WHERE'S BROOK? contest winner Susan Cory (middle), Brook (right), and I had lunch in Manhattan last Friday, July 13, 2007.

by Wendy Perrin

Okay, gamesters: Wanna guess where WHERE'S BROOK? contest winner Susan Cory and Brook and I ate last week?  Susan, a residential architect, chose the restaurant because she's a fan of its modernist architecture.

Here's another clue: Note the plate that Susan's Dover sole arrived on.

You may recall that Susan and I had lunch last month when I was up in Cambridge, Mass., where she lives. It ended up hardly being a proper contest-winner lunch, however:  Thanks to a delayed train to Boston, I was so rushed that we had time only for a burger.  And of course Brook was dying to meet Susan too.  Plus Susan has so many great travel tricks up her sleeve that I wanted to hear more.  We needed a do-over.  So, when everyone's paths crossed in Manhattan last weekend, we had a proper celebration. It also just happened to be my birthday.

The main topic of conversation was LuxuryLink, a Web auction site that Susan swears by. She's scored huge bargains at first-rate hotels and resorts.  Three years ago she paid $800 for three nights, including tax and breakfast, at La Samanna, the posh resort on the Caribbean island of St. Martin. Two years ago she paid $900 for five nights, with breakfast daily and one dinner, at the Grand Hotel in San Remo, Italy.  And in October she's headed to St. Petersburg, Russia, where she's bought a five-night package for two at The Astoria for $1,264, which includes tax, daily breakfast, one dinner, and an hour-long massage for both her and her husband. Considering how crazy expensive St. Petersburg is, that's a steal. The retail value quoted on LuxuryLink is $3,534.  You go, Susan!

Susan's tips for getting the best price via LuxuryLink:

The Four Seasons Houston: All this can be yours for 35 percent off -- if you're willing to stay on a weekend.

by Katherine Hottinger

How would you like to stay at a five-star hotel and pay as little as a third of what it usually costs?

Just in time for booking Memorial Day weekend getaways, the Wall Street Journal (registration required except on free Fridays) has a must-read article today for travelers who want the maximum luxe for the minimum price.  It advises that if you want the pampering of a Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Relais & Chateaux or Small Luxury Hotels of the World property, only at a steep discount, you should stay at these brands' "orphans": properties that are lower-profile than the companies' flagships and try to keep themselves full by discounting when demand is low.

Of course, even with a 35 discount, such big-name hotels may still be unaffordable. Personally, I'm willing to forgo such niceties as 24/7 room service, 400-thread-count sheets, and solicitous staff who greet me by name, in favor of even bigger bargains.  Here's what I do: 

by Katherine Hottinger

A few months ago Wendy alerted us to an easy way to pad our frequent-flier mileage accounts: Shop online via airline and hotel Web sites. I was an instant convert. Since then I've racked up nearly 10,000 miles I would not have earned otherwise, simply by going to American Airlines' AAdvantage eShopping site and clicking through to Gap, Lands' End, Drugstore.com, or whichever store I need. (American just happens to be the one I've always had the most mileage with, but 10 others -- including Continental, Delta, and United -- have similar shopping portals.)

One thing's bothered me, though:  When I've needed a big-ticket item (say, a GPS for my gadget-loving husband) and I've wanted to get the best price and biggest mileage bang for my buck, I've had to go to AAdvantage eShopping, scroll down the list of vendors, take a guess at which of the hundreds would likely carry the item, click to that site, and search. Comparison shopping, and even finding a single item to begin with, was laborious and time consuming. Fortunately, this has now changed:

Couchsurfing.com matches travelers with locals willing to host them in their own homes -- for free.

By Brook Wilkinson

Question from reader Jmhorner1:

"My husband and I love to travel and meet new people. We live in Raleigh, NC and have two spare bedrooms in our home. We wanted to find out the best way to post information for domestic and international travelers who may be passing through and need a place to stay for one or two nights. Do you have any suggestions for web sites or blogs where we could post this information to appeal to this type of traveler? Thanks!"

Well, Jmhorner1, how does Saturday, May 5 look for you?

All joking aside, I'll let you know next time I'm down your way, but in the meantime I'd suggest you check out Couchsurfing.com. It's a nonprofit that links up travelers with generous hosts just like you. You give someone a place to stay for a night, maybe show them around Raleigh, and they teach you their mom's secret recipe for cheese fondue. Who knows, maybe you'll end up staying on their couch in St. Moritz next year. 

by Wendy Perrin

The Cranky Flier has weighed in with a coupla more Web sites for finding low-fare airlines in Europe.  To learn who flies between which cities, I've always happily used whichbudget, but Cranky has always happily used  flycheapo.  He adds that you can skip this step entirely by heading straight to wegolo, which lets you search a lot of low-cost carriers for rates and availability.

Thanks, Cranky, for coming through again with your nifty tips. No wonder you wonstole the 2007 award for Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog out from under me. I've ALMOST forgiven you.

So here's a fun game for everyone to play: Where in the world do you think Cranky is in this photo?  To hazard a guess, click on "Post a comment" below.                        

