Use a Travel Agent or Book it Yourself? Part I

Book your own dive trip or get a travel agent to do it? There's quite a difference between going to Grand Cayman for a week compared to Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Cayman, as Americanized as Miami, is easily accessible via non-stop flights from many airports, and once you arrive, it's a simple cab ride to your hotel.

Reaching Raja Ampat typically requires three or four flights, often with small national airlines, where scheduling and on-time departures can be challenging, and an overnight stay near the airport may be necessary. Seasoned travelers may handle it easily, while others may find it daunting.

We asked Undercurrent readers whether they organized their own trips abroad or preferred to have a travel agent handle them. Replies were varied, with some preferring to take complete control, while others appreciated the convenience and expertise that travel experts provided, as well as their attention to the traveler's safety and well-being. Here's part one of our report, with tips that may help any dive traveler.

Planning Your Trip is Hard Work

Divers who design and book their own trips like the challenge and the research required and seem to enjoy adventures on the Internet, poring over websites and researching distant destinations.

As Ryan Neely (Akeley, MN) wrote, "One advantage of being your own travel agent is the adventure of going to a new place without being beholden to someone else's itinerary. You're required to research all of the possible and potential places to visit. Even those off the beaten path. That requires you to make connections with and rely on locals to help make your travel as safe and as enjoyable as possible.

"It can be a pain in the neck to rebook flights or scramble at the last minute to find new accommodations, but the payoff is worth the investment, and meeting new people and making new friends."

Straying from the Well-trodden Path

It's a well-known proverb that travel broadens the mind, though many traveling divers only seem interested in expanding their knowledge of diving and marine life, rather than the local culture or terrain. Once they arrive at their destination, they never venture into the hinterland except to return to the airport to head home.

For these folks, it's not difficult to book their trip, which includes flight, hotel, and diving (or liveaboard) reservations, and usually, the destination can arrange airport transfers. If you book a full week of diving, then there is no room for anything else. For example, if you were going to Dominica, you would miss out on a very interesting around-the-island tour or a climb up to Boiling Lake. Or in the Solomons or Fiji or Papua New Guinea, visits to local villages or beautiful walks. In most cases, you wouldn't need a travel agent or have to book ahead; your hotel would handle it. You just have to skip a day of diving -- or stay an extra day or two to see the country.

Or you can plan your own side trips. Brent Woods (Deep River, Ontario) told Undercurrent, "I always book my own flights and activities not included in the dive package. It takes less effort than dealing with a travel agent who only wants to sell standard, inclusive packages, as I need to research my non-diving activities anyway to determine what I want to do. I use travel websites like Expedia, Booking.com, Trip Advisor, Kayak, and Airbnb to research flights and accommodations."

Mary McCombie (New Haven, CT) wrote, "I strongly prefer booking individual dive travel. Thanks to Undercurrent's reader reports and features, I usually know exactly what I want (often including a private boat). My husband and I value the quiet and relative solitude of diving, and we don't like diving in groups. Booking directly with a dive operator and resort cuts out the middleman. If you book through an agency, any issues or changes have to go through the middleman.

"For the land portions of dive trips, I enjoy using the travel information in the UK newspaper, The Telegraph, for sussing out hotels, restaurants, and activities. After checking The Telegraph, I will also check the less-reliable TripAdvisor."

One might certainly consider adding AI to one's bag of planning tools, but so far, Scott Kelley (Gunnison, CO) hasn't found it that helpful. "It takes a lot of time and energy to put together a trip, often weeks and months. I've tried using AI engines that "specialize" in travel, but they can't seem to come up with decent recommendations and itineraries. Most just say, 'xxx is usually affordable; you should check them out.' Worthless information I can find in the first three results of a Google search."

That said, AI is rapidly improving, and as users learn to refine their questions, they may get more specific and helpful information. (If you're not on the AI bandwagon, you can get started for no charge at https://chat.openai.com)

Have Your Resort Help Out

Experienced travelers take any problems in their stride, but it's a question of getting the experience. Sometimes, it's better to employ the expertise of another. Michael Hofman (San Francisco, CA) likes to organize his trips but recognizes that local, domestic airlines can be problematic. "When arranging domestic air travel, especially in Indonesia, it makes more sense to have the dive operator do that so they can track changes and adjust if necessary."

Travel Agents?

Rob Linscheer (Colorado Springs, CO) has tried travel agents, but has been disappointed. "When my small group got adventurous and wanted to go to Raja Ampat, we engaged a travel agent (Caradonna Travels) to set that up, aiming at the Dewi Nusantara luxury dive boat. They set us up on the boat, but pretty much nothing else. They were not responding to our questions about how to get to the departure city, which airlines to use, or anything else. We wound up setting all that stuff up ourselves. There was no advice on visa requirements, entry documents, and so on. That left me wondering why I needed a travel agent."

Scott Kelly (Gunnison, CO) says he has used travel agents, "but they always want to stick us in trips where they get paid the most or are the most familiar with. I had one get extremely huffy with me because they could 'never find a trip within our budget,' then I put together a package on my own that was $2,500 less per couple than what the agent came up with.

"I've tried to use dive travel sites like PADI or Caradonna, but they tend to shove you into a package to a large resort. We like to stay in small boutiques or Airbnbs, private spots away from the 'all you can eat' buffet lines (ugh)..."

Price is a reason some travelers prefer to manage their own trips. Kelly says, "We did use a travel agent for part of the Fiji trip (airfare and transfer hotels) and found out later we could have booked that part of the trip much cheaper if we had just done it on our own."

Lisa Jabusch and Steve Nieters (Nashville, TN) told Undercurrent, "I don't mind the time spent in research because I can be assured that I've found the best places for our needs at our price point. I've always felt that using a travel agent increases the cost of the entire trip, and one of my main goals in planning is being somewhat frugal."

Let's Not Dismiss Travel Agents

First of all, how much is your time worth? Scott Kelly noted that "It takes a lot of time and energy to put together a trip, often weeks and months." If you don't have the time and are unwilling to pay attention to details, putting your own trip together could mean disaster.

Once there, are you resourceful enough to handle the intricacies of foreign travel when things don't work out as planned? An expert travel agent will help you avoid problems you never considered, as would have been the case for a subscriber who wrote to us a few years back.

"It's a good idea to read up on immigration and customs laws for each country you're visiting. Before traveling to Indonesia's Raja Ampat, a subscriber from Vacaville, CA, ensured she had at least two blank pages in her passport, a rule that applies to all travelers.

"But when I arrived at the Manado airport, I was ushered into a back office where I was told I didn't have a blank 'visa' page in my passport. Neither of the two last empty pages was labeled 'visa' at the top. (When I returned home, I checked the website for Indonesia's passport requirements, and sure enough, blank 'visa' pages were required.) The immigration officials didn't permit me to call the U.S. Embassy. I was told I would need to return to Singapore or fly to Jakarta to get my passport amended by U.S. officials. Finally, another official told me I could pay $200 and be processed through. After agreeing to a discounted bribe of $100, I was promptly on my way."

She was lucky. We have read tales of some immigration officials requiring passengers with improper passports to fly back to Jakarta or elsewhere to have their passports updated by an embassy, causing them to lose many diving days, and, in at least one case, miss their liveaboard entirely.

Next month, we'll take a closer look at travel agents, note a few that some readers are quite pleased with, and report on a "dive travel organization" in the U.S. that is keeping its customers' money and not delivering.

-- Ben Davison