Courtesy of United

Amenities at United Club airport lounges include bar service, snacks, free Wi-Fi and conference room access.

When you're waiting out a long airport layover, nothing seems more enticing than the airport lounge. With amenities such as free Wi-Fi, drinks, snacks and glossy magazines that you've never seen before (and may never see again), the lounges feel like the answer to most of your air travel annoyances; at the very least, they can give you sanctuary from concourse noise and hubbub.

Entrance to most lounges comes gratis with a first- or business-class ticket. But for those stuck in the back of the plane, there are ways to gain access to these comfy inner sanctums without shelling out thousands of dollars for an upgrade. And when you're the one sinking into the cushy armchair instead of clamoring for a seat at the gate, you'll be glad to have a respite from the usual air travel annoyances.

Following are a few ways that savvy travelers can score lounge access, even if their tickets read coach.

1. Buy a day pass
Several airlines now sell day passes to their lounges, allowing you to relax in comfort without any long-term commitment. At Alaska, you can buy a one-day pass for the airline's Board Room lounges for $45. American, United, Delta and US Airways have similar programs for their clubs, with most day passes costing $50 (since the merger, Continental passengers should look to United for their lounge needs).

By planning ahead, you can save a few dollars. On United's Web site, you can save $11 if you buy a pass in advance. US Airways reduces its lounge price to $29 if you buy the pass when you book your ticket.

Keep in mind that most of these airline passes are limited to U.S. domestic lounges. If you're traveling internationally, you might want to check out LoungePass.com, which sells day passes to 150 lounges worldwide, including several at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports. While passes start at $22, some of the lounges do restrict the amount of time you can spend there or only offer them to passengers flying within that country. Check before you buy.

Best for: Casual travelers.

2. Buy a lounge membership
It used to be that all business travelers worth their salt carried a lounge membership card with their preferred airline, often bought on the company dime. Those perks are mostly gone now, with road warriors finding more flexible ways to get access (see elite status and credit cards below).

If you fly one airline exclusively, however, an airline membership is still something to consider. Many airline club memberships will also give you access into alliance clubs, such as the Star Alliance or Oneworld, which will help if you're traveling internationally.

If you go this route, expect to pay $250 to $400 for an annual membership. Before you buy, you'll also want to check to make sure that the destinations you visit the most actually have lounges; as a rule, you only find clubs in the world's busier airports.

Best for: Frequent travelers who know they'll be relying on one airline or alliance.

3. Try a third-party vendor
If you have a hard time booking flights on only one airline, a lounge membership through a third party might make more sense. PriorityPass.com offers access to 600 lounges worldwide for an annual fee.

What's nice about Priority Pass is that you can choose from several membership levels. For $399, you get free unlimited access to all of the clubs in the network. If you don't travel that often, you can pay $249 for 10 free visits, with additional visits costing $27. Or you can simply buy a $99 membership and then pay $27 each time you go.

Another nice thing about the Priority Pass is that it includes many of the airlines' own lounges. At Boston Logan, for example, you can use your Priority Pass in the United Clubs at Terminal A and C, the US Airways Club in Terminal B, and the Air France Lounge in Terminal E. The Pass doesn't guarantee that you'll get into all of the airlines' lounges, however, so you'll have to check (Priority Pass does have a smartphone app which makes it a little easier to find your lounge when you're on the go).

Best for: Frequent air travelers who take different airlines.

4. Visit a public pay-in lounge
Who needs to worry about those airline-owned clubs? In some airports, public lounges -- where you pay a fee for comfortable chairs, snacks, Wi-Fi access, small meals and non-alcoholic beverages -- are giving the legacy lounges a run for their money.

At Baltimore/Washington International Airport, for example, you can enter the Airspace Lounge after security in Concourse D and pay just $17.50 per day. At Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, you can buy a 24-hour day pass to The Club for $35 (and the Web site, TheClubAirportLounges.com, has a coupon for $19.95). There are shower facilities, a kids' room and a smoking lounge. Best of all for those who have favorite vendors at the airport, you can bring in food purchased outside the lounge. One drawback: It closes at 6 p.m.

International travelers may want to check out Plaza Premium, which offers buffet meals, drinks and -- crucial for those making long-haul flights -- showers. Some even have massage and spa services for an extra fee. Current locations include Vancouver, Toronto, Hong Kong and Singapore. Rates vary by location, but in Toronto, it costs $30 CAD for two hours and $35 CAD for three (annual memberships are also available).

Best for: Travelers who want more flexibility than airline lounges provide.

5. Attain elite status
Loyalty does have its privileges. Most airlines offer lounge perks for customers who make elite status, with benefits that extend throughout the network.

