The Big Island's Big Budget Road Trip

I've always traveled with a mini sewing kit in case I needed to sew on a loose button (or replace one).Now when I buy clothes, I just barely touch the end of a tube of Krazy Glue to the front of my buttons. Because they're covered by the glue, the threads don't fray as easily. No more lost buttons!

Before using frequent-flier miles, investigate how much the flight actually costs. For example, it takes at least 25,000 miles per person to travel from Boston to Alaska. The same flight cost us $288. After paying for our tickets, we received enough additional miles to travel for free to Sweden instead of Alaska!

A simple but effective anti-pickpocketing measure is to fasten a safety pin across the opening of the pants pocket on the inside. Leave enough room to pull your wallet out with some effort, but not enough for a quick hand to lift it in a second or two.

Pick just two colors to mix and match throughout your trip. You'll cut down on luggage, not least because you won't have to bring a bunch of shoes to match a wide assortment of colors.

Put a few plastic trash bags in the outer pockets of your suitcases and carry-ons. If you arrive at your destination and it's raining, you can cover your luggage with the bags while you make your way to your hotel. Just cut a slit for handles or straps.

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.

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!

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.

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."

If you plan to buy crafts in a country where bargaining is expected, use the time it takes for luggage to be unloaded to scope out the airport stores. Jot down items you like and their retail prices. If you find a similar item while touring the country, you have a top-end bargaining point. If you don't find the object at a better price, you can always pick it up at the airport while you're waiting for your flight home.

We were told by an airport security official to tape a business card onto the cover of our laptop. Turns out he has an average of six laptop computers left behind each day! There are so many more procedures now--removing shoes, removing coats--that people forget when they send their laptop through in a separate bin. The official added that it's very difficult to return them because most laptops have passwords that keep the owners' personal information hidden.

Making international calls back to the States can be confusing if you're using a calling card and you're dialing a number by its catchphrase, such as CALL ATT. Obviously, many countries don't have the English alphabet on the telephone keypad. My solution? I create my own small keypads on a computer, print them out, and attach them inside my wallet, to my passport, and to my calling cards.

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

Before you book a room over the phone, peruse the hotel's site for its "Web only" rate. It's often cheaper than the best quote you'll get by calling. Recently, over the phone, I was quoted a daily rate of $129. I booked the same room online for $89.

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.

When you travel to a beach destination, bring your own snorkel gear. We bought snorkels, masks, and fins at home for half-off (at an end-of-summer sale) before a trip to Hawaii. They didn't take up much room in our luggage, and we would have spent as much or more renting the equipment.

Don't be afraid to go to a foreign pharmacy. I forgot to pack my prescription medication on a recent trip to France. When my problem acted up, I went to a local pharmacy. (Look for the green cross.) The pharmacist provided my medication without a prescription and at a fraction of what it would have cost in the United States. In fact, one could benefit by stocking up abroad on medications that would normally be acquired at home at a much higher price.

We always e-mail our itinerary--including flights, hotels, and confirmation numbers--to ourselves and to family members. If our luggage is lost or our wallets are stolen, all of this essential information is just an Internet café and a few quick clicks away.

Before you buy expensive bottled water from your hotel room minibar, head to the fitness center. You'll be able to fill up an empty bottle at the gym's water cooler or fountain for free, and you don't need to break a sweat.

If you don't have enough frequent-flier miles to get to Europe, use your miles to reach a major airport in the United States and then pay for the overseas flight from there. For a trip to Ireland, my husband and I used Delta SkyMiles to get from Cincinnati to New York's JFK airport and from there took Aer Lingus to Ireland. The Aer Lingus internet special was $267 per person. A Delta flight from Cincinnati to Ireland was $1,150 for two. We saved more than $600.

Before my last long flight, I went to librivox.org and chose a bunch of books, short stories, and poems to download to my iPod--for free. The site has both adult and children's books, and the list is growing. All of the titles are in the public domain, and they're read by volunteers, so there's no question of copyright infringement. Even if you don't own an iPod, you can download them to your computer and burn them onto a CD.

Before traveling overseas, look at your health insurance card. If it only shows an 800 or 888 number for precertification of hospital admissions, call that number and obtain the local number with an area code. Many 800 numbers can't be dialed from foreign countries. I learned this the hard way during an emergency hospital admission in Switzerland. The delay in reaching my carrier could have been avoided.

Here's an important tip for cruising in winter: Fly into the port a day or two before your ship is scheduled to depart. We booked a Costa Rican cruise but were stuck in New York, where all flights out of JFK airport were canceled. Itineraries that include stops in places with airports can allow people to catch up. Ours didn't.

I prefer laminated city maps because I can circle all the things I want to see in a given day with a dark erasable marker. Once I have everything marked, I plan my route and start walking. The next day, I erase the previous day's marks and begin all over again.

Pack a power strip and extension cord for your next cruise. Many cruise-ship cabins have only one out- let, but you'll definitely need more if you want to power up your laptop, iPod, cell phone, electric razor, hairdryer, or any other gadgets you bring on board.

Before traveling to any city, do a search on the Internet of the city name and the word "coupon" ("New Orleans coupon"). You will find many sites offering two-for-one, percentage-off, and dollar-off discounts. On a recent trip to St.Louis, we saved $100 at restaurants and attractions.

If the zipper on your luggage or your clothing is giving you any trouble, rubbing some lip balm or candle wax onto the teeth should loosen it.

Once the hotel shampoo bottles I always seem to bring home are empty, I refill them with my own brand of shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel--instead of buying travel-size containers at the drugstore. I toss them, along with other small items (toothbrush, toothpaste, nail file, pillboxes, and a comb), into a medium-size Ziploc bag, and I'm ready to go; the clear plastic lets me find things easily.

Love researching your destination online, but don't know how to organize all those printouts, maps, guidebooks, and tips? I get a 5 x 7" spiral notebook (Mead makes one with a sturdy cover and a pocket insert), a set of index tabs, and some glue. Divide the notebook into sections with the tabs (sights, maps, currency converter, restaurants, etc.). Photocopy—in reduction mode—all the info you want to bring, and glue it into the appropriate section. I leave plenty of pages for my journals. This creates an all-in-one personal guide that you can read again years after your trip!

Travel soap dishes--the colorful plastic ones that have hinged lids--stop small, fragile items from getting damaged or lost in your bags. I can easily label and use them again and again and again.