If you’d like a chance to win a National Geographic Travel Phone, plus some free talk time brought to you by Cellular Abroad, now it’s as easy as 20 questions.

You’ll get a chance to tell us what kind of content you’d like to see, and what sort of travel stories you’d like tackled.

We want to hear from you, not just what you like about our site, but what you want to see, and what you’d improve…

Dear Mr. Greenberg,
When I didn’t find a chain hotel with available rooms for a recent stay, I decided to try hotels.com because I wasn’t familiar with the hotels in the area (Ocean City, MD).

The rate they quoted seemed a bit high, but since it was about two weeks before our trip, I went ahead and made the reservation. Only when I actually got to the hotel did I find that the hotels.com rate was over 38 percent HIGHER than the hotels standard rate. (hotels.com: $406.26 versus hotel: $294.30)

Their so called “price guarantee” policy states that you have to notify them within 24 hours of making the booking.

I complained about what I …

August 31, 2007

The situation at British airports continues to get worse. In the first six months of this year, British airways managed to do the nearly impossible — it somehow lost 550,000 bags! That number bears repeating … 550,000!

How did this happen, and what can be done to make the situation better? The answers are incredibly easy, but they do require one essential component which has been missing from the folks who run the airports in Britain: common sense!

For those who have read my comments on this subject before, then you know that I am actively boycotting all UK airports, and for one very important reason: the British Airport Authority’s (BAA) …

Ever traveled to a new city and suspect that your cab driver may be taking
you on the extra-long scenic route?

Here’s how you can know the fare before you go.

If you don’t want to be taken for a long ride by a cab–and we’re talking the long way around–check out these resources before you go.

You probably know that you can plot your route with various online maps, but with Taxi Wiz.com, you can calculate your actual fare, instead of just estimate the route or distance.

That way, you can have a good idea about what it should cost to get where you’re going.

Taxi Wiz currently covers nine major cities within the US and Canada.

For a specialized New York map, just …

With summer winding down, plenty of us will be eking out a few last day trips to the beach. But with our shorelines frequently battered unwittingly by tourists, The Virtuous Traveler sifts through what you need to know to be beach-wise.

Having spent more than 40 summers on the shores of Lake Huron, I’m a seasoned beach lover.

“There’s something alluring about the beach and the coast,” agrees David Helvarg, author of 50 Ways to Save the Ocean and founder of Blue Frontier, which works to protect the seas. But those halcyon days of endless summer have given way to concerns about water contamination, shore pollution and increasing threats to our marine animals.

Consider …

There’s not much worse than a sunburn in the middle of a dream vacation.

Now there are new types of longer-lasting sunscreens that could help you avoid getting
burned.

Sunblocks are starting to incorporate new compounds that extend your protection time.

Neutrogena’s new sun-block lines, for example, use the newly developed Helioplex technology.

A TSA-friendly 3 oz tube is a steep $9, but one application can last four or five hours.

Most traditional sunblocks must be reapplied every two hours at the most.

Sunscreens containing another fairly new product, Mexoryl, were previously only available in Europe.

But now thanks to Loreal, Mexoryl sun-protection products are available stateside, for about $9 for a 4-oz. bottle.

There’s even sun protection in pill form.

“Sun pills” aren’t a replacement for sunscreen, but they …

“It takes a toll on you when you have to keep showing the mess over and over,” sighed Isabelle Cossart. It was past 9 p.m. in New Orleans, and she had just returned from leading a “disaster tour,” taking visitors through the devastated regions of the city. “You’re not showing empty houses. These are families.”

Too exhausted to speak further that night, Cossart, owner and operator of Tours by Isabelle, chatted the next evening while giving her two-year-old granddaughter a bath. “Yes, she was born on Katrina. She gave us a little bit of hope.”

Cossart is just one of the thousands of New Orleans residents who have struggled after the …

It isn’t easy being green. Or at least, that’s what many people thought before Jen Boulden and Heather Stephenson created their easy, breezy Web site, Ideal Bite. Every weekday, a “green” tip lands in your inbox. Voila.

Follow the idea and, in a small way, these “light green” tips can help save the world. These tips are simple to follow, and subscribers–all 150,000 of them–are a little bit greener today because of it.

Some tips include lessons in travel and eco-tourism. “Tourism makes a huge impact on the earth,” said Boulden, “and doing little things like staying at ‘green’ hotel can make a big difference.”

“Small steps can make a big impact,” …