On Travel

On Travel is a weekly column about being a smarter traveler. It covers practical travel advice for the readers of USA Today and the USA Today Network. If you’re interested in publishing this feature, please contact Elliott directly at chris@elliott.org or (202) 370-7934.

When Kathryn Valdes travels somewhere for more than a week, she skips a hotel and rents an apartment or vacation rental instead.

“An apartment has a kitchen and a sitting area to gather,” says Valdes, a retired program manager from Mahomet, Illinois. “A hotel has no private area to relax with others.”
Read more “Should you ditch your vacation rental for an extended-stay hotel?”

It’s the time of year when regular travelers come face to face with young partygoers trying to escape the cold. But is it possible to get along with spring breakers when you’re on the road?

Seth Beckerman, a consultant from Pittsburgh, remembers a recent confrontation with a crowd of young spring breakers at a Key West, Florida, hotel.
Read more “Travelers vs. spring breakers: How to avoid a conflict”

How do you make a good traveler even better? That’s the question Kaj Ahlmann, owner of the Six Sigma Ranch in Northern California’s Lake County, has contemplated most of his career.

With a name like that, you’d expect nothing less. After all, Six Sigma – a set of management techniques that improve business processes – is all about making things better. Ahlmann has applied them to winemaking, but when I visited his ranch recently, he said Six Sigma works for travel, too.
Read more “What does Six Sigma have to do with travel? You’d be surprised”

When it comes to respect, sometimes little things make a big difference for travelers. For Don Brauninger, it’s travel industry employees who replace the words “you’re welcome” with “no problem”.

Brauninger, a manager for an emergency services company in Haymarket, Virginia, has heard it from airline agents, hotel clerks and car rental employees.
Read more “High fees and short tempers: What happened to respect in travel?”

Travel companies hate to refund your money, even when they’re supposed to. If you don’t believe me, ask Melina Jose, who was supposed to fly from Paris to Orlando, Florida, recently.

Her itinerary, booked through Expedia, included several airlines. But on her return flight, one of the legs, on Flybe from Paris to Manchester, England, mysteriously vanished. She and her husband, Jerard, had to pay $437 for new tickets.
Read more “Airline or hotel owe you money? Use these tips to get your refund”