Cambodia's Comeback

What's your best travel tip? Send us your tips, and if we publish one, you'll get a one-year subscription to Budget Travel (or a renewal). E-mail us at Tips@BudgetTravel.com. Best (Money-Saving) Tips Ever! Our newly reissued Smart Traveler's Passport has never been more relevant, thanks to its 133 savings ideas. Send us even more: If we illustrate your tip, you'll get a free book (and a year's subscription). The right stuff I used to bring a small pillow on flights, but it was always falling between the seat and the window, and I'd wake up with a stiff neck. Now I pack a camping stuff sack and fill it with soft things like a sweatshirt and an airline blanket to make sure it's big enough that it stays in place. Lisa Silverman, Valley Village, Calif. Savvy siblings Instead of being loyal to one airline, I always opt for the least expensive fare. But that makes it difficult for me to collect enough miles on one airline for a free ticket. So now my sister and I trade frequent-flier miles with each other. (Some reward programs let you donate your miles to a family member for a small fee.) Swapping miles gets us our free flights twice as fast. Helen Dimaras, Toronto, Ont. Thwart thieves When you're driving a rental car on vacation, buy a local newspaper and keep it on the dashboard or on one of the seats. Burglars often target tourists, but the paper will make your car look like it belongs to someone from the area. Judy Walcoff, Bloomington, Ind. No iron, no problem On our last trip, my husband and I discovered that you can use a hairdryer to remove wrinkles from clothes. Hold the nozzle a few inches from the fabric and move it back and forth slightly. The wrinkles will disappear in a few seconds. Dottie Gilberti, Prescott, Ariz. Easy money In France, ATMs sometimes distribute €50 notes, but many shopkeepers won't break them—especially when you're buying a €2 pastry. However, if you make sure your ATM withdrawals aren't divisible by 50, you'll get €20 notes. Fees add up, so you don't want to take out just €40 each time. Instead, request €130. Save the €50s for museum shops, which have no problem breaking large bills. Shelby Foster, Fremont, Calif. Toiletry hanger Cramped cruise-ship bathrooms don't always have enough towel bars or counter space for all my products, so I bring a quick-release suction cup with a hook and hang my toiletry bag from it. I bought mine at harborfreight.com for $2, and it holds up to 15 pounds. Charles Schmitter Jr., Wolverine Lake, Mich. What's in the bag? It's a good idea to keep a copy of your packing list with you when you travel. If the airline loses your luggage, the list will come in handy when you need to replace the contents. Holly Huhn, North Conway, N.H. Check, please On the last morning of a cruise, I noticed long lines of people holding their final statements and waiting at the main desk to challenge individual charges. Instead of leaving this until the last minute, ask for a printout of the bill a day or two before the end of the cruise. If there are any discrepancies, you can resolve them then, and you'll be able to kick back on your final day on the ship. Jack Sigano, Nutley, N.J. Clean sheets If you're planning a trip and will be staying in a questionable hotel, make a sleeping bag out of a king-size bedsheet and bring it with you. Just fold the sheet in half vertically and sew the bottom and two thirds of the side closed. Sara Trotta, Lockport, Ill. Laundry secret I often wash my clothes when I travel, but it's a pain to make room for both detergent and fabric softener in my suitcase. I now pack a few Purex 3-in-1 laundry sheets in a Ziploc bag. You use one sheet per load, and it washes and softens clothes and eliminates static. Linda Strand, Corpus Christi, Tex. Diner's club If you have a great meal on vacation, ask the maître d' if the place has a sister restaurant with a different type of cuisine—you'll get the same owners, service, and quality. My wife and I did this in Buenos Aires and followed one fantastic dinner with another. Kevin Mullins, Newton, Mass.

