​You can travel more inexpensively by snagging flights with unsold seats and booking hotels when rates are low. Here are a few tips.

1. Check out airfare charts to pinpoint when to go. Fares vary day to day, depending on demand. Websites of carriers — including Delta, Southwest and United — show the cheapest days to fly if your dates are flexible. (It’s often best to go on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, when most business and leisure travelers don’t.) To cast your net wide, punch in departure and arrival cities and a time frame on websites such as Skyscanner or Google Flights. They survey multiple airlines to show the most economical days to travel.

2. Set up fare alerts. If you don’t have firm dates, sign up for a price alert. You can do that on websites such as AirfareWatchdog to be informed when seats cost less. When you search for flights on Kayak, it will advise whether it’s a good time to buy or if fares are expected to go down. You may also sign up for email notification of discounts on many travel websites. One of the best newsletters for current offers comes from Travelzoo, a clearinghouse for discounted flights, hotels, and air and lodging packages.

3. Use frequent-flier airline miles to take off. If flights aren’t filled, carriers may offer more award seats close to departure. Carriers such as Southwest and JetBlue have eliminated blackout dates in loyalty programs, meaning if a seat is available, you can grab it using points. An impromptu round-trip ticket booked in July from Baltimore to Albany, N.Y., costs 15,000 miles on Southwest, plus $11 tax. The cash price would have been $400. It pays to periodically review your miles and expiration dates so that you don’t lose travel that’s nearly free.

4. Use an online travel assistant to do the searching for you. The Hipmunk site is a great source for travel steals. Its new “Hello Hipmunk” feature, which uses artificial intelligence, lets you email what you want (a quick getaway to Vegas, for instance). Within seconds, you’ll be given options for flights and hotels. Hipmunk then sends users to sites including JustFly and CheapoAir to book. It also ferrets out Airbnb rentals in your chosen destination.

5. Pay less for rentals. Owners don’t want properties to sit vacant, so it’s possible to obtain lower last-minute rates via sites such as Airbnb, FlipKey, VRBO and HomeAway.com, where you deal directly with homeowners or property managers. Sometimes you needn’t negotiate: Sale rates for certain rentals are shown
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6. Save On Hotels. Have points in hotel loyalty programs? Book a free stay along the way. Or bid for low rates at Priceline.com to score a deal, though you won’t know the name of the property until you book. Priceline’s “Express Deals” don’t reveal the hotel, but also don’t require bidding. If extreme last-minute planning suits you, HotelTonight  has access to unsold rooms and can put you into one cheaply the day you wish to stay. You can book up to a week before through its website or app.

7. Last-minute cruises. When ships don’t sell cabins, prices sink. However, now that cruising is so popular, rock-bottom prices are scarcer. This summer, Alaska sailings sold out fast. Sailings everywhere now fill faster, so booking early is a smart move. There was a seven-day Mediterranean cruise from Savona, Italy, in October on the Costa Pacifica for $392.60 a person, double occupancy, including taxes and fees. “Last Minute Cruise Deals” on the website are worth checking out if you are flexible.

8. Go one-stop shopping at Last Minute Travel. Whether seeking a vacation destination, flight, cruise, air and hotel package, or rental car, you’ll find it at the Last Minute Travel site. The website offers “Undercover Hotels” at rates below the norm (you won’t know the lodging name until you book). Join the Last Minute Travel Club for $50 a year to nab even lower prices; if you don’t save what you paid to join, you’ll get a promo code for discounts to make up the difference.

