Why You Should Consider an Arizona Vacation Now

Remember your brave, virgin trip to Europe? When you wore a backpack and lived on cheese, hot baguettes, and red wine? You were such a natural at loose-and-easy travel. You instinctively knew that the best budget travel tip of all is to take advantage of the Continent's affordable train and coach bus options, hopscotching around instead of staying put. It's time to go back to Europe. This week, three intercity train and coach bus routes launched, linking up some of the Continent's most charming cities (Prague, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Zurich, Paris). This is part of a long-term trend of train and bus service becoming more competitive, with cheaper tickets, faster service, and more frequent departures. In 2012, there has never been a better moment to realize: You had it right the first time. Go back to loose-and-easy travel. (Though grown-ups can leave the backpacks at home.) Here's the lowdown on the new train and coach service. In Austria, Vienna and Salzburg are charming towns only 200 miles apart, but it's traditionally been expensive to travel between them. This week, fares dropped when a new train operator, Westbahn, began service on the route, underpricing its competition, OBB. Now you can travel the 200 miles between the birthplace of "The Sound of Music" and the birthplace of Mozart for €48 (about $65) roundtrip on an advanced purchase ticket. That's half the former going ticket price. Trains depart hourly most days (from Wein Westbanhof in Vienna), and journeys typically take less than three hours each way. The two adorable cities of Prague, in the Czech Republic, and Munich, in Germany, are just 200 miles apart but the journey between them has traditionally taken about six hours by train. This week, new intercity bus service began on a fast and frequent schedule, beating the train alternative on both price on advance purchased fares. Trips are scheduled to take only four hours. Now you can book tickets for €29 one-way in advance. The bus service is, surprisingly, run by German Railways (Deutsche Bahn); is picked up in front of Munich's and Prague's train stations; and pops up in search results as one of your transportation options if you visit the company's website (bahn.de). (Tip: On the site, choose USA as your country so you see English as your language, and enter your departure and arrival points just as if you were searching for train fares.) Like the train, coaches between Munich and Prague by the bus can be purchased in advance online. But prices quickly go up. If you're booking less than a month out—such as on only a day's notice before departure—the train may have cheaper last-minute tickets, so comparison shop. As of this week the amazing Swiss city of Zurich is only four hours from Paris by train. Hop a new high-speed train line route on TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse), shaving off about 40 minutes off the journey, and more departures per day. Zurich now becomes a do-able overnight or two add-on to a visit to Paris, with the French connection made at Paris's Gare de Lyon. See the new timetable on the Switzerland page. This ain't Amtrak. TGV's second-class coach section showcase stylish designer interiors by Christian Lacroix. Book-ahead fares from €27 ($35) one-way via TGV's website. Refundable tickets tickets can be four times as much, but are still cheaper than refundable plane tickets booked at the same short notice. SEE MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL Riding the Train in Europe Just Got a Little Easier with Rail Europe's New App Italy by Train and Air: 9 Nights, From $1,739, Per Person The Secret to Flying Around Europe on a Dime

Anyone wanting to get a better idea of the changes taking place in how people decide where to eat, shop, and play should take a look at two new (weirdly named) websites, 4SQoogle and Voulez-vous Check-in Avec Moi. These sites make it easy to stalk the restaurants, shops, and night spots in major cities that are being buzzed about online right now. The concept is simple: The sites map the online "check-ins" recently posted by users of Foursquare, the most widely used geosocial service, which lets users check in at various locations. In other words, these sites give travelers a quick gauge of which venues smart phones users like a lot. Happily, the sites pull off this trick without revealing the names of individuals who check in, protecting their privacy. Here's the lowdown on these free new tools, which cover major cities and which can be used even if you don't belong to Foursquare or own a smart phone. 4SQoogle reveals the most popular spots in near real-time at any location that Foursquare users check in to frequently. Type a destination name in the search box to see little squares bouncing on a Google Maps mash-up. Click on any one square on the map to learn more details about the venue, and how popular it is. Or simply look at the "leaderboard," a list of the venues that have had the most check-ins recently. Find the most relevant results by clicking on whichever one of four categories of venue type you're the most interested in: food, nightlife, entertainment, and shopping. For example, by searching on "Chicago" and clicking on "Food," you would see that, recently, Chicago's most popular food spot among Foursquare users was the branch of Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea at 53 West Jackson Boulevard. In my tests, my test check-in appeared on 4SQoogle's map within about two minutes' time delay, so the results are close to real-time. (In case you were wondering, 4SQoogle's goofy name derived from Foursquare's abbreviation 4sq and Google, though the company isn't related to Google.) Limited to a few cities—namely, New York, Paris, and San Francisco—rival site Voulez-vous Check-in Avec Moi (checkinavecmoi.com) sounds like it must be French. But it is actually written in English. Like its competitor, it reveals where people are most frequently checking in via Foursquare, helping you decide what spots are hot. What makes it different from 4SQoogle is that, for each location, it tells you the ratio of guys to girls—at least among the Foursquare members who have checked in. That's intriguing, because there are no statistically significant differences by gender or education level among the users of sites like Foursquare, according to research conducted by Pew and announced in September. Hotspot-mapping sites are an unstoppable phenomenon and they will raise people's expectations hugely when it comes to trip planning. It used to be that information from a guidebook published months ago—or listings published in a newspaper within the past week—would suffice in helping people know how to plan a night in a city. But now that technology is being democratized, travelers may get used to possessing real-time information. For restaurants, stores, and nightclubs, this will create opportunities and hassles. SEE MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL 10 Most Useful Travel Websites Gowalla's New Focus as a Travel Guide TripTrace Wants to Be Your Travel Muse