Make Gold status on US Airways, Air Canada or United, for example, and you'll gain access to most of the Star Alliance lounges around the world (there are limitations, however, as some lounges restrict Gold access to passengers flying internationally). The SkyTeam alliance, made up of Delta, Air France, KLM and other airlines, has similar perks for Gold, Platinum and Diamond members, as does the Oneworld alliance spearheaded by American Airlines.

Best for: Frequent travelers who fly exclusively on one airline.

6. Use your credit card
Getting a credit card that offers airport lounge privileges is perhaps one of the easiest ways to ensure that you'll never be stuck on the concourse again, although some of these cards carry hefty annual fees.

Take the American Express Platinum Card. For a $450 annual fee, the card gives you free access to more than 600 lounges in 100 countries through Priority Pass Select (although you can't use it in United or Continental clubs). The card also reimburses membership to Global Entry, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection program that lets pre-approved travelers bypass the immigration line into the U.S. And the card waives foreign transaction charges and gives you $200 in credits toward airline fees, such as those imposed for checked bags.

Airline credit cards can come with lounge perks too. The Continental Presidential Plus card gives you access to Star Alliance lounges, along with other travel extras, for $395.

Caveat: Before you apply for any credit card, read the fine print and make sure that your spending and traveling habits make getting a card worth while.

Best for: Big spenders who don't mind paying annual fees for perks.

7. Be a guest (or buy your way in)
And finally, there's always the kindness of strangers. Some people on travel forums such as FlyerTalk.com say they've gained lounge access by simply standing outside the door and asking people going inside if they can bring them in as a guest. And FlyerTalk itself has a Coupon Connection section where frequent posters are able to swap or sell lounge passes (you need to have a certain number of posts on the site to join). Other places to check for guest passes are eBay.com and Craigslist.com.

Best for: People who don't mind asking strangers for favors.

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Once you have finally dropped your bags at your destination, the next 24 hours of any trip can be both thrilling and completely disorienting. Having a plan for getting things done and getting your trip truly underway upon arrival can set the tone for an entire vacation. Here are 10 tips for dispatching potential snags in the first 24 hours of your trip.

1. On the way in, plan your exit.
The best time to figure out the fastest and easiest way out of town is on your way in; waiting until you are trying to make a plane to do so can cause a lot of stress and lost time. After you get off a plane, for example, scope out the airport layout and amenities. Note how far it is from the car rental counter to the terminal as well as a good place to buy gas to fill up your tank before returning your vehicle. Look for street names and exit numbers to thread your way back to the rental counter or terminals. When you check in at your hotel, ask about check-out times and see if you can leave without stopping at the front desk.

2. Grab some nourishment.
One of the first things most travelers will need to do upon arriving in a new place is eat, and many end up grabbing whatever is available, whether it's room service or fast food. But with Yelp, Urbanspoon, TripAdvisor, and many other listing sites and apps out there, you can get ahead of this one very easily.

Reader Tre Horoszewski offers a tip: "Do a little research ahead of time to find a decent, nearby restaurant for your first meal upon arrival. You're often tired and hungry, so aren't ready to go to that one really great place you want to try on your trip. But neither do you want to spend time looking for someplace and wind up settling for junk precisely because you're tired and hungry and just want food."

Of course, in some cases fast food will do the job just fine. 

3. Reset your clock.
If you changed time zones while traveling, you will want to assume the daily rhythms of the new zone immediately, right down to the type of foods you eat. If it is morning, go have tea or coffee and breakfast foods (pancakes, pastries, etc.); if it is evening, have a proper dinner; if it is nighttime, maybe a cocktail and a snack. Don't succumb to the urge to stay on your old schedule, especially for your most ingrained habits — which brings us to...

4. Get outside.
When you visit a new place, the light is different, the air is different and your entire sense of the world can be different. After spending hours in parking lots, airports, planes, shuttle buses and rental car garages, put down all your stuff and get out the door.

Ceci Flinn, an American working toward a Ph.D. at Oxford in the U.K., offers the following: "Take a walk, familiarize yourself with the surroundings and get fresh air/exercise. Okay, there are places like parts of L.A. where this doesn't work so well, and ya gotta take a bus or drive, and then walk!"

Do this again the morning after you arrive; getting yourself out into the sunlight alerts your brain and body to what time of day it is, and lets them know that you're done sitting on planes and ready to have some fun! (See More Tips for Fighting Jet Lag.) 

5. Have a plan to deal with your caffeine addiction.
Face it, a very large percentage of Americans have a caffeine addiction of some type; getting this under control and on track as quickly as possible is going to be critical in adjusting your biological clock to match your new surroundings. If you mess it up in the early going, it can take days to correct, and even exact a toll on your overall enjoyment of your trip.

