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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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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The ugly season of travel has arrived, with snowy runways, ice storms and other winter-weather related delays nearly certain to plague countless air passengers through the holidays and beyond. But, say experts, there are some smart strategies that can help make bad situations more workable for travelers, even if they can’t stop the snow.

It begins as early as purchasing your tickets. “When booking, when you can, book the earliest flight of the day,” said Jeanenne Tornatore, senior editor for the Internet travel company Orbitz. “The reason being is that typically, the early morning flights are usually on time — those flights are already at the gate and have already been de-iced, so there’s no back up yet. Also, if your flight is canceled, you have a better chance of a flight out.”

It’s the snowball effect: As more and more flights are canceled throughout the day, competition becomes fiercer for rebooking the remaining open seats, she said. So if you were originally scheduled to fly out in the afternoon, but your flight is delayed or canceled, there’s a much greater chance you’ll have to wait until the next day for a flight because all the open seats will be gone.

Also, it may be worth the extra money during winter to book a nonstop flight, rather than one with connections, to minimize the possibility of weather delays, Tornatore said. And, if you have a choice, try to avoid connecting through regions that can be hard hit by storms; Denver, Chicago and Minneapolis come to mind, though these airports are usually pretty good at dealing with snow and ice, she said.

Winter travelers should carry smartphones with key selected apps for airlines or ticket services and important phone numbers loaded and ready to go should their flight get canceled, recommends Mike Benjamin, CEO of FlightView, a service that provides real-time flight information for travelers. At that point, everyone else will be headed to stand in line at the airline counter for service, something you should do also, just in case. But while that line is inching along, you can use your phone to rebook online because you've got that app waiting, Benjamin said. “Gate agents are pretty overwhelmed at that point, so I would use the phone. The online option is faster and gets you to what you want quicker. Once the problem arises, this is really a time to put your smart phone to test.”

Of course, you can also just call from your phone, but sometimes call centers can quickly become overwhelmed as well, he said. Tornatore agrees: Using your smart phone “can make the difference between getting one of the last few seats on the next flight versus potentially being stuck for the night.”

Another thing to keep in mind when buying a ticket is where you buy it, Benjamin said: “Back to planning ahead, it’s generally easier to rebook if you booked with the airline in the first place ... The airlines like to deal with tickets of their own.”

Have more than just apps for the airlines available, Tornatore said — make sure you have info about any car rentals and hotel reservations you may have made available on your phone. That way, if you are delayed, you can “let them know you’re going to be a day late so they don’t give away your room or car.”

Both experts say it’s important to remember that airlines don’t have an obligation to provide accommodations in the case of weather-related delays. This is where having the ability to book a hotel from your phone can also be of great help. “With weather cancellations, there are a lot of people scrambling to get in a hotel around the airport, so you should definitely download apps [to] find hotels near where you are, so you can purchase directly from your smartphone,” Tornatore said.

If you’re traveling to or from a sunny destination, don’t think you’re off the hook for weather problems, as storm delays can affect the whole system, delaying or preventing planes from traveling from one airport to another. That means it’s a good idea to sign up for any flight alert services available; at Orbitz, for example, passengers can choose voicemail, e-mail or text alerts on flight status. Most airlines offer similar services.

Which brings Tornatore and Benjamin to another important point: don’t put chargers for your electronics in checked baggage. You might be at the airport quite a while and need to power your phone.

“Always pack chargers in your carry on, medication you might need for you or your kids,” Tornatore said. “And I would even bring extra essentials for your kids, an extra change of clothes, easy and light.”

If you have a baby, carry formula and diapers to get you through 24 hours, and plenty of snacks, she added.

And most of all, stay calm, Benjamin said, because despite your best efforts, things might still go awry: “It’s the weather that’s causing it. Life is too short to get upset about it.”

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