Travel agent or free lance?
 

I have begun to plan a 4 week trip to Argentina for 3 persons and I am finding myself quite overwhelmed. I have read the trip reports and guide books and have a general idea of what our itinerary will be, but all the internal travel requirements make me wonder if I should use an Argentinian travel agent .

I have planned many international trips myself via the internet so I am not a newbie at this, but it is our first trip to South America.

Any insight as to whether I can pull together all the internal flights, bus trips, etc. or would be better off using a local agent would be appreciated. One thing to consider is that one of my traveling companions is Spanish language proficient.

thanks!

hotelsperuu:
I have done all of our planning (several trip to Argentina, including planning with friends from France) on my own. I am addicted because I feel like I am on the way as soon as I start the planning ! BUT, many people do not like it so much, and there are surely benefits to using a guide to help with planning and reservations. Several have been lauded on this site and on TA: try the search for guides. I would not hesitate to use a guide, if it seemed easier - but you can mix and match - ie make some of the arrengements for yourself and hire a guide to help with the more compliicated arrangements.

Have fun and enjoy the process/ with or without the local Travel Agent.

~MarnieWDC

I beg your pardon - that last post was intended for PJTravels. ~M

I suggest you use the TA Argentina forum's search feature

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum...Argentina.html

to research "Isabel", an independent local travel agent.

If you like what you read, contact her.

Have a great time in our country.

I agree with Marnie, mix and match. It can be really overwhelming to plan a trip of that length to an area that you do not know at all. U certainly can do it yourself, but it will be very timeconsuming. If u use a travel agent s/he can give u ideas and narrow choices from which u can pick and choose. For example, u might have the TA look and book flights since they will know the schedules much better than u and save u the time of searching each of the airlines individually to find the best fare and time. U might want to find you own hotels and get some guides thru the TA and some on your own...or skip having guides altogether. Also if you think u might not be comfortable while traveling, many of the TAs seem to follow and help you as you go thru your trip.

I have only used a TA 1 time (my first trip to ARG) and it helped to some degree. She was able to get better fares and hotel rates than I could find on my own for some places. She booked some stuff and I booked other stuff. I'm in the process of using a TA now for a 6 week trip -- I'm figuring out what I want, running it by him for his input and then will have him book airfares since he can get them cheaper and some hotels when he can get a better rate. The rest I'll figure out on my own.

Travel boards like this one and Trip Advisor are incredibly valuable resources since u read what the real experience was of travelers who have done it. But sometimes one can get information overload! Good luck and have a great time planning and enoying the results of your planning.

Thank you for your replies. I think we will probably have a TA assist with the internal travel arrangements and help with narrowing down itinerary choices once we have a basic itinerary. I have always enjoyed finding accommodations and will more than likely keep that for myself unless I run into difficulty.

You can definitely do it all your own.. its a lot of info, im planning a 6 month trip to both chile and argentina. There are great links online, I have been through ARgentina extensively let me know if you need to know anything about getting around

http://www.wanderingtrader.com

Hello Everyone, I have the same case and questions of PJtravels and worst because I am a newbie at this (first trip to SA). Me and my girlfriend will be going on december 20th and I am overhelmed at this point and I definitely will need a travel Agent to organize everything for me. Do you guys can recommen any good TA in Buenos Aires and good places to stay and visit during my trip... I know that it seems that i am a lazy/fool person but i just don't want to mess up this trip (my girlfriend would killme).
I want to thank you in advance for helping me...I will apreciate your advises

thank you !!!

Please read my post above dated Jul 1, 10 at 7:18pm

Have a great time in our country with your girl friend, frank21.

Thanks you , i will look for it.

I usually enjoy planning trips on my own, and have planned many. However, last winter I was spending 6 weeks in Argentina and Chile and I was a bit overwhelmed. I really felt I needed help.
I hired Isabel, mentioned above and was so glad I did. She made my trip the best that it could be.
Everything went without a hitch.
If you click on my name you will see my trip report, and her email mentioned . SHe is excellent.

Thanks for your input, Kodi. I enjoyed your trip report which I missed seeing when I first started thinking of going to Argentina.

I just returned from a short visit with family, convinced that I would plan this trip on my own as I have done for all our others. And then I saw yet another recommendation for Isabel's travel agency. Now I am back in the same quandary!

My biggest problem is narrowing down where to go and the best way to get there. We have 4 weeks and we like to spend a minimum of 3 days in each place. Given the travel times and distances in Argentina, I think 5 days in each place may be a better way to go - with the exception of Igauzo Falls.

So... I am going to rough out an itinerary, gather input from Fodorites, and if it seems overwhelming at that point I can hire Isabel.

Where are you thinking of going PJ ? Distances are great. Don't rule out the overnight buses. I was pleasantly surprised. They were really great. I would do it again in a minute. One of my trips was 18 hours, and it was quite a good trip.


Good luck with your planning.

If you have specific questions about the Lakes District and Bariloche, lots of great information can be found on our blog, http://livinginpatagonia.com/

¡Buen viaje!