Use charge cards when possible to reduce transaction fees and to obtain good exchange rates. Also, use automatic-teller machines for favorable exchange rates in obtaining local currency. File for Value-Added Tax refunds. Look for VAT-refund forms when you're shopping. Foreign visitors usually can get refunds on the tax, which runs as high as 24 percent.
Parents share strategies that help make trips with teens enjoyable.
Here's a list of suggestions gleaned from several sources. Not if you're vacationing with kids. With dozens of new hotels, restaurants swathed in their best linen and museums, there isn't a better place to visit on the Mediterranean. If you want to spend part of your vacation a step back in time, try Charleston, S.C., with its Southern gentility, antebellum homes and a very walkable historic district and fort. When you tire of the bright lights and big city, there's a place, just two hours by car from Las Vegas, where eons light the way and silence is the only music.