DIY is cheaper

How do people go about hunting down a 'good travel agent'? Do you go for independent agents or the high street names like Kuoni, Trailfinders etc?

Try looking in the Trip Advisor forum for where ever you intend going and see if there are any experiences/recommendations there.

Or alternatively ask the good folks here . The betting is "someone" will have been to where you're looking at going and will offer objective advice and may be more au fait with individual ailines and their vagaries than even the "specialist" agencies like Trailfinders etc.
DL

I think the last time I went into a travel agents to book something (rather than just grab a brochure) was in 1989. It was Thomas Cook in Woolwich and I booked a Yugotours 'lakes and mountains' trip to Slovenia.

Shortly after the break-up of Yugoslavia started ...

Ever since that I've done it via phone and later online.

I even booked a trip to Chicago in November 2000 after seeing an advert on Teletext for Virgin Holidays !

How do people go about hunting down a 'good travel agent'? Do you go for independent agents or the high street names like Kuoni, Trailfinders etc?

In my case, it's really just been hunting around over the years and finding a mixture of good prices and helpful/knowledgeable people to talk to. Some individual agents get a very good reputation in their own right and if they move travel agents, their clients often follow them.

Plus different agencies have been better at different types of holiday. Bestattravel were mentioned - I can certainly vouch for them in terms of being consistently cheapest for Dubai, but I have others for the Caribbean (e.g. TropicalSky, Barbados Ambassadors - that's more based on certain individuals that I know), whereas for skiing, Crystal usually does it for me as there's very little price variation, and I know what I'm looking for.