Make Summer Camping Reservations Now

With the rush of the holidays upon us, even the Travel Coach can forgive you for not thinking about your vacation plans for next year. But if you've got your heart set on camping at at one of our more popular (i.e. crowded) National Parks in the summer of 2007, now is the time to be reserving your favorite site. Because the National Parks Service opens up reservations for any given day five months in advance, some of the most popular summer time periods will become available over the next several weeks.

For instance, Memorial Day weekend (May 25-28) will be available for booking starting Christmas day. The handy-dandy table to the right (provided by the National Park Services) shows the crucial reservations dates for the entire year.

For more information, including further reservations restrictions and to book your site, visit the online National Parks Reservations Service.

FREE phone calls from Google Maps

If you're planning an out-of-town trip, long-distance phone calls to make inquires or reservations at hotels, restaurants, theaters, tour companies and other businesses can start to add up. But a new feature on Google Maps changes all that by offering FREE phone calls to any business in the United States.

To use this new cost-saving new feature, simply search Google Maps for any U.S. business you want. Then just click the "call" link that's located at the end of the business listing. Next, enter your phone number in the box provided, and click "Connect for Free". Google Maps will immediately call you, and once you answer the phone, connect you to the business. You can even check a box to have Google Maps remember your phone number so you won't have to enter it every time.

Of course, you could use this handy feature for reasons other than travel, such as ordering flowers from a local florist in a friend's hometown, calling an ill relative at a distant hospital, or simply phoning someone at work to chat...all for free. Check out Google Maps cool new call feature today.

Winning at the Security Checkpoint Game

With the holidays nearly upon us, more people than usual will be flying the "friendly" skies to visit family and friends. And if you're one of these lucky individuals, that means you're likely to find yourself enduring impossibly long wait times at airport security checkpoints around the country. But thankfully, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has a handy online tool that might ease your pain...just a little.

The Security Checkpoint Wait Times tool (catchy name, huh?) lets you easily determine how long you can expect to wait in the security line before your flight, based on airport, day of the week, and time of your departure. Mind you, these are historical figures that show the "average" time spent in line, but at least they'll give you an idea of how early you need to head to the airport. But just in case, make sure you pack a good book or magazine in your carry-on.

Safe flying!

Memorable Travel Reading Made Easy

When I go traveling , I often like to take along a book to read that's set in the place I'll be visiting. In fact, one of my most memorable travel experiences was riding trains through Italy reading The Agony and the Ecstasy, Irving Stone's excellent biographical novel about Michelangelo.

I recently discovered a handy website that makes finding an appropriate book for any upcoming trip extremely simple. Entitled the Vacation Book Review, this exhaustive website collects reader reviews from Amazon.com to organize its top book recommendations by geographical location. With just a few clicks, I can find literary gems about Greece, a country I'm planning to visit with friends next summer.

For a more general recommendation of great travel writing, be sure to also check out this list recently compiled by the World Hum website: Top 30 Travel Books of All Time.

Got a favorite travel book you'd like to share? Post your recommendations on the Travel Coach forums. Happy reading.

The Travel Coach in U.S.A. Today

Be sure to check out this article in the November 2nd edition of U.S.A. Today on the increase in marketing aimed at gay consumers. The piece discusses the fact that more and more advertising dollars today are being spent trying to woo gay consumers along with their higher-than-average discretionary incomes. But even more significant to my faithful readers is that yours truly, the Travel Coach, is quoted at the very end of the article.

You can tell your friends you "knew me when." Please, no autographs.

All-in-one United Airlines Promo Signup

Signing up for limited-time bonus mile offers is one of the easiest ways to pad your frequent flyer accounts. But keeping up with all the various offers, and then taking the time to actually register for all of them, could easily become a full-time job. But things have gotten a bit easier for United Airlines frequent fliers, thanks to a handy online tool recently posted by self-proclaimed geek, Kristopher Linquist.

Kristopher's clever creation lets you sign up for ALL current United promo offers at once. Just enter your Mileage Plus Number, hit the "Enter" button, and you're instantly registered. You also get presented with a list of individual links with details about each special offer. As an added bonus, you can also register to have yourself automatically signed up for United promotions on a weekly or monthly basis.

