Been There, Done That?

There are a million things I didn't know about taking a cruise. For instance, this: Upon boarding, you're separated from your luggage for an indeterminate amount of time. Until then, you're stuck wearing what you're wearing. In the case of my cruise to Alaska aboard the Norwegian Sun, that would've meant jeans--less than ideal when you have four hours to spend poolside before heading into the mist. Luckily, I had help. The 20 Tips column has long been one of Budget Travel's most popular sections, but--how to put this kindly?--some tips have always struck me as more useful than others. The plan was for me, a novice, to take the cruise-related tips and see how they'd help me fare. So, while other suckers spent the balmy afternoon in long pants, my friend Tyler and I sat on lounge chairs, sipping Coronas and wearing our bathing suits and flip-flops, because Budget Travel reader Jyotsna Sheth of Bethlehem, Pa., had passed on some choice advice: Put a swimsuit in your carry-on, and you won't have to wait for your bags to arrive. Cruises to Alaska are booming. In 2005, more than 920,000 people sailed there, a nearly 20 percent increase from 2003. I'm not surprised. Alaska is a state that takes a lot of time and money to appreciate. It has few people and fewer roads, so traveling by boat is the easiest way to explore it. From the deck--from your cabin--you can see bears, bald eagles, and pods of whales. But what many people don't realize is that the high points of an Alaskan cruise tend to be the excursions: sportfishing, whale watching, extreme hiking, glacier trekking, helicopter touring, to say nothing of the less adventurous salmon bakes and lumberjack competitions. Reader Cindy Rucker, from Cary, N.C., had a good tip for booking excursions--though I would have been well served to read her entire tip. She suggested going to the cruise line's website and planning everything out in advance. I knew I'd have time for basically one excursion per port call (Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway, and Wrangell). Before leaving New York City, I did some research at ncl.com. I signed up for salmon fishing, a helicopter glacier trek, and two hikes. But there was a second part to Rucker's tip: She saves money by circumventing the cruise line and booking directly with the tour operators. In my excitement--helicopters! glaciers! helicopters on top of glaciers!--I signed up right then and there. As a result, I paid retail: $375 for that four-hour helicopter glacier trek, versus $359 if I'd booked through the operator, Northstar Trekking. I don't regret the copter ride: From the moment we touched down on the Mendenhall glacier, a vast expanse of jagged blue ice that we explored using ice axes and crampons, it was worth every penny. And $16 isn't a huge deal. But the premiums add up. My $180 sportfishing trip would have been $35 less if I'd booked with the outfitter. I would have saved $52 on my glacier hike and $14 on my rain-forest hike. All told, Cindy might have saved me $117. If I'd been booking for Tyler, too, that would have been $234--almost enough for another helicopter excursion. For me, anyway. Cruise lines are experts at making money wherever they can--it's called capitalism. But Budget Travel tipsters know that while the idea of paying one fare and then leaving your wallet in your shoe organizer (I'll explain later) is a great lure, the reality is different. "I can send text messages from the Inner Passage!" marveled Tyler, giddy to see his cell phone receive full coverage for the majority of the trip. His phone screen looked normal enough: It said CINGULAR and never indicated that it was roaming. His provider, it turns out, charges $2.49 a minute. When Tyler's bill arrived a month later, he owed $300. Using a phone on the ship would not have been much better; at checkout, we saw a tiny placard at the reception desk advertising at-sea service from AT&T, for $2 a minute. Internet access onboard can only be purchased in blocks, and the cheapest is $25 for 33 minutes. Gail Jenkins of Idaho Falls, Idaho, had a great tip for keeping fees down: In port, go to a public library. Indeed, the Juneau Public Library allows free Internet access. I still spent $129 in fees for onboard Web access, because logging in once on a 10-day cruise simply wasn't enough. (Remember, I was working.) It used to be that a cruise ship had one huge dining room in which you sat at an assigned table the entire journey. Norwegian pioneered a new concept, which it called Freestyle Dining: You eat at whichever onboard restaurant you want, when you want. Most major cruise lines have now adopted the concept. On the Sun, there's a buffet restaurant and three à la carte restaurants where you pay only for alcohol. The more recent trend has been