Just a hint from experience.... travel insurance, don't book without
it!
Here are direct links for hotels, sometimes you can get the best deal directly.
I've been working on planning our trips, so I
thought I'd bring some of the useful sites that I have found to you. If you shop back and forth between these sites
and look carefully you can find who has the best deals.
Here's a site or two that can help you with
stuff to make your trip more fun once you get where you are going. Or maybe make the getting there even more fun, if
you are up to the challange!