I have a 10 year old daughter and I can’t see her playing with this doll or her period kit— she’s too old for it. We're solid on the period/puberty education front though.

We're going to SE Asia in 6 months too— Thailand in February. I need to start my packing list! My itinerary is like yours— all the info for each day. I haven't made any restaurant lists though, I need to get crackin on that. :)

Costa Rica hotels had that too— it was wonderful to just wander on over to the activity desk and choose an activity for the next day and have it charged to the room.

Ok so I kind of want to hear the real story on Sandals— have you actually been to one? I’m fascinated by their cheesy brochures and website. We’re headed to the Caribbean in July while the kids are at camp, and while I would never consider one of their resorts, I couldn't resist checking them out.

We’re going in February and it’s all planned. Two weeks, four nights Bangkok, four nights Chiang Mai, four nights Koh Lanta, last night back to BKK in an airport hotel before departing the next morning. I’m hoping the political situation is ok. We have two school aged kids so we’re pretty cautious. We’re very excited…

The Tripadvisor crowd are very much planners. The forum I saw this on was for Thailand, so popular but still somewhat complex. I found it very easy to plan our trip there online. I would still use an agent for Africa I'm sure, and probably some less accessible Asian destinations. But I'm done using them for Europe,…

In my planning my next trip, I talked to four travel agents, three of whom are small scale or independent, not some big company, and one was a bigger company that looked super cool (off the beaten path!) in their brochure, but was really some woman outside the country whose communication skills were limited. They were…

One way to find those sites is to look on Tripadvisor under each destination (so in this case probably each island), and there will be a list of attractions. Just scan down it and see what you like, then make a list, and stay places nearby.

I'm not using travel agents much right now, but Africa is the one where I definitely would. That trip sounds fabulous and I wouldn't attempt it myself, even though I'm now a devoted self-planner.

You might go someday. And when you do, there are a zillion online places to book your villa/apartment/etc. I've used them- it's great. That and a plane ticket booked online and you're good to go.

The long trips are harder to do yourself for sure. I write up an itinerary that shows every flight, hotel, transfer, etc., for each day, along with the prices and other notes, and then attach it to the stack of email confirmations in chronological order. Then I make my husband double check my work.

I think that may be true for a simple trip with just airfare and a resort. But it was not my experience when planning a trip with multiple destinations, several hotels, and day trips. I knew what the airfare and hotels cost, so I could figure out that the agent's quote was really high. Way more than what the day trips…

Yea up to a point. I tried my friend’s agent for our Thailand trip and she was so insistent on such random stuff and so down on anything most first time tourists go to (there's nothing in Chiang Mai! you can go to the beach if you insist). She would not relent and eventually she just stopped emailing me.

Everyone I know goes to Hawaii all the time and only goes to the pool, and takes selfies in front of fancy hotels. To each their own but it seems like such a waste to me. That said, you could easily plan stuff once you got there— I just think most people don't even do that.

This is consistent with my experience booking both with and without agents. I'm actually surprised by the comments here. On Tripadvisor, the vast majority of people on their forums (for the destination we are headed next) were vocally in favor of planning on your own.

I was so into planning my last trip, I was ready to start a travel business. And everyone is always asking me for my itineraries— at least 6 or 7 people I know openly copied my Costa Rica trip two years ago. But then I realized that I would be horrible at taking other people's preferences into consideration. Nobody…

I am SO your mom. Throw in a full time desk job with lots of down time, and I’m a great family travel agent. The internet has changed everything— if you have the time and inclination.

Interesting. I tried to go through a travel agent for our upcoming Thailand trip, but I ended up booking on my own. I actually talked to maybe four agents, two who I know through avid, choosy travelers. Three of them were simply selling package tours (or parts of them) they got through other companies— that wasn’t…