Largest immediate savings in planning your trip, would be to use an on-line travel website to research, plan and book your travel adventures vs. going to a local travel agent where you live. This is a fact for the reason that all the hotels and airlines are held to offering all the travel providers "the same rates" though buying off the internet saves a company in overhead, so web savvy travelers benefit. Travel Agents simply must charge booking fees, or they could not stay in business. Not only does a travel website pass savings to you in low overhead, they are able to rapidly check hundreds of options within a few seconds. Companies that help you in the actual "planning" phase of your trip, would be like Gap Travel Adventures, Get A Trip.com, the Automobile Club of Southern California Travels Division[and their counterparts in each of the 50 States] and the American Express Corporation, whereas the giant travel conglomerates, such as Expedia, Travelocity ,Orbitz.com and Priceline [the 4 largest travel vendors in "gross profits" within the United States], aim at the end booking process.