11 Most EMBARRASSING Travel Questions

Even when on vacation, it’s hard for a travel editor to stop working. Last summer, I went on Contiki's Amsterdam to Barcelona tour all around Europe for my vacation, taking notes and photos for our Instagram page as we worked our way through Amsterdam, Paris, Lucerne, Nice, and Barcelona. There's so much to see and do in this beautiful city—it's kind of a relaxed, cleaner version of Paris—and we managed to fit a lot into the three days and nights I stayed there. Here's my cheat sheet for visiting Barcelona and some special tips to help you make the most of your time there. Always book your tickets online ahead of time If you're planning to see the three big Gaudí sites—La Sagrada Família, Park Güell, or La Pedrera at Casa Milà—make sure you book your tickets online ahead of time to avoid being locked out of something you came all the way to Barcelona to see. As an extra perk, you'll get to skip the long lines by planning ahead. Parc Guëll, a sort of Gaudí Disneyland for the senses, only allows a certain number of people in each day and gives you a specific time to enter, but is well worth visiting. A basic ticket to La Sagrada Família costs 14.80 euros, or 23.80 euros for access to the towers and a guide. Tickets to Park Güell start at 7 euros for adults and 4.90 euros for seniors over 65 and children ages 7-12. Tickets to La Pedrera at Casa Milà are 20.50 euros for adults, 16.50 euros for students, and 10.25 euros for children ages 7-12. During my trip, we learned only too late that this is a necessary practice for getting inside La Sagrada Família. The day we went to see it, only the one person in our group of five who had booked his ticket online weeks before was able to get inside that day (the rest of that day's tickets were already sold out by the time we arrived). The rest of us snapped photos of the outside of the church, still very impressive, and took out our frustrations on a pitcher of sangria and a table full of tapas at El Tastet de L'Artur around the corner (mentioned below) as we waited for him to finish touring the inside. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon, but a little bit of a let down and a lesson in planning ahead we will never forget. Two Words: Tapas and Sangria Barcelona is known for its amazing food and the best way to sample it is by ordering plenty of tapas and washing them all down with a cool, refreshing glass of red or white sangria. There are tons of little cafés and restaurants all along the beach at Barceloneta and on all sides of La Rambla, and plenty of daily deals to be had. Right around the corner from La Sagrada Família, we discovered a cute little place called El Tastet de L'Artur that had a set tapas lunch menu for 15 Euros per person. The tapas just kept coming and sangria was included, yum! While you're in Barcelona, make sure you try the seafood paella, another popular and delicious dish. If you're spending time at the beach along Barceloneta, stop by Tapa Tapa, a great spot for a tapas-filled dinner right along the water. Visit La Boqueria One of my favorite parts of the trip was visiting La Boqueria, a huge market located just off La Rambla (the official address is Rambla, 91 Mercat de la Boqueria) where local vendors sell everything from locally grown fruits and vegetables to locally sourced meats and cheeses. Everything was so fresh! My friend and I spent our morning visiting all the shops, sampling and buying little candies and nuts to snack on, tasting colorful fresh fruit juices, and collecting enough food to have a picnic. Seriously, don't miss this beautiful European marketplace. See a Flamenco show If you're feeling adventurous, travel up the hill to the Montjuïc neighborhood for sweeping views that overlook the entire city. Stick around for the Tablao de Carmen dinner and flamenco show, one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. Afterwards, walk down the block from the restaurant's location in Poble Espanyol into the park and watch the Magic Fountains of Montjuic light-music-and-fountains show, an event similar to the Bellagio light and music show in Las Vegas, happening each night between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. free of charge. Stay in the center of town—for less You don't necessarily have to spend a fortune to have a great vacation in Barca—stick to fail-safes like Airbnb to stay within local neighborhoods in an apartment rental at reasonable prices. The metro system in Barcelona is so extensive you can even stay in the suburbs and take the trains back and forth—we stayed at the super-swanky Hotel Novotel Barcelona Cornella, located mid-way between downtown Barcelona and El Prat airport, but