Check out the final item. Tourists need to be told not to throw coins into the baptismal font? Seriously?

I have seen tourists do some seriously stupid things but nothing quite that crass.

And what’s next? Please don’t drink the holy water?

1. Time it right. Las Vegas room rates are less predictable than airfares, owing not only to seasonal fluctuations but to the schedules of major conventions and other events. When choosing travel dates, plan well ahead, go directly to the hotel websites, check the rate calendars for the best prices and book those dates. In general, Fridays and Saturday nights cost more. The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas can be a particular bargain.

2. Don’t gamble. If it weren’t a losing proposition for the gambler, casinos wouldn’t exist. If you must gamble, pick a low-stakes game with decent odds so you will lose less money and it will take longer. There’s a single-zero penny video roulette game at The Four Queens downtown where I swear it could take me all day to lose the price of a latte. At that rate, it’s cheap entertainment, not real gambling.

3. Take an airport shuttle to your hotel. The cost of $6 or $7 a person is usually lower than the cost of a taxi, unless there are more than two of you.

4. Bring enough cash. The casino ATMs typically charge $4.95 per transaction, on top of what your bank may charge you. So if you withdraw money to gamble, you’ve already lost before you start playing.

5. Tip the casino cocktail waitresses. Yes, they’ll bring you free drinks but if you don’t tip, they’ll go elsewhere. And if you give them a few bucks in advance and ask them to keep coming, they’ll do that.

If you haven’t been to Las Vegas lately, have a look at the latest additions to the skyline, as seen from my room at the MGM Grand. It may change again soon — there’s talk of demolishing the unfinished Harmon Hotel because of structural deficiencies.

Yes, that’s a wine rack in a supermarket with Freixenet cava at 5.25 euros and decent red wines from the area for less than 1 euro a bottle.

And all I managed to get back in my suitcase was a bottle of wine from the Bierzo region and a big chunk of the Galician cheese called tetilla — both long gone now. Adios.

Villafranca del Bierzo, Spain

I took this photo from the window of my room at the Hotel Plaza in Villafranca del Bierzo, Spain.

The evening before, I drove with my father and sister to this pretty town to meet my mother and daughter, who are walking across northern Spain along the Camino de Santiago. We sat at a cafe in the Plaza Mayor and had a bottle of the local Bierzo wine, and a simple pilgrim dinner.

The photo was taken, as always, with my trusty little Canon PowerShot.

Tax brings the total to $43.87 for a room with a king bed and sleep sofa, with a maximum occupancy of four people. A room with two queen beds and a sofa bed, holding up to five people, costs $10 more.

The rooms are slightly larger than average and there’s a sort of half-wall between the bed and the sitting area with the sofa. Each room also has a mini refrigerator and a microwave. But I’d argue that these are not really suites in the strictest sense.

A breakfast buffet is included and the shuttle to the Disney park is free. Reviews on TripAdvisor are generally quite favorable.

You’ll need to book through the Travelzoo link, or use the code TZO on the Marriott site.

I know, that’s two weeks. Well, almost. Saturdays are excluded and some restaurants don’t participate on Sundays, either. And then there’s another restaurant week in the winter, so I guess this is summer Restaurant Week. Or fortnight. Or whatever.

More than 275 restaurants are participating, offering prix-fixe lunches for $24.07 and dinners for $35.  Taxes, tips and beverages are extra.

So if you hanker to dine fancy in New York at a discount, now would be the time to check out the details.

My campsite at Fish Creek Ponds.

I’m spending a couple of days in the Adirondacks among hundreds of families who are vacationing in a way that seldom gets any attention in the media.

We’re camping at Fish Creek Ponds, where the state of New York maintains hundreds of campsites, most of them directly on one of several beautiful ponds and creeks. The price of a cabin or hotel room with an equivalent view would be astronomical, yet these sites cost only $22 a night.

The campground has a beach with lifeguards, a basketball court,  a volleyball net, flush toilets and showers. Every day, vendors come through selling firewood and ice cream. A nearby marina delivers canoes, kayaks and rowboats directly to campsites. Last night there was a free folk concert.

The campers come from all over the Northeast with equipment that runs the gamut from the most luxurious Winnebagos to tiny backpacking tents.

I grew up camping, but this was my first trip in a couple of years. It reminds me that many American families vacation this way, without staying in hotels, flying in commercial airliners or even eating in restaurants.

Yet travel magazines and the travel sections of newspapers publish very little about this mode of vacationing. I plead guilty, as well. I haven’t written much about camping. But I’m going to try to do better in the future.