to add specialty restaurants, where you pay not only for what you order, but also a cover charge (on the Sun, the charges amount to $15 for the French bistro and $20 for the steak house). The steak was top-notch, though, and I definitely got my money's worth. Patrick Robinson, of Rupert, Idaho, suggested that I'd feel better about indulging my appetite if I used the stairs instead of the elevators. Tyler and I took Robinson's advice, getting exercise on our frequent trips between our cabin (on the main deck, level 5) and decks 11 and 12, where the food, pool, and most of the action are. It may not have added up to an hour on the treadmill, but come on, it's not like we went on a cruise to lose weight. One place you all failed me, however, was the packing list. There are many things that one might find handy on a cruise to Alaska; multiple pairs of shorts aren't one of them. And yet that's what I had--three pairs of cargo shorts, plus a swimsuit. Things I did not pack, but should have: a waterproof jacket, hiking boots, binoculars, and basketball shoes (there was actually a court onboard). I learned the chilly way that Alaska is cold and wet in the summer: They don't call its coastline a rain forest for nothing. Norwegian seemed to assume that I would pack more appropriately. When my tickets came in the mail, the envelope included what I considered an absurd number of luggage tags, each imprinted with my cabin number. The company clearly expected me to prepare for a polar expedition; given the random cold-weather gear I had to pick up along the way in ports, I should learn to take a hint. But I had another plan for the tags, thanks to Alan Sweitzer of Kalamazoo, Mich.: Use them to label personal items like binoculars. That way, if you leave your stuff somewhere, the odds are much better you'll get it back. As a man who once permanently misplaced four cell phones in a single summer, I considered the idea genius. I labeled a bag containing a paperback I'd already read, and then left the bag on the pool deck. When I returned to my room hours later, the bag was on my bed. Obviously, something more valuable might not have fared so well. But while I may be the kind of idiot who packs three pairs of shorts for an Alaskan cruise, I'm not so dumb as to intentionally leave my binoculars by the pool. Wendy Maloney, from Vienna, Va., suggested bringing a handful of wire hangers in my luggage. How much of a difference would they really make? I packed them anyway, and was glad. My stateroom, like most hotel rooms I've occupied around the world, was woefully short on hangers. I left the ones I added to the closet to help out the cabin's next passenger, as Maloney instructed. Not that you need more than a few extra hangers. The Sun's rooms were surprisingly comfortable, but there wasn't a whole lot of closet space--even for two guys who packed poorly. I followed the lead of Jane Tague from Westerville, Ohio. She hangs a shoe organizer over the back of the bathroom door, using it to store toiletries, keys, cameras, and whatnot. In fact, the shoe organizer was the perfect place to stash my running shoes. And there they stayed for the remainder of the trip. By the end of the cruise, I was jotting down tips of my own. (You think writers get free subscriptions?) Most had to do with packing the right clothes. But if I could get you to remember one thing, it's this: Nobody points out how good the food is on land. Though I enjoyed almost every meal onboard the ship--you'll never be bored--by far the best meal I ate was during our final stop, in Wrangell. Very few cruise ships visit the fishing village, so their intermittent arrivals are much anticipated. Local merchants set up tables hawking crafts, cold drinks, and fish prepared any number of ways right at the dock. Tyler and I tried some étouffée before setting off on a hike, and it was so delicious we vowed to have a bowl when we returned. But by then, it was all gone. My recommendation: Eat the étouffée for breakfast. Not that lunch was disappointing; at an unassuming trailer named Memories, the owner plucked salmon, shrimp, and halibut--all caught that morning--from a tub of ice and cooked the best fish and chips I've ever had. Plus, it's rare to get fresh wild shrimp. We sat there for so long that we barely made it back onboard in time. The last afternoon was an at-sea day that covered hundreds of miles of gorgeous Inner Passage channels between Wrangell and Vancouver. Over the P.A. system, the cruise director announced a disembarkation briefing. I already knew that I could skip it. I'd overheard a crew member explain that if you can carry all of your own luggage, you get to leave first. Otherwise, you wait your turn, and the boat is emptied in shifts. Maybe I know a thing or two about packing after all.