there are lots of other Accor Hotels, a well-known hotel brand throughout Europe, that offer many budget-friendly options. If you're deadset on staying in the city center, another affordable option is Generator Hostel, a new type of hostel designed to resemble a boutique hotel—the only difference is that some of the rooms have bunk beds. I stayed in a private room at the Generator Hostel in London during a trip in March and would definitely recommend this brand for its unique design and fun nightly activities they host to encourage everyone to hang out and get to know their fellow travelers. The metro is your friend If you're going to be making a bunch of trips on the city's metro, it's better to purchase the 10-trip pass and you and your friends can work your way through them for up to 10 trips for about 10 euros. The Barcelona metro is pretty easy to navigate, and reaches just about everything you'll want to see, often leaving you within a short walk of whatever you're trying to find. If you're going to be out late, please be aware that parts of the metro do shut down after midnight. We were stuck one night as a result of this and ended up splitting a cab, which wasn't really a big deal, but it can be pretty surprising when you're in a new place and plans change suddenly. Party like a boss If you feel the urge to party like a rock star, there are plenty of places to choose from for amazing nightlife. Try the trendy Port Olympic area, home to Opium, one of city's hottest nightclubs. As some people in our group learned, Opium requires its guests to be classy individuals, dressed to the nines, and not appear to be intoxicated when you enter (so take it easy before you go out, and be on your best behavior when in line and are close to the door as this policy is strictly enforced). If you've ever wanted to dance all night til the sun comes up, this is the place to do it—during the summer months, the doors open onto the beach and the party continues in the sand at sunrise. A word about safety Our Contiki Trip Manager gave us a big speech in Barcelona warning us about purse-snatchers and pickpockets, especially in tourist hotspots like La Rambla. Keep a close eye on your personal belongings, especially fancy phones and cameras, and whenever you leave the city's various bars and clubs at night. Female travelers should always take a taxi home with a group or at least tell someone where they are going and when they expect to be back. That being said, our group didn't really have a problem—most of the time on La Rambla (at night after dinner and drinks) it was no worse than being in Times Square and seeing people hawking different things at you, like "Hey girls, want to get free drinks? Hey girls, want to see a show?" It all comes down to you being alert and paying attention. Once during my time in Barcelona, I stopped on the street during our guided walking tour to buy something, and realized later on that the man had given me back the wrong change and I had been scammed. I should have only paid 8 Euros and I had inadvertently paid 15 because our group was nearly out of sight and I was distracted, hurrying to catch up at the time. It was really only 7 euros, but still something to watch out for.

It's a romantic idea in theory, but a destructive one in practice: For years, couples visiting Paris have affixed padlocks to the city's Pont des Arts bridge and thrown the keys into the Seine as a symbol of their everlasting love. Awww. But what happens after the lovers stroll off the bridge hand in hand is far from sweet: The thousands of "love locks" hooked onto the river's bridges cause the railings to sag, forcing the city to replace the panels, only to have them fill up with locks again. In its latest effort to deter lock-loving couples, the city has announced that it has replaced some panels of the Pont des Arts bridge railings with plates of thick shatter-resistant, anti-glare glass. If the experiment works, panels will be installed on other lock-infested bridges too, the New York Times reports. Last month, city officials began encouraging couples to take a selfie on the bridge instead of clipping a lock to it and post the pic to Twitter using the hashtag #lovewithoutlocks. The photos then appear in a photo wall on the city's website. Locals in particular, including the founders of the website No Love Locks, say the bulging walls of locks are eyesores that waste taxpayer dollars and impede historic preservation. That area of the Seine is, after all, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Serious conversations about responsible tourism aside, at least taking a selfie is free; buying a lock from a nearby vendor costs 5 to 10 euros, depending on size.

