Travel Gear Comes In Handy At Home

There will be coffee.

I was struck, as I was preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Irene. by how useful some of my travel gear (especially the camping gear) turns out to be in the face of a potential natural disaster at home.

Said gear includes:

- The battery-powered travel alarm clock, because I still need to get up and check the roof for leaks (don’t ask) if the power goes out.

- The rubber sink stopper from my travel laundry kit, which helps keep the tub full of water. (We’re on well water here. So if there’s no power, there’s no well pump and therefore no water.)

- The travel flashlight — best size for the bedside.

- The propane camp stove. Because I don’t get up if there’s no coffee. (But windows must be open for ventilation.)

- The candle lantern, for when the batteries run out.

- The suitcase. Packed for a quick departure, should that become necessary.

- The rechargeable DVD player, for a little entertainment if power failures drag on — as they tend to do around here.

Save On Travel Expenses With Groupon

I occasionally buy discount coupons from Groupon, mostly for eating out, but it only recently occurred to me that I could use the site for travel.

In advance of an upcoming trip to New Mexico, I started to look not only at the Hartford area deals but also those for Albuquerque, which includes some offers for Santa Fe. (Groupon says a separate site for Santa Fe is in the works.)

I found not only restaurant bargains but deeply discounted tickets for the Road Runner Express, the light rail system between the two cities.

Groupon has also announced a Groupon Getaways travel site in partnership with Expedia, but that doesn’t seem to be up and running quite yet.

Saving Cash in Las Vegas

We just got back from Las Vegas, a fun and exciting city designed entirely to suck money out of suckers’ pockets. So here are my top tips for coming home from with at least enough cash to get your car out of the airport parking lot:

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.

Lost and Found at Disney

I visited Walt Disney World on Saturday with my husband and our friend Tom, who lost his sunglasses somewhere at Epcot. I wish I had taken a photo of the bin of sunglasses that Guest Relations produced when we stopped on the way out of the park to ask after Tom’s missing pair. There were easily a hundred pairs of sunglasses in there, which the Disney staff told us were the ones found on that day alone. Sadly, none of them were Tom’s. But I guess it’s fair to say that Disney takes the lost and found thing pretty seriously.

Hertz Hits Your Blogger With False Damage Claim

The Hertz car rental agency at Barajas Airport in Madrid is billing me nearly $500 for damage to a rental car. The evidence? Photos that are time-stamped six hours before I returned the car and a blatantly altered document attesting to the car’s condition.

One of the photos is at left, showing the time stamp of 13:17, or 1:17 p.m., on Sept. 6, 2010. Here’s the damage claim from Hertz that states — correctly — that the car was returned at 19:04, or 7:04 p.m., on that date. (I also have a photo of the car taken early in the afternoon in Ponferrada, four hours north of Madrid.)

And I have to say, I’m a little embarrassed that my salvation from these bogus charges will probably rest as much on the mistakes the Hertz franchise made in supporting its false claim as it will on the measures I took to protect myself from it.

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Vacation Scammer Seeks Cash

I just got one of those emails purportedly from an acquaintance who is stranded overseas and needs me to wire money asap:

I’m in some kind of deep mess right now.I came down here to London,England for a short Vacation, got mugged at gun point last night at the park of the hotel where i lodged.All cash,credit cards and cell were stolen,I went to the U.S embassy and the Police here to report but they’re not helping issues at all,My flight leaves today and I’m having problems settling the hotel bills.

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How To Avoid Foreign ATM Fees

If you think banks have treated you badly in the United States, try traveling abroad. The fees imposed on foreign currency transactions — at ATMs and in credit card fees — are horrendous.

Joe Brancatelli dissects the problem neatly in his latest Portfolio column. And he mentions a tactic that I happen to have employed recently: I opened a Capital One money market account that does not charge the punishing currency exchange  fees imposed on most bank accounts for foreign ATM withdrawals.

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Kindle For Email

Necessity being the mother of invention, I have discovered that it’s possible to send and receive email on my Kindle.

The latest generation of Kindles has a rudimentary Web browser, as well as a thumb-style keyboard. The downloads over Kindle’s wireless signal can be excruciatingly slow, but with patience it can work in a pinch.

I used my Kindle for email during a camping trip this week. My cell phone battery refused to charge and I was a long way from any Wi-Fi, but I managed to stay in touch with the Kindle.

Oh, and you can read books with it.

Don’t Pay For Boarding Passes

It has become a pernicious habit of Las Vegas hotels to charge guests to print boarding passes for their return flights, but there’s no need to pay for that.

Sure, it’s a good idea to check in online well in advance of your flight, as a means to protect your seat. If you’re flying on a standard fare on Southwest, it’s critical to check in early if you want to get a good seat. The good news is that if you don’t have access to a printer, you can check in without printing the pass.

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Beware ATM Fees, Assorted Rip-Offs In Las Vegas

Traveling to Las Vegas? Be sure to pack wisely. The top priorities: 1) Cash. 2) More cash.

The slot machines are designed to beat visitors, but they’re not the most flagrantly rigged device in the casino. Instead, that title goes to the ATMs.

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