While we humans groan at the thought of carrying a heavy pack, many dogs can’t wait to be put to work. Over the weekend, my husband and I invited a dog trainer friend over to evaluate our lovable, but somewhat neurotic pitbull mix. We were looking for pointers on helping her to become more relaxed in the many distracting situations that bombard a city dog each day, as well as friendly and confident around other dogs in potentially conflict-inducing places like other peoples’ houses, dog-friendly inns and hotels and the weekend getaway spots we often rent with our friends.

Our trainer’s solution? Well, there were many. But the one that I am most excited about is the doggie backpack. From now on, wherever she goes - on our daily walks, on hikes, on out-of-town weekend adventures - she’ll be dressed up like a canine mountaineer in Mountainsmith’s Dog Trippin’ Dog Backpack. I chose this model because it combines comfort features like padded, adjustable compression straps and a ventilated back (important for preventing hot spots) with its a set of dog travel accessories: two collapsible bowls, a fleece sleeping pad and a leash. I like the idea of her carrying her own supplies whenever we leave home, whether it’s for a 30-minute trek around our neighborhood or on the trip up the coast of Northern California we have planned for later this month.

At the risk of sounding like a traveling germ-phobic nutjob, I’ll admit I rarely get anywhere near an airport, bus or means of public transportation without fishing my trusty hand sanitizer out of my bag. And while I sometimes find myself wondering what happened to the free-spirited traveling self who would most certainly scoff at the more uptight version that exists today, I can say this: once you hit 30, getting sick starts to suck more. Way more.

While most hand sanitizers kill germs right when you apply them to your skin, SkinWear claims to continue killing pesky germs for hours and moisturize your skin at the same time (good for use during flights, when my skin starts to feel nigh on reptilian). The product is also non-toxic, biodegradable and vegetable-based. Once applied correctly, which requires rubbing the product into the skin for 60 seconds, SkinWear will do its thing through four rinses at the sink.

Not being scary germs ourselves, we can’t personally vouch for the product’s effectiveness. But not getting sick is good enough for me.

Ah, to be a college kid again. Students with big ideas about traveling the world - for free - stop day dreaming about the hottie across the hall and check this out. Each summer, STA Travel chooses one college-aged intern for its STA World Traveler Internship. The job? Oh, just spending the summer hopping from Europe to Asia to Australia to New Zealand to Buenos Aires to the freaking Galapagos Islands. Pretty rough. Along the way, the intern will share their adventures through photographs and video, interviews with fellow travelers, blogging and social networking through STA’s Student Travel Community. The whole idea is to show your impressionable peers how much fun you’re having and, in so doing, convince them to spend their next break following in your footsteps, preferably using plane tickets purchased from STA Travel. Applications are being accepted through March 1, 2008, so get cracking.

Here’s an example of the sort of travel video interns produce:

Yeah, last minute travel can be cool. But it can also leave you cash poor, especially when you’re talking high-season travel in major vacation destinations. But as with most things in life, a just little edumuhcation can go a long way. Case in point: Kayak.com’s Fare Alerts.

Create a Fare Alert (or 12) on Kayak.com or SideStep.com for the summer getaway(s) currently sequestered in your noggin by clicking on the “Get fare alerts for this trip” link on the top right-hand corner of the flight results page. You can track fares for specific dates, a flexible span of time (e.g. summer weekends or, say, the month of June) or an entire region (e.g. Europe). When your daily or weekly Fare Alert (you choose how often it arrives) touches down in your email inbox, you’ll be able to make informed travel decisions.

Depending on what you ask it to track (specific dates, flexible span of time or even top cities in a region), each Fare Alert can show you:

- How much the fare for specific dates has increased or decreased in dollars since the last alert

- The airfare history for your trip dates based on searches made by Kayakers over the past 90 days

- A snapshot of prices in Kayak.com’s matrix view, so you can quickly compare prices by carrier and number of stops

- The lowest fare available during a specific span of time (e.g. the next four weekends)

- The best fares available for popular destination cities in a region you want to visit (e.g. Africa)

Who knows, maybe you’ll still pay craptons to travel to the most expensive resort on the hottest island right in the middle of the high season. After all, it’s high season for a reason. But at least you’ll be pimping it out with full knowledge of your unbridled American excess. Just remember the wisdom of G.I. Joe.