Check out more tips at https://www.PetersonTravelPros.com

There are many categories of rooms and they can be very misleading.  Here are a few descriptions.
1.“Oceanfront” means that the room  is fronting the ocean while “ocean view” means that the room has a view of the ocean whether a clear one or not.
2.Oceanfront rooms are usually more expensive and offer a better view while ocean view rooms are less expensive and usually only a small view of the ocean.
3.Both “oceanfront” and “ocean view” are terms used to market the establishment and, while they may be true to their words, sometimes the rooms might just show a limited view of the ocean.
4.Oceanfront and ocean view do not necessarily mean that you have direct access to the sea or the beach; only that you can see the ocean from your room.
5. Ocean Access means that you have direct access to the beach.
6. Swim-Up Suites. The pool is connected to your patio
7. Club Level Suites with private check-in, personalized concierges services, spa discounts and access to the exclusive Club Level Lounge with premium drinks, appetizers, and table games.
8.  Suites are usually a bedroom and separate living room.
9.  Jr. Suites are a bedroom and living area combined.
10. Partial Ocean View lets you see only a small section of the ocean.

An ocean view room is one wherein the ocean may be visible but there are many obstructions to the view. It is a term used by most establishments as a marketing strategy.
It may not be as expensive as an oceanfront room, but if you are lucky, you might find yourself in a room with an unhindered view of the ocean.
Rooms located on the second and third floor offer better views of the ocean than those that are located on the first floor. Once you have arrived at your room and you are not satisfied with the view, you can always ask to be transferred to another room, preferably one with a better view.
Oceanfront rooms offer a better view of the ocean than ocean view rooms. It is still better to ask about what the resort can offer before committing because these terms can be misleading. While the room may be fronting the ocean, you might not have a direct passage towards the beach.
If you are inquiring online about these rooms, choose those that have pictures showing the room’s features not just on the inside but also its surroundings. Don’t hesitate to ask before you decide to rent one.


If you need help booking your next beach trip, call Peterson Travel Pros.  612-559-6545.

Your hotel is a place where you should definitely use your head -- and, perhaps, a black light. Every hotel guest should be armed with a degree of awareness of his or her surroundings. Hotel hazards, from falling windows to sky-high hidden fees, lurk beyond the lobby. And a bit of prevention can stop something calamitous from ruining your trip. Below are five things you shouldn't do at your hotel.

Don't Lean on the Window

Assorted tales of unsafe hotel windows have been known to appear in the news. In June 2011, a 2-year-old girl fell two stories from a hotel window in Hinckley, Minnesota. The tot survived, but was taken to the hospital in critical condition. The same week, the W Hotel in Austin shut down for a few days after several of the hotel's glass balcony panels dropped and shattered. Four people were injured, reported the Austin American-Statesman. More recently, an 18-year-old fell from a sixth-floor window at an Embassy Suites property in Nebraska and suffered critical injuries.

Don't Jumble the Minibar

Sometimes I'm tempted to nose around in that tiny fridge and see what's on offer for the well-heeled other half. A $4 Snickers bar? Fantastic. But my curiosity could result in an unintended extra expense. Picking up an item and putting it back can trigger the minibar's sensors, immediately adding the price of the item to your bill. On sensitive machines, even jostling minibar items as you add your own food to the fridge can incur a charge. And if you try to avoid the hassle entirely by calling ahead and asking the minibar to be emptied before your arrival, beware -- you could be charged a 'restocking' fee.

Don't Drink from the Glassware

There's no guarantee that your room glasses and mugs aren't simply rinsed off under the tap by the cleaning staff -- or even wiped down with the same sponge that's used to clean other parts of the bathroom. Yuck! An easy way to deal with this problem is to wash the glass yourself with hot water and soap.

Don't Reveal Your Room Number

Don't let the front desk attendant publicize your room number. If he or she announces it out loud when giving you your key, ask for a different room.  Anyone standing near the front desk in the lobby -- including criminals -- can learn exactly where you're spending the night if the attendant sounds off your room number.

Don't Ignore the Reviews

Some of the hotel horror stories we hear from readers make our hair stand on end. (Think phrases like "filthy carpet," "red spots on the wall" and "multiple large cockroaches." Eek!)

Sure, sometimes this sort of thing is just bad luck. But how many of these problems could have been avoided by checking out reviews of the property ahead of time? Read a few reviews and it becomes clear that, for most guests, a filthy property's budget price did not make up for its prodigious supply of bed bugs or cockroaches. Bed bugs are perhaps the worst kind of grubby surprise to turn up in one's hotel room, simply because it's easy to take them home and end up with a lasting infestation where you live.