Check it out for yourself here. And to further maximize your frequent flyer miles, don't forget to check in with the Mileage Maven.

Cash in your Mileage Penny Jar

If you're like most people, you probably have a big jar or bowl in your house where you throw all your loose change. And if you've ever bothered to cash it in, you know that all those pennies, nickels, and dimes can quickly add up to some serious money.

That's why you need to know about the Mileage Converter from InsideFlyer.com.

Like the aforementioned change, you probably have small amounts of frequent flyer miles stashed away in the programs of many different airlines. Airlines you'll rarely (if ever) fly again. But the Mileage Converter can quickly show you how to take those unused (and useless) miles and consolidate them into one frequent flyer account where they can do you some good.

For instance, I have 11,563 miles on Continental Airlines that I probably earned back in the mid-1980's flying between Boston and the Midwest. At this rate, it'll be another two decades before I've accumulated enough miles for a free Continental ticket. But the Mileage Converter reveals that through a series of transfers between various mileage programs, I can turn my 11,000+ Continental miles into 3,000 American AAdvantage miles. Even though I'll lose 8,000 miles in the process, it's better to have 3,000 miles I can use rather than 11,000 miles that are just gathering dust somewhere.

Looks like it's time to empty out your penny jar with the Mileage Converter.

DING! Time to save with Southwest Airlines

Although previously covered on the Travel Coach, DING! from Southwest Airlines is definitely worth mentioning again. To recap, DING! is a small computer utility that quietly monitors and then notifies you of special sale fares from Southwest Airlines. These special fares are only available for a VERY limited time (4 to 6 hours) and ONLY available to DING! customers.

For instance, I just scored a $221 roundtrip airfare via DING!—a respectable $68 savings over the cheapest fare for the exact same flights and times found using the regular Southwest reservation page. And DING! just keeps improving. It's now available for Macintosh users (as well as Windows machines) plus you can now customize DING! to only show fares to/from your preferred Southwest airports.

Download DING! today, and soon you could be hearing the sweet sound of savings on the next Southwest flight you book.

The Travel Coach is Back!

I just realized today that there has been an ongoing technical problem with my blog, and that Travel Coach subscribers have not been receiving notifications about new postings. My apologies! Everything is in working order now, so be sure to visit the Travel Coach to see what you might have missed over the past month or so.

Happy Travels.

To buy, or not to buy...

Trying to purchase airline tickets at the cheapest price has always been a tricky cat-and-mouse game. Buy too early, and you could miss out on a last-minute sale. Buy too late, and the cheap seats may all be gone.

Help is on the way from Farecast.com.



Farecast takes much of the guesswork out of deciding when to actually make your ticket purchase. Using sophisticated prediction and modeling technologies, Farecast determines whether a particular fare is likely to go up or to go down from now until the time you plan to fly. Still in beta testing (the site only works for flights to/from Boston and to/from Seattle), the site provides you with a "Fare Prediction" and "Fare History" for your route—and here's the coolest part—suggests whether you should BUY NOW or WAIT to purchase your tickets. Plus there's a flexible search function that lets you compare fares for a 30-day period so you can see the cheapest days to fly. Finally, the site shows you actual fares for your trip, along with links for making your final booking. Which means there are none of those added booking fees that some other sites charge.

Check out Farecast.com today. And while you're there, be sure to VOTE for your favorite/home airport to help ensure it will be one of the first added to the site as it expands in the future.

Maximize your Miles with the MileMaven

It's not often that I find a web site that's as useful as the MileMaven. This brilliant travel tool helps make sure you get the absolute MOST frequent flyer miles before you book your next trip. Planning to fly from San Francisco to New York City? Enter those cities on the MileMaven home page, and you'll see bonus mileage opportunities on SFO to NYC flights from 11 different airlines. Plus MileMaven lists the average airfare paid AND the on-time record for each airline flying that particular route. MileMaven will also let you know which major hotel chains at your destination are offering frequent flyer miles for booking a room. There are also a couple of other nifty gadgets such as the Mileage Calculator that lets you know how many frequent flyer miles you'll be earning on your flight. From now on, the Travel Coach will ALWAYS consult the MileMaven.

Roundtrip to New Zealand: $765!

