Making the most of your travel dollar

                      Yes, travel can be expensive and may well be getting more so. But there are many ways to save while still having a great time. Just ask Teri Gault, CEO of the GroceryGame.com, who travels over 150,000 miles a year. Here is a sampling of Gault’s frugal advice:

                       Talk to the locals: Chowhound, an online food discussion board, lets locals and tourists can chat and exchange tips of places to go and things to see.

                       Choose lunch over dinner: Lunch menus are often a lot cheaper than dinner menus and sometimes they serve the same thing. If you have your eye on a nice restaurant, instead of paying twice as much for dinner, choose lunch. 

  

                       Save on croissants and orange juice: Some hotels offer breakfast which is something you should take advantage of. But if your hotel doesn’t provide this perk, head for the grocery store for yogurt and cereal or whatever, and save.

   Be flexible when flying: The time of day you travel, as well as the time of day you purchase tickets can be the difference between saving $100 or not. Traveling on off peak days and times of the weeks can give great savings. Typically, travel on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday is cheapest. Opting to fly into alternate airports can make for huge savings. Another suggestion is to pay attention to what time of the day you look for flights, if the price seems too high, try searching for it at a different time of the day.   Airfarewatchdog.com  helps you find when and where flights are cheapest.

Check those online deals: Go to sites like Groupon or Living Social and look up deals for each city you will be visiting. GoldStar.com, meanwhile,  provides half-price tickets to events and shows in several cities nationwide. 

Get advice from the right people: Don’t ask the concierge for suggestions on where to eat   because they often get paybacks from the  places they recommend. Instead consider asking a local resident like the cleaning lady or boutique owner what their favorite place is. You could end up getting the best experience for the lowest price.

There's an app for that: Many apps for your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or Android phone     can make traveling easier. Among Gault's suggestions are TripTik Travel Planner from AAA, Wikihood (which creates a list of sites worth seeing), Wi-Fi Finder, and Sit or Squat, which locates the cleanest rest rooms. 

Trivial question

Where and what is the largest city in Africa? (Answer somewhere below.)

Eat, pray, love in Bali for $999

Immerse yourself in meditation and yoga on an eight-day, seven-night "Eat, Pray, Love ... In Bali" custom-planned vacation with Goway. Featured activities are yoga and meditation programs and a palm reading by
Ketut Liyer, the medicine man in "Eat, Pray, Love." Also included are a cooking lesson in Indonesian cuisine, a Balinese village tour, and a cycling tour. The itinerary costs from $999 per person, land only, for seven nights at Ananda Cottages, with daily breakfast, one lunch, one dinner, touring in private, air-conditioned vehicles, entrance and donation fees, and round trip airport transfers in Bali.  Book by March 31 for
travel  through Dec. 31.   For reservations or  more information, phone 888-469-2988 or
visit www.goway.com.

Search Amazon.com for Bali

Fascinating fact

With a mapped length of 348 miles, Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park is the world's  most extensive cave system.

A chance to see what your hotel room will look like

The new website Room 77 has data on more than 425,000 hotel rooms in 2,500 properties and is still growing. Accessible through its free website and iPhone app, Room 77 provides travelers with specific details about each hotel room at a property, including the room category, square footage, bed type, elevator proximity and if it is a connecting room. For each room, Room 77 also generates a virtual Room View, simulating the actual view from that room’s window using Google Earth-enabled technology. 

Worth quoting

“Climbing K2 or floating the Grand Canyon in an inner tube. There are some things one would rather have done than do." -- Edward Abbey

A $139 spa deal -- at the very last minute

Mirbeau Inn & Spa in Skaneateles, N.Y., has a $139 rate for stays this Sunday (Feb. 27) and Monday only. The 34-room spa, is in central New York's Finger Lakes wine region, and is noted fpor bopth its spa treatments and cuisine. For reservations, call 315-685-1927. For more information, visit www.mirbeau.com.

Trivial answer

With 6.7 million people and then some, Cairo is Africa's largest city.