The 25 Movies That Literally Moved Us

Before booking your next ski trip or reserving a table for dinner, find out what your credit card company has to offer. American Express sometimes has discounts on lift tickets; MasterCard has offered buy-one-get-one-free at local restaurants; and Discover Card has access to deals to Universal Studios. Check out americanexpress.com/offerzone, mastercard.com (be sure to click on Promotions), and discovercard.com.

Want to visit museums with your children without the boredom and tears? Go to the gift shop first and buy postcards of the museum's most famous works. Have your kids treasure hunt for these masterpieces. When you get home the postcards can go right into your trip album.

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.

If you're packing a lunch to eat later in the day, freeze a 16-ounce water bottle and pack it, along with yogurt, cottage cheese, a ham sandwich, or whatever in a light- weight, insulated bag. Your snacks will remain cold, and you can drink the water.

Bring your own linens. They're useful in a million different ways. Obviously a soft cotton pillowcase makes those scratchy airplane pillows bearable, but it can also be used to gather loose items when deplaning. A nice sheet will cover up an ugly bedspread or sofa, and makes a great tablecloth or picnic blanket.

We've noticed that when booking a flight for our family under one reservation, some airlines will only credit the 1,500 bonus miles (500 for booking online, 500 each way for printing boarding passes) to the person whose name the reservation is under. This is regardless of whether the other family members have mileage accounts. To avoid this, make a separate reservation for each of your family members and then pick seats together.

When traveling in the developing world, I always bring several packets of stickers to give to children. They're wonderful icebreakers.

Shout Wipes take up very little space in your purse or backpack and are invaluable for treating stains. While traveling on an airplane, I gave one to a most grateful Italian after he spilled wine on his tie. Our friendship extended through customs, and we're now e-mail pals. Great stuff!

I bought several items while in London and noticed when I returned home that my credit card number was printed in full on each sales slip. (In the United States, usually only the last four digits of the number are visible.) Travelers should be careful when using their credit cards overseas--don't leave the sales slips lying around.

Booking condos last minute can yield incredible bargains, and there's a way to maximize savings while minimizing the risk that you won't find a room at all. ("Last minute" generally means a month or less before your stay; seven-day deals usually start on a Saturday.) Buy your plane ticket and book a refundable hotel room you can use in case you can't find that bargain condo. Then, a month or so before your trip, start looking at last-minute sites—lastminutetravel.com, site59.com, etc. If you find a deal, simply get a refund on the hotel room and pay the cancellation fee, if there happens to be one. Using this technique, I found a great beachfront, one-bedroom condo on Maui—and I saved about $300.

Anyone tired of the same boring postcards that are found at every roadside tourist trap should try shopping for vintage postcards at an antiques shop. They're a great addition to any photo album, as they often show what the local attractions looked like prior to development.

To ensure the studs of pierced and delicate earrings don't get damaged, I put them in a film canister. An added benefit is that they're less likely to be stolen when left in a suitcase or hotel room, because thieves presume there's nothing inside but film.

Driving around Italy last summer, my husband and I found that even the most detailed maps left us scratching our heads in confusion. Desperate and lost, we decided to follow a tour bus. Guess what? It got us exactly where we wanted to go.

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.

If you're traveling solo and your room has a double bed, sleep on the side farthest from the phone. It's slept on less frequently and is therefore more comfortable.

Place a coin over the veins on the inside of your wrist (about two finger widths from the base of your palm) and secure it in place with a rubber band or ponytail holder. The gentle pressure of the coin will stimulate nerves that control nausea, just like the motion-sickness bands that are sold at drugstores.

Before you leave the United States, photocopy receipts for any expensive items you're taking with you. This way, you won't have to argue with customs on the way home about declaring items you didn't buy abroad. (I'm a photographer, and I always bring expensive cameras on vacations.)

When my husband and I travel, we take at least three different credit cards. I carry one he doesn't have, he carries one I don't have, and we both bring our primary card. If one of us has our wallet stolen, we can cancel two cards and still have one to use. We each have different ATM cards, too--useful if a machine doesn't honor one of the cards, or if we need more cash than our daily limit allows.

Anyone traveling with multiple electronic devices (laptops, PDAs, cell phones, digital cameras, MP3 players) can easily confuse all the accessories that come with them. To keep all battery chargers, USB cables, media cards, and owner's manuals safe, dry, and organized, place them in individual Ziploc bags. You can put a label inside the bag to identify the contents, and one label wrapped around each cable to identify it.

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.

A beach ball can replace many expensive in-flight gadgets. Depending on how much you inflate it, the ball can function as a very comfortable footrest, a back support, or a lap pillow to support your book.

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 make a hotel reservation online and then cancel online, print out and save the cancellation confirmation for at least two billing cycles past your trip. After our vacation, I found a "no-show" charge on my credit card for a room that I'd canceled well in advance. Without the confirmation, I had no way to contest the bill.

Paramedics now look for emergency contact information in victims' mobile phones. Store the word "ICE" (In Case of Emergency) in your address book, along with the name and number of the person you'd like emergency personnel to call on your behalf. (For more than one entry, use ICE1, ICE2, etc.) Tell your friends or family members that you've chosen them as your contacts and make sure they're aware of any medical conditions or allergies that could affect your treatment.

With two of our last three car rentals, the local branch wanted documentation beyond the standard insurance card issued by our insurance company. In San Juan, we were delayed a half hour while the agent made phone calls to verify that our liability insurance was good in Puerto Rico. In Miami, if we hadn't provided proof that our insurance covered rental cars, we would've been charged a daily collision insurance fee. Fortunately, we knew ahead of time and took a copy of the pertinent section of our policy. Our credit card included car rental insurance, but proof of that coverage was also required.

Though they're often the best deals around, don't assume that packaged vacations always offer the biggest bang for your buck. My wife and I were ready to book an air/hotel package to Maui when we noticed a sale on Aloha Airlines ($280 round trip from Oakland). I added up the total cost of the trip if purchased separately and saved $400 over comparable packages from various tour operators. We used the extra money to stay in a nicer hotel and to rent a convertible!

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.

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.

Tired of catching colds while traveling? Take along a travel-size package of Clorox wipes. Disinfect the tray table and armrests on the airplane, and the telephone and TV remote in your hotel room.

Don't put your magnetic sunglass clip-ons in the same pocket as your mass transit fare cards or hotel key cards. I managed to erase both my subway pass and my hotel key on a recent trip.