Travelers today often spend precious hours searching online for the very cheapest air fares and best-priced accommodations. I do it myself. I’ve dragged myself and my bags on public transportation to and from airports rather than taking expensive taxis. I’ve stayed in crummy motels to save a few bucks, especially if I’m overnighting near airport. And I’ve used CityPASS savings books for urban attactions when traveling domestically, especially when my husband and I are together and can get two entries for the price of one at many attractions.

As a co-owner of MileHighOnTheCheap and cotributor to the new LivingOnTheCheap site, I certainly believe in such major  strategies in the war to save travel dollars, but I also practice lots of tactics in minor saving skirmishes that do add up. So does Caroline Costello who wrote “10 Things to Pack That Will Save You Money” on SmarterTravel. Click on that link to read the full post of why the following 10 things (not all of which are clear just from the headers of her individual tips) add up to stretch the travel budget:

• Empty Carry-On Travel Bottle
• Sunsscreen Stick
• Luggage Scale
• Snacks
• Duct Tape
• Conpressions Sack
• E-Reader
• Empty Water Bottle
• Travel Laundry Detergent
• Security Bags, Clothing, and Accessories

If you’re looking for more says to save money (and generally make travel easier), be sure to read the comments as well.

There’s an awful lot to like about the greater Denver area, and one of them is the (relative) ease of air travel. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics recently listed the 10 worst  airports in the US for on-time arrivals in 2011, and I don’t imagine things have improved a lot since last year. Of course, lousy on-time arrivals rolls over to lots of late departures and considering how many people connect to/from international flights at these airports, flying through them is a likely scenario for further late or missed connections.

Here’s the list:

1. Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) – 33.28 percent late
2. San Francisco International Airport (SFO) – 28.62 percent late
3. LaGuardia Airport (LGA) - 27.82 percent late
4. Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) - 26.35 percent late
5. John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) - 24.66 percent late
6. O’Hare International Airport (ORD) - 24.57 percent late
7. Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) - 23.84 percent late
8. Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport (DCA): 22.28 percent late
9. Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) - 21.39 percent late
10. Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL) - 21.12 percent late

DayJob.com illustration.

For a service industry, travel providers are often more about being self-serving than actually serving, let alone catering, to the traveling public. Author, travel advocate and journalist Christopher Elliott tackles yet another topic on behalf of aggrieved travelers. In “Who Has the Worst Contract in Travel?”,  he takes on four major segments of the travel industry and lists some of their considerable flaws.

The take-away is that lawyers have had a collective field day writing contracts that actually support and protect travelers, all the while shielding companies from consequences from treating travelers fairly. Travelers, meanwhile, are often compelled to accept small-type agreements that shift the responsbility when things go wrong from the travel companies to themselves. He writes:

“Airline. Your rights, such as they are, can be found in a document called the contract of carriage. Among other things, you agree that the airline isn’t responsible for getting you to your destination on schedule and that it owes you nothing if it loses your valuables. Got a problem with that? You’ll have to sue in federal court.

“Car rental. Your car rental terms vary by state. In it, you agree that you’re responsible for the car, even if the vehicle is damaged by an Act of God, like a hailstorm or flood. You also agree to pay for whatever the car rental company thinks you’re responsible, like a ‘loss of use’ charge it invents.

“Cruise. The ticket contract is an astounding rights grab. You give away your right to sue the cruise line and agree that the company can remove you from its vessels for any reason it wants to and deny you a refund. Maritime law, the law that governs the contract, favors the cruise line.

“Hotels. The rules of your hotel stay are governed by state law, but you also sign an agreement at the beginning of your stay in which you agree to additional terms. Those can include paying a ‘resort fee’ or agreeing to any late charge to your credit card (like a ‘cleaning’ fee) the hotel decides to bill you.

“Simply put, the deck is stacked against travelers.”

If you read his entire post, which I suggest you do, scroll to the bottom and take a one-click poll on which segment of the travel industry you find the worst — and leave a comment if you like.

If you are passing through any of nine US airports today (Chicago O’Hare, Denver International Airport, Washington Dulles, Los Angeles International, Lexington Blue Grass Airport, NYC LaGuardia, Greater Rochester Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and San Francisco International Airport), you’ll probably see United Airlines pilots in full uniform taking their gripes with management directly to the traveling public. The pilots, you see, are pissed. They say that they  have been in contract negotiations with United Airlines’ management team for more than two years and are currently working under a 9-year old bankruptcy contract. They add that they made major sacrifices in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks to help save United from going out of business.  In the years since, they say, United “has exploited the sacrifice of the pilots in many ways, including the offshoring and outsourcing of U.S. jobs.”