Roll out driverless pods at airports Someday, driverless pods may be zipping passengers between an airport and its parking lots. Fully automated, pods are more convenient than shuttle buses driven by humans. Currently, 18 pods are being tested at London Heathrow's Terminal 5. They let you board when you want to, rather than wait for a bus on a fixed schedule. Punch in your destination, such as a parking lot, on a touch screen. Then leave the driving to the machine, which glides on rails at speeds of 25 mph. A bonus perk: The pods are battery powered, so they don't spew out environmentally destructive exhaust. Improve the design of coach seatsHong Kong based Cathay Pacific Airways has reinvented the economy-class seat: As the seat reclines, the bottom slides forward, but the back stays in place. So the passenger sitting behind doesn't have to endure a seat hovering inches from his or her chin. The new seats are especially welcome on long-distance hauls—which happen to be routes Cathay Pacific flies regularly. American Airlines is among the other carriers reportedly interested in installing similar, slide-forward seats. Try in-cabin mood lightingPoor cabin lighting on a long flight may worsen jet lag. For instance, exposure to bright light at an hour when you are ordinarily asleep can confuse your body's internal clock. But smart cabin lighting may actually help your body adjust to a new time zone—and beat back jet lag. Virgin America has an in-cabin lighting system that subtly shifts through 12 shades of violet, including a welcoming, bright blue-purple during the day, a softer violet hue after dusk, and a deep, calming near-black on red-eyes when it's time to sleep. Elsewhere in the world, Air Canada, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and Thai Airways offer mood lighting on many long-haul flights. Let passengers check bags before they get to the airportSchlepping your bags isn't fun. It's also not necessary—at least not in the many capital cities where you can drop checked luggage at bus or train stations and forget about it until you land at your destination. Many passengers can check bags at London's Paddington station (for Heathrow flights), Vienna's Wien Mitte station, Moscow's Kievsky Station, and Hong Kong Station. In the U.S., the best advance luggage-check option is at Walt Disney World: Guests staying at Disney lodging can check bags at their hotel before hopping on the free Magical Express ride to the Orlando airport. Ditch the paper boarding pass (once and for all)Boarding passes printed on flimsy paper seem almost as outdated as paper airline tickets. Now, cell phone check-in is allowed at many airports, such as Chicago O'Hare and Los Angeles's LAX. Punch in your phone number at check-in and a bar code appears on your phone via e-mail or text message. Security officers and gate agents scan your phone's screen, making for an entirely paperless process. Some airlines, including American, Continental, and Delta (plus its sister unit, Northwest), plan to adopt the new technology at every airport gate nationwide. Give more power—sockets—to the peopleSometimes it's the simple things that count. Virgin America not only became the first airline to offer Wi-Fi on every flight, but it did so in an especially sensible way, with standard sockets (no adapter necessary) at every seat on the plane. Because while Wi-Fi is nice (even when there's a fee for it), it's even nicer to know that you won't run out of juice in the middle of a flight. Sockets obviously work with portable DVD players and cell phone chargers, too. Replace outmoded radar-tracking systemsRadar is outdated. Locating a plane's position can take up to half a minute, a long time when planes are traveling at speeds over 500 mph. To play it safe and avoid accidents, planes fly extremely far apart from each other. They also fly routes that zigzag rather than go straight. The reason? Aircraft need to remain within signal range of radar beacons, which are irregularly spaced around the country. To shave flight times—and improve safety—the FAA is rolling out NextGen, a GPS-based air traffic control system that provides real-time plane locations to pilots and air traffic controllers. Using GPS technology (already in trial use by Alaska Airlines), planes will be able to fly straighter, more efficient routes while maintaining a safe distance from other aircraft. But we may have to wait until 2025 to see this technology adopted nationwide. Sigh. Make upgrades easierWith most airlines, upgrading is an esoteric process that may involve loyalty program points, elite status, or just dumb luck. But when you check in at the airport for a Spirit Airlines flight, the kiosk presents a simpler formula. The screen may inform you that one of Spirit's Big Front Seats (the carrier's version of business class) is available for as little as $35 extra. The roomy seats are often dispensed on a first-come, first-served basis close to departure time. Depending on how you're feeling that day, you may very well decide that an upgrade to a more comfortable seat is money well spent.

A graceful colonnaded façade, latticed balconies, and interior courtyards make this heritage property a textbook example of Rajasthani colonial architecture. Built in the 1920s by its namesake, a Bombay cotton and opium baron, Piramal Haveli's eight rooms are done up with period furniture, ceiling frescoes, and geometric-patterned rugs. The hotel staff hosts equally old-fashioned activities like musical chairs and treasure hunts, as well as dinners for eight or more on the nearby desert dunes in spring and summer.

