Scheduled Air Steps In For Charter Vacations

At certain U.S. ski resorts, you could pay over $100 for a single day's lift ticket. Do you really have to pay that much to ski? No way. The New York Times recently rehashed a handful of the best ways to trim lift ticket costs. The list includes classic advice such as buying a package with lodging and lift passes bundled together, skiing midweek rather than the weekend, and choosing multi-day passes over single-day tickets. The gist is that you'll pay through the nose if you don't plan ahead, and instead just arrive on a Saturday and stroll up to the ticket counter and ask for a day pass. Do that at a resort like Vail and you'll pay as much as $106! In fact, the way to save the most on lift tickets is by planning far, far in advance. As the Times points out, the ski pass-discounting website Liftopia works best for skiers comfortable booking months before they'll hit the slopes. The average discount through Liftopia is 33 percent for skiers purchasing tickets at least 14 days in advance, and it's possible to save a lot more by booking further out and being flexible with ski days. For a scant few days at Mount Snow, in Vermont, for example, a single-day lift ticket in costs as little as $24 via Liftopia. A standard midweek ticket, meanwhile, runs $75 at the resort. The downside with purchasing tickets through Liftopia, or similar services like LiftTickets.com, is that passes are totally nonrefundable. So if your plans change, or the weather doesn't cooperate, you're stuck paying for a lift ticket you don't use. That's the tradeoff for snagging lift tickets on the cheap. If you ski as a family, it's well worth checking out if your state, or a state where you plan on skiing, has a ski passport program for kids. With these programs, children in the prime ages for learning to ski (generally, fourth, fifth, or sixth grade) get free or discounted skiing all season long, so long as they're accompanied by a paying adult. Some processing and handling fee is usually required, but other than that, the savings potential is huge. With the "Winter Kids" program in Maine, for example, after a family pays $25, eligible kids can ski for free or at major discounts at 50 mountains and outdoor recreation areas for the duration of the season. Under the Passport program in Utah, fifth graders get three free lift tickets at each of the state's 14 participating resorts. Sixth graders, meanwhile, get one free day pass at each of the mountains too. Vermont, Colorado, and New York are among the states with similar programs. Among the other lift ticket savings strategies worth checking out is opting to ski only part of the mountain. Beginners rarely venture beyond a resort's novice areas, so why pay for access to trails you'll never see? At Alta in Utah, for instance, a lift ticket in the beginner area, with access to three different chairlifts, costs $38. By contrast, a full-access day pass costs $72. Finally, if you're traveling with skiers at either end of the age spectrum, choose your resort carefully. While many mountains offer lift tickets for free to skiers around 5 and under or 75 and older, some resorts are far more generous with freebies than others. At Big Sky Resort in Montana, for instance, up to two kids 10 and under skis for free when accompanied by a paying adult. MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL: Ask Trip Coach: Ski Vacations Shut Up and Ski: 10 Best Old-School Ski Resorts in the U.S. In Search of the Perfect Ski Village

You know what I'm talking about—a place with a special kind of charm. It may be a little (or a lot) run down, yet the drinks are cheap, the vibe is unpretentious, and the locals love it. But does it deserve a spot on your vacation itinerary? Many years ago, before I lived in New York, I paid the city a visit. Considering myself a savvy traveler, I asked the locals which bar they would recommend and there was this one place (it has long since closed—a casualty of the recession) that everybody raved about: "it's an institution! You have to go!" went the collective wisdom. if (WIDGETBOX) WIDGETBOX.renderWidget('8d0cf7e5-3fd9-45d4-90cb-e12f23228bda');Get the Poll Creator Pro widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info)Well, alright then. I went with my traveling companions and we were…confused. A thin layer of grime seemed to coat the surface of just about everything. The music was out of date, the furniture looked like it was just seconds away from the dump, and the bartender was surly. I felt like I might get hepatitis just by being there. And OK, the drinks were cheap—but it wasn't what we were looking for on our one night out in the city. So we downed our PBR, paid, and high-tailed it out of there. Many years later, I moved back—around the corner from this bar, as it just so happens, and one day found myself back in the same barstool I had rejected years ago. It was just as grimy as before, the music just as out-of-date, and some of the furniture might have even been held together by duct tape at this point—yet, it was somehow different. Suddenly I got it. This place was cool—not because the drinks were good (they weren't), not because the atmosphere was great (there wasn't any), not because the place was even sanitary (I'm still pretty sure it was a health risk), but because of the people. The locals gathered there—it was the place you went to kick back and catch up. I had my awakening—yep, no doubt about it—that place was an institution. But that doesn't mean I would have sent a visitor there. Recently, the topic came up in our office. Do travelers want to know about dive bars in the cities they're visiting? On the one hand, a dive bar can seem like a great window into a local culture. On the other hand, part of what makes a dive bar so special is its local connection—something you wouldn't really appreciate unless you were, well, a local. What do you think? SEE MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL: 4 Common Airport Security Questions--Answered! Top Budget Travel Destinations for 2012 The Best of Australia—On a Budget!

