1. Don’t forget the extras: In general, you can safely buy by price, even through opaque sites, but make sure your price comparisons include all the extras, taxes, and fees.

2. Bigger companies provide more support: Renting from a small, independent company can be cheap, but a multinational network is a big help if something goes wrong. If possible, rent from a company that does business in your home country in case you have a subsequent dispute.

 3. Don’t skimp on comfort: Make sure to rent a car that is truly big enough for your travel party. You have to rent at least the “intermediate” or “midsize” car, station wagon, kombi, or crossover for a rear seat roomy enough for an adult. But steer clear of the “full size” class.

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Karaoke … love it or hate it, it’s popular.

IT SEEMS only fair. This is one of those “when in Rome” moments and I just want to fit in with the crowd. There’s nothing else for it. They wouldn’t respect me if I didn’t join in. I’m doing this for pride.

So I steel myself, grab the moral support that is a bottle of Tiger beer and head for the stage. There’s an audible drawing of breath from the crowd. The spotlight feels as if it’s burning a hole in me. There’s a pause for two – three – four seconds and then it begins. The crowd erupts as I scream into the microphone.

“Shot through the heart/ And you’re to blame/ Darlin’ you give love a bad name!”

And thus, I lost my karaoke virginity.

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at Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich

It’s hard to be an old institution and reinvent yourself enough to still keep your cool; just look at David Bowie. Bowie’s pulled this off with the utmost grace over the last 4 decades, but the legendary Cabaret Voltaire isn’t doing too poorly itself, and compared to their 10 decades, Bowie’s still a spring chicken.

Keeping that in mind, some people don’t see a challenge as a challenge unless it’s a REALLY BIG challenge, and to be clear, here keeping a 100-year-old avant-garde arts venue at the forefront might comparatively be called moderate on the challenging scale. What would

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Despite the traumatic nature of a flight I recently took—I was on a prop plane flying from Oregon over the Rockies into Denver—upon exiting the aircraft I looked in the mirror and realized my nerves were the least of my worries. My skin looked like it had aged about a decade in a three hour–plus journey. With a long-haul international trip on the horizon, I can feel my shoulders tensing up just thinking about how dry and wrinkly I’ll look when I land.

It’s a fact: the parching effect of high altitude and dry cabin air can leave even the most supple of us looking parched by the time we begin to descend. So how do

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The internet being an indispensible part of our lives today, the popularity of travel review sites has escalated. Increasing numbers of people are now dependent on this searching technology to discover and explore their target locations for traveling. Regardless of this heightened popularity, travel review sites face various concern and apprehension from the public.

Popular travel websites have recently been accused of publishing fabricated reviews of hotels that want to boost or inflate their ratings. The travel industry is believed to hire public relation officers or customers to post positive comments in many cases that are exaggerated or blatantly untrue.

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Welcome sight … a trip through Africa to Cape Town is something every backpacker should do.

You want the short answer? Okay, here it is: the only journey every backpacker should take is to the airport.

Where you go after that doesn’t really matter – you’re travelling, you’re seeing the world, and life doesn’t get much better. Plenty of would-be backpackers don’t even make it that far.

But it’s not always as simple as that. W

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