Thanks for the invitation to see your fall colours! And for the reminder about the rain! We will be in Seattle on 1st November for 10 days to stay with our daughter who lives there!

Our trip involves a round-the-world fare with a surface segment as we are sailing from Southampton to NYC. I have been looking on the net since January for the best possible package and in the end got it through a friend who is a travel agent. The bookings were only confirmed 2 days ago - i.e. quite last minute as we leave in 2 weeks - and our fares from Brisbane/Hong Kong/London then NYC/Vancouver and home to Brisbane through Hong Kong again.

The surface segment makes it trickier, but we'll be flying on fares that are AUD600 each cheaper than I could find anywhere on the net!! But as I read from a Ziner over the last few months, it pays to check both, because you never know.

Also re: hotels, I can't help you for Italy but I had excellent results online for accommodation in London, with confirmation coming back very quickly. I confirmed a number and then cancelled the others as soon as I'd found the best deal. Sometimes a hotel will go from available to N/A in a matter of hours. But I did deal through hotel reservation groups, not direct to the hotels initially. The confirmation, however came back directly from the hotels.

Happy hunting!

Margot - Gold Coast, Australia.