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Mark Aiken worked as a white-water-rafting guide on the San Juan River in Colorado and the Rio Chama in New Mexico. Expertise, schmexpertise The reality is this: Some guides on smaller rivers are total beginners—paying their dues and hoping to land jobs on big rivers like the Colorado and the Snake. The company where I worked required little more than having some recreational boating experience and taking a seven-day white-water-guide course. I was a serious greenhorn on my first early summer trips on the river—and that's when the water levels reached their peak. Story time Good storytellers always got the biggest tips. I learned quickly that you can't believe everything a boatman says. One guy had all of his passengers convinced that an escaped zoo alligator had made a lunch of two of his riders on an earlier trip. Another said he'd spent five years locked in a sanatorium. (I'm not sure that was fiction.) All of my stories ended with a guide receiving a huge tip. Hint, hint. I had good reason for stretching the truth: We were paid so little (from about $30 for a three-hour trip) that many of us had to camp out among the coyotes all summer. Ask and you might receive I have three pieces of advice: 1) Be nice to your guides. They'll make the trip extra fun for people they like—and for folks they think will tip well. 2) Listen. Your safety and enjoyment depend on it. 3) Guides can't read minds. Explain to us what kind of experience you want. Are you up for a wild Class V thrill ride? A scenic cruiser with grandma? Do you want the kids to get soaked without doing anything too crazy? Most guides understand that it pays to cater to requests. Summer with the shark Our safety lecture focused on the water, but it should have included the bus ride, too. We used the scariest jalopies—rickety rigs driven by characters like Shark, who I assumed got his ironic nickname because of his smile, which showed more gums than teeth. It wasn't uncommon for mirrors and fenders to fall off the bus. This didn't speak well to our operation's overall safety, but I acted as if all was fine—especially if clients didn't seem to be too horrified. A new kind of river cruising We constantly sized up clients of the opposite sex, calling dibs on ones who looked attractive—and single. As a newbie, I got stuck with older folks and families. Then, one day, a group of blonde Austrian volleyball players showed up, and because I spoke German, they were assigned to my boat. "Make sure they know where we'll be drinking afterward," a veteran reminded me. The women came to the bar and drank us under the table—well, all of us except for a guide named Danny, who had a few stories for us the next day.

When you've gotta go Overall, the applications we're most impressed with incorporate GPS technology. They give info suited to your exact location, so you never have to punch in zip codes or addresses. SitOrSquat (BlackBerry, iPhone, free) automatically points out nearby public restrooms and includes details such as whether they're open and if they have changing tables. It relies on user-submitted data, and some members even upload photos and rate toilets. But the selection is only as good as the local SitOrSquat community; pickings are slim if you stray from big cities in Europe, the U.S., New Zealand, and Australia. A quirk: Many of the restrooms are at Starbucks—and really, how difficult is it to find a Starbucks? When you're hungry and tired Restaurant-review sites Urbanspoon and Yelp (iPhone, free) both have apps that let you search based on your current location or a chosen neighborhood, price points, or keywords like "vietnamese" or "fish tacos." If you can't make up your mind, try the iPhone's Shake function with Urbanspoon; a slot machine-like interface scrolls through restaurants that fit your criteria before landing on one randomly. • Several hotel-booking applications we tried were disappointing, often turning up very few results in major cities. The exception was the one for hotels.com (iPhone, free), with which you can check out tons of hotel descriptions, ratings, and prices; view properties on a map; and book with a tap of your finger. • Some hotel companies are also in the game: The Choice Hotels Locator (iPhone, free), from the business that runs Comfort Inn and other brands, pulls up info and makes reservations at 5,800 of its properties worldwide. Security measures Using Department of Justice data, iSafe (G1, $1) creates a safety profile of your location, and a female voice alerts you when you enter a high-crime area. That's great in theory, but in our tests, iSafe went off at midday in safe Manhattan 'hoods like the Upper East Side. Bottom line: Don't underestimate old-fashioned street sense. • Private-I (iPhone, $1) aims to retrieve stolen iPhones. For it to work, the thief must click on your phone's icon reading PRIVATE, which opens a screen that says "Accessing Pictures." It's a stall tactic so the app can e-mail you the phone's location. What next? Good question. Call the police, we guess, and hope the thief stays put. Getting oriented anywhere Based on your location, the Wikitude AR Travel Guide (G1, $1) shows nearby landmarks and popular attractions plotted on a map. Touch a spot on the screen—a museum, a bridge, a skyscraper—to read a Wikipedia entry about it or to view user-shared Panoramio photos of the attraction and the surrounding area. Car trouble Culling info from 181 websites that track gas prices in the U.S. and Canada, Gas Buddy (iPhone, $3) lists what you'll pay for regular, premium, and diesel at nearby gas stations, all shown on a map. Cheap Gas is a similar app that's free, but it has no interactive map feature. • Trapster (BlackBerry, iPhone, free) warns of police speed traps—but even with thousands of user updates daily, the info can be old. • The GPS-enabled ParkMark (G1, $2) remembers where you parked your car and guides you back via a compass-like arrow. Passing time App games are a dime a dozen. Two of our faves are neat spins on travel-related classics. Plate Spotters (iPhone, $1) puts an end to the "are we there yet's" with an e-version of the license-plate game, in which players earn points for how many different states' plates they see. • Meanwhile, The Oregon Trail (BlackBerry, from $5; iPhone, $6) updates an old-school video game. You travel virtually with a covered wagon, rationing provisions and deciding whether to hunt squirrels for food, pick up hitchhikers, or get help when your kid falls ill with cholera. • If you prefer to pass time by sleeping, there's a solution to napping past your destination. Turn on GPS-enabled iNap (iPhone, $1) and enter the address where you're going—and how many miles away from your destination you'd like to wake up. An alarm goes off when you reach the spot. Staying in touch A new app for making phone calls via Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology just might change the way you dial internationally, saving you a bundle in the process. The app for Skype (iPhone, free) functions similarly to how Skype works on the computer: Calling and instant-messaging other Skype users are free, and you pay as little as 2¢ a minute to dial a regular number. International calls cost next to nothing, and you can also receive incoming calls so long as the app is open. But you didn't really think they'd let Skype gouge AT&T's profits, did you? Making and receiving calls are only possible in Wi-Fi hotspots. Communicating with the locals Get translations for hundreds of sentences and phrases—"red wine" in Italian, "nonsmoking section" in Mandarin—for 28 languages using the Lonely Planet Mobile Phrasebooks app (iPhone, $10 per language). Phrases are grouped into easily searchable categories like transport, banking, and emergencies. Once you've found what you want, your phone shows a phonetic pronunciation and even reads it to you. • A lazier option: Point It (iPhone, $5), an offshoot of the popular tourist book, consists of everyday travel images (markets, snorkeling, beer), with the idea that you display the appropriate photo to express yourself. Dorky? Yes. But handy if you can't get across that you need a Western-style toilet, or you don't want nuts in your food. Finding a taxi when there are none Plenty of apps pull up lists of local cab companies. Of all the competitors—including Cab4Me and Taxi!—we like Taxi Magic (BlackBerry, iPhone, free) best because of its Magic Booking feature. In over 30 cities, including Boston, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, you can connect directly to a cab company's dispatch system and have a car sent to you, no phone call required.

