Deal or No Deal

ENTERPRISE Garmin nüvi 265W Rents for $10/Day Reliability: When my friends and I took the wrong highway, the GPS put us back on track—but did we really need to spend 30 minutes driving through a residential area? The unit performed much better on winding roads in the countryside. User-friendliness: A safety mechanism stops you from entering a new destination while driving, but we were able to override it. Of course, I typed while my friend drove. —Amy Chen HERTZ No retail equivalent Rents for $13/day Reliability: Craving burgers, my partner and I searched the machine's business directory for a diner. But the address was wrong, and we ended up at a dead end near some oil tanks. It looked like the sort of place where Tony Soprano might whack an enemy. User-friendliness: The unit was fixed below the dashboard in a non-distracting spot, but it wasn't removable, making me super nervous about break-ins when we parked. —Sean O'Neill AVIS/BUDGET—BT Pick! Garmin nüvi 780 Rents for $14/day Reliability: The GPS directed my boyfriend and me like a dream, even negotiating a tricky roundabout with aplomb. The best feature was the real-time traffic update, only available on newer machines. It rerouted us around a backup—and we saved 30 minutes. User-friendliness: Only one complaint: We thought the contraption was strangely quiet, only to realize it was set on mute. There was no mute icon on the map, so we had to search through the main menu to find it. —Justin Bergman DOLLAR/THRIFTY Garmin nüvi 660 Rents for $12/day Reliability: Using the GPS to find gas, my husband and I were led to a Shell station with broken pumps, then to a closed Mobil station, and finally to a bodega. We got Doritos, but no gas. Later, it told us to leave the highway, drive on an access road for five miles, and then get back on the highway. Bizarre. User-friendliness: We couldn't for the life of us figure out how to disable the no-typing-while-driving safety feature. Each time we wanted to enter a new address, we had to pull over, which was annoying, to say the least. —Beth Collins ALAMO/NATIONAL Garmin StreetPilot c330 Rents for $12/day Reliability: The unit made mistakes on two major turns. Once, it told my wife and me to go right to get to a town—and we knew we had to turn left. It let us pass the other turn altogether before realizing its mistake and irritatingly announcing that it was "recalculating." User-friendliness: The machine gave us ample warning before some direction changes but completely surprised us with others. I was going 60 mph on one road when the GPS told me to turn in 400 feet. I blew right by it. —Michael Mohr

The quickest way to end a conversation in this southern African country is to start it without a greeting. "There is nothing more offensive than a foreigner who asks for something without first exchanging pleasantries," says Hannah Maniki, a culture instructor in the capital, Gaborone. Start with hello, which is "dumela rra" (doo-meh-lah rah) to a man and "dumela mma" (doo-meh-lah mah) to a woman. Follow that with a handshake: Step 1 Extend your right hand and place your left under your right elbow, as if you were supporting an injured arm. Lightly clasp hands as you would in the U.S. Step 2 Change your grip so your thumb interlocks with the other person's—almost like an arm wrestling pose at waist level. Keep your left hand beneath your right elbow. Step 3 Return to the handshaking position and say "Le kae?" (lay ky), which means "How are you?" in Setswana, the country's main language.

1. THE ROUTE "Many people are too ambitious and want to make 14 stops in four weeks. I like to spend at least a week in each place to become really familiar with it." —Tom Michelson, corporate vice president, AirTreks, an airline broker that specializes in around-the-world tickets 2. DOCUMENTS "Before a long trip, you often can't get all of your visas because some are valid only for three to six months. Instead, pick them up at travel agencies along the way. For example, if you need a Cambodian visa, buy it in Thailand." —Alex Boylan, host, Around the World for Free, an online reality series 3. FLIGHTS "Air brokers offer the best prices on around-the-world tickets—your total might be half of what you'd pay if you bought each leg individually. Airline partnerships such as Star Alliance also sell multiflight tickets, but theirs tend to be pricier." —Gayle Forman, author, You Can't Get There From Here: A Year on the Fringes of a Shrinking World 4. HEALTH INSURANCE "American insurers typically don't cover everything abroad. We bought extra insurance through World Nomads, which has policies ranging in length from one week to six months." —Jennifer Baggett, Amanda Pressner, and Holly Corbett, travel bloggers, LostGirlsWorld.com 5. ATM CARDS "Find banks with low transaction fees abroad. I opened an account with Capital One because it didn't charge conversion fees for most foreign ATM withdrawals." —Brook Silva-Braga, director, A Map for Saturday, a travel documentary 6. PACKING "Test the weight of your backpack at home: You should be able to wear it around for a half hour without getting sweaty or feeling like your spine is going to crumble." —Doug Lansky, author, First-Time Around the World: A Rough Guide Special 7. GUIDES "Instead of lugging books around, research hotels and sights online and take notes. For free maps, visit the tourism bureau in each city." —Colm Hanratty, editor, Hostelworld.com 8. ENERGY "Bring bouillon cubes—I drank a cup of broth every day to replenish all the salt I sweated out." —Charley Boorman, coauthor, Long Way Round: Chasing Shadows Across the World

MATADOR Sign on, and become a travel writer overnight. You can blog about a trip, create a guide to a city, or deem yourself an "expert" on a place and advise others on their vacations. Best of all, Matador pays members to contribute short articles on destinations. Assignments up for grabs are listed on the site's Bounty Board. The money won't exactly finance a trip to Fiji—most stories net $25—but it'll cover dinner at the airport. matadortravel.com. GECKOGO This one's about where to set your travel sights: A color-coded map on the home page pinpoints which countries are good to visit each month depending on what you want to do. For example, Chile, Australia, and Tanzania are ideal places to camp in February, according to tallied member reviews. Have a question about a certain destination? Post it under the Answers tab and other travelers will weigh in with their ideas. geckogo.com. TRIPIT TripIt's community is big on sharing—users log on to arrange airport carpools and to volunteer as guides for people traveling to their cities. The site itself lends a helping hand with its impressive itinerary builder: Send your e-mail confirmations from airlines, hotels, and travel agents to plans@tripit.com, and it will compile them into a trip schedule, complete with weather forecasts, maps, and restaurant ideas. tripit.com.