105 Supersmart Strategies

PART NINE: ON THE GROUND

Take a photo of everything
Buy a digital camera (it'll change your life) and a big memory card (minimum one gig). Snap pictures of where you parked your rental car, the ferry schedule, how full the gas tank was when you returned the car to the lot, and so on. You can always delete the photos later.

ATM? Credit cards? Traveler's checks?
All of the above. To get cash, use an ATM. Your bank may have agreements with foreign banks; Bank of America, for one, belongs to the Global ATM Alliance, which means its customers can make free withdrawals from over 30,000 ATMs in eight countries. Use credit cards to make purchases (if you have more than one, figure out which has the lowest conversion fee). In some countries, they'll print your account number on the receipt, so don't blithely toss it in the trash. For emergencies, it helps to bring a few hundred dollars in traveler's checks.

A CityPass reduces the price of a Circle Line cruise (courtesy Circle Line) [enlarge photo] 105 SUPERSMART STRATEGIES • Trip Planning • Loyalty Programs • Booking • Packing • Flying • Lodging • Cruises • Car Rentals • On the Ground • Tipping

Don't call home
There are ways to place calls cheaply from abroad, both with a cell phone and without (such as Skype). But unless you're traveling around the world for months on end, you don't really need to call. Create a Web-based e-mail account--such as the ones from Yahoo and Google--and keep in touch that way. You can go online at an Internet café for about $3 an hour. In the U.S., also look for libraries, which tend to have free access.

Almost every city has a transit pass
And it's always a better deal than buying á la carte.

Know your rights
If you're bumped from a domestic flight and you get onto another flight within one to two hours, the airline pays you the equivalent of a one-way fare ($200 max); more than two hours and you get up to $400. Vouchers are an option, too. If your checked bag is delayed, the airline covers expenses for toiletries and clothing until it delivers the bag to you. For a lost bag, the carrier must reimburse you, up to $3,000. If your hotel is overbooked, the hotel must find you a room at a comparable or better property nearby, at no extra charge.

The new 411
Send a text message to 466453 ("Google") from your cell phone and you can get all kinds of info. You just need to know the shorthand; there's more at sms.google.com, but here's a quick tutorial:

• For flight arrival/departure info, type in your flight number
• Send a text message of "w [city name]" to get a four-day weather forecast
• Get translations of foreign words by sending "t [word or phrase] in [language]"
• For local listings, text "[what you're looking for] [place name or zip code]"--such as "bbq denver co"
• Text "[amount and currency] in [new currency]"--such as "2000 mxn in usd"--to do a currency conversion
• For basic driving directions, text "[place or zip] to [place or zip]"--for example, "phoenix az to 86336"