Travel Essentials Blog

Carry-On baggage requirements and fees are always changing, and you should always check with your airline ahead of time, but we’ve compiled a list of the top fifteen airlines and their carry-on requirements and checked bag fees, as well as links to their websites for up-to-date information.

These fees and guidelines are always changing, and may differ depending on your travel destination. Always check with your airline ahead of time to make sure you’re complying with their baggage requirements.

by Nancy Bestor

Crawfish bread….jambalaya….crawfish etouffe…pounds and pounds of crawfish and shrimp…beignets…These are just a few of the delicious Cajun dishes I sampled on my recent trip to New Orleans and the 2010 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The Jazz Festival, which this year celebrated its 40^th anniversary, happens over two weekends at the end of April on the New Orleans fairgrounds race track. Jazz Fest features fantastic music, outstanding local cuisine, and great New Orleans’ artisan booths. It’s a great musical and culinary party, which draws more than 400,000 visitors each year.

My biggest Jazz Fest complaints are that there are so many stages featuring so many excellent artists that it is hard to choose who to hear and also that my stomach only has so much room. On our first day, we stopped in the gospel tent to hear Irma Thomas’ tribute to Mahalia Jackson. From there we went to the Acura Stage to catch Lionel Ritchie singing Easy Like Sunday Morning. Then on to the Blues Tent for Elvin Bishop. We didn’t get to George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, or the Black Crowes, or Dr. John. And this was just day one!

New Orleans Street Musicians

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by Bob Bestor

Everybody likes a deal. And with mid-range resort-style golf courses often running greens fees in excess of  $100 even a small cut in price can add up to significant savings during a weekend golf trip.

We’ve used both EZLinks.com and Golfnow.com with great success over the past few years to secure discount tee-times throughout the U.S.  Golfnow offers tee-times for over 1800 golf courses in the U.S. and Canada. Simply choose the area and date you’d like to play and Golfnow will usually offer several tee times at various courses. On Kauai in March we saved $60 and $36 per player at Poipu Bay and Puakea respectively.

A “name your price” feature makes EZLinks.com unique. It works just like Priceline. Find a course and time you like and make a bid.

TwoGuysWhoGolf.com is another handy resource. TwoGuys offers detailed reviews of golf courses throughout the U.S. and Canada. While sometimes they spend a bit too much time reviewing a facility’s resort aspects, we’ve found their course reviews to be reliable.

When booking tee times our plan is simple: We see what’s on offer at Golfnow and EZLinks. Then we’ll check out the reviews at TwoGuys. And, after weighing course quality, location, available prices and tee times, we finally make a booking.