Try French culture at about a third off

Name: Budget Travel LLC
Price range: $

By Budget Travel

October 3, 2012

Perhaps you're put off by the weak buying power of the dollar against the euro, which makes France unusually pricey this summer. If so, consider visiting Montreal, where your benjamins will go much further. You'll find our guide to this Canadian city by clicking here. This story is accompanied by a neat online map, which marks the city's key destinations.

You can also find the best deals on hotel rooms during the city's annual jazz festival -- with prices starting at $119 per room -- by clicking here.

Plan Your Next Getaway

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Travel Tips

Our senior picture editor talks photography

You'll find some of my favorite photos in our new issue of Girlfriend Getaways on page 14 ("If He Looks Fun, Invite the Bellman"). Tara Donne shot some fabulous stills of different prop ideas for some themed party nights: movie night, game night, spa night, and dance night. The photo for game night is my favorite. (See a low-resolution version of it here). Check out the Pictionary pad with an adorable "head over heels" drawing, sketched by me (in less time than it took for the sand to run through the timer). You can find more of Tara's photography at TaraDonne.com --Rebecca Simpson, Senior Picture Editor

Travel Tips

How to become a travel blogger

Why write a blog about your travels? Maybe it's because you want a chance to win $500 in our "Blog-Off Contest." Or maybe it's because you eventually want to become a professional travel writer like Rolf Potts, who explains how he jump-started his career in this blog post. Or maybe you just want a more intense travel experience. At least, that was the case for friends Holly Corbett, Jennifer Baggett, and Amanda Pressner, who hit the road for a year to blog about their round-the-world travels. They call themselves The Lost Girls, and here's how they describe the main appeal of blogging a trip: "The simple process of articulating a personal travel moment and sharing it with strangers all over the online world can make you more appreciative and grateful for the opportunity you had to take the trip in the first place." For 10 tips on how to start a travel blog, click here to read an online Q&A; with the Lost Girls. And if you have a favorite "non-professional" travel blog (even if it's your own), let us know by posting a comment.

London summer trip for $780 after taxes

British Airways has a surprise sale on flights out of its U.S. gateways for travel between May 28 and Sept. 5. Starting fares (before taxes) are $558 for New York City; $598 for Boston, Philadelphia; $618 for Washington, D.C.; $758 for Miami, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Book fast, as tickets won't last. Sale ends Thursday. The deal includes a free-sightseeing tour. For details, click here. Other airlines have lowered their fares to compete, making today a good day to book a summer trip to London on any airline. For a how-to-guide to teatime in England, click here for the story "Pinkie's In!"

The taxing has to stop

I'm a little late on this one, so forgive me, but last week The Travel Insider had a link to an Associated Press story that ran on Yahoo (how's that for sourcing?) that made my jaw drop. I was flying to Raleigh-Durham when I read it, which is sort of appropriate... Basically, the story (by Bob Porterfield) was about how airline passengers pay an extraordinary amount in taxes, much of which goes to small airports that serve only corporate and other private jets. Get this: "The main source of federal funding for small airports and airstrips is the Airline Improvement Program, which has distributed $7.1 billion to airports of all sizes since 2005. About $2.2 billion of that went to small airports with little or no passenger service.... [And] most of that money was collected from commercial airline passengers." The FAA, to its credit, is trying to replace these outrageous taxes we pay with taxes based on fuel and airport usage, which would spread the burden around a bit. Naturally, the corporate-jet industry is fighting it. Kudos to Bob Porterfield.

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