(**Editor’s note: Yeah, Kayak.com owns us. You wanna make something of it? I’ll have you know I was surreptitiously using Fare Alerts to aid in making my personal travel plans long before Kayak.com bought our parent company SideStep.com in December. Nepotism, bias, blah, blah, blah. Fare Alerts just make good travel sense.)

Here’s a quick little travel tip I read in Real Simple: when you take earrings off before bed, fasten them into the holes in your watch band so you don’t accidentally leave them on the nightstand. When you wake up in the morning and try to put on the watch, there’s no chance you’ll forget the earrings.

Haven’t had much time to check this one out yet, but a cursory jaunt around the newly launched site Kid Friendly Guide yielded some cool finds, like a kid-friendly menu search tool and a kid-friendly hotels search tool. While the site is not limited to travel, it looks like a good resource - something worth bookmarking - to check the next time you find yourself researching, planning or heading out on family travel adventures.

What makes FareCompare’s Rick Seaney hot under the collar? Misguided trust in the power of Rule 240, which has kinda become the unicorn of travel tips over the past year, i.e. everybody coos about how wonderful it is, but no one’s ever really seen it work its magic in real life.

A recent post by a travel blogger incited Seaney’s semi-rant, which marks an exciting little moment of controversy in the get-a-long gang world that is the travel blogosphere. And this being a blog, we must, I repeat, must blog when controversy strikes!

After debunking the Rule 240 myth, embarrassing a few travel pundits along the way, Seaney offers up a 240-Alternative List, which includes suggestions like supporting the Passengers’ Bill of Rights movement in its quest for state and federal legislation to better protect travelers.

We (cough) heartily concur.

I’m Frustrated: “Rule 240″ Myth Still Alive. See My “240-Alternative LIST”

In its ongoing efforts to go green, Fairmont announced this week that its properties in California and Arizona will begin offering free parking to overnight hotel guests who drive hybrid vehicles. That includes:

Fairmont San Jose

Fairmont San Francisco

Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa Resort

Fairmont Miramar Santa Monica

Fairmont Newport Beach

Fairmont Scottsdale Princess

We assume this applies even if you’ve rented a hybrid during your trip (not a bad way to offset the additional cost that comes with renting a premium vehicle). For hybrid drivers, this deal can amount to quite a savings - in San Francisco, for example, downtown hotel parking rates often climb higher than $30/night.

New rules regarding U.S. border crossing take effect today. Under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative requirements, drivers are now required to show either a passport or proof of identification (i.e. driver’s license and birth certificate) when crossing from Canada or Mexico into the United States. Similar requirements for air and sea travelers will take effect during the summer of 2009.

People without proper identification are not necessarily denied entry into the United States. Instead, border crossing agents will take steps to confirm the person’s identity, question the person as needed and make a final decision about whether to allow him or her into the country.

While many had worried about the new rules causing significant delays at borders today, it seems humans are a little bit better at following directions than commonly thought. Thus far, the change has not resulted in delays at major points of entry.
Tighter U.S. Border ID Rules Begin

The Liftopia blog (a.k.a. Gigasnow) reminded us today of a v. important point regarding snow, the Superbowl and cash. That little nugget is this: the Superbowl is to crowded slopes what sodium chloride is to ice. Of all the weekends during ski season, the one on which the Superbowl falls is notoriously a slow one at the lift ticket box office. And though I’m one of those people who will be watching the game instead of heading for the hill, that doesn’t mean part of me won’t be wishing I was kicking it in Tahoe instead of hanging out with a bunch of meatheads (you know who you are) who happen to have multiple televisions and a way with a deep fryer.

So for ye sports-averse among us, this weekend promises some good deals on lift tickets through lovely Liftopia, the discount lift ticket retailer based in good ‘ole San Francisco. You could, for example, find yourself riding Park City $66.99 (15 percent savings), Powder Mountain for $45 (15 percent savings) or Wildcat Mountain for the freakishly low price of $24.99 (58 percent off).

Check out the post below for more deals.

Superbowl Sunday - Fewer Skiers, Bigger Discounts