That boutique hotel you're considering for your next trip probably isn't listed at the bottom of TripAdvisor's ratings. But bed bugs infest five-euro-a-night hostels and Ritz-Carltons indiscriminately, and a traveler should always be on the alert for possible infestations. One of the best ways to avoid bed bugs while traveling is to take a good look at what travelers are saying about the property online. If there are recent reports of an infestation, rethink that reservation.

IndependentTraveler.com

Written by Caroline Costello

Do you love the idea of an all-inclusive resort, but wonder, “How do I stay in control of my eating habits?”

All-inclusive resorts are an incredible deal. But it’s easy to lose control of your eating habits when your options are unlimited, and offered at no additional cost. . Oh sure, throw in another daiquiri. I’m on vacation!

You don’t have to gain weight if you follow a few tips.

1. Don’t Go For Seconds
Just because you can eat everything doesn’t mean you have to. While it’s tempting to go back for plate after plate to try the salad (and the sushi, and the carving station, and dessert), try to keep it to one plate.

2. Get Help With The Menu.
Healthy options abound on resort menus – even at all-inclusives. Look for menu and buffet items marked by little symbols that indicate healthy choices. All-inclusive resorts always offer fresh produce in their buffets and on their menus. Fruit salads, whole fruit, green salads, and veggie sides will fill you up and give your body some serious nutrients.  When in doubt, ask food staff about how things are prepared, and what they’re prepared with. Don’t be shy about asking questions, you are in a place where people are paid to cater to your needs.

3. Choose Wisely at the Bar
Watch what you drink. Unlimited alcohol is one of the great lures of an all-inclusive package, but sugar is one of the major factors in weight gain. Even a single margarita or piña colada can add hundreds of extra calories to your diet.   Stick to light beers or mixed drinks, like vodka sodas, which have fewer calories. Of course, it’s okay now and then to treat yourself to a fruity drink – with an umbrella in it, of course. Everything in moderation.

4. Drink Plenty of Water
Drink as much water as you possibly can. Water keeps nutrients moving throughout the body, flushes out toxins, keeps you feeling full, and prevents excess snacking. Besides, if you’re spending time in the sun, you’re going to want to stay hydrated.

5. Get Moving…
There are a lot of ways to factor in exercise. Besides the gym, hop into the pool or swim in the ocean; chase your kids or grandkids around on the beach for a few hours; try snorkeling, kayaking, windsurfing, dancing, playing golf, even scuba lessons – at no extra charge. Simple things like walks on the beach, jogging, walking to destinations instead of driving, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and shopping all add up when it comes to exercise.  

I recently became a member of and piled up a lot of points in a hotel rewards program, and it was a revelation. The more I read about the program, the more I wondered why anyone (including me) would choose airline points over hotel points.

As I have written elsewhere, when folks first research or budget for a trip, they concern themselves mostly with airfares -- for many, a high enough airfare can scuttle a trip entirely before they even get started. But if you are staying more than a weekend, in many cases lodging will be an equal or even greater expense; even though you can find great bargains on hotel prices, you are looking at a minimum of $100/night in most hotels worth staying in for a few days. On a week's vacation, you are at or beyond the cost of a flight already.

So you can use your airline miles to get a free flight and save $700, or you can use your hotel points and get a free week's hotel stay. Add to that some other benefits of program membership, such as room upgrades, occasional complimentary Internet and parking, and a members-only breakfast on concierge-level floors, and the free flight seems like an overall loser in the end.

 Frequent Flier Miles: How to Use 'Em, Not Lose 'Em

Perhaps more importantly, it has become almost impossible to cash in your airline miles. Unless you are so organized and your plans so fixed that you can book a trip six months in advance, good luck actually using your airline miles for anything other than magazine subscriptions. Here are several reasons you may want to join a hotel rewards program, with tips on how to maximize your membership when you do.

