This year, we decided to cull through the best travel accessory recommendations from savvy travelers and generate a list of items small enough to fit in a traveler’s Christmas stocking.

We present to you our 2011 Stocking Stuffer list for Travelers:

1. TSA-approved luggage locks. Keeps your stuff safe from opportunistic would-be thieves, but lets TSA officials do their jobs at the same time. See the luggage locks at TravelProducts.com or the Safe Skies^TM TSA Luggage Strap.
2. Packing cubes for organizing your stuff inside your luggage. If you haven’t seen these yet, these are amazing organizers (although some travelers aren’t as fond of them as we are: see the  pros and cons of packing cubes). Light, zippered, storage cubes that let you lay your clothes out flat (less wrinkles) and reduce wasted space. Layer your clothes in the cubes, pack the shoes, toiletries, and extras around the sides and strap it all in tight. See the range of packing folders and cubes at ebags.com. As far as we’re concerned, anything we can do avoid baggage fees and the delay at baggage claim is a good thing.
3. For in-flight and sleep comfort: earplugs and eyeshades. Earplugs save your hearing from damage and can make sleeping in noisy situations easier. If your hotel or lodging doesn’t have blackout curtains, a sleep mask can make the difference in getting good sleep. See the earplugs and sleep masks at Magellans.com.
4. Pajamas for a traveler’s ears. We recently ran across this product: SleepPhones^TM, which is a soft fleece headband with earphones. Reportedly, this product lets you sleep naturally without having to stay in one position to accommodate your earphones.
5. A really big SD card for all those travel photos and movies. Think 4GB, 8GB, or even 16GB of flash memory for the traveler who takes loads of pictures.
6. Reusable water bottle with a built-in water filter.  Since you can’t get through security with the water you need to stay hydrated and ward off illness, turn regular old tap water into good-tasting water. Consider the CamelBack Groove for safe public water systems or the Katadyn MyBottle water purifier for a 3-stage purification system that eliminates viruses, bacteria, and protozoa when you have to refill from a non potable water source. See other water purifier systems at REI.com.
7. Easy pretty shoes. Rollable, mashable, ballet flats means pretty shoes without the space required for heels. Search online for AfterSoles flats for some great options.

Delta recently released a smartphone app for keeping an eye on your luggage. It lets you track your bags from the moment they pass through security all the way to the baggage claim on the other side.

Enter or scan the luggage tag number and see if your bags are on the same plane as you are. Of course, you have to pay for Delta’s in-flight wi-fi service to access the data.

Other features of this app include:

• flight and gate change information
• mobile check-in and baggage fee payment
• seat changes
• upgrade and standby lists

Plus, you can access airport maps and review aircraft statistics.

The app is available for the iPhone and Android phones now and coming soon for Windows phones and Blackberry devices.

Knowing your bags are headed to California when you’re headed to Florida may not be a lot of comfort at 30,000+ feet, but at least you won’t have to hang around baggage claim waiting for a bag that’s not coming. Instead, you can head right to a customer service representative and figure out your options.

As the Christmas holidays approach, we thought it would be useful to gather a list of the travel insurance providers and package plans that provide coverage for children at no additional cost when traveling with a covered adult.

A package plan is full-coverage travel insurance, which means it’s not focused on medical or evacuation coverage, for example. It’s also specific to a certain amount of time, so this is the most likely coverage for families traveling during the holidays. See the complete information regarding package plans for a better understanding of what makes package plans unique.

The following companies and their package plans include coverage for children at no additional cost as long as the child is traveling with a covered adult and included in the plan when you enroll.

Access America (now known as Allianz Travel Insurance)

• Classic (kids under 17)
• Classic with Trip+ (kids under 17)

Travelex

• Travel Select (kids under 21)
• TraveLite (kids under 18)

Travel Insured International

• Worldwide Trip Protector (kids under 18)
• Trip Protector Lite (1 child under 18 per adult)

Travel Guard

• Gold (kids under 17)
• Silver (kids under 17)

This week, the parent company of American Airlines, AMR, filed for bankruptcy protection becoming the latest in the string of legacy U.S. airlines to seek court protection from creditors.

