I'd like to hear from some of you longer-term residents of Nong Khai about your experiences with local travel agents.

I've seen a few around, but don't know who is considered best or cheapest? For both domestic airfares and especially international. To Europe or America.

Or are the online travel sites a better way to go now? My experience is that Travel Agents often have better air and hotel rates than either the airlines or hotels themselves.

Any tips with relevant details would be most appreciated.

Many thanks - JEFF (aka nongkhai)

A very good question, there are numerous agencies around Nong Khai, I have tried a couple but only for local bookings which were reasonably priced. I still do a fair amount of booking online when I am in need of something further afield. I have found thaifly.com to be the most reasonably priced online booking agent in Thailand, but then again, I always find better pricing when I look at some of the UK based websites I used to use (ebookers.com / westeasttravel.co.uk etc) but obviously they cannot be used for making a trip from Thailand so are a little restrictive.

Most agents do have better deals than the airlines or hotels themselves, I don't think I have ever found that booking direct with an airline or hotel would have a price advantage over booking through an agent.