Easter Island's South Coast Round trip from Hanga Roa About 25 miles Peeling off from the main road that bisects Easter Island is an easy-to-overlook spur to the south. The island's south coastal road skirts the Pacific Ocean, taking you past the best of the moai, mysterious stone heads that stand up to 40 feet tall and still baffle anthropologists. There are more than a dozen notable archaeological sites along the route, but the most impressive is Ahu Tongariki: Ponder the perfect line of 15 massive heads standing like sentinels guarding the coast. Just off the road is Rano Raraku, a quarry where some of the unfinished moai appear to be resting, their expressionless faces staring at the sky, waiting to be set upright. Photos 1 of 3 Hawaii's Hana Highway Kahului to Hana 52 miles Maui's spectacular coastal route isn't for the squeamish—the narrow, zigzagging road has more than 600 curves, many of them turn-on-a-dime switchbacks, and most of the 54 bridges along the route are single lane. Your reward is the scenery: rain forests packed with breadfruit trees and colorful plumeria and torch ginger flowers, and waterfalls tumbling down steep hillsides. Pull over at the Wailua Overlook to catch views of the Pacific and a village church made entirely of coral. When you arrive in the unassuming town of Hana, swim at Hana Beach Park, snorkel at Wai'anapanapa State Park, or leap from nearby Wailua Falls, a 200-foot waterfall from which, it's rumored, local men used to jump to prove their manhood. Photos 1 of 3 Iceland's Ring Road Reykjavík to Vík 80 miles Iceland's Ring Road—the island-circling, 830-mile Highway 1—offers plenty of glorious photo ops of a landscape literally formed by fire and ice. For an abbreviated version of the drive, hit the wild southern coast: From the capital city of Reykjavík, head southeast on Highway 1 toward Dyrhólaey. There, jagged blades of basalt rise from the ocean, providing nesting space for puffins, razorbills, and other seabirds. The road turns away from the coast at Vík, but if you have a sturdy vehicle, it's worth continuing on another 80 miles to Skaftafell National Park for a glimpse of Europe's largest glacier, Vatnajökull. Photos 1 of 2 Northern Ireland's Causeway Coastal Route Carrickfergus to Portrush 68 miles Often considered the most scenic stretch of road in the British Isles, the Causeway Coastal Route (also called the Antrim Coast Road) meanders almost the entire length of Northern Ireland's coast. Along the way, you'll see rolling green hills dotted with sheep, cottages enclosed by short stone walls, and Norman castles in varying stages of decay. One of the best preserved is Carrickfergus Castle, a medieval structure that was used continually until 1928. Be sure to stop en route at Carrick-a-Rede, a vertigo-inducing 66-foot-long rope bridge that connects the mainland to the rocky Carrick Island. And don't miss the cluster of hexagonal stones that make up the Giant's Causeway—a perfectly orderly but naturally occurring rock formation that appeared on the album cover of Led Zeppelin's "House of the Holy." Photos 1 of 3 Norway's Atlantic Road Averøy to Vevang 5 miles The short-but-impressive Atlanterhavsveien route in Norway's western fjords opened in 1989—and is a marvel of creative engineering. Called Norway's "Construction of the Century," the route includes eight bridges that hopscotch from one island to the next, sometimes curving midway through a span in ways that make them seem to defy gravity. Many people visit in autumn, when storms that lash the coast add a touch of drama. If the weather is clear, drive the longest bridge, the 853-foot Storseisundet, and stop to take pictures—you might spot seals and, occasionally, minke whales close to shore. Another place to pull over is Kvernes Stave Church, a wooden house of worship dating from the 14th century. Post-and-beam Christian churches like Kvernes were once ubiquitous in this region; only 28 survive in Norway today. Photos 1 of 2 Spain's Costa del Garraf Barcelona to Sitges 25 miles Those heading south of Barcelona in a hurry take the main highway, which winds around—and sometimes tunnels through—the dry, craggy landscape. But the slower C-31 offers the better views. The narrow road clings to the rocky cliffsides, offering up a new spectacle around every curve. Along the way are seaside villages like Castelldefels, named for its medieval castle, and Garraf, famous for its 19th-century Güell Cellar, attributed to Antoni Gaudí and resembling a storybook version of a palace. These are all just a warm-up for Sitges, an elegant Mediterranean resort town with narrow, cobbled streets that wander past stone structures dating back to the Middle Ages. The 17th-century Church of Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla watches over the long strand of beaches. Photo 1 of 1 Sweden's Western Coast Route Gothenburg to Strömstad 105 miles More than 8,000 islands are sprinkled along Sweden's rugged western coast route. The drive takes you past orderly fishing villages where you can sample mackerel, herring, smoked eel, and the region's other delicacies. A few of the larger towns, like Skärhamn, on the island of Tjörn, are connected to the mainland by bridge. Skärhamn's rust-red cottages contrast with the contemporary Nordic Watercolor Museum, whose boxy shape seems to hover above the town's picturesque harbor. For access to other towns, such as Marstrand, ditch the car and take a three-minute ferry ride. The town's low-slung houses are clustered around Carlstens Fortress, a brooding, 17th-century castle. Photos 1 of 2 THE CLASSICS Don't think we forgot! These world-famous drives deserve a category all their own. Australia's Great Ocean Road Torquay to Warrnambool 151 miles About 60 miles from Melbourne, this drive along the Southern Ocean is most famous for the Twelve Apostles, huge pillars of limestone rising from the surf. Photos 1 of 2 California's Pacific Coast Highway San Francisco to Los Angeles 454 miles California's Highway 1 passes through some of the country's most beautiful (and most expensive) beachfront real estate. It's hard to pick a favorite part of the drive, but the dramatic scenery around Big Sur is unforgettable. Photo 1 of 1 Italy's Amalfi Coast Salerno to Positano 27 miles This route threads through towns clinging to seaside cliffs, old-fashioned fishing villages, and vineyards that climb steep hillsides. Photo 1 of 1