One out of three U.S. hotels and motels is "in foreclosure, has changed hands under financial duress, or will hit the skids next year, reports Joe Sharkey, a reporter for Portfolio. The reason: Many hotel owners are running short of cash to pay their creditors after real estate prices have collapsed and banks have become less generous in their lending policies. Here's what this financial news means for travelers: The best values tend be found at hotels that cater to business travelers. Travelers can also find deals in cities whose real estate markets were overdeveloped in the mid-2000s, such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles, because the owners there are under high pressure to fill their rooms. Foreclosures are most likely outside of cities, so discounts can be found across the country. Tip: There are exceptions, of course. You'll have to look harder for deals in New York City and Florida, where many international tourists have been booking up rooms and pushing up rates. Many hotels and motels are becoming run down. Travelers may increasingly see out-of-service elevators, broken furniture, and flickering lights as many owners struggle to keep their properties in ship-shape. Tip: It's as important as ever to consult a hotel's online ratings before booking. Try TripAdvisor, the giant of such sites for a quick gauge of mass opinion. Or else look at the reviews from past customers on the major travel sites like Expedia, Hotels.com, and Priceline, which only allow guests who have actually paid to stay at a hotel to rate it. Hotel owners are desperate for guests, and that means there are discounts to be had. About 38 percent of U.S. hotel rooms go empty every night on average. The best deals are to be found at the last-minute, when hotels are afraid their rooms will otherwise go vacant. Tip: Look for last-minute discounts of up to 70 percent off standard room rates on three- and four-star hotels in major US cities on the same day by using apps like Hotel Tonight for Android and iPhone and Priceline's with Tonight-Only Deals on its Hotel & Car Negotiator for Android and iPhone. Brand names don't mean much. Hilton, Holiday Inn, Hyatt, Marriott, Sheraton, and so forth don't directly own most of the hotels that have their names on them. So, your experience of staying at a Hilton in one town may differ significantly from you stay at a Hilton elsewhere. Tip: The main benefit of a hotel chains is its loyalty program. Because hotel occupancy is low, you'll earn free stays quickly, and you shouldn't have a problem booking a free reward night. You can start often start a "bidding war" for your business. If you need to book your room ahead, find two hotels you like in the same neighborhood and then see which one will offer you the better deal. Here's how: Book a hotel reservation that's refundable at one hotel, but then call the other one you like to see if it might provide you a better deal. Say, "I've got a reservation to stay at [insert property name] with a King size bed for [insert the price], but I was looking at your TripAdvisor reviews and am wondering if I should cancel it and stay at your hotel instead. I really like your hotel because of [insert reason]. Could you give me a discounted rate, or a better room?" With luck, the clerk will try to tempt you with a better rate. Tip: Be sure to call the hotel's front desk directly, not a chain's toll free reservations hotline, which won't have the same flexibility or incentive to cut you a deal. SEE MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL What Happens When Your Hotel Is in Foreclosure? 6 Foreign Car-Rental Fees to Watch for on Vacation Peer-to-Peer Car Rentals

Today a U.S. citizen received a prison sentence of two and a half years for breaking Thailand's "never bad-mouth the King" laws, reports the LA Times. This case shows that foreign visitors to Thailand are not exempt from the country's laws against defaming the monarchy. In this particular case, Thai-born Joe Gordon, a 55-year old used-car salesman, wrote a blog posting several years ago—while he was living in Colorado—that included a Web link to a site featuring an unflattering biography of the king. Gordon then made the mistake last May of visiting Thailand for its famously affordable medical clinics. Yes, he was jailed today for something he wrote in the US several years ago. To be sure, Gordon's case is extreme, and the average American traveler's chances of being arrested abroad are only .006 percent. But Gordon's case does underline an important point that affects all travelers: A few laws may be so unexpected that they can catch even culturally sensitive Americans off guard. In the case of Thailand, travelers may discover that police are obliged to investigate every complaint that someone has defamed the monarchy, and prison terms can last up to 15 years. Here are four other surprising foreign laws to watch out for while vacationing abroad, based on reporting by Katherine Spiers for Budget Travel. Over-the-counter medicines in the U.S. are sometimes illegal in Japan, and that includes some Vicks and Sudafed products and anything else containing pseudoephedrine. If authorities at customs catch you with such products, they may detain you. Singapore puts a great deal of effort into keeping its public toilets (along with many other things) pristine. And visitors are expected to help keep them gleaming. Failure to flush may result in fines. Traveling by scooter in many major cities of the Philippines has its challenges: You can get ticketed for driving in sandals or bare feet. In Finland, taxi drivers playing music in their cars are required to pay a copyright fee. The idea is that the music is being presented to the "public"—the cabs' paying customers. So your cabbie might keep things quiet to save a few euros. WHAT TO DO IF YOU'RE ARRESTED OVERSEAS? FIND OUT BY CLICKING HERE: 8 Worst-Case Travel Scenarios SEE MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL: Can You Spot the Travel Rip-off? 5 Surefire Ways to Offend the Locals