Alex Summers articles

If you're planning a big trip this year, you've probably had this conversation already. One person wants the expertise of a travel agent, while the other wants to book everything independently and keep costs down. The truth is that both approaches can save money under the right circumstances. The better option depends on the type of trip you're taking and how much time you're willing to invest in planning.

It can be incredibly frustrating when a local rail strike suddenly shuts down your scenic train vacation. While a strike doesn't automatically guarantee compensation, it also doesn't mean you're stuck absorbing every financial loss yourself.

Discover what to do when a cycling vacation becomes stressful due to unfamiliar traffic laws, intimidating roads, and local driving habits. Practical cycling safety tips help travelers ride confidently abroad.

Co-owning a vacation cabin with family can sound perfect, until one person starts using it constantly while ignoring all the expenses.

Nothing ruins a vacation budget faster than discovering mysterious foreign transaction fees on your credit card statement after returning home.

Few travel surprises are more frustrating than arriving at a hotel and learning you need to hand over a huge security deposit before you can check in. The good news is that while security deposits are common, hotels do not always communicate them clearly, and you have options if the charge was not properly disclosed.

A big travel rewards balance can feel like money in the bank, especially when you have been saving points for flights, hotels, or a major family trip. Then you log in right before booking and discover the balance is gone, reduced, frozen, or suddenly worth much less than expected.

Sitting in the midst of the exciting streets of Los Angeles is a small, unassuming hotel that some people out there would probably like to avoid at all costs—the infamous Cecil Hotel. For practically all of its history, many things have gone seriously wrong inside this building. From spooky tragedies to unexplained mysteries, here are disturbing facts about the one and only Cecil Hotel.