So, what will this mean for travelers?

First, it’s important to understand that bankruptcy and financial default are very different terms in the travel insurance world:

• Financial default means a complete suspension of all business operations due to financial circumstances.
• Bankruptcy, on the other hand, means that the company is seeking legal protection and usually continues business operations to the best of their ability as they work out their financial problems.

American Airlines will likely continue operations for the immediate future as it works through the bankruptcy process. As of today, the American Airline’s website indicates that it will continue normal operations and you can read the official details about the restructuring.

When you’re thinking about travel insurance and upcoming travel plans that involve flights on American Airlines, it’s important to understand the following:

1. Coverage for bankruptcy on American Airlines can no longer be purchased as it us now a known event. The company filed for bankruptcy protection, so you won’t be able to get trip insurance protection for cancelled American Airlines’ flights from here on out.
2. For travelers currently holding tickets for future American Airlines flights, you had to have purchased your trip protection in advance of the typical 7- to 14-day waiting period required for financial default coverage.

The travel insurance companies will individually determine whether an American Airlines’ flight cancellation is covered by your travel insurance plan or not. This is because some travel insurance plans include bankruptcy with their financial default coverage and some do not.

With this type of coverage, benefits are typically paid only if no alternative transportation can be found. If American Airlines, for example, has to cancel a flight for which you are holding a ticket, that company will likely try to find an alternative seat on another carrier on the same route. In that instance, the travel insurance company will not be required to pay for the cost of canceling your trip. This is true even if you aren’t quite satisfied with the outcome of the situation because the outcome is that you can still get from here to there.

Read all about financial default/bankruptcy coverage with your travel insurance plan, and see which companies and plans offer this type of coverage.

Knowing when to purchase single-trip insurance versus an annual travel insurance plan depends entirely on your travel plans. If you’re a last-minute traveler, you’ll likely only be purchasing single-trip coverage for those ad-hoc trips, but if you’re the kind of traveler who knows what trips you’ll be taking in advance, purchasing annual travel protection can save you a lot of money. Plus, having the same coverage all year long cuts down on purchasing the individual plans each time you make your reservations.

So, we decided to take two travelers we know and the trips they plan to take in 2012 and run the numbers to see whether it would be more cost-effective for them to purchase annual travel insurance.

Meet Sam and Sylvia

Our travelers: Sam and Sylvia are 53 and 50, respectively, and these are the trips they plan to take in 2012:

• A vacation in Bali, Indonesia for 20 days in May
• A 4-day getaway in New York, New York to attend their niece’s wedding in July
• A one-week visit to California to spend time with old college friends in September
• A pre-Christmas snow-shoeing adventure in Aspen in late November/December

Let’s say our travelers like the RoundTrip plan and they’ll purchase that for their three U.S.-based trips, and they like the TravelEx plan for their Bali trip. Their travel insurance plans would be:

Bali – $72
New York – $55
California -  $55
Aspen -  $55

Total = $237

Covering their trips with annual travel insurance

It’s important to remember that with annual travel insurance, travelers do not get trip cancellation protection.

We ran our traveler’s details into the quote engine to see what they would pay for annual travel insurance and found these two plans:

The prices on these two plans are wildly different, but the coverage is different as well. Note that the Travel Guard plan includes up to $100,000 per person for non medical evacuations. So, if there is a non medical emergency Sam and Sylvia can have help getting to safety. There are other differences as well. Travel Guard includes up to 2 evacuations per person with their coverage, and the HTH plan delivers ups to $250,000 per person (which should be more than adequate – even for their Bali trip).

In this particular circumstance, Sam and Sylvia might find that purchasing the HTH Worldwide plan would be best for them. It would cover the trips they are planning to take, but for a price that totals to less than the individual coverage totals, it would also cover any surprise trips.

Of course, travel insurance is like any other insurance in that individual people purchase more or less based on their own circumstances and their comfort level. This is just a comparison, and your own numbers will vary.

Motion sickness is the result of a simple conflict between your bodily senses and the motion you are currently experiencing. When signals received by the eyes don’t match those being understood by your inner ear (the center of balance in the human body), motion sickness occurs. For example, if you’re in the cabin of a cruise ship, your inner ear will sense the movement of the boat, but your eyes don’t register that movement. The effect is the same if you’re reading in a traveling car.

