Aloha, and welcome! I'm Lorraine, and Island Time Travel is my home-based travel agency, specializing in warm-weather vacations: the Hawaiian Islands, the beach resorts of Mexico, and the Caribbean, including cruises. I've been sending people to the islands since 1991, first from a storefront agency and, since 1996, from my own office at home, where the overhead is low and the coffee is better.

I work with one client at a time, by e-mail, by phone, or at my kitchen table. I'll find the right island, the right hotel and the right week for your family and your budget, book the whole thing, and hand you a folder with everything in it. Then I'll be here if anything goes wrong while you're away, which is something an airline reservations line will not promise you.

These are my current packages for travel between now and mid-December, priced per person, double occupancy, and they're a starting point. Every price below can go up or down depending on your dates, your departure city, and how particular you are about the ocean view. Ask me and I'll quote your actual trip.

Prices are per person based on two sharing a room, subject to availability, and not including departure taxes and fees (usually $30–$80 per person depending on the destination), which I'll spell out on your quote. Kids' rates and third/fourth-person-in-room rates are usually much lower; ask.

If you were thinking about ringing in the year 2000 on a beach, I have to be honest with you: most of it is gone. The New Year's Eve cruises sold out months ago. The big Hawaii resorts have been full for the week of December 27 through January 2 since early this year, and what's left is being held at holiday rates with minimum stays of five to seven nights.

What I can still do, as of this week:

• A few rooms at smaller hotels and condos on Maui and the Big Island for the millennium week. Not on the beach, but a short drive. Call me before they're gone.
• Cancun and Puerto Vallarta still have space, at holiday prices, and the airfare is the hard part; I'm watching for seats daily.
• A wait list for cruise cancellations. People do cancel. I've placed two clients that way this month.
• Or — and I say this to everyone — go the week after. January 3 to 10 is a fraction of the price, the weather is identical, and the beach will be empty because everyone else went home. The millennium will still have happened.

Y2K, since you're going to ask: the airlines and the cruise lines have been saying all year that they're ready, and I'm booked to fly myself on January 2. I'll tell you what I tell my own mother, which is that if you're nervous, go the week after.

People ask me, now that you can book a plane ticket on the computer, why use a travel agent? Fair question. Here's my answer.

It costs you nothing. I'm paid by commission from the hotels, tour companies, cruise lines and airlines I book, the same way I've been paid since 1991. You pay the same price for the trip, or often less, because I know which packages are actually a good deal and which are a good deal only in the brochure. I do not charge a planning fee, a booking fee, or a change fee. If a trip doesn't get booked, I don't get paid, and that's fine; it happens.

I've been there. I have stayed at or walked through most of the hotels I sell. I know which "ocean view" is a view of the ocean and which is a view of the parking lot with the ocean behind it. I know which Cancun hotels are for spring breakers and which are for families. You can't get that from a picture in a brochure or on a screen.

I do the work. Finding the flights that connect, matching the hotel nights to the flight days, booking the car, the transfers, the luau, the snorkel boat, and checking that it all lines up. Then it goes in a folder with your tickets, vouchers, confirmations and a page of my own notes about where to eat.

I'm there when it goes wrong. A flight cancels, a hotel loses a reservation, a hurricane changes a cruise itinerary. You call me, not a reservations line with a 40-minute hold. I have rebooked people from a pay phone in an airport at 11 at night. That's the job.

I'll tell you the truth. If a package is a bad deal, I'll say so. If your dates are the most expensive week of the year, I'll show you the week before. A good agent's business is repeat customers and referrals, and I've been doing this long enough that nearly all of mine are.

• "Do I need a passport?" For Hawaii, no; it's the United States. For Mexico and the Caribbean, the requirements depend on where you're going, how you're getting there, and your citizenship, and the rules for U.S. citizens are different from the rules for everyone else. A passport is always the simplest answer, but there are trips where you can travel on other proof of citizenship. Ask me what you need for your specific trip, before you book, and I'll tell you exactly what to bring. Don't guess, and don't take a neighbor's word for it. I have seen a family turned away at the gate.
• "Is it hurricane season?" In the Caribbean and Mexico's east coast, roughly June through November, yes. That's why fall prices are lower. Most trips go off without a hitch; I'll explain what happens if one doesn't, and I recommend trip insurance for fall travel.
• "Should I buy travel insurance?" For a cruise, or for anything nonrefundable in hurricane season, I say yes. For a Hawaii hotel package with a lenient cancellation policy, maybe not. Ask me and I'll show you what it covers and what it costs.
• "Can I use my credit card / do I need pesos?" Depends on the destination. Ask.
• "My kids / my mother / my honeymoon." Tell me who's going. A trip for a couple and a trip for a family of five with a toddler are not the same trip, even at the same hotel.
• "What about a car / a rental / the road to Hana?" I'll tell you where you need a car and where you don't. On some islands it's essential; on some cruises it's a waste.
• "Is that price real?" If you saw a price somewhere else, tell me. Half the time I can match or beat it; the other half I can tell you what it doesn't include.

I started in travel in 1991 at a storefront agency after ten years in a bank, because I wanted to do something that made people happy at the end of it. In 1996 I set up on my own at home so I could work around my family's schedule, and I've never looked back. I'm certified through the usual industry programs, I take a familiarization trip or two a year to keep my hotel notes honest, and I've been to every Hawaiian island that has a hotel, most of the Mexican Riviera and the Yucatan, and a dozen Caribbean islands, several of them by ship.

My clients are mostly families, couples, and a growing number of retirees who have decided they've waited long enough. Many of them have been with me since the storefront days. I'd like to add you to the list.

Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Evenings by appointment (I know when you can actually sit down and talk about a vacation).

The best way to start is an e-mail with where you'd like to go, roughly when, how many people, and about what you'd like to spend. I answer every e-mail within one business day, usually the same day.

[email protected]

Or leave a message at (555) 555-0162 and I'll return the call during office hours. If you're traveling and something has gone wrong, say so in the message and I'll call back no matter what time it is.