I remember my mother having a pretty close relationship with her travel agent. Granted, my family traveled a lot – and I mean a lot – but it still seemed kind of nice to have that connection with someone who knows what you like to do, where you like to go, how you would like to get there and where you would like to stay. Well, it sounded all warm and fuzzy until I realized that this travel agent also took a pretty big hunk of cash for her services.  So, is there a way to have a travel agent but not pay extra? There sure is. And this person will know everything about you! Why? Because this person is you! That’s right, in today’s world, it is pretty smart to be your own travel agent, and it is not as daunting and time consuming as you might fear that it would be. That is because there are plenty of web sites that work with you to bring you the best deal they can offer.

Travelzoo, for example, is an Internet company that publishes travel deals from various travel companies. Every Wednesday via e-mail, Travelzoo puts out its main publication, the Top 20 list. Twelve million subscribers receive this every week. The newsletter features airline, hotel and cruise information, vacation package and car rental deals, as well as offers on shows and event tickets. Travelzoo also offers a meta travel search engine called SuperSearch that allows for a quick comparison of multiple flight and hotel providers, without the need to continuously re-enter your travel information. By using Travelzoo, you can gets updates about deals that may interest you, and you do not have to do any of the work. It is like having a travel agent who is always updating you on what is going on.

Another web site that continually monitors the lowest fares to a specific city (or to many cities) that you program in is Yahoo!. My Yahoo! will always keep you apprised of the best deals at any given time. This feature will provide you with this information on your Yahoo! page daily along with news, weather and stock prices. Once you’ve chosen which cities you want to monitor for cheap air fare, the top deals will be listed for you every time you log in to your My Yahoo! account. You won’t even have to navigate through any other web pages. This is a fantastic method to stay on top of cheap air fares to cities you are interested in traveling to. The only catch is that sometimes My Yahoo! does not have notice of absolute best deal available immediately. Sometimes, it will take a few extra days for that price to get to My Yahoo!, which should not pose a problem unless it is a busy travel day. In that case, you should regularly be checking all sites for the best available prices.

Signing up for weekly specials for cheap air fares on an airline’s web site is also a very smart idea. With this excellent component, Yahoo! will e-mail you weekly with listings on what space-available flights they have for the upcoming weekend. This is great if you are a fly-by-seat-of-your-pants traveler! If, on the other hand, you’ve decided to travel on a particular weekend, it’s definitely more opportune to use Travelzoo.com. That way, you won’t have to deal with weekly e-mails containing  information about many airlines to find cheap air fare. Travelzoo ensure that you have the details on great and cheap air fare, which will be waiting in your inbox every day.

So do not feel that looking for good travel deals is no longer personal. A travel agent does not have to be a person who you call every time you’re thinking of taking a trip. A travel agent can actually be you!