The airline’s CEO Jeffrey Smisek reportedly made $13 million in compensation last year out of “appreciation” for implenting United’s merger with Continental, a move that did not go as operationally smoothly as anyone had wanted and that has left many of both airlines’ loyalists disappointed. I’ve never thought of pilots as being low-wage workers, but in comparison with the CEO, they certainly are. Go to next page to read the pilot’s leaflet.

In any case, the pilots are passing out a leaflet that reads:

“Dear United Customer,

As United Airlines pilots, there is nothing more important to us than the safety and best interests of our passengers. Not one day goes by where we don’t think about how much we value your business. As you may be aware, United Airlines pilots have been working under their current contract since 2003 and have been in contract negotiations with United Airlines’ management team for more than two years.  The pilots made major sacrifices in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks to help save United from going out of business.  In the years since United has exploited the sacrifice of the pilots in many ways, including the offshoring and outsourcing of U.S. jobs.

“66% of United’s domestic flights are currently outsourced to regional carriers, such as Colgan Air, the carrier involved in the tragic crash in Buffalo, New York in 2009.  Members of Congress, consumer groups, and government officials have raised concerns about the safety of airline passengers given that these carriers do not traditionally require their pilots to go through the same rigorous training that larger carriers like United requires of pilots. e end result of this outsourcing is compromised safety for passengers and loss of jobs for U.S. pilots – all while United executives continue to lead the industry in executive compensation. United CEO, for example, is the highest paid commercial airline CEO and just last year tripled his own salary according to the Associated Press.

“Today, we are asking you to join us in demanding that United and United Management should not accept any bonuses until the United Airlines Pilots are restored to the sacrifices we gave after 9/11. We invite you to visit our web site and sign our petition.

“In closing, as professional airline pilots, each of us with decades of experience, please rest assured that there is nothing more important to us than the safety and best interests of our passengers.  We are dedicated to communicating with you about our talks with management because you deserve the facts about the airline you choose to fly.  We pledge to keep you informed and hope that you will visit our Facebook and Twitter pages for daily updates: https://twitter.com/Unfriendly_Sky and http://www.facebook.com/TheUnfriendlySkies

“66% of United’s domestic flights are currently outsourced to regional carriers, such as Colgan Air, the carrier involved in the tragic crash in Buffalo, New York in 2009.  Members of Congress, consumer groups, and government officials have raised concerns about the safety of airline passengers given that these carriers do not traditionally require their pilots to go through the same rigorous training that larger carriers like United require of pilots.

“As management continues to offshore and outsource U.S. jobs, United executives continue to hike their salaries.  United’s CEO is the highest paid commercial airline CEO and he tripled his salary last year. United pilots will ask the public to join them in demanding that United’s management stop accepting bonuses until the pilots are restored the sacrifices given after 9/11.

The United Pilots”

As my friend Jimm Budd, a gringo residing in Mexico City and publisher of Mexicogram, reminds us year after year:

“Saturday is May 5, Cinco de Mayo, when, it seems, everyone abroad remembers Mexico. Best way to remember Mexico is by sipping a margarita, and there are as many versions of margaritas as there are of daisies. On story has it that the first margarita was concocted for Margarita Casino, a dancer from Brooklyn performing in Tijuana. That dancer later came to be known as Rita Heyworth. Hussong’s Cantina in Ensenada disputes this as do others. As for Cinco de Mayo, it commemorates the only victory Mexico ever won over a foreign army. That was in 1862, the foreign army was French and the French stayed in Mexico until the end of the American Civil War, after which Washington told Napoleon III to take his army home.”

In fact, Mexican Independence (celebrated on September 16) had other heroes. One was Juan José de los Reyes Martínez Amaro (nicknamed El Pipila) an uneducated but inventive miner in Guanajuato used to wear a flat rock slab to protect himself from falling debris in the mine. Another hero was a fiery priest named Miguel Hidalgo from the nearby town of Dolores Hidalgo. On September 16, 1810, he issued the ‘Grito de Indepencia,’ a call for equality, or at least fairness, by the colonial authority to the impoverished mestizosand indigenous peoples of Mexico.

Monumental statue of "El Pipila" and his torch overlooking Guanajuato.

