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.

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.

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.

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.

Here’s perhaps the biggest mistake: the Hertz franchise apparently thought I wouldn’t save the paperwork. See its copy of the “Addendum and Statement of Vehicle Condition” that seems to show me having signed off on the claim of damage to the vehicle when I returned it. But I have a carbon of the original, showing that same undated signature on the form without the claim of damage that was later added to it. That’s because I signed it before I took the car off the lot, and signed nothing on returning the vehicle.

I do understand, as any travel blogger worth the name should, that spurious claims of damage to rental cars have been on the rise in the United States and abroad. And I did take some precautions, which included photographing the car before I took it off the lot.

My photos show, among other things, side mirrors shaped differently than the scratched mirror casing in the photographs Hertz sent. With those photos, the time discrepancy, the obvious attempt to add the damage information over my existing signature and other inconsistencies in the Hertz claim, I expect to persuade American Express not to pay the claim.

But there is more I could have and should have done to arm myself with evidence that I did no damage to the car. And rather than go through every detail of my claim, which is not likely to be as fascinating to you as it is to me, I’d like to focus on those precautions. (You can see my minutely detailed deconstruction of the Hertz claim here, if you’re really interested.) As a result, I hope that other travelers will do a better job of protecting themselves than I did.

First, what I did right:

• I photographed the car from every angle before taking it off the rental lot at Barajas.
• My companions and I also examined the car for scratches and dents, and took close-up shots of those that were obvious.
• I kept every receipt and piece of paper related to the rental.
• When I received the first notice from Hertz of a damage claim, I immediately asked customer service at Hertz to investigate.
• At the same time, I immediately disputed the amount claimed for damage with American Express, which launched its own investigation.

Here’s what I didn’t do right, but you can:

• I should have photographed the car thoroughly when I returned it. Tired? In a rush? Do it anyway.
• I should have been more careful about where I signed the form. When I rented the car, I signed as instructed under the “in case of damages” section, which should not have been signed until I returned.
• I should have insisted that the attendant who checked the car back in sign a receipt stating that it was undamaged. He said we were all set, and I have a witness. But written proof is much better.
• I should not have assumed that renting with a big name like Hertz would protect me from bogus charges. A Hertz customer service representative in the United States tells me the company will investigate further, but that it can’t compel a franchise to drop a claim.

Consumers shouldn’t have to take all these steps to protect themselves from car rental agencies. Unfortunately, the temptation to prey on travelers seems to be too much for some of them to resist. More on that later.

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.

The hotel manager won’t let me leave until i settle the hotel bills(1,850pounds) now am freaked out !! Please reply and let me know if you can help get the money wire to me through western union to my present location here in England.I promise to pay back as soon as i get back home.I will be waiting for your quick reply as this is

very urgent.

Thanks

It’s signed by a former colleague and appears to come from her email account. Except she’s a copy editor with a very strong grip on English grammar, including capitalization and punctuation.

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.

I discovered the Capital One money market account as my mother and daughter were preparing for an extended trip to Spain. My mother told me about the $5 per transaction fee that she paid her bank to use her ATM card in Canada —  on top of the fees charged by the bank that owned the ATM. Determined to help avoid that in Spain, I did some research.

It turns out that Capital One, which offers credit cards with no foreign transaction fees, does the same with ATM cards. After some deliberation, I opened a Capital One money market account online, transferred money into it electronically and requested ATM cards. I had to allow a few weeks to get it set up. It took several days for the funds to clear into the account and another week to get the ATM cards.

(Of course, Capital One then filled the mailbox with a zillion fresh offers and junk mail. Whatever. I can live with that.)

The bottom line is that my daughter can withdraw her money without being taken advantage of. And I now have an account that I can transfer money into before a trip and tap into when I’m abroad.

The real bottom line is that I don’t have to feel like a chump every time I use an ATM card in another country.

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.

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.

Use your laptop or smart phone — or call a friend back home to check in for you. It may not be necessary to print the boarding passes at that time, but if it is, your friend can just throw them away. When you arrive at the airport, you can print boarding passes from your airline’s kiosks, whether passes have already been printed by your friend or not.

In Las Vegas, you don’t even have wait in line for the airline kiosk. There are machines scattered throughout the terminals where you can print free boarding passes for any airline.

Yes, those are the same machines you find in many hotel lobbies, at least outside Las Vegas. But the standard practice of providing a means to print boarding passes at no charge, as a courtesy to customers, has no place in revenue-starved Las Vegas hotels, which have carried nickel-and-diming fees to the extreme.

Actually, it’s not nickels and dimes we’re talking about here. The MGM Grand wanted $6.50 to print my boarding passes, an outrageous fee for two pieces of paper and a little ink. The Orleans wanted $2.50 — still a good ten times a reasonable price. Sure, I can afford it. I just don’t enjoy feeling like a chump.

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.

Along the Strip, the deal on getting access to money is awful. Don’t count on finding familiar big-name bank logos in most Strip casinos; the machines there are operated by no-name companies. They have identical ATMs – with identically vicious fee structures – in gambling halls ranging from the gritty O’Shea’s to the upscale MGM Grand.

How hard do they hit you?  Some charge a $4.99 fee for a standard cash withdrawal from your checking account. (Plus whatever charge your bank levies). And that’s a bargain compared to getting a cash advance from your credit card through these ATMs. Getting $500 will rack up $31.99 in fees, and $250 will cost you $21.99.

The biggest hit comes if you dip in for a small amount: For a $50 cash advance, the advertised fee is $9.99. At O’Shea’s, the advertised fee is $9.99 for transactions under $50. (So if you just need a $20 for cabfare, your account gets whacked with a 50 percent penalty). At the Orleans, the fee for under $50 transaction is $6.

Is it impossible to find an alternative? No, but it’s not easy. On the south end of the Strip is a Bank of Nevada ATM that charges $3.50 for a standard cash withdrawal. Perhaps you can find others here or there if you hunt long enough.

Walk the heart of Las Vegas, though, and you won’t find a Wells Fargo or Bank of America branch.

Of course, this is far from the only tourist trap in town.

Major-name hotels have kiosks charging $5 a minute for Internet access, with a 50-cents-per-page printing charge. (So they turn a profit even on a simple convenience like letting guests print boarding passes). Phone card rates go for 12.9 cents a minute. A 1-liter Pepsi at the Orleans gift shop runs $2.75, a small fruit cup at Starbucks at the MGM is $4.49, coffee and a single pastry at the Paris go for $8.91.

But if you’re going to pay those charges, be sure to charge them – or else, pay with cash that you brought from home.