Anyone with a coffee habit of any merit knows the consequences of having a strong cup of coffee at the wrong time of day. If it's 7 a.m. in your home town but late in the day at your new destination, you know that giving your body the java fix it's demanding will wreak havoc on your sleep that night and your energy the next day. But you also know you can't go completely without.

I have found that substituting a sugarless cola often does the trick; with less than 50 milligrams of caffeine in most colas, it is enough to push back headaches and cravings, but not so much to ruin your sleep.

Then when you get up the next day, get out of your room into the morning sunlight and hit the caffeine hard; I have found that this combination can reset your internal clock almost in an instant. You may have a different approach — and an evening cup of coffee may have little effect on some people — but you want to put a strategy into play before you find yourself lying awake in the dark on a midnight caffeine jag.

A simpler version: Wait until your first morning to drink your first strong cup of coffee.

6. Take pictures.
A pro photographer I know always dedicates the first few hours of a trip to taking a lot of photos; he noticed some time ago that his eye was always "freshest" when he first arrived in a new place, and he would notice things in the first few hours that he might ignore after a few days. Flynn says simply, "Take a camera; you never know when you will see something magical."

7. Charge your electronics.
When you arrive in your room, the first thing you want to do is whip out all your electronic devices, make sure you can plug them in if you are traveling internationally and put a full charge on them. If you need adapters, you will want to deal with this early in your trip; having your laptop or camera bail out on you right after you arrive can make the normal hassles of traveling overwhelm the first promising hours of your trip.

8. Secure your valuables.
The place you stow your most valuable items during a flight (in your carry-on, in your coat pocket) may not be the safest place for the duration of your trip. If you are traveling with any especially valuable items, secure them straight away upon arrival, whether in the safe in your room, or buried deep in your socks, or however you prefer to do so.

9. Let someone know you arrived, and where you are.
Especially if you are traveling alone, but even if not, it's a good idea to let someone close to you know that you arrived safely, and tell him or her how to get in touch with you if needed (hotel phone and room number, your preferred traveling e-mail address, a local cell phone if you purchase one, etc.).

10. Check the weather.
It seems almost too simple, but countless travelers get ambushed by bad weather, and a thoughtful weather check can really assist your overall planning. Check the long-term forecast for your stay, which will help you decide when to schedule outdoor vs. indoor activities, whether you will need to pick up gear that you didn't pack, and how to cope with any truly plan-wrecking weather events.

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When lining up for security, look to see which security agent is working the fastest, not how long a line is.

Travel tips are at the heart of what IndependentTraveler.com does, and you will find a wealth of valuable advice all over the site that can benefit novice travelers and experts alike. But some tips are only discovered through putting in heaps of miles; thus, I dug into the very bottom of my deepest bag of tricks, and also asked some veteran travelers for their best advice, to come up with these tips for hardcore travelers.

Whether you're already an expert traveler or you just want to travel like one, these 10 tips will help you along the way.

1. Back up important documents in electronic form.

New Jersey lawyer and frequent traveler Karl Piirimae offered the following advice for backing up any documents that would be catastrophic to lose, such as your passport, travel insurance policy, itinerary confirmations, scans of your credit cards and more: "Important documents should always be on a flash drive on your person; for overseas travel include a PDF copy of the face page of your passport."

If you want to use a more remote approach, you could put backups on a service like Dropbox; or for even more security, use InfoSafe.com, which employs encrypted and password-protected security methods to protect your information while allowing access from any Internet-connected computer.

Tip 1b: when I write down any sensitive information, I break it up and insert unexpected characters to make it hard to decipher what it might be. So for a (fictional) credit card number 4110 1421 3134 5345, the note might look like this:

password 1: 411014

Area code: 213

Login: 1345

Address: 345

2. Collect and store all street addresses ahead of time.

Before you travel, send yourself a single e-mail that contains all the local addresses you will visit on your trip (hotels, offices, attractions, museums, etc.), then make sure to save it on your phone (that is, make sure you check your mail on your phone before your regular e-mail application pulls it off the server).

Then, as you tick off your various destinations, you can check back on the same e-mail, and click on the addresses to launch a mapping application.

Say you do this at the airport on public Wi-Fi, but are shortly going to be without Internet access, such as in a rental car. If you switch to "List View," you will be able to read turn-by-turn instructions, even if your phone is not tracking your location in real time. I've done it -- it works great.

This tip assumes you have a smartphone, but could also be applied to your laptop or tablet, or to any publicly accessible Internet connection, such as Internet cafes, library computers, etc.

