All the rest is totally variable depending on what you decide to do.
I always begin planning by looking at the big expenses first; flights/travel, accommodation (usually the biggest expense), activities and day-to-day living while you're away.
Flights are usually the first thing I book, so I have my dates locked in and can plan the rest of the trip around that (I always do a budget up of how much the accommodation and expenses are first so that I don't book the flights and then realise I've over-commited and can't actually afford the trip, refer to links below for budget planners).
I never use a travel agent. I know it's a tough industry and I do pity the businesses that are closing because people aren't utilising the service as much, especially small business that is being muscled out by bigger companies. But the fact of the matter is, I'm not going to pay someone to do something I can do myself.
What most people don't know is, travel agents usually have contracts to other companies to use their services which may or may not be suited to you or the cheapest/most effective option. You might think you're getting a good deal with someone but in all honestly they're getting kickbacks from bigger agencies to bring the clientele.
For example, when my husband and I travelled to Europe, we used a travel agent to book the flight. Not sure why we did it that way, but we we're still novice travellers at that stage. We ended up paying $2100 (AUD) each return, to fly from Sydney to London, with a stop over for several hours in Hong Kong, which made our travel time something like 30 hrs.
Not long after purchasing these non-refundable flights, we saw on a website dedicated to booking flights all over the world, that we could have flown direct with another (more reputable) carrier for $1600 EACH. We would have saved $1000 (AUD) had we booked it ourselves. Needless to say, we were less then impressed. Moral to the story- do your research, by all means book through an agent, but make sure they aren't pulling the wool over your eyes by telling you what a good deal they're giving you when there could be better deals out there.
Having said that, heed my warning that if you are booking through a website, ensure it's a reputable one, and ALWAYS get travel insurance.
Links for reference..
Budget Planners
(Personal)
https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/tools-and-resources/calculators-and-tools/budget-planner
https://www.commbank.com.au/personal/accounts/budget-planner.html
(Holiday)
http://www.independenttraveler.com/travel-budget-calculator - Doing some quick research and inputting the data into here can tell you how much you'll need and how long it'll take you to get there.
Booking Flights
Tip: Check out some sites that provide cheap flights (Australia- lastminute, expedia, zuji), then compare the flight to the site of the airline and see if the prices are the same or comparable, if so, always book through the airline's actual site, you can avoid higher processing fees, and are less likely to run into strife if any issues should occur (flight changes, cancellations etc).
Image taken from http://www.mrwallpaper.com/view/airplane-flight-sunset-1920x1200/
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