Day 1: Kansas City to Elmdale Kansas is a place that's proud of the most peculiar superlatives. Shortly after leaving Missouri, my boyfriend, Patrick, and I spot signs on I-70 for THE WORLD'S LARGEST EASEL and THE WORLD'S LARGEST PRAIRIE DOG. Size also matters at our first stop:Cabela's, a 180,000-square-foot outdoor-sporting-goods store with a big-game trophy collection. Cabela's is like a zoo where the animals are not only dead, but also impersonating Jackie Chan. Someone has arranged them in dramatic reenactments: A crocodile's jaw clamps a wildebeest's neck, a leopard chases a baboon atop the trees, a zebra kicks a lion in the face. Lawrence, about 40 miles west, is a cute college town, home to the University of Kansas's main campus. We go to lunch atJefferson's, a boisterous diner with dollar bills thumbtacked to the walls. I order buffalo wings, which come slathered in a tangy hot sauce; the chicken's so good, I don't mind that eating it demands an entire roll of paper towels. We have a lot of ground to cover today, so after strolling along the main drag, Massachusetts Street, we set off for our evening's destination, Cottonwood Falls. The 900-person ranching community is in the Flint Hills, a region of rolling hills in the high prairie. Pulling into the town's center, we immediately notice horse manure in the middle of Broadway. I'm charmed to realize there really are some places where people still ride horses down the main street. We peek into the front window of theEmma Chase Cafe, a restaurant with plaid tablecloths. As we walk away, a lady runs out, yelling, "You know there's live music tonight, right?" We tell her that we'll definitely be back. The only restaurant open for dinner is Cottonwood Falls'Grand Central Hotel and Grill, an upscale brick-faced restaurant that I'd heard has the best steak in Kansas. Patrick orders a flame-grilled fillet of beef tenderloin. His large steak isn't very juicy, but the meat is so tender, a mouthful nearly melts. I want to see if they also have the best pasta in Kansas, so I pick the pasta "lemonada": fettucine with sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, and broccoli in a white wine and lemon sauce. Stick with the meat. Overall, the bill totals $50 without tip, which seems overpriced for a town that has horse dung on its main street. Back at the Emma Chase Cafe, five singers stand over country-music lyric sheets, two men strum acoustic guitars, and Lucy Smith--the woman who had chased after us earlier--is playing a violin. When we walk in, the music abruptly stops. One of the players looks up and hollers: "You must be from Boston!" I'd called earlier in the week to find out the café's hours; apparently my unusual inquiry had literally been the talk of the town. Food Jefferson's743 Massachusetts St., Lawrence, 785/832-2000, buffalo wings $5.25 Grand Central Hotel and Grill215 Broadway, Cottonwood Falls, 620/273-6763, entrées from $13 Activities Cabela's10300 Cabela Dr., Kansas City, 913/328-0322 Nightlife Emma Chase Cafe317 Broadway, Cottonwood Falls, 620/273-6020, live music free Day 2: Elmdale to Wilson We're only is a few miles from theTallgrass Prairie National Preserve, an 11,000-acre national park devoted entirely to grass. The name, as it turns out, is false advertising in May. The grass is tall--if you're an ant. The park truly earns its name in the autumn, when the grass reaches between three and six feet. A bus tour runs through the grounds three times a day April through October. It couldn't possibly surpass our morning adventure, however, so we visit an information booth/barn where our favorite Emma Chase violinist, Lucy Smith, pops up yet again (she's a park volunteer). The route north along the Flint Hills Scenic Byway (K-177) is the most beautiful stretch of road we travel. There are grassy mounds undulating along the horizon, dormant farming patches the color of cocoa, and clouds that resemble generous gobs of shaving cream. It's lunchtime when we arrive at Council Grove, a town of 2,300 with a buffalo mural painted on City Hall.Hays House, founded in 1857 by Daniel Boone's great-grandson, bills itself as the oldest continually operating restaurant west of the Mississippi. I order skillet-fried chicken, which is crunchy, but a little dry. Patrick's chicken club sandwich, on the other hand, is a winner. We cross the street to theAldrich Apothecary, an old-time drugstore/soda fountain, for a chocolate ice-cream soda. A few hours later, we make it to Wilson. The town has a lot of rusty silos and abandoned storefronts, and we're a little spooked. TheMidland Hotelwas nicely renovated in 2003, but even it's sort of eerie. After a dinner of beers and a ham and cheese sandwich in the hotel's basement tavern, a local whispers that the inn has a history of strange occurrences. Legend has it that a former owner hanged himself in the main stairwell after he accidentally killed his son in a shoot-out. We think the young woman is teasing us, especially when she says that the third floor--where we're staying--used to be a chicken coop. But later, when I check the hotel's website, I find some of what she was saying confirmed. Lodging Midland Hotel414 26th St., Wilson, 785/658-2284, midlandrailroadhotel.com, from $65, sandwich $6 Food Hays House112 W. Main St., Council Grove, 620/767-5911, fried chicken $6 Aldrich Apothecary115-119 W. Main St., Council Grove, 620/767-6731, ice-cream soda $2.50 Activities Tallgrass Prairie National PreserveHwy. 