First time traveling out of the country

[meandhim]

Should we use a travel agent?  I have no idea what I'm doing and DH is of no help.  We don't even know where we are going, we are all over the place.  We thought about the Caribbean (not sure which island) or the Mediterranean (not sure which country) or Ireland or Alaska (I know this is not out of the country but is a place we would like to go).  Are there websites that are good for clueless people?  I have looked at cheapcaribbean.com.

Any recommendations?

[mdgirl]

The first question any TA or travel guide web site would ask is "What kind of trip do you want?", so you really need to figure that out. I think for a first trip that you sound very unsure about, the Caribbean or an Alaskan cruise might be the easiest to sort out (no new language, you can probably get away with using US dollars, likely no complicated transportation issues). I consider Ireland rather DIY (drive yourself, plan your route, find multiple B&Bs, etc.), so unless you do a package tour where they bus you around that might be a bit tough for you. As far as the Mediterranean, if you're talking about Italy it's easy to navigate as a tourist but it's quite expensive and you'd need to make a lot decisions for your itinerary. Might be a bit shocking for a first trip.

A travel agent isn't going to be much help to you at this point. You should have a point of reference for what they're saying. You wouldn't just walk into a car dealership and let the salesperson pick out a car for you. Get an idea of what you want (beach, land, no flights over x hours), figure out your budget, then consider looking for an agent.

[meandhim]

Thanks. I wanted to go to the Caribbean and I thought DH was okay with it but then he started naming other places and it just confused me. Our budget is $4000. Is the Mediterranean even doable on that budget? I know the Caribbean is.

[alleinesein]

Pick a location. If you are a AAA member go talk to one of their travel agents to get prices and an idea of what you want to do in that location.

A cruise might be a good idea if you have never been out of the US before and you dont want to have to deal with hotels/food/transportation on your own.

[hz80408]

Agreed; knowing your budget of 4K, I would trying to decide on a location. At this point, especially being your first trip, I would count out the medditerranean as airfare could easily be $3K depending on where you live.

Do you want a beach/resort (Carib.) or do you want to get out and experience culture/sights/landmarks (Ireland, Alaska, etc).

I post about it often, but we booked a package trip for Ireland that included flight, hotels and rental car via Travelzoo (and added car insurance; total price per person was about $1100; not including food/drink/gas). It was such a great trip and could be a great "beginniner" trip. It's less logistics for you to figure out, but you still get the fun of deciding where to go along the way. It would also meet your budget. Look into Sceptre Tours. Here is the my Ireland recap.

[gt7301b]

If you are open to all those different places I'd sign up for airfarewatchdog and see if you can get a good deal on flights to one of those locations. I would also sign up for travelzoo's top 20 and watch the deals for a couple of weeks.

Based on your list I'd go to Ireland. I've seen a fair amount of decent deals there lately.

[orangello]

Have you checked out TripAdvisor? I find it very helpful. I think for the Caribbean, you can skip a travel agent. I've been to Turks & Caicos, St. John, Antigua, and Curacao & Bonaire all planning with the aid of the TripAdvisor forums and reviews, and it's been great - super informative, and there seem to be a lot of folks on that site who either live on the islands or go there yearly.

I'm afraid I've got no advice for the Mediterranean, but I have heard that cruises are incredible there.