National Parks (Minus the Crowds)

If you even manage to get a cell signal while at sea, your roaming charges will be outrageous. To communicate with your cabinmates, leave Post-it Notes on your door detailing where you'll be throughout the day.

Before setting off on one of my many backpacking excursions, I head to Kinko's to rebind my guidebook. I replace the cover with a plain black or navy one. It costs about $6 and allows me to blend in much better while traveling. People see my new book as a journal, not a travel guide that labels me a tourist.

An extra contact lens case holds enough toiletries for a short trip. Squeeze a few dabs of toothpaste into one side and perhaps some facial cleanser or moisturizer in the other side. Just the right amount of each will fit for your overnights or weekends away.

Give your children a coach's whistle in case they get lost; put it on a ribbon so they can wear it around their neck. The piercing sound may be annoying, but you'll definitely find them quicker!

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.

Know your PINs! My husband and I left home with very little cash on us, and instead of stopping to get money at the airport, my husband--ever the procrastinator--decided to wait until we got to Cancún to use his ATM card. Guess what? It didn't work in any of the machines. And although he had several credit cards for cash advances, he didn't know the PINs off the top of his head. We charged everything we could during our stay, but most of the markets don't take credit cards. Needless to say, I didn't come home with a lot of souvenirs.

The help of a concierge at an expensive hotel is available even if you're staying at a motel across the street. Go to the concierge with $5 (or whatever the assistance is worth to you) held discreetly but visibly in your hand. Chances are you won't be asked whether you're staying at the hotel. This worked for us once when we were stranded by a blizzard. We tried to rebook our flights on our own, but phones at the airlines were busy for two days straight. The concierge at a fancy hotel a few blocks away got through on his first try and managed to rearrange our flights for us.

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.

Consider asking your driver or tour guide to haggle on your behalf at bazaars and souks. (But don't let them lead you to places where they might have a connection to the shopkeeper.) The money you tip them will usually be less than the markup on prices for tourists.

Get the right maps. For road trips on the Continent, European maps are much more helpful when it comes to reading road signs. They'll say Napoli instead of Naples, Firenze rather than Florence. I could spend all day waiting for a road sign for Munich and miss the exit for Munchen.

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.)

Disposable-camera lenses scratch just like any other lens would. Place a small piece of painter's tape (or another kind that won't stick too much) over the lens to protect it from contact with other items in your purse or backpack during travel.

Carry a Polaroid camera when traveling to developing countries. In Cambodia, several village children gathered around us, posed enthusiastically for pictures, and were fascinated by their images in our digital camera. We wanted to send them the pictures, but they were unable to tell us their address. Polaroids would have solved the problem!

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.

Ziploc now makes extra-large bags with handles. They're nearly two feet by two feet, and although Ziploc advertises them as being good for storage, they're also useful for traveling. Bring one on long shopping excursions and then use it as an extra carry-on for souvenirs on the way home.

Use the shoeshine mitt often found in hotel bath- rooms to store your sunglasses. They fit nicely inside the pouch, and when you take them out, you have a soft material to clean them with. For extra protection while traveling, I store my sunglasses inside the shoe-shine mitt, fold the end closed, and then place it in my glasses case.

Water-bottle holsters are good for more than holding water. I own several Water Bottle Totes by Outdoor Research (orgear.com). With their Velcro-like straps, I can fasten them anywher--to my belt, camera strap, fanny pack, purse, or airplane seat. I've used them at various times to carry my camera, binoculars, snacks, umbrella, battery-powered fan, flashlight, sunglasses, a windbreaker, and a rain poncho.

For long overnight flights, pack a dry washcloth in a Ziploc bag in your carry-on. Before landing, ask the flight attendant for a cup of hot (not boiling) water. Carefully pour the water into the Ziploc bag and then wipe your face and hands with the steaming cloth. It's like a portable sauna!

When parking in a crowded garage, don't settle for the first space available on a lower level. It's probably a half-day hike from the elevator. Instead, drive to the upper levels, where you can usually park right next to the elevator. This tip was very useful in Las Vegas, especially when checking in and out of hotels with our luggage.

We like to buy shipboard souvenirs, so we try to choose a ship that's completing its run of an area--that's when merchandise is generally put on sale. Last year, for example, on a sailing in South America, all of the T-shirts, glassware, and rain jackets were 75 percent off.

Some international airlines still give passengers a goody bag that includes a toothbrush, an eye mask, and socks for the flight. Keep those socks: They're handy when visiting temples in Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia, where you must remove your shoes before entering. I slipped on the socks and my feet stayed both clean and warm!

When I travel to a new city, I check with the local running club to see if there are any events planned during my stay. The entry fee is usually donated to a charity, and I get great exercise, meet locals, and tour a part of the city I may not have known about.

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.

My husband and I always travel around Europe by train. When we arrive in any city, we first stop at a ticket window and get all the information we'll need for the next leg of our journey. This gives us plenty of time to find an English-speaking ticket agent who'll print out departure times and platform numbers for us. Before leaving the station, we can note the location of the platform we'll be looking for that morning. One wrong move when you're rushing for a train and you could end up in the wrong city!

By starting a blog for each trip--at blogger.com, among others--you can keep your friends and family up-to-date on your adventures. All you need is an Internet café to add entries and photos while you're on the road.

I used a well-known travel site to price tickets for a trip to Las Vegas. The flight I wanted was available, but I decided to wait to see if prices would come down. That flight stopped being listed after a week, and the next best flight kept getting more expensive. About five weeks later, I checked prices from a different PC. Whaddya know? The original flight was available, for $50 less than that next-best flight. That same evening I checked again from my PC. The flight I wanted was not available,so I deleted the cookies for the site and tried again. Voilà! The flight I wanted at the price I wanted. Moral of the story: Clean up your cookies—it could save you money!

Always carry peanut butter. A plastic jar is easy to pack, doesn't need refrigeration, is a great source of protein, and makes a quick, cheap meal when coupled with local bread. (But don't forget to pack a plastic knife for spreading it.)

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.

A shoe organizer hung over the bathroom door is my solution for hotel-room clutter. The compartments are perfect for stashing everything from room keys and travel documents to toiletries and, of course, shoes. The extra storage space came in especially handy on a recent cruise, when we needed all the room we could get in our tiny cabin.

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.