A reader's tips on Rome and Florence

Editor Erik Torkells just called from the airport with a few choice words to share about his departure experience: "This has happened to me twice now at Newark with Continental. I've been lucky enough to fly business class, and both times I've noticed that the elite access security line is way longer and moves way slower than the other security lines. A bit of advice: look at the lines before you jump into one!" Related: It's been a particularly exasperating summer for air travel, as we've chronicled in earlier posts such as: The 7 day flight delay, Reader tips on handling flight delays, and Hot news: Passport rule change. Feel free to post your own complaints and suggestions below!

I've long been an avid runner, but I have to admit that until a handful of companies started offering running tours in the U.S. and abroad, I never really thought of taking an organized tour that required me to put on my training flats. The trend seems to be catching on, considering a company called City Running Tours has recently expanded into Washington, D.C. and Chicago after successfully introducing the concept in New York City one year ago. As of September 1, they'll be in San Diego, too. Led by experienced runners with insider knowledge (and rock hard calves), the tours take you past scenic points of each city and range from one mile to more than 20. Don't like any of their planned routes? Just ask and City Running Tours will customize a run to meet your needs--because any opportunity to get some exercise on vacation is probably a good one. Contact City Running Tours, 877/415-0058, cityrunningtours.com; guided runs up to six miles are $60, each mile afterwards is $6. Related: Check out our recent piece Running in Places for tips from experts and downloadable running maps for 12 cities!

The ultimate website for packing well is OneBag.com. Created 11 years ago, this site encourages people to travel with only one bag, as its name suggests. But even travelers who carry several bags will find useful packing tips on this site. A few years ago, I met OneBag.com's creator, Doug Dyment. He's a technical marketer in San Francisco who uses the site to share his thoughts on the the superiority of traveling light. He's refined his strategies over the years as he's learned from hundreds of fellow travelers who have e-mailed him. Dyment, one of the most gentlemanly fellows I've ever met, has a fantastic trick for preventing your clothes from becoming wrinkled. As he says, "The common practice of individually folding items of clothing, then piling them atop one another, is just about the worst thing you can do from a packing perspective." His trick is "bundle wrapping" instead. His explanation is better than any I can give, so I encourage you to visit his site.

Family travel was one of the hot topics discussed at a panel here in New York City yesterday. Seems the trend among families is for vacations that offer "one-stop shopping." Two of the panelists (Emily Kaufman, aka The Travel Mom; and Dorothy Dowling, the senior vice president of marketing and sales for Best Western) explained that families are more and more likely to look for hotels or cruises that will take care of everything: lodging, meals, entertainment, tours, outdoor activities, and so on. The other panelists from AAA and Southwest Airlines agreed. All-inclusive vacations are a far cry from the family vacations of my childhood, where my parents would spend months before each trip piecing together every last detail, from hotel reservations and train tickets right down to which trail we would hike at Yosemite and what snacks we'd bring along the way. I guess the new approach shouldn't come as much of a surprise--no country has embraced the notion of one-stop shopping quite like ours. Still, I have to wonder if there isn't something to be said for creating your own trip, specifically tailored to your family's needs. After all, even the best trip coordinator wouldn't have known that I preferred Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for a snack and my sister wanted a Kit Kat. Feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below