We booked with Trailfinders - they were very patient and kind with us as it took us ages to decide what we wanted. They are very experienced and came up with lots of helpful advice. STA were also excellent (we are mid 50s so you don't have to be a student) and they try to price match too.

We are spending 6 days in each of the following:

Las Vegas
San Francisco
Hawaii
Los Angeles

I did las vegas and san fransisco myself online, i booked four flights and three hotels and much cheaper than with travel companies i compared to. Just write down your itinary and book each leg of the trip seperatley. Internal flights in the usa are no problem and very well priced, i flew to las vegas with thomas cook, i got a price from the local agents and was amazed at the saving by booking directly online for the same flight.

We've booked 2 hotels ourselves and got very good deals - especially at The MGM Grand in Vegas thanks to Luci on LAS VEGAS HOTEL thread.
We've also booked a condo on the oceon in Maui via VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner.) We are still waiting for a good deal in Los Angeles (it's part of the fun.)

Our flights from London > Las Vegas > San Francisco > Hawaii > Los Angeles
and then back to Heathrow (5 flights in just over 3 weeks) in August cost us £1045 each which we felt was good value as it gives us peace of mind that everything is booked and in place. Changes are permitted with the airlines direct if we do want to alter the itinary in any way.

But as always - it's horses for courses. We all have our own preferences. It would be very boring if we all did things the same way

If it's a package you are looking for then you could try Jetsave or United Vacations. You could do flight only with United Vacations.

If you want to do it DIY then you could price the flight(s) with Expedia using their Mutli City option.

luci

The Flight Centre are pretty good for multi-centre flights. Their prices are normally very competitive. We used them when we did LA/Vegas/San Fran.

TC

Did a similar tip last year to LA, San Diego & San Fran.

Used Hotwire for all the hotels, got some good deals, you book directly with the hotel and only pay when you check in.

http://www.hotwire.com/seo/

Booked an internal flight from SD to SF with Southwest airline good price and easy to book.

http://www.southwest.com/

Also got the train from LA to SD with Amtrak, again easy to book and very reasonable.

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/HomePage

Would recommend The Hollywood Orchid Suites for a hotel in LA, it's right in the middle of Hollywood and easy to get around without a car. Basic but a superb location.

http://www.orchidsuites.com/index.htm

Hope this helps

Thanks for all the ideas everyone The last post suggested booking internal flights, and I've just had a quick look at that, that's an option I didn't think of. I've mainly been looking at booking all our flights in one go, but it looks a bit cheaper to book the main flight over to the US and back with a travel company based over here, then book internal flights for 1st stop to 2nd stop to 3rd stop.

Just got to get saving and wait now, but thanks for the information and help everyone

Found American Airlines very reasonable for flight from UK to LA, worth considering booking direct with the airline.

http://www.americanairlines.co.uk/i18n/specialOffers/EAS_LHR.jsp?locale=en_GB

We are doing 5 nights in each at the end of July/beg of August. As it is our first time to the USA we booked through a tour operator rather than doing DIY. We have booked through Kuoni with all flights included. If you want any further details please ask.

Mandy

Ive used trailfinders a few times and used them for this years trip, they are usually good

Hi have just booked 3 nights san francisco 6 nights haawai 4 nights vegas 3 nights LA for nov 2010 with coop travel really good price rob