I try to support my local area when I can, visiting farmers markets and such like, but what can I do travel-wise? I book several holidays a year, but prefer not to use far off and large companies. How do I find out some small, more personal, and hopefully local, options? Mike Townsend, Purley

Sunday Times travel expert Richard Green responds: A direct way is by using Travel Counsellors. It is a network of over 800 travel experts, who are scattered throughout the country and work from home.

The company has the necessary industry Atol bonding, and uses an in house dynamic packaging computer system to help its staff compare prices quickly. The invoicing and posting of tickets etc is done by the head office in Bolton, but your counsellor will be local to you, and with very complex itineraries, can even arrange to come and visit you.

The average counsellor has about 18 years travel industry experience, and can book packages, or tailor made trips. Using a Travel Counsellor is a good way of establishing a rapport with your travel booker.

Alternatively, AITO (Association of Independent Tour Operators), has about 150 Specialist Travel Agents dotted around the country too. These are all independent travel agents that can sell any trips you care to mention, and not just those found in the AITO tour operators. You can search on their website for an agent near to where you live.

Another option is to look at www.cheapflights.co.uk, which is a useful flight search site. It doesn't have its own booking engine, but instead gives you a list of recent low fares to the destination you have chosen. Some people get miffed when they see lots of phone-based travel agents coming up in the results page after a search, but actually this could be right up your street, as it were.

Travel agents that don't have fancy websites for flight bookings are more likely to be smaller independent outfits. If you glance down the list of area codes, you should be able to spot a travel agent not too far from you.

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