1. You can actually use your points.

Certainly one of the major beefs with airline loyalty programs is the extreme scarcity of award seats, and the hoops you have to go through to get them. In many cases you even have to pay extra to have the awards desk book award travel -- so your loyalty is rewarded with even more fees that you did not know existed. (For example, one major airline applies a "call center award ticketing fee", a "quick ticketing fee" for award travel booked within 21 days of travel, and an "award processing fee," as well as standby fees, paper ticket fees, and more -- all against your "free flight!") Instead, consider a hotel rewards program.

Joe Brancatelli, editor of JoeSentMe.com and business travel columnist for Portfolio.com, is a strong proponent of hotel loyalty membership. "Absolutely you should be in at least one program," he says. "In fact, as many as practical. In many cases, hotel programs are richer than most any airline program now. That's especially true because claiming an award is so much easier."


2. There are fewer restrictions and much easier redemption policies and processes.

As Brancatelli notes, hotel programs tend to have fewer restrictions on redeeming awards; for example, the Priority Club program (which includes InterContinental, Holiday Inn and their sister brands) offers points that never expire, and no blackout dates for reward nights.

But Priority Club goes even further with its Hotels Anywhere program, stating that you can "use points to book and stay virtually anywhere -- even at our competitors' hotels." They don't mean just, you know, outside Hartford, CT, but also "prime destinations where we have little or no presence, such asLas Vegas, Hawaii and the Greek Isles".

Most hotel loyalty programs allow you to book award stays right on their websites. For example, if you go to Hilton's HHonors.com, when you search for a hotel you simply click the "Use HHonors Points" checkbox, and all your results reflect points required, not hotel prices -- and you can book them right then and there.

As a result, frequent flier guru Randy Petersen, Editor of InsideFlyer Magazine, says he puts "more effort into accumulating hotel points than airline miles." Petersen also recommends you refrain from the common practice of applying your hotel points toward your airline program.

"The main reason is that you can rarely, if ever, move airline miles to hotel points, but you can almost always move hotel points to airline miles," he notes. "Hotel points have tremendous flexibility, while airline miles almost always only have a single dimension. As well, hotel points typically have two other advantages: hotel programs typically have standard 'saving' awards such as 'PointSavers,' which allow hotel room night redemption at 30 - 70 percent off typical redemption rates. While select properties vary by hotel chain, it's very nice that an option exists to actually save when redeeming your points. As well, hotel programs typically have 'points and cash,' which allow you to maximize your value and extend the use of what points you may have.

"An example: Recently I redeemed 4,000 points from Starwood Preferred Guest and $60 for a room night that the cheapest I could find anywhere was $358. That was an excellent use of my hotel points and a little cash since 4,000 points is fairly easy to replace."

Finally, you can often decide to redeem points during your stay -- forget about planning six months ahead. Marriott's rewards program lets you cash in points for anything that can be charged to your room during your stay, including meals, golf, room upgrades, late check-outs, even an extra day's stay. You can do this at the front desk or from your room phone. Try redeeming airline miles at gate check-in; it just doesn't happen much. But with many hotel programs, this is standard practice.

3. You can use the points all over the place.

The route maps of most major airlines are admittedly formidable, but don't come even close to offering the number of choices a large hotel chain can do. After becoming a Marriott member, while planning three upcoming trips I found I had very good (and often multiple) options at every destination.

Brancatelli concurs: "Marriott Rewards and Hilton HHonors each are near 4,000 properties. Priority Club is over 4,500 hotels. The programs of the lower-priced chains (Wyndham and Choice) are also gigantic -- so you can almost always find a room to claim for free."

A Marriott member, for example, can use points at almost 4,000 hotels in 70 countries, with 16 different hotel brands from luxury to roadside and extended-stay hotels: Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott, EDITION Hotels, Autograph Collection, Renaissance Hotels, AC Hotels, Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Courtyard by Marriott, Fairfield Inn & Suites, SpringHill Suites, Residence Inn, TownePlace Suites, Marriott Executive Apartments, Marriott Vacation Club and Marriott Conference Centers.

