aut, go directly to the website of the airlines that fly to your destination......that will usually get you the best online price.. sometimes, not always booking hotel and flight is best.....

and then try hotels.com for your lodging... or mapquest the hotels in the area and call directly for best rates....

not a travel agent, but i used to travel tons, before ags entered my world and seem to ruin everything... maybe the economy and loss of my job also had something to do with it, but much easier to blame AGS, since generally they are the root of all my misery! ~~ and MIL, due to ags

I used to actually be a travel agent!!! It's a thankless job btw.
Go directly to the airlines website is the best advice. I personally love Southwest. But go to their southwest air vacation site and you can get some really good deals on packages that include everything you need.
Hope this helps.

For a rental car the best deal I ever got was on priceline. I did the name your own price, I saved a lot of money. I was really surprised it worked.

For airlines, like other said your best deal is going straight to the airline pricing. What I do is use kayak to guide me to who is about the lowest, then I check on the site itself. I have gotten tickets cheaper on the airline site doing that.
I've used priceline for hotels too, but you can't pick the hotel (you can pick the star level though). I would get the hyatt for 50 a night when I didn't live in my hometown and would visit.

I prefer, when going elsewhere, to pick my hotel though. I PM'd you with more info.