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Is it cheaper to book online or on the High street?

What does a city break cost of booked online vs booked through and agent? What does a two-week break in the Caribbean or equivalent cost?

The battle is on. Competition is increasingly fierce as dot coms take on high street travel agents for your business. But is the internet always cheaper and easier? Do travel agents offer more choice? Time to put them into the gladiatorial arena together and see who comes out on top.

Three household name travel agents are up against three thrusting travel portals in two tests of efficiency and value for money.

The Orlando Supremacy

The first is challenge is to find the cheapest deal on a fortnight in Florida for a family of four in August, booked eight weeks in advance. Mum, Dad and children aged 10 and seven will share one family room in a two star hotel and spend happy days enjoying all that Orlando has to offer.

High Street

First up is good old Thomas Cook. It took a while to find accommodation that was not sold out but we were eventually offered a deal in a two star resort for the total cost of £2,684. This includes an 'occupancy supplement' of £80 each for the children (as if it is not bad enough to have everyone sharing a room for two weeks), fuel supplements of £30 a head and a fee of £12 each to ensure that the family could all sit together on the flights.

Thomson under-cut this slightly with a deal for £2,546. Their occupancy supplement was £24 for each child and seat pre-booking came to a total of £116. Meals on board the flight cost £10 each for adults and £5 for children. Sick-bags free.

First Choice offered a £3916 package but there were fewer details about the breakdown of costs although their quote did include car hire. They could only offer flights from Manchester airport for this trip, which was pretty unhelpful.

Internet

Price comparison site Kelkoo does not automatically account for children travelling and so you have to click on 'advanced search' before you begin to avoid re-entering all the information. You also need to specify whether you require direct flights for both the outward and return journey. It is easy to see why indirect flights make prices appear dirt cheap but it's hard to imagine that they are a popular choice. The total cost for direct flights came to £2,712 including all the bits and pieces. It was then very easy to search for a hotel - just one click revealed a variety of options, the cheapest being £518 for a family room. A grand total of £3,230.

Travelsupermarket looks like a pinball machine as it goes to work on your search. When it presents the final lists you need to click on 'More' instead of the more obvious 'Go' as the latter takes you off to impenetrable sponsor company sites. Flights cost a total of £2,192 which included an online discount of £20. Finding a hotel was also easy. Children stay for free at the Best Western Movieland hotel offered so the room cost £392 for the duration, making a total holiday price of £2,584.

A few clicks on Traveljungle whisked us to a Thomson screen where we were quoted a total of £2,768 for the trip which included a £100 online booking discount. The occupancy supplement was a hefty £238 and the usual pre-booked seat fees and in-flight meal costs were there. The most disappointing aspect was that accommodation would be 'allocated on arrival'. Not what you want at the end of a long flight.

In summary

Thomson £2,546

Travelsupermarket £2,584

Thomas Cook £2,684

Traveljungle £2,768

Kelkoo £3,230

First Choice £3,916

High Street wins this round although they feature at the top and bottom of the list with a staggering price differential of £1,370.

Paris when it sizzles

The second challenge is to find the cheapest deal on two nights for two in Paris in July, booking a month in advance. Who said romance is dead?

High Street

Thomas Cook offered two nights at the hotel Kyriad and flights with Air France for a total of £287.

Thomson came up with the lower price of £216.

First Choice could provide flights from London City airport and quoted £382 for three star accommodation. The cheapest deal they do is in what they describe as 'eco-hotels' just outside the city centre. The agent said he had stayed in one and they were surprisingly good. Total cost £334.

Internet

Kelkoo seems to have a slightly different system for city breaks and it was less easy to follow than the sunshine holiday information. It came up with a trip via lastminute.com on Eurostar costing a total of £458 although they did throw in a free 'Da Vinci Code walking tour'.

Travelsupermarket provided information on flights and a room for a total of £304.

Traveljungle had no flights or hotel rooms for the dates required even though they were a month away.

In summary

Thomson £216

Thomas Cook £287

Travelsupermarket £304

First Choice £334

Kelkoo £458

Traveljungle Nothing available

High street wins again with a difference of more than double the lowest the price.

It's great to have the information at your fingertips but it could pay to take a walk and shop around both on and offline.