177, 620/273-8494, nps.gov/tapr, free, tours $5 Day 3: Wilson to Nickerson As far as I can tell, everything in Kansas shuts down on Sunday mornings, so we spend the first part of the day relaxing in the sun, watching people fish inWilson Lake, which locals know as "the clearest lake in Kansas." The town of Lucas, eight miles north, is something I'm particularly interested in seeing. I had read about an eccentric former resident, Samuel P. Dinsmoor. When his first wife died in the early 20th century, Dinsmoor wanted to bury her in the backyard, but Lucas's local government wouldn't allow it. So Dinsmoor complied, giving her a proper burial on the town's outskirts. A few nights later, he dug up her coffin, relocated it to his yard, and encased the tomb in concrete to render it immovable. The story gets odder. Dinsmoor was also an artist and spent 20 years of his life building cement sculptures of surreal Populist Party and biblical scenes in his yard. He then named his property the Garden of Eden. Now a tourist attraction, the Garden of Eden is a real sight to behold; the cement sculptures crisscross the yard's perimeter like deeply rooted scaffolding. Even more bizarre, visitors get to meet Mr. Dinsmoor, who's been dead since 1932, at the end of the tour. Entombed in a mausoleum above his first wife, he's visible through thick glass, dressed in a suit and covered in white mold. Dinsmoor's eccentricity inspired other townsfolk, which is how Lucas became the grassroots art capital of Kansas. We browse theGrassroots Art Center, an outsider-art outpost featuring pieces like a silver car fabricated entirely out of pull tabs. Next door to the Garden of Eden, 33-year-old artist Erika Nelson has a traveling museum parked in front of her home. She calls itThe World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things, the apotheosis of superlatives. Nelson has built hundreds of miniature versions of objects like the World's Largest Ball of Twine (also in Kansas, of course), and she makes pilgrimages around the country to photograph her versions beside the originals. Animals--dead and alive--seem to be a running theme, so we choose to embrace it.Hedrick's Bed & Breakfast Inn and Exotic Animal Farmin Nickerson is a zoo-like establishment where the vast menagerie includes zebras, camels, and llamas. We're an hour late for the early-evening check-in; a note at the information desk instructs us to find someone to help us over in the kangaroo barn. Each room has a theme, and we're booked in The Bird of Paradise Suite--two adjoining rooms, one with birds and a waterfall painted over the Jacuzzi and the other with a county fair motif. The inn reminds me of a summer camp; common areas are off-limits after 9:30 p.m. Sadly, by the time we get there, the dinner hour is long past, and we don't fare well finding food in town. A gas station is the only business that's open for miles. Oh well. We check outCity Slickers--it seems totally appropriate--from the B&B's video library and call it a night. Lodging Hedrick's Bed & Breakfast Inn and Exotic Animal Farm7910 N. Roy L. Smith Rd., Nickerson, 888/489-8039, hedricks.com, from $99 Activities Wilson Lakeoff Hwy. 232, Wilson, 785/658-2465 Garden of EdenIntersection of Kansas Ave. and Second St., Lucas, 785/525-6395, $6 Grassroots Art Center213 S. Main St., Lucas, 785/525-6118, $6 The World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things226 Kansas Ave., Lucas, 785/760-0826, worldslargestthings.com, free Day 4: Nickerson to Wichita At 8 a.m., hand-rung bells outside our door beckon us to breakfast. A cook chides us for arriving 15 minutes later and calls us "slugabeds." After sharing a plate of waffles and an egg-and-potato casserole, Patrick and I wander outside to walk the property. A male ostrich crouches into a feathery ball, frenetically flaps his wings, and then swings his neck against his body like a plumed paddleball. This is his way of flirting, our tour guide, Tammy, tells us. Hedrick's postcards read I KISSED A GIRAFFE AT HEDRICK'S, and they aren't kidding. Tammy leads a group though the grounds, then she hands out sweet-potato sticks, advising us to stick them in our mouths and aim up at fenced-in giraffes. Everyone who does this gets slobbered in the face. Then she scratches a zebra's butt and declares, "This is how you get a zebra to love you forever." Perhaps. But I'm much more into bottle-feeding goats. We have an early-afternoon flight out of Wichita, 60 miles away, which leaves just enough time for a camel ride. As we climb onboard, our guide nuzzles the camel and says, "He and I go way back. Best camel in Kansas." And that's quite a distinction. Finding your way Flying into Kansas City, Mo., and out of Wichita tends to cost about $100 more than doing a round trip in and out of Kansas City. Looping back to Kansas City from Wichita (I-35 to I-335 to I-70) is about a three-hour drive. Kansas is largely a churchgoing state, so don't plan much for a Sunday morning or evening in the rural areas--you'll find few businesses or attractions open. And Erika Nelson of Lucas travels half the year with her exhibit, The World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things, so it's wise to call ahead before you visit.