On September 28, Father Hidalgo led a ragtag army of highly disgruntled Mexicans and indigenous Indians armed with machetes and clubs to attack the Spanish. Forewarned, the colonial governor, the soldiers he commanded and well-off Spanish civilians living in Guanajuato barricaded themselves and their valuables inside the Alhondiga de Granaditas, a public granary thought to be as sturdy as an unbreachable fortress. And so it seemed, as Spanish musketeers firing from the top of the grain tower were able to repel the “insurgents.”

Re-enter El Pipila, who hefted his stone slab, crawled to the wooden door of the granary, buried it with pitch and set it on fire. Once the door of the granary was reduced to cinders, the locals who outnumbered the Spaniards were home free in their quest for independence. They entered the Alhondiga . In the bloody aftermath of a five-hour siege and battle, the insurgents massacred every last royalist defender, then followed up with rampage, looting the homes of Spaniards and creoles alike. “The plunder was horrible,” according to one authority, “as everything not nailed down was stolen.” The final death toll was about 3,000 insurgents and all 400 Spanish defenders of the granary. Call it “Occupy Guanajuato, early 19th century style.”

The granary today.

As a result of this bloody battle (the first in the Mexican War of Independence — their Battle of Lexington and Concord), Guanajuato is called the of birthplace of Mexican Independence. A monumental statue honoring El Pipila — upright rather than hunched under his stone slab — commands a San Miguel Hill overlooking the peaceful city. a deserved World Heritage Site.

When Pope Benedict XVI visited Guanajuato in March, he met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, told 4,000 children gathered in the city’s Peace Plaza that they are each a “gift of God to Mexico and the world” and gave a mass at Bicentennial Park. No mention that I can find about Guanajuato’s role in Mexican history.

But again, none of this has anything to do with the Cinco de Mayo n– in fact, the 150th Cinco de Mayo celebration. As Jimm noted, it is celebrated more outside of Mexico than in Mexico. It’s a great excuse/reason to throw a party, and my husband and I are doing so. So have a margarita or a cerveza and celebrate the cinco.  Now you know what you will or won’t be toasting tomorrow.

When I think of “luxury tent camps,” Africa comes to mind. When we were in Tanzania, my family and I camped on Mt. Kilimanjaro but overnighted in comfortable lodges in four national parks and preserves. Still, sleeping in a true luxury tent camp has been on my bucket list for quite some time. (My husband and I also did stay in a yurt for a comfortable, but not at all luxurious, experience at an eco-camp in Chile a few years ago.)

Luxury wood-floored safari tent practically at the doorstep of Yellowstone National Park.

Now I don’t have to go to Africa or anyplace distant for the experience of nature just outside the tent but without truly roughing it. In fact, I can stay in my own time zone at the gateway to one of my favorite places on this planet. Yellowstone Under Canvas is a new luxury camp near West Yellowstone, Montana with its premiere season from May 14 to September 13. It is part of an international movement called “glamping,” which refers to luxury camping — a contraction of “glamour” and “camping.”

Yellowstone Under Canvas offers accommodations in just 15 beautifully constructed canvas tipi tents or deluxe wood-framed safari tents rival hotel rooms in terms of comfort. Think king beds or two twins, fine linens, a woodstove and such in complete with wooden floors, wood stove and real beds — much like those in Africa. There are even tipi bathrooms. The set-up lends itself to romantic getaways, honeymoons or even family vacations with parents in a lusury tent and youngsters in an adjacent tipi.

The camp is not in Yellowstone National Park, but it is just ten minutes from the West Yellowstone entrance. I don’t think I need to enumerate the activities and wildlife viewing that the park and the gateway town of West Yellowstone offer. The camp boasts fantastic views, a quiet secluded location and also an on-site restaurant — just another luxury component. It is run by Jacob and Sarah Dusek, whose Sage Safaris up north in Havre is a luxury hunting camp that operates from September through December for bird hunters. I don’t know whether they still do both, but I do know that personally, I’d rather see birds than blast them out of the sky,

Montana Under Canvas, 3111 Targhee Highway, West Yellowstone, MT 59758; 406-29-0441.

The site delivers on the seductive teaser on the home page: “Photographing lions in Ngorongoro Crater? Check.  Diving the Red Sea? Check. Hiking the Appalachian Trail? Check. Wandering the ruins of Petra? Check.  Learning to cook in Italy? Check. Our writers go there, do that, and bring you back the real deal.” She recruited ”a team of experienced professional travel writers from all over the world” to provide content (alas no, I’m not one of them), and the adventures they recount are of interest to travelers who want some insight into slightly off-the-beaten-track but still accessible experiences. Check it out.