$17 Clogs Geta clogs, traditionally worn with kimonos, date to the 2nd century. Now, Japanese teens wear them with jeans. Oriental Bazaar, 5-9-13 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, 011-81/3-3400-3933. $8 Toy robot The time-honored craft of origami gets a 21st-century update in these ready-to-assemble paper Piperoid robots. Souvenir from Tokyo, 7-22-2 Roppongi, Minato-ku, 011-81/3-6812-9933. $4 Fake sushi Smaller is better in Japanese culture, so it's no surprise that even sushi gets the cute mini treatment. The scallops in this set are the size of your pinkie nail! 6-1-9 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, 011-81/3-3409-3431, kiddyland.co.jp. $25 Bowl Hakusan Porcelain dates back to 1779, but their 2009 noodle dish, with a shelf for condiments, is completely modern. 5-3-10 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, 011-81/3-5774-8850. $10 Book of maps A befuddling maze of signless streets, Tokyo is impossible to navigate without help. This journal compiles maps drawn on receipts and napkins and has space for your notes. 1-14-11 Aobadai, Meguro-ku, 011-81/3-5459-1747. $9 Snack box The quintessential Japanese snack onigiri, a rice ball wrapped in seaweed, has its own perfectly sized container. Loft Shibuya, 21-1 Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku, 011-81/3-3462-3807. $24 Socks Sou Sou has taken the standard socks with sectioned-off big toes worn with geta clogs and updated them with colorful contemporary patterns. 5-3-10 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, 011-81/3-3407-7877, sousou.co.jp.

1. The wines Germany is known for Rieslings, but it's the red wines that garner attention here. Taste Trollingers and Lembergers from private vineyards at Jupiter Wine Cellar (Kelterstrasse 2, Brackenheim-Hausen, 011-49/7135-974-210, jupiterweinkeller.de, tastings from $11.75). 2. The farmers Part of the burgeoning agritourism scene, Rolf and Angelika Hering give tours of their organic sheep ranch, where they sell every color of yarn imaginable (Grüner Winkel 28, Zaberfeld, 011-49/7046-7741). 3. The honey For centuries, bees have been used to pollinate the crops in the area. The Steinhausen family tends 25 hives and sells beeswax lip balm, hand salve, and candles, and 12 types of honey (Rodbachhof 24, Pfaffenhofen, 011-49/7046-881-275). 4. The inns From 1568 until its renovation in 1979, the Herzogskelter served as the town of Güglingen's wine and fruit cellar. Today, it's still the place to go for a glass of Lemberger and some schnitzel, or to stay in one of the 33 warmly simple rooms (Deutscher Hof 1, Güglingen, 011-49/7135-930-610, herzogskelter.de, rooms from $56). 5. The comfort food Forget fusion—Zabergäu is all about traditional specialties like knockwurst, expertly grilled so the outside has snap and the inside is juicy. 6. The architecture The Fachwerk houses are storybook cute, but most of them are sturdy enough to date back to the 1700s.