Symptoms of Motion Sickness

You’re probably very familiar already with the symptoms of motion sickness, which include:

• paleness of the skin
• nausea
• sweating
• and ultimately vomiting

Some people are more prone to motion sickness than others and cars, boats, trains, taxis, and planes are all triggers of motion sickness. Children between 2 and 12 are more susceptible to motion sickness while infants and toddlers are relatively immune to it. Most individuals, given enough stimuli, will experience motion sickness in the right conditions.

Preventative Measures for Motion Sickness

It’s no fun being on a cruise ship or tour boat on your trip and suffering from motion sickness, but there are a number of preventative measures people can take to avoid motion sickness, including:

• Have a light meal before you travel (empty and very full stomachs react worse to motion sickness)
• Consider over-the-counter aids, including patches,wrist bands, pills, and nasal sprays
• Have club soda and light crackers on hand to settle your stomach

Also, if you notice a feeling of nausea, put down the book or craft project, focus out the window or on the horizon and take slow, deep breaths. This can often still the immediate sensations, ‘re-set’ your body’s awareness of the motion, and calm the motion sickness.

Volunteer vacations are often short-term service vacations where the travelers live and work with people who are in a position of needing help from the global community. That help may be due to natural disasters, famine, poverty, disease and more. Volunteers usually try to match their skills and abilities with the opportunities available.

Although a few service projects pay a stipend to volunteers, in most cases the volunteer funds the entirety of their own costs (sometimes through fund-raisers back home). Volunteer vacations do not include luxury accommodations, but the organization often provides extensive pre-trip information, introduces you to the team, and helps you deal with local officials (when necessary). Volunteers are expected to do the work presented to them and often prepare their own meals, clean up, and care for the facilities where they are staying. Information about how volunteer vacations work can be reviewed at Volunteer Guide.

Volunteer Opportunities

Different volunteer organizations offer varying opportunities, but some of the things volunteers can do include:

• Repairing and painting buildings
• Teaching children
• Rebuilding destroyed homes, churches, and schools
• Caring for at-risk or abandoned children
• Providing medical and/or dental care
• Protecting animals
• even repairing and restoring hiking trails in America

Risks to Volunteers

People of all ages – teens, families, retirees – take volunteer vacations for a variety of personal reasons, but travel to locations that are hard-hit by hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters poses a risk for the volunteers.

It’s important to understand that many volunteering organizations have travel insurance for their volunteers, but many do not.

Take a look at our missionary/volunteer travel health insurance information to understand the risks, what coverage you need, and where to get it. Even if your volunteer organization provides some coverage, you may want to have your own (just in case).

Either way, as an informed traveler, even if the volunteer organization does include travel insurance with their service, it’s important to check the policy and verify that it will protect you. After all, you’re no help to those you’ve come to help if you are injured or very ill.

Matching Volunteers to Opportunities

Some websites that match volunteers with different activities are the following (but be sure to do your own research into which volunteer organization is right for you):

• GlobeAware
• Global Volunteers
• International Volunteer Programs Association
• Volunteer Abroad Opportunities

You can also read this 2010 article on how to find the right volunteer vacation.

One of the items most travelers would prefer not to include on a list of travel experiences is picking up a nasty disease. In the past, we’ve published posts on how to protect yourself from travel-related diseases, how to check the latest traveler’s health reports for your destination, as well as health concerns for travelers in underdeveloped countries.

The following are the top 5 easiest-to-get and worst traveler’s diseases we’ve heard about.