Israel’s Independence Hall is a former private residence where members of the National Council, representatives of the Jewish settlements and the Zionist movement, met in quasi-secret on May 14, 1948, to sign the Scroll of Independence and establish the Jewish State of Israel. This year, the event is celebrated on April 25.

The event makes Tel Aviv, previously modern Israel’s capital, the Philadelphia of the country. In fact, Philly also served as the US capital Philadelphia served as one of the nation’s many capitals during the Revolutionary War, and the city served as the temporary national capital from 1790 to 1800 while Washington, D.C., was being construction. There the resemblance more or less ends.

An unadorned building in central Tel Aviv is Israel's Independence Hall.

Israel’s Independence Hall is located along Rothschild Boulevard (#16 to be precise) in central Tel Aviv. If it didn’t have a Star of David flag out front, most people would pass right by the simple building with the strong horizontal lines that characterize early Tel Aviv’s Bauhaus-derived urban architecture. The building was once the home of Zinna and Meir Dizengoff. He is considered Tel Aviv’s founding father and was its first mayor. He left the house to the city for the display of art, but it means much more in the troubled country’s history.

Today, one part of the Dizengoff House, as it is popularly called, is a Bible museum and another section serves as Museum of Zionism. The hall where the declaration was signed has also been preserved. The building has been kept pretty much as it was 64 years ago, when Israel was created there. There is talk that it might be transformed into more of an independence theme and undergo an upgraded restoration. Meanwhile, when I was on Rothschild Boulevard last winter, it was not even open to view — of at least, my companions and I did not enter.

Despite the headlines of zealots and extreme right-wingers among the Israeli public and in the Israeli government who are harsh, punitive and separatist, the country is more than 90 percent secular, so Independence Day, which comes exactly one day after the Israeli equivalent of Memorial Day, is one part of a treasured two-day holiday. Locals generally celebrate with picnics, many at the grand beaches of Tel Aviv. Military fly-overs and other public displays remind people it is a holiday — much like our Fourth of July but perhaps with somewhat less fanfare.  On another note, I hope that it won’t take another 64 years for the Palestinians to be able to form their own true state and have an Independence Hall of their own too and a reason to celebrate their own freedom from occupation. In fact, with next year marking Israel’s 65th anniversary, wouldn’t it be just the time to cut the Occupied Territories loose and let an independent Palestinian state emerge? At some point, it too will have an anniversary of independence to celebrate.

Two of the Denver Art Museum’s current visiting exhibitions (“Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective” and “Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection”) and the impending opening of the new History Colorado Center have been getting a great deal of local buzz, but that shouldn’t eclipse “Chihuly Venetians: From the George R. Stroemple Collection” at the Foothills Art Center in Golden. This literally and figuratively dazzling show through June 30 features some 45 pieces from this private collection.

The Chihuly "chandelier" is an installation of five assemblages of glass both hanging from the ceiling and standing on the floor. Visitors can walk around them to see them from all sides. They are dismantled each time the exhibition is taken down and re-installed in a different configuration each time the works are moved.

Dazzling from a distance but even more remarkable upclose are cherubs, dragons and other classic Venetian themes in beautiful glass.

Dale Chihuly requires no introduction to admirers of art glass. I’ve seen Chihuly’s works at the opening exhibition at the Museum of Glass in his hometown of Tacoma, Washington; making for a spectacularly installed on ceiling at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, and at a visiting exhibitions several years ago at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center and at the Spencer Theater for the Performing Arts in Ruidoso, New Mexico.. A chihuly chandelier graces the lobby of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver. And if I had all sorts of money and s suitable place, I’d go to Pismo Fine Art Glass and buy a Chihuly piece.

The glass maestro has been inspired and inspiring. Sammy Flohr, mix maestro at the Golden Hotel, just down the street, was inspired to create an iridescent cocktail in the manner of Dale Chihuly. Called the Chihulytini, it resembles the pousse café, in which spirits and liqueurs of different colors are poured into a glass in order of specific gravity to created a beautiful layered drink. The ingredients: Absolute Citron Vodka, St. Germaine, Banana Liqueur, Blue Curacao, Midori Melon and Grenadine. The Denver Post published the recipe, but I’d rather sit on the hotel’s streamside terrace and sip one made by a pro.

The Foothills Art Center is located at  809 Fifteenth Street, Golden, Colorado 80401; 303-279-3922.