How to Use Your Frequent Flier Miles

I carry bilingual takeout menus when traveling to countries like China, Korea, and Vietnam. When I'm at a restaurant with no menu (or one that I can't read), I give mine to the waiter so he can point to dishes they can prepare. I've learned to pack a few extra menus, as the restaurants often like to keep a copy.

Before I embark on a trip, I cover the dirt of my potted plants with plastic bags after watering them well. (Cut a few slits in the bags and keep plants out of direct sunlight.) The soil will stay damp for about three weeks.

Remember to check the hours of operation for your hotel's airport shuttle. In Rome,we were surprised to learn that our hotel--which touted its shuttle--only offered the service a few hours a day.

Rather than risk losing your department-store credit cards and club-membership cards, you should really leave them behind when you go somewhere you won't need them. Your purse or wallet will be lighter and your worries fewer.

Put your perfume and cologne bottles inside pairs of rolled-up socks to keep them cushioned during your journey.

Download the most up-to-date airline schedules from the individual airline Web sites to your PDA before you leave home. Should you encounter a delay or cancellation at the airport, you'll have all the information needed to find another flight quickly.

Read the fine print on your rail pass. You can often use it to save money on other modes of public transportation. With a Scandinavian rail pass, for example, you'll pay less to ride the ferries. In Switzerland, a rail pass can get you free bus rides, as well as complimentary entrance to museums and discounts on funiculars and hotel accommodations.

No longer do the many key chains I get as advertising languish in bureau drawers. I attach one or two at the ends of my luggage zippers. They make it easier to work the zippers and help me identify my luggage on airport carousels.

If you're stranded overnight at an airport and receive a "distress rate" voucher, call the hotel of your choice before blindly following the airline's suggestion. You may find that for that discounted rate (or a few bucks more) you can stay in a hotel with a lot more amenities than the one the airline would put you in. After a long, mishap-filled trip, anyone can appreciate a really good mattress, a top-notch restaurant, and an indoor swimming pool.

Be certain to have enough blank pages in your passport. Someone I know had a terrible time getting per- mission to board a flight from Zambia to South Africa because she didn't have the two blank passport pages required to enter South Africa. Thank goodness my husband had read about the requirement. Before the trip, we sent our passports to the center in Charleston and had extra pages added at no charge.

Don't assume you can save a spot at the pool with your towel. Cruise lines give you one pool towel at the start of the cruise. If you don't have it (or a cleaned trade-in) at the end, you'll get charged. If you let it out of your sight, you run the risk of losing it or having it stolen by a fellow cruiser.

When seeking a cheap airfare, don't forget to consult the Web sites of the major charter tour operators--like Apple Vacations, TNT Vacations, Vacation Express, or SunTrips--which frequently sell air-only tickets in addition to air-and-hotel packages. Doing so helped me slash the cost of round-trip airfare to visit my mother in Las Vegas by well over 50 percent.

After looking for years for the perfect toiletries bag and being frustrated by many that were less than ideal, I finally discovered one that is just right: a soft-sided lunch box I bought at the supermarket. It has an outer zipped pocket with small compartments and slots perfect for often-used items like a toothbrush and toothpaste. There's a small removable zipper pouch inside (meant for a small ice pack) for those smaller, hard-to-find items like nail files and pill bottles. The remaining space inside is just right for larger items like shampoo and hand lotion. Other helpful features include both a small handle and shoulder strap and a waterproof, easy-to-clean interior. As an elementary school teacher, I know firsthand that it'll last: It was designed to withstand daily use by kids!

Baby wipes aren't just for babies. Slip a travel-size pack into your carry-on bag and use the wipes to kill germs on public toilet seats and in phone booths. In a pinch, they can also remove stubborn stains from clothing.

Put an address label on your one-time-use camera. At a Final Four game in Indianapolis, we exchanged identical Kodak Fun Savers with another traveler so that we could take souvenir photos of each other with our respective cameras. But afterward, we couldn't tell whose camera was whose. Luckily, I remembered how many exposures remained on mine, so we got ours back. Next time, I'll just label it.

