New Dali Museum Opening in St. Petersburg

It's time to get your hands dirty: In an upcoming Trip Coach column, we're digging into farmstay vacations. As always, we want to hear from you first so we can put together a story that'll address all of your questions and concerns. If you've ever had questions big or small regarding farmstays, farm visits, or agritourism operations of any kind, now's the time to ask. You might be wondering: What are the best resources for finding and evaluating farmstays? Do guests really have to do chores? What kind? How "hands-on" are the activities? What happens if I don't want to milk a cow? What kind of lodging can guests expect? Are certain farms better than others for families? Or couples? Or solo travelers? Are certain parts of the world more likely to have farms that welcome travelers? How much do farmstays cost? Is it cheaper if guests work in the fields or tend to the animals? Now's your turn. Fire away with any questions you have about farmstays, and we'll do our best to answer your most pressing concerns in an upcoming issue of Budget Travel. MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL: A Farmstay in St. Croix The Farm Stay: Perfect for Families with Young Kids Farm Tours Where You Can Pitch In

Let's say you arrive late at night in a major city and you unexpectedly need to book a hotel on the spot. Last-minute rates for hotels can be sky-high, and finding a cafe to do a half-an-hour's worth of Internet searching isn't practical. A (promising) new solution to this problem is Hotel Tonight, an app for buying a bargin hotel room at the 11th-hour for one night. So far, its deals are as impressive as Expedia's, Priceline's, and Hotwire's, and the app is easy to use. Hotel Tonight lets you search in three categories of hotel: basic, hip, or elegant. Reserve rooms on the same day from early afternoon until 2 a.m. in the wee hours, local time. Annoyingly, Hotel Tonight has piled on the "members' only" trend, pioneered by Jetsetter, and you have to "become a member" by filling out an online form. That means a lot of tapping on your phone just to get that first hotel stay. (About 80 taps, according to a company exec.) On the bright side, "membership" is free and quickly granted, and you receive a virtual coupon worth $10 off your first booking. Once you've joined, it's superquick to book a hotel, and prices include all taxes and fees—so there's no surprises at on checkout. Once you're set up, the app is more attractive to use than Priceline's, whose bidding process takes too long at the last-minute. Besides, when you are booking on the same day, you probably don't like the uncertainty of not knowing which hotel Priceline might book you in until your bid is accepted. Hotel Tonight is a surer bet, and less confusing to use on this score. A downside, though, at least for now: Hotel Tonight only covers hotels in New York City, San Francisco, and L.A. Most people aren't stuck in those cities needing a hotel at the last minute often enough for them to go through the long process of becoming a member of this app. But I bet the app will improve its coverage with time. The other downside is that this app is only available as an app for iPhones, iPads, and the like. I'm sure that will change, too. The company is a sister of DealBase, which we've praised in our Extra Mile Awards. It does a good job of vetting hotels: Staff members have stayed in the properties and have written up brief reviews. MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL Extra Mile Awards Priceline's new app is best for last-minute hotel bids Quiz: Can you spot the travel rip-off?

On March 1, Southwest Airlines will change the rules for its Rapid Rewards program (newrapidrewards.com). What's the upshot? The new rules are more complicated. They make points dependent on the price of the tickets you buy and the types of tickets you buy (such as refundable or non-refundable). Up until now, travelers earned a free ticket simply after buying eight round-trips. Under the new rules, if you always buy tickets with the same class of service, Southwest is giving you $1 back for every $100 you spend. In other words, you'll earn a free ticket after buying ten round-trips, assuming each ticket costs the same. What's changing: Earning points Fliers will earn points for every dollar spent. You'll earn 6 points per dollar for cheap, nonrefundable "Wanna Get Away" tickets, 10 points per dollar for fully refundable "Anytime" tickets, and 12 points per dollar for expensive Business Select tickets, which comes with perks like free WiFi and drinks. You'll also earn bonus points for buying tickets in the nicest classes of service, which means that business class tickets are much more rewarding than before. What's changing: Redeeming points There is a different calculation for each class of service. For a free "Wanna Get Away" ticket, you need to earn 60 points per dollar of fare to have enough for a free ticket. Case in point: If the fare for a specific flight is $100, you need to earn 6,000 points for a free ticket (60 times 100).For a free "Anytime" ticket, you need to earn 100 points per dollar of fare. For a free "Business Select" ticket, you need to earn 120 points per dollar of fare. What about expiration dates and blackout dates? You can keep all of your points alive if you have some "account activity" every two years. "Account activity" can mean opening a Southwest Chase credit card, redeeming miles, or buying a ticket. Under the old system, each flight is worth one "credit," and credits expired after two years. The airline says there are getting rid of blackout dates and dropping limits on how many reward seats are set aside on any given flight. What if you don't have enough points? You can buy points. It costs $50 for 2,000 points, and then $25 for every additional set of 1,000 points. How does you do under the new rules as a budget-conscious traveler? Not as well under the old system on average, though it depends on the type of flights you take and how often you fly Southwest. In general, the change favors high-spending travelers. If you are someone who mostly flies short-haul flights at the dirt cheapest prices, you're going to have to work harder now—spending about 20 percent more, roughly speaking -- to earn the valuable long-distance or last-minute flight. What's the best deal under the new rules? Buy lots of "Anytime" tickets and then redeem for a cheap "Wanna Get Away" ticket. What about the credits you've already earned but haven't used yet? Each old credit is worth 1,200 new points each. For a short time, if you have a bunch of credits and just need a little more to get a free round trip you can convert points from the new system to earn the last gasp of credits for one last award. What do you think about the new Rapid Rewards program? Sound off in the comments! MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL Are you less likely to fly in 2011? (90+ comments) Delta drops fees for booking reward seats at the last minute JetBlue revamps its rewards program