Summer Lake Towns 2009

Using your frequent-flier miles, you might be able to visit two cities on one ticket. For example, my wife and I always trade in our Delta miles when we visit our daughters in Dallas and San Francisco. Because we have to fly through Dallas to get to San Francisco on Delta, we can stop over in Dallas for as long as we want before continuing on to San Francisco—and we use only one frequent-flier ticket each.

Deli counters in grocery stores are great mealtime alternatives to restaurants or fast-food fare when you're exploring the United States. The food is fresh, there's a big variety (hot and cold), and economically, it's a great break. I recently had a complete hot meal, including beverage, for $3 from a grocery-store deli.

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!

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.

Even if you're not hungry when the flight attendant comes around with the snack service, take it for later. Although peanuts may not look appetizing at 7 a.m., they will look good later if you have nothing better to eat. And it saves you from picking up something at expensive airport shops.

A padlocked zipper tells thieves there's something in your bag worth stealing, but a key ring is much less obvious. Just use it to latch together the zippers. Best of all, you'll never have to worry about forgetting your combination.

I work for a major airline and can attest to this tip for redirecting lost luggage. Place a copy of your itinerary--including contact info for where you're staying--inside your checked suitcase. If name and flight tags are missing, we'll still know where your bag needs to go.

If your travels take you to U.S. cities large enough to have museums, zoos, and/or botanical gardens, consider buying a membership in your home city's counterpart. Many have reciprocal privileges with institutions elsewhere. A membership at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, for example, lets you see the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and zoos in Los Angeles, Des Moines, and Jackson, Mississippi, at no charge.

If you book a package over the Internet, print out all the details of what's included and take it with you. When a hotel desk clerk in Paris said that the breakfast buffet we had enjoyed for the previous seven mornings was not included in our package, I was able to show him the printouts and prove him wrong. He apologized profusely and wiped the breakfast charges from our bill.

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.

When my husband and I visit places like India or Thailand, we pack only one extra change of clothes. When we arrive, we hit a local market and buy local attire--woven shirts, saris, sarongs, etc. Not only does this make packing easier, but we get a better cultural experience and end up with lots of wearable souvenirs!

When I called to book a hotel room in Budapest, I was offered a rate of $75 per night. After I told the concierge that I was looking for a room in the $35 range, he agreed to the lower price without much fuss. It sometimes pays to barter.

You can enjoy free airport-area parking by staying the night before departure at an airport hotel or motel that offers park-and-fly rates. The cost of that overnight (which usually entitles you to two weeks of parking) is much less than what you'd otherwise pay at an airport parking lot.

I unpacked a pair of black slacks recently to find them covered with white fuzz. I didn't have a lint brush handy, so I used the luggage sticker from my bag--the gummy side took the lint right off.

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.

Don't assume a single room costs less than a double one. I booked a hotel in Spain online and noticed that rates were the same whether I booked a single or a double, but the single was much smaller and its bathroom had only a small shower stall and no tub.

I teach a Tulane University seminar on independent European travel for first-timers. Until recently, I advocated Europe's great rail networks as the way to go. Now, with the plethora of budget airlines, I recommend a combination of the two. But it makes the planning stage—which I find almost as much fun as actually taking the trip—more involved. Thank goodness for whichbudget.com, a Web site that lists, by city, which budget airlines serve which cities. Then, to find links to all of Europe's state railway Web sites, visit railfaneurope.net. Each site generally features a travel planner and, almost invariably, an English-language option.

When you go to a convention or trade show, don't assume that the official prices at recommended hotels are the best you can do. Go to the hotel Web site. I recently got an AARP rate at a major hotel that was 30 percent below the special price offered through the tradeshow sponsors. AAA discounts often work, too.

When I go on a trip that requires me to accessorize a number of outfits, I buy little Ziploc bags and place the appropriate jewelry/panty hose/scarf inside. Then I punch a hole just big enough to slide the bag over the outfit's hanger. This way, my panty hose stay snag-free and my jewelry never gets misplaced.

It's often cheaper to buy a ticket to London and then fly onward within Europe via a regional low cost airline. Last summer, my husband and I bought consolidator tickets to London for $397. From there, we flew EasyJet to Nice for $72. The total cost was $469—much less than flying directly to Nice, plus we enjoyed a stopover in London.

Quotetravelinsurance.com gives you comparable details on more than one hundred travel-insurance plans, enabling you to make the best buy. It relies on ratings from insurance industry overseers such as A.M. Best and state insurance commissioners before allowing an insurance company into its extensive lineup.

Everyone knows that duct tape is great for helping out in travel emergencies, but no one wants to lug around a bulky roll of the stuff. By wrapping a few feet onto a pencil or ballpoint pen, you'll get a miniature roll that does not take up much in the way of additional space.

You can suspend more than your newspaper when you're away. On several occasions, DirecTV has agreed to put my account on hold while I was traveling--without penalties, additional fees, reconnection charges, or the like. So, instead of a monthly bill of $65, mine gets prorated.

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.

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.

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.

Before exchanging foreign currency at the airport, find out if there's a departure tax. At the Bangkok airport, we were very upset- as were travelers around us- to find we had to pay a fee before continuing to our gate. Unfortunately, by that point everyone had cashed in their baht, so the options were a conveniently located ATM, a credit card, or an exchange booth with notably poor rates. When we described this incident to friends, they told us of a similar experience when trying to leave the Dominican Republic.

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!

Cold-weather traveling means turning up the thermostat in your hotel room, and along with the artificially warmed air come dry skin and static electricity. Instead of turning on the heat, fill the bathtub with very hot water and leave the bathroom door open. In about an hour, your entire room will be warm and humidified.

When I travel with friends, we decide ahead of time who's going to bring what. If we're sharing a suite or have adjoining rooms, we don't need multiple hair dryers and umpteen bottles of shampoo. With the weight limits on baggage, we'll need the extra space in our suitcases for souvenirs!