1) If you are flying from New York for travel around the 15th of December then I would start looking at fares now. Chances are you are going to get the lowest or near lowest fares possible. Reason being I have found that for booking international flights the cheapest fares tend to be around 8 – 12 weeks prior to the flight departing. With that said I have one piece of advice from Thanksgiving through New Years tends to be an expensive time to travel by air. There tends to be a short-period where you do not have black-out periods, period where reduce fares are suspended. The best time to look would be from right after Thanksgiving in November until no later than Dec 15 for your departure. Return is going to be difficult with the best time being right after Christmas 26 – 30 December or if you leave early with a return no later than 15 December.

2) You may want to use a web site for this and do a multi-stop trip. By doing it this way you can see what it would cost trying different combinations to see what gets you the best price. Personally I am not a fan of Expedia and would recommend some of the other sites like Priceline.

3) Best thing is to use the sites out there. Generally speaking I tend to find the best deals if you do it as a package. However most sites do not get that complex so you may have to do your airfare as one and then hotel. In Amsterdam you want something near the train station as that is where the heart of Amsterdam is. Cabs in Amsterdam are quite expensive and you want to as close as possible. Amsterdam itself can be expensive so I would plan at least $ 100 / day for food and doing things. Ideally I would look at $ 150 / day so that you do not miss out.

4) There is Ann Frank’s house. I have seen lines that are quite long at time but at other times the lines are quite manageable. The canal boats provides a stop to her house.

There is the Holocaust Museum not far from the train station

Sex museum – again not far from the train station

Red light district – for touring

Canal Ride Sightseeing tours takes your around Amsterdam and highlights places to visit. The canal ride is just outside of the train station. It provides a great way to learn the layout of Amsterdam and what you can visit as a tourist.

Museums – Canal ride will highlight some of them

There are allot of excellent restaurants and bars

Allot of historic stuff if you like that stuff.

FINALLY if you are looking to go to Frankfurt the train station provides trains to all parts of Europe. You should be able to get a train or a connecting train to Frankfurt from there. Also you can get a short flight from Amsterdam to Frankfurt too. With that said you do need to realize that in Amsterdam many people are bi-lingual meaning they either speak Dutch and English or Dutch and German. This means you may run the risk of speaking to someone who does not speak English so if you know a bit of German it will help you out immensely.

BC Travel Company

http://www.siemerhand.com.

As for agencies, I have been using http://cruisingco.com/ for several years and never been happier. They are wonderful, quick, very knowledgeable, I don’t know what more I could ask for.

My main suggestion is to just stay away from the “online discounters” I have found that my agent is usually able to get a better rate and I don’t have to worry about having problems with the booking when she takes care of it. The same can’t be said with sites like Orbitz, Expedia, etc.

Some resorts have recommended car rentals and “partner” airlines, but you’ll have to visit the websites for the resorts to find out who’s partnered with who.

If you want all this done in one neat package you’ll probably have to pay a travel agent to do that. I’d be willing to do that for you but I’ll charge you 10%…so will the travel agent.

There is no “best” place to go. Winter Park, Aspen, Steamboat, Taos, Arapahoe Basin, Vail…all are different, none are really bad.