New Zealand is definitely high on my list of travel destinations. Everyone I know who's been there raves about the amazing scenery and wonderful inhabitants of this farflung island. So although a trip to New Zealand is not within my near travel plans, I'm hoping some Travel Coach readers CAN take advantage of this fantastic airfare deal from Air New Zealand: as low as $765 roundtrip from San Francisco or Los Angeles to Auckland and other cities in New Zealand. But you can't dawdle too much because you've got to book by June 5 and begin your travels by June 27 to get this great fare.

Go ahead, be spontaneous and take a last-minute trip to New Zealand. Then send me an email and let me know all the great things I'm missing. I can't wait to hear from you!

FREE Airline Ticket with American Credit Card

Here's a credit card offer that's scorchingly hot: Apply for a Citibank American Airlines MasterCard, charge just $250 to the card, and get 25,000 frequent flyer miles on American Airlines...enough for a free roundtrip domestic ticket. Even better, if you apply today, May 18, you'll ALSO receive a FREE companion ticket on American Airlines with the purchase of a $299 ticket or higher PLUS the $85/year fee for the card will be waived for the first year! Whew! If you've missed the May 18 window of opportunity, you may want to try and apply through the above link...American might just go ahead and honor the offer anyway. If not, here's another offer on the card that gives 20,000 frequent flyer miles after just one purchase and waives the fee for the first year.

Happy flying!

The Perfect Carry-on

"Love you more than my luggage," my friends are fond of saying. But if they carried the Delsey Helium Lite 100 Personal Bag, they might think twice before saying it ever again. I LOVE this carry-on bag (and believe me, I've tried alot of different models). It holds a ton of stuff considering its compact design, sports lots of handy pockets, and is really well built. If you don't believe me, check out the reviews from other satisfied buyers. In fact, I was so impressed, I bought one of its companions, the Delsey Helium Lite 100 Carry-on Expandable Suiter Trolley. Love you MORE than my luggage? Hmmm...I'll get back to you on that after my next trip.

Morocco Musings

Hello Travel Coach fans! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I was "busy" experiencing the trip of a lifetime (well, at least in my life so far) to Morocco. I'm happy to report that GAP Adventures/Intrepid Travel did a FANTASTIC job of shuttling nine of us between all the splendors of Morocco. Everyone from Jackie Garrity, the Gap Group Tour supervisor, to Summer Davis, our fearless tour leader in Morocco, did everything they could to make sure our 15-day trip was as memorable as possible. And boy, did Morocco deliver.

It'd be difficult to name a "favorite" part of the trip, but many top experiences stand out in my mind. Like being pounded, scrubbed, and drowned into submission by an old Moroccan man at a local hammam (steam bath). Or riding camels out into the Sahara, climbing 30-story-high dunes as the sun set, and sleeping outside under a full moon (I've never experienced such quiet and peacefulness in my life). Or getting lost in the crazy, narrow alleyways of the souk (marketplace) in Fez, gaping a towering piles of spices, severed camel heads, and salespeople hawking everything you can imagine. Or maybe it was our stunning hotel, Riad Mimouna, we treated ourselves to in Essaouira. From the beaches, to the mountains, to the desert, Morocco constantly surprised and delighted me with its variety of sights, smells, sounds, and experiences. It's a trip I'd recommend to everyone! We'll certainly have trouble topping it next year.

For a photo essay of our trip in Morocco, be sure to visit my online album of the trip.

To and Fro, Hither and Yon

Any trip (at least those involving air travel) begins with a trip away from the airport where you've just landed. But if you're like most travelers, you're not really sure of the best way to get to where you're going. Does it make sense to use public transportation. What's the quickest travel option? The cheapest? How much will a taxi cost? How do I make sure I'm not getting ripped off by some fly-by-night "limo" driver?

Here's where toandfromtheairport can really help.

Despite its less-than-catchy name, this web site is a goldmine of information for airport transporation options around the world. Where else could you find out which public bus can take you from the Marrakech airport to the medina? Or the cost of a taxi from all the airports in the New York City area? Plus toandfromtheairport can help out when it's time to take the trip BACK to the airport to fly home.

All in all, a very handy site that can save you tons of time and money.