story.html

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