Consultants With Expertise Becoming a Tour de Force : Planning: Don’t call them travel agents. These mavens of regional itineraries can devise a customized trip--for a price.

The travel agent is as close as most tourists ever get to a free lunch. At no cost to you, an agent can recommend and book your vacation, often drawing on special expertise and firsthand travel experience in making recommendations. Find a good one and your life is simplified.

But no lunch is truly free. The problem with many of the roughly 32,000 travel agencies in the United States is that agents’ attentions are claimed by computerized reservation systems, airline fare wars, and fluctuations in the commissions they are paid by lodgings and airlines. That often leaves agents without time to learn geography in detail or see many destinations themselves.

Sensing an opening there, a new breed of travel consultants has developed. They specialize in a certain area and reject the title “travel agent” as an understatement of their expertise. Some make bookings, some don’t. Some accept commissions, some don’t. Most interview customers about their preferences and interests, then come back with itinerary proposals that touch on lodgings, dining, cultural attractions and entertainment. Unlike travel agents, these consultants charge consumers upfront for their service.

Their prices can be daunting--as much as $70 an hour--but they can deliver a service highly prized by travelers with less time than money. Regional expertise is one advantage. Also, for those consultants who reject commissions--taking their fees only from the client--it can be argued that their advice is less influenced by monetary considerations, and is therefore more likely to be “pure.”

Here are a handful of such companies, listed by their territories:

* California. Perfect Weekends (2059 Camden Ave., Suite 186, San Jose, Calif. 95124; tel. 800-493-3536 or 408-559-3652). Susan Barton, a veteran of a decade in software training and related Silicon Valley-type pursuits, opened San Jose-based Perfect Weekends in June, 1993, aiming to match busy Californians with B&Bs; around the state. In the 11 months since, she says, she has booked more than 400 trips.

Barton charges $99 to plan a one-destination trip, and presumes that most of her customers will be driving. She books lodgings, makes meal reservations, schedules lessons or rentals, and often builds weekends around special events such as festivals.

* American West. Off the Beaten Path (109 E. Main St., Bozeman, Mont. 59715; tel. 406-586-1311, fax 406-587-4147). Pam and Bill Bryan, both trained environmentalists and tour guides, started the firm in 1987, specializing in outdoorsy trips to Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.

In 1993, Bill Bryan estimates, the company arranged trips for about 570 individuals, couples and groups, with activities such as fishing, skiing, riding, hiking and canoeing. Fees for planning generally run $70 an hour, with a minimum of four or eight hours, depending on the complexity of the trip. Customers get detailed itineraries, plane tickets and maps.

* England. Oh to Be in England . . . (2 Charlton St., New York 10014; tel. 212- 255-8739, fax 212-986-8365). Jennifer Dorn, an administrator at New York University’s law school and frequent traveler to England for the last two decades, set up her business four years ago. She doesn’t make bookings (she advises travelers to make reservations themselves or use a travel agent), but fills spiral-bound notebooks with itinerary recommendations.

A typical trip takes her about 10 hours to plan. In the last year, she estimates that she’s done about 150 itineraries. Dorn charges $150-$225, depending on the number of cities in the itinerary.

* France. Point of View. (5922 Melvin Ave., Tarzana 91356; tel. 818-705-4418, fax 818-708-7131). Kajsa Agostini was born in France and spent 15-years with the French Government Tourist Office in California before striking off on her own last year.

Agostini, who usually spends July and August in France in addition to one or two other trips each year, does not make bookings. Instead, she interviews travelers and devises an itinerary. Once the itinerary is booked, Agostini often writes to hotels to confirm reservations and ensure personalized service. She charges about $200.

* Italy. Marjorie Shaw’s Insider’s Italy (P.O. Box 021816A, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11202-1816; tel. 718-855-3878, fax 718-855-3687.) Shaw, who was born in Rome and lived in Italy for more than a decade, started her consulting business in 1988, after spending four years leading walking tours through the country. Shaw says she usually visits Italy five times a year, and maintains an office in Rome. Her databank of Italian intelligence includes roughly 400 small hotels throughout the country. She makes hotel and transportation bookings and gives clients a portfolio that runs as long as 85 pages. Her typical fee for a couple on a two-week trip with four stops: $495. (If Shaw doesn’t answer her phone, she’s on a fact-finding trip; fax or call back later.)