source: The Independent Traveller

Tipping requires more than cash and generosity; a modicum of research is essential for travelers to know exactly who deserves a tip and how much to give. Generous travelers shouldn't hand out gratuities like Halloween candy to cover their bases. In some countries -- like Japan, where giving someone a wad of cash is often considered rude -- tipping can be an insult. On the other side of the coin, traveling tightwads shouldn't try to save money by stiffing their service person, because millions of waiters, bellmen, tour guides and other workers in the tourist trade rely on tips to feed their families and pay the rent.

Buyer beware ... change and cancellation fees have become big business for airlines. Photo: Rob Homer

A cheap fare can be pricey to change or cancel, writes Jane E. Fraser.

Change might be part of the tapestry of life but when the subject is flying, it can be a painful process. Change and cancellation fees have become big business for airlines as travellers gravitate towards cheap, inflexible air fares. The US Government recently changed the reporting requirements for US airlines and, as a consequence, found travellers were paying $US2 billion ($2.4 billion) a year in change and cancellation fees – representing more than three per cent of the airlines' revenue.

I knew I had to go. But I couldn’t say why I wanted to travel to Auschwitz, alone.

No one in my family had perished in a concentration camp. I have no Jewish heritage. My relatives did not even fight in World War II. But since adolescence, I have been saturated with brutal images of the Holocaust, accounts of torturous experiments by Dr. Josef Mengele and chilling interviews with survivors.

During seven moves over two years, Christine Leonard lived with French bugs, a pit bull, and a nine-year-old who let her take the bottom bunk. Owen Berliner can count 15 homes in at least six states, plus one abroad. Texan Megan McCurley pursued teaching jobs to North Carolina, Miami, and Cali, Colombia.

It’s a good bet that these twentysomethings have already lived in more places, and maybe even experienced more varied work, than their parents. Say hello to the young urban nomads: people carrying the mobility of their college lives deep into their twenties. Whether trying out a series of professions, or moving around in pursuit of a profession, they shift living arrangements, cities, even countries as often as every few months, as they pursue jobs, fellowships, adventures or just affordable places to live.