3. Log your parking spot electronically.

It's not a great feeling to get jostled on an airport parking shuttle bus as it slumps around an immense parking lot, and have no recollection at all of where you parked. By the time you walk away from your car at the airport, your mind has already moved on to other logistical concerns, and your vow to remember the location can be very quickly deserted.

Instead of relying on your memory to come through after a long trip, take a photo of the parking lot section sign with your phone or digital camera. Then forget about it until you get back, when you can check your phone or camera for the picture of the parking lot sign closest to your car. You can also record the info in a voicemail to yourself; anything but leaving it to memory and chance.

4. Check multiple airline seating chart Web sites.

Ceci Flinn, an American based in London who travels frequently for business and pleasure, says simply, "SeatGuru.com rocks!" However, it is important to note that recently, airlines have been changing their seat configuration and numbering systems quite a bit, particularly in the aftermath of multiple mergers, in a move toward more consistent row and seat numbering systems. This has presented a challenge to all of the airline seat chart Web sites. On three flights I took this winter so far, SeatGuru was unable to offer reliable seat reviews. As this shakes out, I recommend that you check more than one seat review site in hopes of finding the most current information, or at least to get a second opinion. Others include SeatMaestro.com or SeatExpert.com.

Andrew Wong at SeatGuru parent site TripAdvisor wrote the following this week in response to an inquiry about this issue: "You are correct, there have been lots of changes on both the [Continental] and [United Airlines] front. We are trying our best to keep up with the changes and generally we are. Where there is some confusion is when a user is thinking they are flying on one aircraft and then it's operated by another aircraft (CO for UA or vice versa). On our map search tool, we use OAG (airline) data to show which aircraft type is scheduled to operate a particular flight. We then land a user to the appropriate map based on this data. This might change from time to time which adds to the complexity."

5. Count front to back, do the alphabet right to left, on ALL planes.

Despite changing seat maps, some things you can, well, count on. Traveler Tre Horoszewski offers the following simple tip: "Realize that there is a system to seat numbering on ALL planes regardless of airline. This saves time in finding and taking your seat. Higher numbers in back, letters run from right to left as you face the back of the plane. I can't recall the number of people who don't seem to know/understand this and hold up boarding."

Yes, the seats are right to left -- when facing the back of the plane, A is the window seat on your right.

6. Get water on the other side of security.

Everyone seems to know that air travel dehydrates folks considerably, but you would never know it from how little water is provided by current in-cabin service routines; often you'll get only 8 to 10 ounces of water all told even on a long flight, unless you are chewing your ice.

Of course, you can't bring water with you from home, because security checks allow even less liquid: three ounces (or 3.4 ounces, to be more precise). You will have to stave off dehydration yourself, which is why I recommend buying a big bottle of water immediately after you pass through security.

Shelli Gonshorowski, a producer at Peter Greenberg Worldwide, has an interesting solution: "I am always dehydrated, and hate the water on airplanes. Since traditional bottles can be cumbersome, I fly with the collapsible bottle 'flasks' -- they fill up to 16 ounces, and when finished are thin as paper."

7. Similarly, buy your own food -- or order ahead.

Another recent development onboard is the frequent need to feed yourself, even when airlines offer meals for purchase. To decrease waste (and I believe also to decrease craft weight), airlines are understocking on food, and seem always to run out of the best menu items halfway down the aisle at mealtime.

The simplest approach would be to eat before your flight, or bring your own food. A more hardcore approach is to order a special meal when you book your flight -- it could be vegetarian, or kosher, or anything that gets your meal off the main food cart coming down the aisle. Two things happen when you do this; first, your meal is served first, before the full cabin service starts, and second, the food tends to be more fresh. I traveled with a friend more than 25 years ago who always requested kosher dishes, as he knew he would get fresh, hot meals, and it still works often enough.

8. Bring your E-ZPass tag with you.

Whatever electronic toll collection system you use at home might also be valid on the toll roads in the place you're visiting, so check ahead. When I got my own E-ZPass tag, the instructions said I should glue it to my windshield. I chose not to do this, and now throw it in my carry-on whenever I am traveling to an area that accepts it; then I just put it on the dash of my rental car for the duration of the trip.

9. Do a double pass when you pack.

IndependentTraveler.com Editor Sarah Schlichter has a foolproof packing process, useful both coming and going: "For me, packing is a two-step process: gathering everything I need, and then putting it all into my suitcase. So I use my packing list accordingly. Each item gets a check mark once I've laid it out on my bed or dresser, and then I strike through it once it goes into my bag -- which helps me make sure that everything I intend to take actually comes with me! The very last thing I pack is my packing list. I use it to double-check that I'm not leaving anything behind in my hotel room before I come home. (On the rare occasions when I check a bag, the packing list also serves as an inventory of everything I've brought, just in case the airlines lose my suitcase.)"