Try searching on any relatively popular destination, and you'll almost always find at least one of these hotel brands very well located. And you might be surprised by the presence of some of these chains in more remote locales. So if you are moving around on your next trip, you can use points for stays in any number of places, night after night; talk about freedom for free.

4. Hotels are constantly offering special deals to rewards members.

Some "bonus" rewards program offerings I have seen in the past:

- Starwood is counting award stays toward elite status

- Hyatt is offering free room service breakfast to Diamond members

- Free Internet for Priority Club members

- Free Wi-Fi for all program members, irrespective of status, at Fairmont, Omni and Kimpton hotels

You get the idea. Add to these occasional late check-out permissions, free on-site parking and other amenities mentioned above, and your membership can appreciate in value almost by the minute during your stay.

5. There are reward levels available for all budgets.

One underappreciated component of hotel programs is their tiered redemption levels, based on the brand and class of hotel you choose. For example, with Hilton Honors, standard rooms can start at 7,500 points. I admit I had a hard time finding hotels that were actually available at this redemption level; while I found a hotel in Akron, OH, for 12,500 points, free rooms in most major cities started at 25,000 to 30,000 points -- and range up to 80,000 points per night at a top-end resort hotel during high season, such as the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa on Maui. So in any given location, you can decide based on your points balance and the cash cost of the hotel whether or not you want to use points, and how many you care to expend.

Petersen concurs: "The other nice thing about hotel programs is that they allow you to earn points, and then choose at which level hotel to redeem your points. For instance, maybe you earn a lot of points at standard Marriott hotels because of company business, but to make them go farther, you redeem them at Courtyard by Marriott hotels, which on average require fewer points per redemption night than at a standard Marriott hotel. With airline miles, you don't typically have those types of methods to manage your miles for redemption. And of course, just like airline miles, members can still earn upgrades, etc."

One interesting sidebar to my searches was that the rack rate for the 12,500-point room in Akron was $199/night, while the rack rate for a 25,000-point hotel in West Hartford, CT, was $129. Since hotel room rates can go up and down based on many variables (there is a convention at a specific hotel on your chosen dates, it is prom season, etc.) it's always a good idea to compare cash costs to points cost when you book your rooms, if simply to get a better sense of your savings on any given hotel.     

6. Another option: Use your airline alliance miles on a hotel stay.

If you are not ready to join a hotel rewards program, but admit your frustration with fruitless attempts to redeem air miles for a flight, consider using your miles for a hotel stay -- most airline programs allow this. You will want to do a little cost analysis first, but at the right hotel(s) for the right length of stay, you could come out ahead, and with a lot less hassle.

7. Hotel credit card programs are as good as or better than airline credit card programs.

If you like the idea of hotel programs, you can also tap into hotel loyalty credit card programs, which function just like airline credit card programs. In fact, airline mileage expert Petersen's own stash of cards tips toward hotel programs -- with a few small and simple caveats. To wit:

"Interestingly enough, I'm a huge fan of hotel credit cards vs. airline credit cards, so in my own wallet, hotel program credit cards outnumber my airline miles credit cards. Again, the reason is simple: I can always move hotel points into airline miles if I need to do so, but I like earning hotel points because they have multiple uses -- as hotel points and as airline miles. But while I paint a favorable picture of hotel program points, similar to airline programs, not all are created equal and one absolutely must compare before choosing a program to get the best value."

For more guidance, check out this overview of the best hotel credit cards.

Don't like chain hotels? You can still take advantage of these three unique loyalty programs. To see how to use your points more effectively, read Smart Tactics to Get More from Your Hotel Points.

Have you had good or bad experiences with hotel rewards programs? Let us know in the comments below.

Go Anyway,
Ed Hewitt
[email protected]
Features Editor
The Independent Traveler