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A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.
There are half a dozen or so low-cost inter-European-city airlines. RyanAir is the largest. I recently got a round trip on them from Frankfurt to Pescara, Italy for about $90 — and this is one of their more expensive destinations. Other flights are ridiculously cheap. If I’d wanted to go to say Pisa or Stockholm from Frankfurt, the one way ticket would be 10-12 euros. London (Stansted) to Rome is 10 euros. These are ultra non-frill flights, and they all offer one-way trips without jacking up prices. One major disadvantage is that the airports can be out of the way. For instance, the Franfurt one is actually 62 miles from the city, but for these rates I’ll take a train or bus to the airport.
Ad from RyanAir website advertising limited come-on flights to the above cities for 99 pence ($1.80) one way, starting next year. On many flights the taxes will cost more than the fare.
In addition to Ryanair, there are others with the same idea, with less extensive routes: Easy Jet, EuropeByAir, Air Berlin, Transavia. — Lloyd Kahn
Cheapo airlines in Europe don’t all go to secondary airports, although they often do. However they often service secondary destinations. For example, we flew Basiqair to Bordeaux last year from Amsterdam. Not exactly Nice. To get to Milano, some of the low costs fly to Bergamo instead, which is on the Venice side of Milan. Their fares were a fraction of the majors — Air France and KLM. In addition to the airlines you mentioned last time, here are some more choices. — Louis Rossetto
The most savvy travellers I know log onto Thorn Tree as they vagabond. Thorn Tree Travel Forum is where you get the latest, greatest, most dependable travel advice for exotic destinations. Originally set up by Lonely Planet as an online way for readers to update their guidebooks, this bulletin board now bypasses and surpasses the guidebooks altogether. Reliable travel info has been completely revolutionized by the ubiquity of internet cafes around the globe.
Let’s say you want to know whether the border between China and Kazakhstan is open this October, or whether its safe to visit Katmandu, Nepal, or where the newest climbing spots in the Peru Andes are. You log on to the appropriate Thorn Tree “branch” where a traveler who is in Katmandu, or who has just arrived in Almaty yesterday after a harrowing 11 hour border crossing from China can tell you all the specific details of what is true and what is not. Someone else might post that the popular beach shack on Lombok island, Indonesia you were headed for is now closed. And, to complete the circuit, you may be on the road yourself, at a dusty internet cafe in Morocco, when you read this. It’s true real-time advice, from real folks who’ve done it. Thorn Tree is a remarkably efficient way to score hard-to-get facts from and to the field. And for armchair planners at home, the sheer details available at a distance is heavenly.
I’ve found that the third world locations, rather than Europe and the US, are best served by the forums; but these after all are the very places instant ground-truthing is so badly needed. Thorn Tree is also a great place to connect up with others bent on long-term Around the World tours, and up-to-the-latest tips on long haul travel. —KK
There’s a small cottage industry of avid travelers exploiting loyalty and frequent flier programs to earn maximum free “miles.” The best moderated forum I’ve found for their tricks, tips, and hacks on how best to fly free, or almost free, is a group of bloggers called Boarding Area. They all share great stuff but I am particularly fond of Gary Leff’s blog, View from the Wing. He specializes in maximizing miles for free trips. — KK
Here’s what I believe to be the current 10 best credit card signup bonuses on offer: 1 Chase Sapphire Preferred offers no fee the first year, 40,000 points after $3000 in spend within 3 months, no foreign currency conversion fees, double points on travel and dining, points transfers to United, Hyatt, Southwest, Amtrak, British Airways, Korean Airlines, Marriott Priority Club, and Ritz-Carlton. Probably the best all-around credit card, and with a great signup bonus. There was for a few days a similar offer with just $2000 rather than $3000 as the required spending, but that was pulled rather quickly.
Six tips for folks just getting started with miles and points. The basics are:
Start with a goal, that motivates you and also helps your choice of program. Nothing worse than finding out you want to go to French Polynesia, but United miles only let you get there flying to New Zealand first.
Never pass up miles, always sign up for frequent flyer programs even when it’s not your primary program. The miles add up eventually. Lots of programs become easily manageable at a site likeAwardWallet.com.
This is the second set of major devaluations for a program that is only two and a half years old. And both times the changes were implemented with no notice whatsoever. Programs that simply make your points worth less one day are not to be trusted. Programs that let you earn with a redemption goal in mind andthen change the earning rules after you’ve invested time and money in their program are like Lucy, Charlie Brown and the football... keeping the goal forever just out of reach.
I’ve now concluded that Expedia Rewards is a program that I believe is not to be trusted, and also is no longer worth bothering with, since the cuts to the value proposition are actually worse than I reported yesterday.
Keeping track of travel arrangements — hotels, flight schedules, rental car reservations — is a problem for me. I make mistakes writing down the information, I lose printouts, I resent the time it takes to stay on top of everything. That all changed a few years ago when I started using TripIt, an online travel organizer that keeps all my trip plans in one place.
Here’s how I typically use it: I purchase a flight on Southwest’s website. I reserve a rental car on Hertz’s website. I book a hotel through hotels.com. When I get the confirmation emails I forward them to plans@tripit.com. TripIt parses the information and produces an easy-to-read itinerary. It’s easy to add meeting and other plans. I can email the itinerary to other people and refer to it while I’m traveling, via the TripIt’s free mobile app. TripIt also adds the information to my calendar (I use iCal but it works with everything else, too).
TripIt is free, but I pay for TripIt Pro because I like getting text messages about canceled or delayed flights and gate changes. This feature makes it worth $49 a year for the pro account. — Mark Frauenfelder
Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.
11/18/13