10. Don't check security line lengths; check how fast the security agent is working.

Any hardcore traveler (heck, any grocery shopper) has bolted for the shortest line only to have it take the longest time. Gillian Williams, President of the Rensselaerville Institute -- School Turnaround, offers the following tip for getting through security faster: "When needing to bolt through security, look at the screener at the machine to determine shortest line time -- not the people in the line (well, except babies and wheelchairs)."

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Based on the lavish menu of items that Pam Tobey and Rick Durham dined on during a recent independent trip to Reykjavik, Iceland, you'd think a hearty chunk of their budget was spent on food. Think lamb pate, cod in mustard sauce, salmon with brown bread, and skyr (the national cheese).

You might be surprised to hear, then, that during their five-day jaunt through one of Europe's most expensive cities, they only ate in a restaurant once. Otherwise, they bought ingredients from little stores and cobbled together their own meals.

"Half the fun of our overseas travel is exploring local market and groceries," says Tobey, a graphic designer in Washington D.C. Not to mention that frequenting local markets is the number-one way to save money on food while traveling.

If you're willing to map out an eating plan that includes buying provisions at grocery stores and following some of our other tips, you can save a good chunk of change on your travels, and still eat well.

Navigating grocery stores
It's simple, really: Shopping for foodstuffs at supermarkets, small groceries, farmers' markets, even drug stores with pantry aisles will save you loads of money on food. Fresh bread, a few slices of meat or cheese and a piece of fruit make for a wholly satisfactory meal and will set you back just a few dollars.

If you are planning to make this style of eating a part of your next trip, some simple advance planning will make the experience easier on your budget.

Bring or obtain simple utensils. It's generally easy enough to find paper plates and plastic forks, spoons and knives when you're traveling — or you can bring your own set of reusable utensils from home.

Don't buy items that require a special tool to open. If you didn't bring a corkscrew on your trip, get wine with twist-off caps. Canned items without flip-top lids will go uneaten unless you pack a can opener.

Tote along a small cache of quart- and gallon-size zip-top bags for securing leftovers and preventing leaks. A collapsible insulated cooler bag is helpful too.

Order small quantities of pay-by-weight items from counters, and only order what you realistically will eat. This is a great way to sample a variety of local foods.

Pop into markets and small bakeries in the late afternoon. Some sell baked goods at half price in an effort to recoup expenses before throwing items out. A few rolls safely secured in a zip-top bag and voila! You've got breakfast the next day.

Putting restaurant meals to work for you
Restaurant meals are generally unavoidable when you're on the road. And let's face it: Trying out new spots can be part of the fun of traveling.

If you're staying at a hotel, avoid asking concierges for recommendations of places to eat. They tend to have a set list of pricey or touristy spots near the hotel that they suggest. Instead, ask bartenders or baristas where they personally like to eat, or consult travel guidebooks and their companion Web sites for lists of the best cheap eats in a city. The "Rough Guides" and "Let's Go" series of guidebooks are two good choices.

Read local food blogs before you go on an overseas trip. Chole Current, an American living in Istanbul, where she works as a university professor, says that "expats living in the area know where to go to get the best food at the best prices." Her go-to source is a local blog called IstanbulEats.com.

Americans tend to devour their largest meals of the day at dinner, when menus usually are most expensive. Make lunch your biggest meal instead — most people in other countries do anyway, so you'll fit in better with the locals.

If you're traveling on your own, eat light and just order an appetizer as your meal. A couple can split an entree, perhaps ordering a salad or an additional side dish to complement it. Alternately, order from the fixed-priced or tourist menu, if one is available. Those traveling with children should seek out restaurants with "kids eat free" promotions (note that these are more prominent in the United States than overseas).

Be a restaurant bargain hunter
The benefit of traveling during a difficult economy is that many restaurants have been offering coupons and discounts that they promote in a variety of outlets. Some of the best places to look for restaurant special offers include:

• The official tourism Web site of your destination before you go on a trip. Many post coupons or other discounts.
• E-mail offers from such promotional sites as LivingSocial.com, Groupon.com and Scoutmob.com.
• Pay-in-advance offers from sites like Restaurant.com. You can regularly find $25 restaurant gift cards for only $10 on Restaurant.com — and if you sign up for its e-mail newsletters, you'll get special promo codes and offers for even better discounts.
• The Entertainment Book, a thick, annually published compilation of coupons for restaurants, hotels, rental cars and attractions. It costs just $25 and often pays for itself after just a meal or two (and can help you save some bucks on other aspects of your travels too). Bonus: The books tend to be priced at half off in the summer. See Entertainment.com.
• Membership organizations like AAA and AARP. These organizations often offer discounts at popular chain restaurants.

