How to Travel Practically Anywhere: The Ultimate Planning Guide

This essential guide for today's traveler features timesaving tips for planning, booking, and troubleshoot your trip—on and off the Web.

If you've ever tried to find a sale fare you saw advertised for a flight, only to turn up much higher prices, or discovered that the hotel you booked wasn't exactly "steps away from the ocean," you know that the do-it-yourself era of travel can mean something else entirely: you're on your own.

Now travel reporter and New York Times contributor Susan S...