1. Hepatitis A, which is one of the most common diseases contracted through poorly-cooked food, contaminated water,  and unsafe sex. While a vaccine is available, it’s always a good idea to make sure the food you eat is clean and well cooked.
2. Montezuma’s Revenge, which is the common term for any case of traveler’s diarrhea and earned it’s moniker from travelers visiting Mexico. Of course, this hazard isn’t isolated to Mexico and can occur just about anywhere due to different levels of immunity to different types of bacteria sometimes found in food or water consumed by the traveler.
3. Dengue Fever, which is well known in Thailand, the South Pacific and in Africa and spreading to new regions (see the official Dengue map). According to the CDC, dengue fever, also known as ‘breakbone fever’, affects as many as 100 million people every year and is spread by mosquitoes.
4. Malaria, which is another disease spread by mosquitoes, is treatable if you get it and preventable if you prepare. You can request anti-malaria pills from your doctor prior to traveling in Asia, Africa, and South America where malaria cases are common.
5. Lyme Disease, which is a danger particular to North America and spread by tick bites and presents itself as severe headaches and a fever. The best prevention? Bug repellent.

Of course, while not specifically a disease, parasites also present trouble for travelers. Parasites come in a variety of forms but generally tapeworms, intestinal parasites and amoeba are the most common. Humans pick up tapeworms and intestinal parasites from unwashed fruits and veggies or contaminated water. Amoeba can be found in natural mineral pools and they enter through the nose when a visitor submerges. So, know your water and food sources and have appropriate travel medical coverage. You know – just in case.

It’s probably no surprise to anyone that cruise lines make a little extra money by offering you cell phone service. This is because they can offer connections to land-based mobile networks.

But here’s the problem: you’re still paying international roaming rates.

Cell phones typically operate on land-based systems that work when the phone can be in contact with cell towers. On a cruise ship, your phone needs to access the satellites to reach the network instead. Some phones from various carriers don’t automatically connect to satellites either, so they use the cruise ship service which turns a cell call into satellite data, but that costs money and this is where they make a little extra off unaware cruise passengers.

It may not be clear in their brochures, but if you use your cell phone out of sight of land, you are automatically using the cruise ship’s service and you’ll be billed through your regular phone service at a cost that’s as high as $3-$5 per minute.

1. If you have a data plan in place, turn off your phone’s data roaming option so e-mail won’t be automatically downloaded at the roaming rates. Your data plan may be used if you receive text messages with image attachments as this traveler was surprised to learn.
2. If you have to make a call, wait until the ship docks so you can connected to the less expensive land-based cell towers. That is as long as your phone will work in that country; otherwise, you’ll be paying international rates.
3. Turn off your phone when you’re not using it. You’ll be charged for calls that ring through, but not those that go directly to voice mail when the phone is turned off.

Often, when people purchase travel insurance, they don’t think about all the extra fees and travel costs. It’s important to remember that only pre-paid travel costs are covered under the trip cancellation, trip interruption, and ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage. That means it’s important to pre-pay for travel fees such as airline surcharges – airlines add extra fees for items like peak holiday travel days ($10-$50), seat selection, and more.

If you pre-pay for those fees, and include them in the total trip cost when you enroll in your travel insurance plan, those fees are more likely to be reimbursed as long as you cancel or abandon your trip for a covered reason.

Insure pre-paid hotel rates

Many hotels – especially during the busy holiday seasons – offer packages and rate discounts for travelers who purchase and pay for their rooms ahead of time. In many cases, those deals are 100% non refundable, which makes those trip costs perfect candidates for inclusion in your total trip cost. Pre-pay for your lodging, then include those costs in your total trip costs when you enroll in your plan and as long as you cancel for a covered reason, they’ll be reimbursed as well.

Note: If you have to cancel your trip,  let the hotel know as soon as possible. If they can re-book the room with another traveler, they may wave their usual cancellation penalties.

Be wary of longer trip delays due to fewer flights

Some airlines have cut flights in anticipation of reduced passenger traffic due to the continuing recession. Many experts are recommending travelers book the first flight of the day because (like getting the first doctor appointment of the day) schedules haven’t yet had a chance to get backed up.

When a scheduled flight is canceled late in the day, the next available flight may not leave until the following day and even if it does leave, it may already be full of other passengers so you could get bumped even further down the line. Consider a travel insurance plan with travel delay coverage, which can reimburse tired travelers for unexpected meal and lodging expenses when a trip’s departure or return is delayed. There is typically a per-day limit and a minimum delay, but if things get really iffy, at least you’ll have some reimbursement.

To understand the problem see what the airlines owe you when a travel delay occurs.