Hotel rooms: The best tool in your arsenal
For budget travelers, a hotel room could be Command Central for the preparation of the majority of your meals.

Choose hotels that offer full or half-kitchens ensuite (and make sure they're stocked with basic dishes and utensils). This is especially helpful if you have children, who generally eat simply anyway and have low tolerance for sitting in restaurants for long spans of time. Backpackers, meanwhile, benefit from hostels, which often have communal kitchens.

Don't have access to anything more than a mini-fridge and a coffee maker? No problem. Cold cereal with milk or instant oatmeal with water warmed through the coffee maker are great for breakfast. Sandwiches, cups of soup and ramen noodles for lunch are easy to prepare.

Speaking of mini-fridges, here's something important to know: When you check in at your hotel, ask the staff to clear out the minibar for you. Some of the latest fridge models can automatically track when items are removed and will tack ridiculously marked-up charges to your bill, even if you just temporarily remove some items to make room for your own stuff ($4 for a mini-can of Pringles, anyone?).

Even if you don't have a mini-fridge, you can still get by with some basic non-refrigerated staples — like peanut butter, jelly and bread. If you're traveling to a spot where a grocery store isn't convenient, bring the items with you. If you can't do that (because of airline restrictions, for instance), ship them to your hotel in advance, or use a grocery delivery service.

If you don't wish to prepare your own food in a hotel room, at least choose a property that offers free breakfast. And don't be shy — gorge away! Tuck an apple or muffin into your daypack for a snack. We've never heard of a hotel objecting to that. (Have you?)

Abra Benson Perrie of Gainesville, Va., says she always asks for a hotel room upgrade to the concierge level, where continental breakfast and afternoon snacks are included. "I did this in both Bermuda and Bali, and it worked out great," she says. "I only really needed to buy lunch." Even if she can't get the upgrade for free, sometimes the cost differential is still less than she and her husband would pay for two meals a day.

Hitting the streets
Some of the best budget food in the world comes from street vendors. It is hearty and cheap, and permits you to sample many local delicacies without shelling out too much money.

It's also can be some of the riskiest food you eat while traveling. There's no better way to ruin a trip — and potentially run up your travel expenses with medical bills — than coming down with a case of food poisoning.

So what's an intrepid diner to do? When trying street food, "Be sure your dish is served hot, and take a look at the cart or kiosk before ordering," advises Sarah Schlichter in How to Avoid Getting Sick While Traveling. "Does it look clean and well kept? Is it busy?" The fewer the customers, the longer the food may sit before being served.

To drink or not to drink?
Who gets the munchies when they drink? Who loses the ability to think budget-mindedly after throwing a few back? Who's surprised by the food and drink tab the next day when reviewing receipts stuffed into jeans pockets?

Guilty.

Killjoy alert: The best way to keep on budget is to avoid alcoholic beverages altogether. However, if you do plan to throw a few back, seek out happy hours, order the house wine during dinner or buy your booze where the locals do (and have your drinks in your room before you go out).

Some bars also offer free food during happy hour. In places like Spain, tapas are served whenever you order a drink. Drink enough, and your belly's full.

So what should you imbibe if you're on a very limited food and drink budget? To maximize your savings, only drink tap water, if it's safe to drink (if not, consider bringing a reusable bottle with built-in filter). Bring powdered drink mixes from home if the idea of only drinking plain water is a bore.

If you must consume bottled water, purchase it at a grocery store rather than from restaurants or street vendors, as it will be less expensive.

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Denis and Yulia Pogostins

Get rid of stale breath and gain some fiber, all in one package.

You've been on a plane for nine hours. The inside of your mouth tastes like some combination of morning breath (thanks to that three-hour nap you just woke up from) and the remnants of your delightful reheated airline dinner. You're afraid to open your mouth, lest your breath knock your seatmate unconscious.

While a mint might temporarily help the cause, contributing editor Dan Askin recommends a couple of more powerful mouth-cleaning products:

"Colgate Wisps are disposable mini-toothbrushes that provide a quick and easy mouth-freshening option when you can't brush your teeth for real. The brush head has a freshening bead that releases a mouth cleaning liquid when you scrub, and a pick on the opposite end provides a floss option. It requires no water to use, and the ingredients are safe to swallow (except for the brush itself, of course!).

"Another product of choice is Listerine PocketMist, introduced to me as part of a hotel's complimentary in-room toiletries. This is Binaca for the modern age -- in a smaller key-chain-sized container and with a more potent punch. You can literally feel the bacteria being singed away."

Askin also suggests fruit to cleanse the palate, including Granny Smith apples, lemons and limes. And, of course, there's always the old standby: mint gum, which pulls double duty for air travelers by freshening breath and easing pressure on the ears during takeoff and landing.