Rather than automatically using your hotel's valet parking, you should check to see if there's an adjacent parking lot or garage that offers a better rate. On a recent trip, I was able to park across the street from my hotel for $10 per day--versus $27 per day to valet park with the hotel.

To feed a family of four in a very expensive tropical location like Anguilla or Bermuda (or most other Caribbean locations, for that matter), check to see if your hotel has phone books and look up the local pizza place. Nine times out of ten the pizza purveyors will deliver for free. You'll end up spending no more than $20 on pizza, bread sticks, and soda.

Save major bucks by going onto eBay and purchasing coupons and gift certificates that others don't want or can't use for lodging, transportation, food, and admissions. I've found great discounts for airline and Amtrak tickets; car rentals; entrance to amusement parks such as SeaWorld, Disney, or Universal Studios; as well as overnights at many hotels. For example, I bought a $30 savings coupon at SeaWorld for only $1. Simply search for your destination and then type in "coupon" or "gift certificate."

The best carry-on bag that I've found is a gardener's tote. It has lots of pockets on the outside and room inside for a medium-size purse, yet it's small enough to sit comfortably at my feet on a bus or plane.

When I'm on a cruise with my wife's family and we're in a foreign city for the day, I get off the boat as soon as we dock and hail a taxi. I ask the driver to call his dispatcher and find me a van with an English-speaking driver. Then I negotiate an hourly rate and a pickup time at the dock. The family tours together for a few hours, and then each couple either gets dropped off where they want to spend extra time or returns to the boat (this is great for my elderly in-laws). We get a tailor-made city tour for a much cheaper rate than if we had booked through the cruise line.

I carry recipe cards with me to jot down interesting dishes I come across while on vacation. (I also like to use colorful postcards from the area I'm visiting and trim them to fit my recipe box.) Here's a wonderful dessert idea I brought home after spending a rainy afternoon with my husband in a London pub: Top a warm waffle with vanilla ice cream, maple syrup, and chopped pecans. It's heaven with a cup of hot tea.

When buying bottled water, look at the bottle cap to see if the seal is still intact. While visiting the Acropolis on a very hot day this summer, I caught a young boy refilling empty water bottles from a tap and recapping them. He was then selling the bottles to thirsty tourists.

If you're a woman traveling alone, or your accommodations don't inspire confidence, simply wedge a small rubber doorstop at the base of the door when you're inside the room. It'll be virtually impossible to open the door from the outside.

Every year, I get address labels from numerous charitable organizations. I keep them with me when traveling because it's the quickest way to provide my address to new friends, enter prize drawings at shops, sign guest books, etc. It's not only efficient; it can also help spread the word about worthwhile charities.

We've traveled to both Mexico and China in the last year and had the same experience in both countries: When we tried to exchange dollars to local currency, the banks wouldn't take bills with graffiti on them--telephone numbers, names, doodles, anything. Nor would they accept any bills that were torn or damaged. (We noticed a group from France having the same problem with their euros.) So before you leave home, make sure that any money you plan on exchanging is absolutely crisp and clean--or better yet, ask your bank specifically for brand-new bills.

Pack light, or that great deal you found on airfare won't seem that great. On a Ryanair flight between Glasgow and Dublin, my husband and I were charged over $100 for excess baggage weight (the airline tickets themselves cost less than half that). Be sure to check the weight limits—especially on low-fare airlines—before you leave home.

I have the words "hotel" and "taxi" on my cell- phone speed dial. On a trip, I change the numbers, but leave the preprogrammed titles the same--instant access and no more little slips of paper everywhere.

My husband packs Q-tips in a plastic cassette case. It's small and snaps shut, keeping the cotton swabs clean and dry.

Our bags have been stolen twice from inside locked rental cars. Now we travel with a bicycle cable and lock. If we absolutely have to leave our suitcases in the car, I hook them together by the handles and attach the whole thing to the frame of a seat or a secure item in the trunk. Even if thieves manage to get into our car, the cable will make it very difficult for them to make off with the luggage.

In areas where the majority of people don't speak English, head to an Internet café. In our experience, they're full of friendly young people anxious to practice their English.