We regularly use SideStep.com to compare the cost of flights, hotels, car rentals, and vacation packages, which is why we were intrigued to hear about the travel search engine's expansion into brand new territory--"Activities." We recently spoke to Anthony Rodio, SideStep's V.P. of Product, who explained how you can now use the site to source tickets to concerts, theater, tours, sporting events, and more in just about every major city in the world--everything from Yankees games to rides on the London Eye and day-trips to Mt. Fuji. We did a few test searches, and so far we're pretty impressed. In most cases, SideStep's results were comparable, if not better than going to the source. For example, it turned up a price that was $5 cheaper than the regular $25 New York Water Taxi's Hop-On, Hop-Off pass. However, when we did a sample search for concerts in mid-May in NYC and clicked on Guns N' Roses, SideStep displayed a lowest price of $85. We found $63 tickets on our own through Ticketmaster. The tab is still in beta, but we think they're onto something: true one-stop search and travel planning.

$1 Record Philly is both the epicenter of soul and American Bandstand's original home. Singles by local golden-age greats like Frankie Avalon, Lesley Gore, Chubby Checker, and Patti LaBelle can be found in the vintage vinyl stores along South Street east of 6th. Repo Records, 538 South St., 215/627-3775, reporecords.com. $8 Pickle fork Reading Terminal Market has occupied the same landmark location since 1893. Amid the many food stalls packed with cheeses, soft pretzels, and farm-raised meats is the Pennsylvania General Store, which sells cherrywood utensils carved by local artist Jonathan S. Simons. 12th & Arch sts., 215/592-9772, closed Sun. $13 Action figure Throughout 2006, Philly will celebrate the 300th birthday of Benjamin Franklin, the great American diplomat, inventor, and bon vivant. The city even has a new slogan-"Philly's got BENergy!"-to mark the tercentenary (gophila.com/ben). From May 13 to July 30, a collection of Franklin busts and portraits will be at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 26th St. & Benjamin Franklin Pkwy., 215/763-8100, philamuseum.org. $16 Bracelet The after-school Neighborhood Bike Works program in West Philly teaches children about bicycle repair and safety. Kids who complete the classes are given bikes, helmets, and locks. Support the program by buying a bracelet made from "spoke nipples" at The Black Cat, a shop near the University of Pennsylvania. 3428 Sansom St., 215/386-6664, blackcatshop.com. $20 Paperweight In recent years, the once-gritty Northern Liberties district has become a loft developer's dream. It's home to Philadelphia Glass Works, a 2,100-square-foot facility where visitors can watch glassblowers in action. Among the artists is 26-year-old native Josh Opdenaker, known for his colorful marbles and paperweights. 908A N. 3rd St., 215/627-3655, phillyglassworks.com. $40 Bag Tired of the boring totes designed for people in their line of work, bike messengers Roland Burns and Ellie Lum started making their own. They believe that, like bikes and helmets, a bag should reflect the personality of its owner. So you sketch, and they stitch your ideas onto a waterproof bag. R.E.Load Baggage, 608 N. 2nd St., 215/922-2018, reloadbags.com.