For more advice, including tips on keeping your face, hands and clothing clean while traveling, see Travel hygiene tips: Staying fresh on the road. 

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At holiday time, there is usually no shortage of travel experts telling you what to do to keep travel hassles to a minimum, offering long lists of things you need to do before your trip to avert disaster. But in truth, skills of avoidance can be much more valuable; there are a few things that, if avoided, will help you beat the more common pitfalls of the season.

So instead of making a list of what you need to do this year, here are six suggestions on what not to do that might make the planning and execution of your holiday trip much simpler.

1. Don't go on bad dates.
As I have noted a few times over the years, holiday travel is much more difficult when Christmas and New Year's fall on a weekend. When the holidays fall mid-week, travelers spread their travel over a broader range of days — in these cases, many folks take long weekends before or after the holiday, and the highest volume gets spread over 8-10 days or more. Also, folks making quick trips for just the holiday proper don't overlap as much as people trying to get back to work, and airports are less congested overall.

This year, we have almost a worst-case scenario, as both holidays fall on a Sunday. This will result in a lot of people ending work late the week before, and rushing back to work early the week after, all at the same time. In particular, the Sunday and Monday after New Year's Eve could be really harrowing, as many workplaces will be at full tilt by Tuesday, and everyone is going to be humping it home at the same time. There is nothing quite like a harrowing trip home to dull the positive effects of a holiday vacation.

If you can extend your vacation time into that following week, perhaps coming home on either the third or even fourth of January, you will have a much better go of things on your return trip.

For your convenience, here are this year's peak travel dates:

• December 22
• December 23
• December 26
• January 1
• January 2

2. Don't go crazy with carry-on baggage.
Since the day the term "overhead bin" was coined, holiday travelers have tried to bring as much stuff as possible into airplane cabins — and things have only gotten worse since the airlines instituted almost punitive checked baggage fees. And you can't blame folks, as the $25-$50 fees just to check a bag add up quickly on a roundtrip flight, especially for a family.

At this time of year, however, with more people in the air, and more stuff under their arms thanks to all the holiday gift-giving, you're more likely than ever to be penalized for oversized bags or forced to gate check your carry-on.

This isn't to say things are going to be fair; they're not. Some people will get on the plane with half their earthly belongings, and some will be told they need to gate check their extra Pillow Pet.

3. Don't travel too hung over, and definitely not drunk.
Every January, I hear at least one story of a passenger who woke up face down in the aisle, or who passed out and needed to be crowbarred out of an aircraft loo, or who merely left most of the contents of his insides on the plane one way or another. A formidable hangover is already miserable enough; you don't need to live through it on an airplane, where privacy, comfort, fresh air, and easy and quick access to a place to be alone with your hangover are basically non-existent.

Think about it — you're in a middle seat, badly hung over, and the seatbelt sign is on, the plane is pitching around, the person in the aisle seat has eyeshades and headphones on, and the bathroom is occupied, likely with other hung-over people who are not coming out any time soon. Then the plane lands, and there is a wait for a gate, and the air-conditioning is turned off. You have a real problem, and it's not going away until you get fully up the gangway. That can be a long, lonely and miserable experience — if you can remember it.

As for flying when significantly drunk, tolerance for even slightly inebriated behavior in the air and at the airport has plummeted the past few years. Don't make the news by getting Tasered, injured in airport jail cells, denied boarding or escorted from the plane by police. Talk about a holiday from hell.

4. Don't trust airport parking lots to be empty or easy to navigate.
At peak travel times, airport parking lots can fill up quickly, and you will lose time driving around looking for the few open spots, or driving to alternate lots, or going back and forth trying to figure out where you can actually park without dropping a half-day's pay for the privilege. Additionally, staffing is usually down a bit for the holidays, so there seem to be fewer buses, fewer open pay lanes on the way out and fewer people to ask for directions to alternate parking.

And in the case of a winter storm during your travels, moving around the airport gets even more difficult, as snow removal vehicles dominate the traffic lanes, shuttle buses have to navigate around snow banks, parking spots disappear as they are filled by snow piles from plowing trucks, and your car is piled high with snow and ice that you have to clear and scrape off with your credit card, as you hadn't yet put an ice scraper in the car.

To keep yourself out of trouble, check airport Web sites (although not that many offer real-time parking information just yet), allow extra time and look into off-airport lots or even a sleep and fly option.

5. Don't wait too long to book.
There was a time that risking a last-minute holiday booking was a fair bet. With more planes in the air, there were more empty seats; before online bookings, some hotels would inevitably fail to sell out; and rental car companies had not downsized their fleets, so you could always get a car. Among my more travel-savvy friends, stories of last-minute trips booked at rock-bottom prices were common.

