Travel Projects Get a Tax-Funded Boost

As a flight attendant, I'm always amazed by the stuff that people leave behind. Most of it never gets back to its rightful owner because there's no way of knowing who the owner is. To avoid misplacing your property, put things back into your carry-on after using them--never on the floor or in the seat-back pocket. Label important items like books or games with return address labels so they can be sent back to you if found.

Ask your flight attendants for dining, lodging, shopping, and sightseeing advice. Most crews have up to the minute information gleaned from layovers, which they're more than happy to share with passengers. You can count on flight attendants to seek out budget treasures. I know—I've been married to one for more than 21 years!

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.

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.)

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.

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!

I switch from street shoes to flannel-lined moccasins at the airport. It saves time at the security checkpoint, and I'm comfortable during the flight. Once I land, I switch back to my street shoes.

Treat yourself to a golf-ball foot massage. During a long flight, or afterward in your hotel room, take off your shoes, put a golf ball on the floor, and roll it under your foot. It's a great stress reliever. Practice a bit before you try it on a plane, so that your ball doesn't go rolling down the cabin, tripping up unsuspecting passengers.

At a theme park, tie a brightly colored scarf to the handle of your stroller before you enter a ride. When you return, you'll be able to quickly pick out your stroller from a sea of look-alikes.

Dry-cleaning bags stop clothes from wrinkling. Slide each garment into its own bag (leave the hanger at home) and place them flat on your bed, one on top of another. Then carefully fold the entire stack to fit it in your suitcase. Once you get to your hotel, hang everything up as soon as you can. You'll never unpack a suitcase of wrinkled clothes again.

In North American cities with large Chinese communities, choose a family-run Chinese restaurant and ask for the set family meals, usually written in Chinese. They are more authentic than those typically offered to tourists and people who are not Chinese—not to mention a better value. In San Francisco, for example, you can enjoy a five-course meal, which easily feeds a family of four, for less than $20.

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.

Finding the bathroom in the middle of the night in a strange hotel room or cruise-ship cabin can be a challenge. Leaving the bathroom light on seems wasteful and makes the room too bright for sleeping. My husband and I used to travel with a night-light, but we couldn't always find a convenient place to plug it in. We've recently discovered a better solution: plastic light sticks. They come in several glow-in-the- dark colors and are activated by bending the tube into a circle and connecting the ends. Each evening, we hook one of the loops over the bathroom-door handle, where it provides a gentle glow through the night.

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.

Accidentally reformat your camera's memory card? As long as you don't overwrite the disk by shooting more photos, those original pictures are still there. Buy another card to use in the meantime, and then, when you get home, either purchase a file-recovery software program (about $35) or take the card to a camera shop and see if someone there can help.

If your tablecloth is wet at dinner, you should prepare for rough seas. Restaurant staffers have been known to slightly dampen the tablecloth to keep plates and glasses from sliding.

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.

Instead of packing a complete shaving kit, my husband fills his wide-mouth Nalgene water bottle with items such as razors, spare contact lenses, eyeglasses, toothbrush, and so on. This turned out to be particularly useful on our trip to Costa Rica, where we also took the bottle on our day hikes to volcanoes and the jungle.

Place a fabric softener sheet in your suitcase when packing. It'll absorb odors and dampness and keep clothing smelling fresh. It's most beneficial in warm, humid climates and while at sea. I found this quite useful during my twenty-three years in the U.S.Navy.

Whenever my husband and I get new pairs of eyeglasses, we relegate the old ones to our luggage, along with an inexpensive repair kit from the drugstore. If something happens while we're away from home, we can hopefully fix the glasses ourselves. If they're beyond saving, we have the backup pairs to get us through the rest of the trip.

When looking for the lowest airfare, I've found that in some cases the best rates pop up when searching for one traveler instead of two. Recently, I wanted to buy one-way tickets from New York to Orlando for two people and came up with $87 per person. But when I selected one traveler, the fare dropped to $72.

I used to lug around a clothes steamer and adapter to stay wrinkle-free while on the road, but I've since opted for something more low-tech. I now travel with a Platypus collapsible bottle and a spray bottle head. After checking into my hotel, I immediately hang my clothes and give them a spritz with water from the spray bottle. After several hours, the wrinkles fall out, and the clothing is dry and ready to wear.

If you're traveling with a companion, pack half of your belongings in his or her suitcase and vice versa. This way, if one piece of luggage gets lost, you'll each still have some clothing.

When booking a rental car online, click on "special offers" or "hot deals" to find the company's current promotional codes. Price your reservation using each code. Also, keep in mind that rates fluctuate according to seasons and slow periods. I managed to save more than $170 on a ten-day rental in Orlando, Fla.,by changing my reservation dates twice and by using different codes.

Priceline was a total pig in a poke for me, so I never used the web site, until I found out about biddingfortravel.com. This helpful Web site gives potential bidders an idea of prices that are being accepted (and declined) on priceline.com for particular dates and properties (or airfares or car rentals). I got the Hyatt Regency Miami for $35 per night because of this!

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.

It can be difficult for parents to find a place to bathe their infant while on vacation. Showers obviously won't work, and the miniscule sinks generally found in hotel bathrooms aren't appropriate either. On our last cruise, we eliminated the whole problem by packing a small, inexpensive inflatable bathtub. (Ours cost only $7.99.) When we arrived, we blew it up and placed it in the bottom of the shower for an instant, safe baby bath.

I travel with two cameras: a digital SLR for the majority of my shots, and a small disposable camera for when I ask strangers to take pictures of me. As much as I tend to trust other people, I'm not ready to hand over my $1,000 camera to someone I don't know at all.

Whenever I know I'll be renting a car, I pack a couple of folded paper towels and two small spray bottles--one filled with window cleaner and the other with Rain-X, a product that repels raindrops. It's hard enough driving an unfamiliar car in an unfamiliar location. At least with a clean windshield I'm able to see properly, no matter the weather.

I always snap photographs of scenic highway markers, park entrance signs, and the like. These informational photos are put into our album to help identify the many sites that we visited.