having a tour guide on our drive around the cape peninsula allowed us to enjoy the views without the stress of driving.

last fall, i purchased the jetsetter book during the dallas gilt city sale, and was excited to see that it came with a voucher for a free travel planning session for an upcoming vacation.  my husband and i had wanted to visit southern africa for awhile, so decided to use the voucher for that trip.  this was my first time to use a travel agency in my travels, and i quickly realized it is a different way to travel; one which has pros and cons:

pro: it is much easier to plan a trip with a travel agency.  i had an unusually busy year at work, and my husband was in the middle of his first year as a college professor.  neither of us had a lot of time to research the specifics of our trip, which is where the agency really helped us.  they were able to pull together a draft itinerary after a brief phone call; they asked for our dates, budget, and general interests, and several days later sent us a two-week itinerary.  further, our agent was from south africa, so she was able to include places and tours that we may not have chosen on our own, but in hindsight are extremely glad she did (e.g. driving along the cape peninsula – stunning!).

there are penguins in south africa! thanks to our travel agent, we saw them on our tour of the cape peninsula.

con: the agency plans the details.  as a frequent traveler, i’m used to making my own itineraries, and researching fun local places that are specific to my tastes.  agencies try to match your tastes as well as they can, but unless you have worked with them before, they may not know you as well.  for example, when we received our itinerary, i was surprised to see that every day was already planned, with no room for exploring, which is my favorite thing to do in a new place.  we ended up adding a day in cape town – which we now know we desperately needed – in order to have the kind of trip we are used to, one filled with wanderings and spending time walking around different neighborhoods rather than just a series of tours.

the colorful bo-kaap neighborhood, which we explored in cape town on our extra day that we added after seeing the original agency itinerary

pro: agencies line up the details, and make it extremely convenient while traveling.  this was absolutely the best part of it all.  the agency arranged for an airport pick-up, and took us directy to our hotel.  i cannot tell you how many times i have lugged my own baggage on public transportation while trying to communicate in a foreign language.  the airport pickup was divine!  the agency also had pre-purchased tickets to the cable car to table mountain, which allowed us to skip the line, and visit at our convenience.  we also had a private guide for two days, who turned out to be one of our favorite parts of the trip due to his local knowledge and thoughts on the history of south africa.  for each leg of the trip we had a planned shuttle, including a flight within south africa that the agency booked for us directly (we booked our own international flights since i was flying on miles). the conveniences added up, and made the trip run smoothly and easily, and allowed us to spend more time enjoying the country than worrying about the stress of logistics.

view of cape town from the top of table mountain, which we sped up thanks to the cable car and our pre-purchased tickets from the travel agency (see ya, lines!)

con: i’m still a little confused on the price.  we gave our agent our budget, and she said it would be sufficient.  however, we ended up staying at some extremely luxurious hotels, especially on our last safari.  we did not need something so luxurious, and it became evident that we could have saved some money by asking for less exclusive lodges.  however, jetsetter is a luxury travel service, so i’m sure they were just doing their job based on the expectations of their typical clientele. (also, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to safari in style, especially when we were upgraded to a room larger than our LA apartment for the last two nights!).

safari selfie! this hotel room was larger than my last apartment; the bathroom, twice the size of my current kitchen. our original room (part tent!) was a bit more than we needed, but i wasn’t complaining about this free upgrade. :)

final verdict: i would use an agency again, but have more input early in the process.  i am able to plan the dates and research points of interest for me, while utilizing the agency to handle the logistics and find lodgings within my budget. asking for an itemized cost sheet prior to making the down payment would have helped me to gauge whether any part of the trip was outside of my expectations, as well.  something else i enjoyed about the experience is that the final itinerary they sent us was extremely detailed and we referenced it often on our trip.  it was also easy to scan to family members so they knew our whereabouts in case they needed to contact us.  overall, using the agency was a positive experience that i would repeat with some tweaks.

have you ever used a travel agency to assist in your trip planning?  would you recommend it?

climbing the kirstenbosch gardens in cape town with our guide, graham. he was so amazing!