All that has changed now, and it is more common to hear about travelers who decided they just couldn't afford to take a trip than about folks who found a trip so cheap they couldn't afford not to take it.

6. Don't assume things will go to plan.
Traveling during the peak holiday season, particularly in regions where winter weather can be an issue, may be as unpredictable as anything you will do all year. And I don't mean only Detroit, Minneapolis or other northern cities; when a rare snowstorm hits southern cities like Atlanta or Houston, the situation is almost always worse, as they are neither really trained nor equipped to deal with it. (For help coping with snowy weather on the roads and at the airport, see Winter Travel Tips.)

Additionally, your fellow travelers are in larger groups, with more stuff and less experience than at any other time of the year, bar none. This is not to disparage those folks — getting a family of four through security during peak travel times with security agents barking semi-coherent orders is no cakewalk, even for experienced travelers, and they have as much right to use the air transit system as does any road warrior salesperson. I would even turn this one around; complaining about inexperienced travelers during the holidays is like complaining about French people when you take a vacation in France. If you don't want to travel with a lot of people around you, don't travel during the holidays.

For my part, I'll be traveling this holiday season, right there with the noobs putting wrapped presents on the security conveyor belt. See you then!

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Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters

Savvy travelers know how much to tip to whom when abroad.

One of the most enduring travel conundrums is figuring out whom to tip and how much. Should you tell your Moroccan cabbie to keep the change, or tack an extra 10 percent onto your New Zealand restaurant bill? (The answers, in case you're keeping score at home: yes and no.)

If you're feeling clueless in a new country, it may seem only logical to ask whether a tip is appropriate. Resist the urge, writes Caroline Costello in Tips for tipping abroad: "A common mistake made by travelers is asking their service person if he or she requires a tip. Not only does this present a conflict of interest to a cash-strapped service person who doesn't normally take tips, but in countries where saying what you mean is not the social norm, a clueless traveler may end up stiffing a polite waiter or bellhop.

For example, in India, a service person whose income is mostly generated by tips may say that he or she requires no gratuity out of modesty and good manners. This doesn't mean you shouldn't tip if it's the acceptable practice in your destination!"

A good guidebook will always offer advice on how much to tip and under which circumstances; you can also find this sort of information on sites like the Magellan's Worldwide tipping guide. But if you've arrived in your destination unprepared, you can ask about tipping norms, as long as you don't ask your waiter. The staff at the local visitor center or your hotel front desk should be able to assist you.

For more help, see our guides to hotel tipping and Tipping etiquette.

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Nicholas Kamm / AFP - Getty Images

Be careful what you share on the social-networking giant Facebook.

Think twice about revealing travel plans to your Facebook friends; some might be more interested in your vacant home than your vacation photos.

A New Jersey man reportedly used information posted on the Internet to carry out a home burglary against one of his Facebook friends. According to the Express-Times in Lehigh Valley, Penn., 36-year-old Steven Pieczynski is accused of breaking into a Newtown, Pennsylvania home on Sept. 27 while the homeowners were traveling.

Pieczynski, who is Facebook friends with the victims, learned of their upcoming vacation plans over the social networking site. When he found out that his home-owning Internet chums were going out of town, he allegedly took the opportunity to strike.

As the break-in was taking place, watchful neighbors noticed a suspicious-looking vehicle parked near the victims' home. Neighbors recorded the license plate number of the car and gave the information to police after learning about the burglary; this led to Pieczynski's arrest, ultimately proving that a few good neighbors trump several hundred online acquaintances any day of the week.

In a news release issued by the Office of the Hunterdon County Prosecutor, the New Jersey prosecutor handling the case, Anthony P. Kearns, warns travelers to refrain from posting their vacation plans on Facebook. Says Kearns, "I commend the neighbors who were vigilant and recorded the vehicle information leading to the arrest of the defendant. At the same time, I want to take this opportunity to remind people to never post their vacation plans on any Internet Web site."

We second that. In Keep your home safe on vacation, we impart the following tip: "Think twice about posting your detailed vacation plans on Twitter or Facebook -- especially if that information is visible to Internet users other than your friends and family (and it probably is). Be careful what you say on your answering machine or voice mail too. Callers don't need to know that you're not home -- they just need to know that you can't come to the phone right now."

If you must share your travel plans on Facebook, put the site's privacy controls to good use. Manage who views your posts by sorting your Facebook friends into customized groups. For example, you can create a "Family" group of relatives and close buddies in the Privacy Settings section of your Facebook account. Then, when posting a status update on your wall, use the audience-selector dropdown menu to choose the Family group. Only those whom you've pegged as family will be able to see what you've posted.

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