1. OUTDATED EQUIPMENT Is that a Compaq Deskpro you see the front desk clerk typing on? Or, worse, is there no computer at all? Really bad omen. "If the computers have green screens and they look like they're from the '80s, that's usually a sign that not a lot of money is going into that hotel, and obviously those management systems aren't designed to streamline the process," says Jacob Tomsky, author of Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality. "That's a good indication the service is going to be a little outdated as well." Maybe you're okay with the hotel's service lumbering along, but if an employee writes your credit-card number down on a piece of paper rather than swiping it into the property management system or a credit-card reader, that's a security breach waiting to happen, says Reneta McCarthy, senior lecturer at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. Worst-case scenario: Your info is stolen and distributed, which could ruin your finances in addition to your vacation. "With Payment Card Industry Compliance, hotels are not allowed to keep credit card numbers, except secure and encrypted," McCarthy says. "If someone wrote your number down, who knows what could happen. I have had my credit card number stolen from a hotel in Eastern Europe and they started purchasing furniture on it!" 2. QUESTIONABLE LOBBIES A hotel's lobby should be the "face of a property," Tomsky says, so if the sight of stains on the upholstery, dirty carpeting, and sagging furniture makes you wrinkle your nose in disgust, brace yourself. "If the hotel really doesn't care about their own face, then you can expect it to get possibly worse from there," he says. 3. SCRATCHY TOWELS Sandpaper-like bath towels aren't just unpleasant; they're a sign of neglect. "Towels are heavily used items, obviously, in a hotel's career, so if they're scratchy, if they're hard, if they're thin, that's an indication that they've been overused and that they haven't been replaced in quite a while," Tomsky says. 4. WRECKED CARPETING Little touch-ups in a room are fine - but note that emphasis on "little." When large swaths of carpets get involved, it's a problem. "Usually hotels will want to renovate and keep a uniform carpet," Tomsky says. "But oftentimes, if there are spills - and people act like animals in hotel rooms, there are always spills and stains—you can see the little off-color squares, that's when they're actually cutting out carpet and re-pasting it in. That can be an indication that this hotel is just doing minor fixes than trying to increase the overall experience." 5. SHORTAGE OF STAFF That feeling of futility when you desperately need an employee's help and all you see is tumbleweeds blowing past isn't only annoying in the moment. If you experience it once, you can expect more of the same throughout your stay. "When a hotel decides to lower their bottom line by cutting down on staffing, that's usually the death rattle for a hotel and management," Tomsky says. "So if you walk into their lobby, and there's four people in front of you, only one desk agent, and you look around, and you can't see another employee, that's a good indication that that hotel has given up providing prompt service." 6. MOLDY BATHROOMS Quickly checking to ensure your bathroom has basic things like a clean toilet, a mold- and mildew-free shower and tub, and an overall clean smell could prevent a world of hurt later. "Since hundreds of people have slept in the room before you the last thing you want to see is evidence of a previous guest, like hair and toothpaste splatters," McCarthy says. "If the room is not properly cleaned, that means it has also not been properly sanitized, which could mean that if the previous guest was sick that there may still be viruses or germs on the surfaces in the room which could make you sick." 7. IRRITABLE STAFF If you're in a truly terrible hotel, it probably isn't the employees' fault. The roots of poor service can run deep, with consequences that ultimately impact your experience. "If an employee ignores me at a front desk while they finish talking to another employee or finish up a personal phone conversation or a text they are writing, without acknowledging my presence and letting me know that they will be with me in a minute, I get put on alert," McCarthy says. "This is a sign of poor training and may indicate that they management of the hotel does not place importance on excellent customer service. Just because it's a budget hotel does not mean that the guest should expect inferior service." You can get a true sense of the level of morale at a hotel not when everything is going according to plan, but when you bring a concern to a member of the staff. "If everything you ask makes them irritated and frustrated, that's the sign either of a bad employee, or that the employee had a bad day, or that there's a general sense that employees don't take their jobs personally," Tomsky says. "You want employees to support their own hotel and believe in it, but usually you can tell in the immediate moment you bring a problem to the table. There'll be that look on their face, and it's either concern and a wish to help, or complete indifference and possible irritation." 8. DISMAL PARKING LOT AND LANDSCAPING Making a first impression arguably starts for a hotel before you even walk through the door. If the hotel's front lawn looks like a post-apocalyptic wasteland, lower your expectations for what you'll find inside. McCarthy suggests a few points to note: "I would include the entire arrival process as part of the check-in process at a hotel, so I take into consideration what the outside of the hotel looks like. Is the parking lot litter-free and well striped, meaning the lines for the cars are visible? Is the landscaping well taken care of? Is the outside of the hotel neat and clean without things like paint peeling or mold and mildew?" 