Photo courtesy of Crankyflier.com

by Wendy Perrin

Question from reader LeslieGKoch:

"What Web sites can I use to book low-cost airlines in Europe?  I need to fly among three capital cities, but Expedia et al. show only the national airlines, which are quite expensive."

Great question. Fortunately, I covered this in depth in my Perrin Report on European low-fare airlines. One thing to remember about these airlines: They sometimes use an alternative airport that is farther from the city center than the main airport. So, before buying your tickets, research public-transportation options and taxi costs from the airport that the plane flies into.

Photo courtesy of easyJet.com.

Last week I drove from San Francisco to Portland, Oregon, via the
Pacific Coast Highway. Photo: Photonica, Getty Images

By Brook Wilkinson

Just got back to the Conde Nast Traveler offices after a West Coast jaunt, and what's the first thing I did?  Marched straight into Wendy's office to tell her about my rental-car fiasco.  (Nobody appreciates a good travel debacle like Wendy.)  Her response?  "Fabulous!  You should make that your first blog post!"  So here goes:

I'd made a reservation through Expedia for a Thrifty rental car to be picked up in San Francisco and dropped off in Portland, Oregon: 3 days, $115. I know, it sounded too good to be true -- particularly to someone who sits down the hall from the Ombudsman himself. But believe me, after working with Wendy for almost five years now, I know how to find loopholes in travel bargains, and I'd scoured the e-mail that Expedia sent me for any whiff of any extra fee they might tack on. No asterisks, no fine print -- just a daily rate, taxes and fee, and a total: $115.

It wasn't until I called Expedia to try to extend the rental that I was told Thrifty would be adding a $235 drop-off charge!

By Wendy Perrin

"Why is Tuesday the best day of the week to search the Web for air fares?" asks reader Ed Barkowitz, who just last week got around to taking my Test Your Travel Smarts quiz in Conde Nast Traveler's November issue. To repeat Question 6:

Which of the following days is best for finding low air fares on the Web?
a. Tuesday    b. Friday    c. Saturday      d. Sunday     The answer: a.

Ed, you'll find the cheapest fares at around 6 a.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.  A fare that is $340 on Saturday could drop to $300 by Tuesday morning. Here's why . . . . 

By Wendy Perrin

Conde Nast Traveler readers are a clever lot.  Yesterday I received an e-mail from one of them with a nifty tip.  When the reader books travel online, he often books it not through the travel company's U.S. Web site but through its site in the country he plans to visit, since the prices are lower:

"Before a recent trip, I was amazed at how expensive a 4-day car rental in Ireland was going to be.  At Budget.com, an economy car picked up and dropped off at the Dublin airport was 181 euros (including the mandatory CDW, or collision-damage waiver).  At Budget.ie, however, the cost was 65 euros (including the CDW).  Another example: When I went to South Africa, I found hotel rates were much lower on Web sites ending in .za than on those ending in .com.  A room at the Sheraton in Cape Town, for instance, cost $50 less through the local Web site."

Machu Picchu
Photo: Lisa Limer, Conde Nast Traveler

By Wendy Perrin

Conde Nast Traveler readers have bragged to me about the nifty deals they've gotten through Luxury Link, so when its president, Diane McDavitt, asked to stop by my office to introduce herself, of course I said yes. Luxury Link auctions off posh travel packages for up to 40% less than what they'd cost if you were to buy the components separately.  Sometimes the offers are cruises and villa rentals, but more often they are hotel and resort stays where the property throws in a bunch of extras (e.g. meals, spa treatments, golf).

How to win a Luxury Link auction?  If there's a package you want, submit a bid so that you're in the loop and will be notified of what others are bidding. Then don't bid again until literally the last minute:  Auctions are always extended to five minutes past the last bid.

My friend Marc's wedding in Beverly, Massachusetts, Sept 17, 2006

By Wendy Perrin

Remember a couple of weekends ago I was in the Boston area to attend a friend's wedding?  (That was when I had the high-speed Internet access nightmare at the Boston Marriott Peabody.)  Been meaning to post this ever since but got too busy:

The rate for wedding guests was $129 . . . which seemed reasonable until my friend Marc, the groom, told me he'd managed, six days before the wedding, to get a rate of $54 through Priceline.

By Wendy Perrin

Okay, I've gotten several e-mail messages hawking Carnival's one-day sale tomorrow.  If you book a cruise departing any time from now through December 15, prices start at $229 ($189 on Travelocity) plus you get "FREE UPGRADES!"  Something to keep in mind about free upgrades offered by a cruise line:  They can land you in a worse cabin.

By Wendy Perrin

A fascinating article in today's USA Today has rocked my world. Now you can earn extra miles by doing your online shopping via airline and hotel Web sites.  If you go to American Airlines' or Continental's or Delta's or any of 10 other airline sites, you can link to a huge variety of stores and, if you make purchases, earn anywhere from 2 to 10 miles per dollar spent. As a time-crunched working mother who does most of her shopping online, I can assure you that next time I order from Barnes & Noble or Lands' End or Harry & David, I'll be doing it through an airline Web site.