Now 2 of the 4 major tour operators for the far east have release there brochures for next year (Kuoni, Hayes & Jarvis) I have to say there choices are pretty underwhelming, just Premier and Tradewinds to go.

I have had people recommend both Hayes & Jarvis and Tradewinds to me but I have never found the either cheap or having the hotels I want, so have always used Premier, Kuoni, once used Thomas Cook holidays, and for my first long haul holiday to KL I used British Airways Holidays (bought out by Thomas Cook) they were the only company to have ever sold me a long hual holiday with no single supplement.

Late stays website is very good. Also http://www.phuket.com has offers for more advanced bookings. Link to latestays is on there.

There was a mention on holiday show last week that you are not covered if you do not book a package, also if you use one company but book separate components. I presume they meant if company goes bust. They advised paying by credit card.

The loss of money if a company goes broke was one of the reasons I stayed with high street travel agents in the past.
But I have been thinking if I book the flights with the airline directly there is less chance of this happening as the middle man has been cut out (where as if you are using an internet booking site there is the chance that can go broke as well).
Also if I book the hotel directly through there own website or telephone no money is taken up front (or at the most a cancellation deposit that usually works out to 1 nights stay).

re booking directly with the hotel- you also have the comfort of knowing that if you don't like the hotel you can move on elsewhere and not lose money!

rickt,

Not wanting to put a spanner in the works, but I have invariably found that booking hotels directly, in Thailand, is far more expensive than the options (Tour company or agency booking).

Extras however, such as breakfast, are almost invariably cheaper if paid directly to the hotel.

Many Airline sites (BA being an exception) are also nearly always more expensive than through an agency.

Cost, flexibility and security are conflicting requirements - we usually find that we have to compromise, somewhere down the line.

Cheers

Peter

Actually I told a fib when I said I had not had any DIY disasters. I'd forgotten that once I did not reconfirm a Bangkok Airways flight until two days before flight was due and found they had sold on our seats. So instead of flying from Samui to Bangkok ...we flew Samui to U Tapao and transferred to Bangkok from Pattaya.

We booked our last Bangkok property (Somerset Suwan Park View) direct as this worked out cheaper than through the agencies, however it was online rather than just turning up at the door and asking for a price.