Las Vegas is so many different things to so many different people. It can be a gambler's Eden, the ultimate family getaway, or a party-goer's paradise. Whatever Vegas is to its hoards of visitors, it's nothing if not constantly reinventing itself. And now, one of its original hotels is reinventing itself too. The Flamingo Las Vegas is working on refurbishing 2,307 hotel rooms into what the hotel is calling "stylish and contemporary accommodations." The ambitious revamp brings to bare how the Vegas of yore compares to today's newer, bigger, seemingly flashier Vegas. But is it a better Vegas? The Flamingo Hotel opened in 1946, during a decade when some of the very first hotels and casinos were laying their foundation in the desert town. And while it may seem like there is unstoppable hotel development in Vegas today, back then sometimes as many as two or three hotels were opening in a given year. In 1964, The Beatles arrived on The Strip and played two sold-out shows at the city's convention center. Vegas was making its name as a city of indulgence, indulgence in gambling, in blockbuster performers. And of course, a seedier side of the city was also emerging alongside all the glitz and glamour. For those who still cherish that bygone Sin City and the heritage properties that helped establish it, the first 500 rooms of the Flamingo refurbishment will be available starting Jan. 2, and all of the rooms will be finished by late 2012, under the leadership of Las Vegas-based firm, Westar Architects. "Flamingo has established itself as a one of the Strip's original resorts with a classic nostalgia reminiscent of vintage Las Vegas," said Rick Mazer, president of Flamingo Las Vegas. But with newer and newer kids on the block, like The Cosmopolitan, which is turning one year old this month, it’s getting harder for the older properties to keep up. But they have one thing the new resorts will never have — history. More from Budget Travel: 12 Things You Didn't Know About Vegas Hotel32 Bargain Rooms: 5 Tips for Exploiting the Hotel Debt Crisis

Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a controversial destination, known probably more for its years of dictatorial rule than for its serene landscapes and golden pagodas. But in the wake of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Myanmar last week — signaling improved relations between the two countries as Myanmar continues to take greater steps towards democracy — travel companies are starting to beef up their Myanmar offerings in anticipation of increased demand for the off-the-beaten track destination. "We definitely expect Ms. Clinton's arrival in Burma to further increase the popularity of our brand new 'Visions of Burma' trip," said Mickey Huang, marketing manager for General Tours World Traveler. Huang said that General Tours added a new Myanmar trip with "guarded optimism" for 2012 as the country made "tentative but clear steps toward democracy," including the release of opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest last year. Thus far, General Tours' "Visions of Burma" itinerary is already one of the most-viewed tours on the company's website, and of the 20 tours that are brand new for 2012, it is among its bestsellers, according to Huang. Patricia Weismantel, product manager for Asia cycling adventure company SpiceRoads, said that bookings to Myanmar are "going extremely well." One traveler just back from the Asian nation, said she was very impressed with what the country had to offer from a tourism point of view. "I returned from Myanmar just over a week ago and am still trying to get my head around the absolutely fantastic travel experience this was," said Judie Parr of Malibu, Calif. She said that despite all the preconceived ideas, concerns and worries, the actual travel experience was "amazing." "This is the best trip I have done in 35 years and has become one of my very top travel experiences together with a safari and Papua New Guinea," said Parr. That's quite an endorsement, but not all travelers might feel the same. There are definitely possible ideological issues tourists might have with heading to Myanmar, given its not-so-rosy political past. Would you consider going to Myanmar? More from Budget Travel: Is Travel to Cuba Worth the Hassle? 5 Surprising Foreign Laws That Put Travelers at Risk Poll: To Red-Eye or Not to Red-Eye?