travelling tips

You do have some control over whether you make it through your flight without getting sick

1. Dont touch your eyes, nose or mouth.
2. Bring a travel size bottle of hand sanitizer and use it after youve washed your hands in the aircraft lavatory.
3. Stay hydrated. Bottled water is horrible for the environment, but this is one instance when youre allowed to drink it guilt free.
4. Order your drinks without ice the water onboard is teeming with bacteria.
5. Get up and walk around once an hour. Humans werent meant to stay in a sitting position for so long.

Join a hotels loyalty program, even if youre planning only a one night stay. Many hotel brands hand out extra amenities to members Omni, Fairmont and ?Wyndham all give free ?Internet to members, for instance, and ?Omni delivers a free breakfast beverage to your room every morning, as well as presses two of your garments at no charge. Also, if the hotel is overbooked or has to give someone a bum room, the last person it will treat badly is someone it perceives as loyal.

Hotel star ratings dont mean anything anymore. Before you book, read multiple reviews in guidebooks and magazines, as well as ones written by previous guests on user review websites and demand that the hotel show you pictures of the kind of room youre going to reserve, not just any room.

When you negotiate with the front desk for a sweeter hotel deal and you should dont get hung up on rates alone. Hotel managers care mostly about occupancy percentage and the average nightly room rate, meaning its against their interest to budge on the price. But they can find other ways to woo you, such as throwing in breakfast, parking or a room upgrade. If making these demands outright makes you nervous, try asking if there are other packages you might not know about.

Theres nothing wrong with traditional hotels and resorts, but you shouldnt feel limited to them. Alternatives like B&Bs, house swaps and farm stays may offer more value and certainly more personality. Check out resources such as BedandBreakfast.com, DudeRanch.org, HomeExchange.com, Agritourism.net (working farms that welcome guests), CouchSurfing.com (a network of people who let travelers crash on their couches free of charge) and UHOTW.com, or ?Unusual Hotels of the ?World, where lodging options include train locomotives, lighthouses, caves, old jails and treehouses.

The Internet revolutionized how to rent vacation homes directly from the owners, and the recession provided incentive for tens of thousands of owners to put their second homes on the rental market, via websites like HomeAway.com, Craigslist.org and VRBO.com, or ?Vacation Rentals by Owner. The result is that renters have a huge selection, along with the power to negotiate, especially at the last minute. (Unlike hotels, where not everyone on staff has the authority to lower a rate, the owner of a vacation rental certainly can go as low as he or she likes.) Be sure to do your research ask for lots of pictures and references, ask about any construction happening on or near the property and use the satellite view at Google Maps or Google Earth to scout out the propertys surroundings because for all you know, a four lane highway is just beyond the backyard.

When business and upscale travel is down (as it is now), you can get great deals through ?Pricelines opaque bidding feature at high end hotels in big cities what ?Priceline calls four star hotels. For the uninitiated, Priceline.com allows you to bid low prices on a hotel room with the catch that you dont find out the exact property you booked until your credit card is already charged. Similarly, Hotwire.com shows you a price, but you dont know the hotels name until after youve committed. (Travelocity.com has begun doing something similar with its ?Top Secret Hotels function.) Either model is an easy way to get half or more off the rack rate, so long as you dont care about the exact location or brand.

Before you book, ask when the property was built or renovated a Super 8 can be wonderful if its only a couple of months old, and a W that hasnt been touched in years can be ratty. Beware low priced motels and even midrange chains that havent been renovated in more than five years.

Be wary of bargains that require advance booking. The discounts are usually decent 20% off or more but you must prepay for your entire stay, and cancellations and date changes are usually not allowed. If theres any chance youll need to shift dates, reserve a room at a higher rate at a place that allows you to make changes at no fee within 24 hours of check in.

The first thing you should do in a new room peel back the bedding and check the seams of the mattress for traces of bedbugs bloodstains or actual bugs. And in any case, never, ever, ever put your bag on the bed. The main way travelers bring bedbugs home is when their bags get infested after touching bedspreads or mattresses. When packing or unpacking your bag, put it on an unupholstered piece of furniture a dresser or one of those folding luggage stands. Also, avoid putting your clothes into dresser drawers, if possible. Keep your possessions in your luggage or hang things up in the closet instead. For the truly fearful, check the Bed Bug Registry, where travelers report bedbug sightings in North American hotels.