Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
three-star prices than at finding any-
thing at the bottom of the scale. On
the downside, many hotels stick Price-
line guests in their least desirable
rooms. Be sure to go to the Bidding-
ForTravel website (see above) before
bidding on a hotel room on Priceline;
it features a fairly up-to-date list of
hotels that Priceline uses in major
cities. For both Priceline and Hotwire,
you pay upfront, and the fee is nonre-
fundable.
Note:
Some hotels do not
provide loyalty program credits or
points or other frequent-stay amenities
when you book a room through
opaque online services.
SURFING FOR RENTAL CARS
For booking rental cars online, the
best deals are usually found at rental-
car company websites, although all the
major online travel agencies also offer
rental-car reservations services. Price-
line and Hotwire work well for rental
cars too; the only “mystery” is which
major rental company you get, and for
most travelers the difference between
Hertz, Avis, and Budget is negligible.
8 The 21st-Century Traveler
INTERNET ACCESS AWAY
FROM HOME
Travelers have any number of ways to
check their e-mail and access the
Internet on the road. Of course, using
your own laptop—or even a PDA
(personal digital assistant) or elec-
tronic organizer with a modem—gives
you the most flexibility. But even if
you don't have a computer, you can
still access your e-mail and even your
office computer from cybercafes.
WITHOUT YOUR OWN
COMPUTER
It's hard nowadays to find a city that
doesn't
have a few cybercafes. Although
there's no definitive directory for cyber-
cafes—these are independent busi-
nesses, after all—two places to start
looking are at
www.cybercaptive.com
and
www.cybercafe.com
. You'll do
best looking in neighborhoods that
house students, such as Lincoln Park,
which is home to DePaul University.
Aside from formal cybercafes, most
youth hostels
nowadays have at least
one computer you can get to the
Internet on. And most
public
libraries
across the world offer Inter-
net access free or for a small charge.
Avoid
hotel business centers
unless
you're willing to pay exorbitant rates.
Most major airports now have
Internet kiosks
scattered throughout
their gates. These kiosks, which you'll
also see in shopping malls, hotel lob-
bies, and tourist information offices
around the world, give you basic Web
access for a per-minute fee that's usu-
ally higher than cybercafe prices. The
kiosks' clunkiness and high price
mean they should be avoided when-
ever possible.
To retrieve your e-mail, ask your
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
if it
has a Web-based interface tied to your
existing e-mail account. If your ISP
doesn't have such an interface, you can
use the free
mail2web
service (www.
mail2web.com) to view and reply to
your home e-mail. For more flexibility,
you may want to open a free, Web-
based e-mail account with
Yahoo! Mail
(http://mail.yahoo.com). (Microsoft's
Hotmail is another popular option, but
Hotmail has severe spam problems.)
Your home ISP may be able to forward
your e-mail to the Web-based account
automatically.
If you need to access files on your
office computer, look into a service
called
GoToMyPC
(www.gotomypc.
com). The service provides a Web-
based interface for you to access and
manipulate a distant PC from any-
where—even a cybercafe—provided
your “target” PC is on and has an
always-on connection to the Internet
(such as with Road Runner cable).