9. DIRTY SHEETS Lifting up the comforter and doing a quick check of what's underneath is a must. "Some budget hotels may not iron their sheets, and that's okay, but the sheets should look clean even if they have wrinkles," McCarthy says. "I also check for bedbugs by looking at the mattress. You may find that the hotel uses a mattress encasement—a protective barrier that keeps the bed bugs from setting up shop. If not, check the crevasses around the edge of the mattress looking for dried spots blood, skins or excrement. These are a telltale sign that bedbugs are around." Yes, we had to mention the B-word. Before you check for bedbugs, place your suitcase on a luggage rack or even inside the bathtub while you inspect. As pesky as they are, bedbugs live in and around a hotel's bed and are highly unlikely to climb up a rack or all the way into the bathroom. Stowing your stuff will ensure you don't accidentally take a bedbug home with you. (Not exactly the souvenir you'd envisioned.) Bedbug expert Ken Haynes, entomologist at the University of Kentucky, suggests toting along a small portable flashlight to inspect areas around the head of the bed—including the headboard and the dust ruffle—where bedbugs and their pale eggs are likely to appear. The size of a bedbug can range from a poppy seed to a sesame seed, Haynes says. Adult bedbugs are brown but turn reddish-brown to red after feeding time. If you're unfortunate enough to spot a bedbug, you don't necessarily have to peel out of the hotel, tires squealing. "If I spotted a bedbug, I would inform the manager and ask for another room," Haynes says. "In most cases it would be unlikely to find another room with bedbugs, but I would start all over with the inspection.  If I found three rooms in a row that were infested, I would ask for a refund and find another hotel." Is your skin crawling? Ours is. 10. ITCHING TO LEAVE We know that sometimes a hotel is just old and doesn't have the cash for a renovation, and all employees have an off day every now and then, but if you've checked several signs off this list—or there's one blatant, hugely unacceptable checkmark—it might be time to say bye-bye to the hotel you booked. First, know that you should avoid pre-paid reservations if you're a finicky traveler who often changes hotels at the last minute. "If you pay a third-party site or even the hotel, it's very difficult to get your money back," Tomsky says. "Everyone has cancellation policies, and usually that's going to be enforced the day you check in, so you'd be responsible at least for that room and tax. However, if you don't have it pre-paid, there's a little bit more of a leeway for a hotel, it's less of a concern for them if they don't have to fax forms back and contact third-party billing sites and reverse charges." Be kind when you're telling the front desk staff you'd rather not stay, and don't threaten to write a bad review on TripAdvisor. "Realize it is not the front desk clerk's fault that the hotel is poorly managed," McCarthy says. "Just let them know that you cannot stay in the hotel and you would like to check out. But I would also do this sooner rather than later. Coming back to the front desk 15, or 30, or 45 minutes after check-in is far better than waiting hours and actually using the room before you return to the front desk and tell them you want to check out." Finally, realize that as far as the hotel business is concerned, you're going nuclear when you threaten to leave. Hotels want to be at capacity every single night, Tomsky says, so saying something like, "I'm not happy here and I'm considering leaving. Is there someone I should talk to, maybe a manager, to avoid paying for this night, or is there something that can be done?" should make the staff move quickly to assist you, whether that means allowing you to leave without penalty in order to avoid bad word of mouth, comping you a night, giving you an upgrade or a food and beverage credit, or addressing your complaints one by one. Your stay might not be 100 percent perfect, but sometimes accepting a gesture beats rebooking elsewhere and hauling all your stuff across town.  

Does leaving a tip for the maid sometimes slip your mind as you race to check out of your hotel and catch your flight back home? A new campaign created by Maria Shriver's nonprofit organization A Woman's Nation might soon make tipping your room attendant harder to forget. Starting this week, Marriott Hotels will give guests a not-so-subtle reminder to leave a voluntary tip for hotel room attendants by placing an envelope for tips in 160,000 rooms across the U.S. and Canada as part of an initiative called "The Envelope Please," created by AWN, which aims to recognize and empower women. The thinking goes that travelers are more likely to tip bellhops and concierges because they interact with them face-to-face. Hotel maids, on the other hand, perform unseen work and are less likely to get a tip. The full text of the envelope reads as follows: "Thanks for staying at Marriott Hotels. Our caring room attendants enjoyed making your stay warm and comfortable. Please feel free to leave a gratuity to express your appreciation for their efforts." However well-intentioned the program may be, some say it misses the mark. In an interview with the AP, Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickled and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, said, "It is not Marriott's responsibility to remind customers to tip; it's their responsibility to pay their workers enough so that tips aren't necessary."  We at BT highly encourage tipping hotel maids—but how much is appropriate, and how do you go about it when there's no envelope available? The American Hotel and Lodging Association suggests $1 to $5 per night depending on whether you're bunking at a low-priced motel or living it up in the penthouse suite in a swanky high-rise. Here are a few other rules for tipping hotel room attendants that we go by: * Tip every day instead of in one lump sum at the end. This will net you the best service. * If you don't see an envelope, leave cash tips under the pillow instead of on the desk or nightstand. Doing that will clear up confusion about whether the money is intended for them. * If you can, track down your maid in the hallway, give her the cash in person, and thank her for her good work.