I'm wondering if there is any benefit to using a travel agent for our honeymoon trip to Andalucia this September, of if I should just book anything myself. We thought it might be nice to have a contact in the country in case we have any problems, but so far everything seems pretty straightforward. Any thoughts?

ttt - for anyone who can help!

You don't need a travel agent - just book a nice hotel and hire a car. No probs.

Once we were in Kusadasi, Turkey and headed by boat to Samos, Greece for our next destination. On the mini bus from our hotel to the port we met a honeymoon couple who were staying at the same hotel we were in Kusadasi. Our boat got cancelled due to weather so we were stuck in Kusadasi for an extra day. This couple kept saying "thank God we have a travel agent who can handle all this for us." So the mini bus took us all back to the hotel we had been staying at. We walked over and got a room for another night. Then we called the hotel in Samos to say we wouldn't be there. They said it happens all the time, no problem. Then we made plans for the day and headed off. This honeymoon couple sat in the hotel lobby all morning waiting for their travel agent to open up back in the States. By then all the rooms in our hotel were gone so the agent had to book them somewhere else, and they had to get a taxi to go there, then find another way to get to the port the next day for their trip to Samos. Their hotel was prepaid in Samos and the agent informed there were was NO refund. The couple still were glad they had a travel agent as they just didn't know what they would have done on their own. HUH?

You can do it yourselves.

You can definitely do this yourself. I used a travel agent 2x, and the first time I got horrible hotel suggestion for london, and the 2nd time I used them only because there was a huge discount on airfare by using their service.

You are going to a pretty safe country. Since you are on honeymoon you may want to stay in a limited number of places in which case the hotel you stay with could be your point of contact. Spain has some lovely hotels in particular they have a range owned by the government which are excellent.

Car good, but the train in spain runs mainly in the plane and is high quality and low cost

and wouldn't THAT be loverly

That's kind of what I thought. We do want to rent a car for part of the trip, and will be staying in 5 different places while we're there, but even then, I can just rent the car online, and even purchase the train tickets we need.

The travel agent we were looking at is in Madrid, so at least they would be somewhat local, but maybe we will just go for it on our own. Seems like it will be less expensive to do it that way.

Can I book most hotels in spain online?

Yes, you can book most hotels here in Spain online

I'd absolutely do it yourself. One of the things I like most about doing my own arrangements is that the hotels we stay in are not cookie-cutter places. I think they are nicer than the big hotels that travel agents might book for us.

just to stir the pot...we used madrid and beyond for one trip to Spain. Because we were travelling with our kids and wanted 2 connecting rooms in nice hotels they were able to put us in hotels that were lovely 3-4stars that I wouldn't have chosen on my own and have the hotels put together rooms so that we essentially had 2br suites. I definitely would not have done as well on my own, and certainly would have stuck with more expensive hotels that in this case wouldn't have been nicer than what we got,but this is probably an exceptional circumstance that doesn't apply to you.

I am preparing my third trip to Spain. I'll be traveling for more or less 25 days in 7 or 8 different cities/towns. I strongly recommend doing the trip preparation yourself:
1) it's fun, as in "half the fun is getting there".
2) the internet discounts can be very interesting - particularly if you are patient and persistent. There are several search engines that do some of the work for you: www.kayak.com; www.gtahotels.com; www.mobissimo.com; www.voyageforum.com and many, many others.
3) You can choose hotels and rooms that are taylored to your tastes and needs.
4) In smaller hotels, you can actually "talk" to the hoteliers. They can do things like book event tickets for you, organize airport pickup, etc.
5) You always look forward to getting to your chosen hotel - to see if it matches expectations (and it usually does)
6) TAs have a list of chain hotels that are very predictable - no surprises there. And, when I travel, I love surprises!

I've never used a travel agent in five trips to Europe. I'm actually curious as to what the advantages would be to using one!

Travels agents are great for booking complicated flights, or arranging special fares that you can’t find online (consolidators), but you need someone who specializes in a particular field and/or area and knows which hotels are worth the cost, which ones are better fit your needs and can advise on restaurants and specific itineraries, if you want the experience to be something special.

Even experienced travelers end up making terrible choices in regards to hotels based on reviews found online or in print publications, most of which are written by someone without your tastes or sensibilities, or are completely out of dated and filled with bogus or misleading information because they haven’t been updated as often as they should. There are a few exceptions, but not that many.

The travel forums are a good source of knowledge, but most recommendations need to be taken with a grain of salt, even mine since I tend to be biased towards certain types of hotels and restaurants.

I agree. And if you do use a travel agent, you need to use one with a specialty in Andalucia. A good source for finding names is the CondeNast Traveler website, or magazine. They do annual reviews of travel agents with specialties in the various regions of the world.
an agent who tells you that she or he has made "a few" trips to the region is not one who I would employ. You need one that concentrates in one or several areas, not a general agent who does everything.

That said, do it yourself! Do not forget to look at:

www.parador.es

One of the few guides I can recommend as being fairly up to date and well researched is Maribel's Guides (http://maribelsguides.com) available on line and still free to download.

Unless you're planning a very upscale trip (with the 5* hotel paying commissions to the agent who should get you free ugrades, special attention etc) a travel agent is a waste of money. Take the fees you would have paid them and have a great dinner instead.

Plannng is half the fun, doing it yourself you get what YOU want - not what some travle agent (who may never have even been to Spain) thinks you should have.

Ok, I'll do it! But I'll be planning on you guys to help me out with the details. I do feel like it will make the trip easier if I've done a lot of the research myself before we go - then I know what to expect!

Ok, it's a deal. Your first assignment is to look at the parador website; see if you can get a room at the Granada parador.

And your second is to read through Maribel's guides.

Your third: Buy the Cadogan guide to Andalucia.

And if you have an interest in food, buy Penelope Casas book, Discovering Spain.

I second what ekschrunchy said:
parador.es
Most of the paradors are converted castles-how romantic is that? There is a really cool one in Andalucia called Arcos de la Frontera, literally hanging on a cliff. There is another gorgeous one in Grenada. The one in Sevilla is not a "castle", but still nice.

I've always booked the paradors on my own. Rented a car on my own, you can split up some the areas and see quite alot.