Advice for summer travelers: Plan on a late-summer vacation to find the best prices. If online travel retailers are reading the tea leaves correctly, August might be the wallet-friendly sweet spot this year.

Priceline says June and August will be the cheapest times to fly domestically, and August will offer best airfares for international travelers. It also found that airline tickets cost about 1% more than last summer. 

“Internationally, tourists can keep costs in check by traveling in August, but they’ll have lots of company, as that’s when Europeans traditionally take summer holiday,” Priceline spokesman Brian Ek said in a statement. The company based its recommendations on a sample of 30 days of summer airfare purchases.

Hotwire's State of Summer Travel Report also says travel costs are up. Travelers can expect to pay 4% more for domestic flights and hotels than 2012, it found. Hotwire also recommends August as "the most affordable month to fly," the company...

Question: As a human resources consultant, I sometimes receive travel inquiries from one of my clients. Here is one: An employee, using a company credit card, purchased a $1,200 airline ticket for a business trip. The ticket is in her name and is nontransferable. She then resigned from the company, and the company (which is paying for the ticket) contacted the airline. The airline initially told them there was no problem but later said no changes (regardless of fees paid) could be made to the ticket and even added the comment "Guess you just gave your former employee a nice trip." While my client understands that advance tickets have restrictions, it seems impossible that the change of employee name (with change fee) cannot be implemented and that the ticket, paid for by the company, remains in the possession of, and for exclusive use by, the former employee. Can you help?

G. Gilbert

Los Angeles

Answer:Here are words I never thought I'd say: The airline is right. The client bought...

Sometimes happiness is Wi-Fi or a comfy seat rather than just a cheap flight.

Name: RouteHappy.com

What it does: This website considers more than just ticket price to find you a more pleasant flight. It has computed "happiness scores" for billions of flight combinations across 4,000 airports, 750 airlines, 180 types of planes and 2,200 airline, aircraft and cabin types.

What's hot: All the added info. After your flight search result comes up — make sure to scroll over the individual visual cues such as "overall rating," "roomier" for seat pitch, "on demand" for entertainment details and "plugs" for power outlets — click the "more" button for a full page of detailed info. Airline and airport nerds can geek out in the "Tips & Reviews" section. You also can get the RouteHappy app (free) to review a flight and share photos and tips.

What's not: There were no features that allowed me to save, "favorite" or compare flights, which I desperately wanted to do. The company says...

Always pack a flat rubber water-stopper for leaky bathtub and sink drains. I've needed it even in highly rated hotels.

Bob Myers

Lake Arrowhead

When traveling with a child in diapers, prepare a grab-and-go package of diapers and wipes. Put three or four wipes in a snack-size plastic bag, then put that and one diaper in a quart-size bag. Place these single packages in a carry-on or diaper bag. For a diaper change, grab one pack and go. Save the leftover wipes in their bags for the return trip. I use one of the leftover wipes to clean Baby's hands. He tends to touch the changing table a lot, and no one wants those germs on their kid. Make sure you make enough packets to last you from the time you drop your luggage to the time you pick it back up.

Cory Hughes

La Habra

When my husband and I travel we always keep two "chip clips" in our luggage for the drapes in the hotel room or on the ship. It's great for keeping the curtains together, preventing light from coming in the room.

Patricia...

A popular hiking and mountain bicycling route that follows a 10-mile course from Newbury Park to the ocean and a hiking trail known for its impressive stand of California native grasses were in the path of the Springs fire Friday, though the extent of the damage isn't yet known.

Firefighters contending with shifting winds continued to fight the massive blaze Friday. Point Mugu State Park and parts of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area remained closed due to the fire.

The Sycamore Canyon Trail that follows a tree-lined route from the inland valley to the Pacific Ocean was burned in part.

"It burned Sycamore Canyon just south of Danielson Ranch," Michael Wilson, fire communication and education specialist for the National Park Service, said Friday. "It crossed Sycamore and headed south and east." The landmark ranch house sits about halfway along the trail.

Trails in La Jolla Canyon where native grasses can be shoulder high in spring also were in the burn area, and flames...

Yosemite National Park is gearing up for summer.

Glacier Park Road opens noon Friday (today) and the east-west Tioga Road that accesses the back country is expected to open May 11. The housekeeping tents in Curry Village are up, and horse rides and open-air Yosemite Valley tours are ready too.

But there's something you'll see more of this year too: hantavirus warnings. A rare and deadly hantavirus outbreak last summer killed three people and sickened seven others.

"We're telling folks the same things we've been telling them, but in a lot more places," Tom Medema, the park's chief interpretation and education ranger, said Thursday.

Warnings about hantavirus pulmonary syndrome now are printed in the park newspaper give to visitors and in reservation confirmation letters for lodgings. Its causes and preventive measures also are posted on Yosemite's website and inside tent cabins and elsewhere in the park.

About 90 "signature" tent cabins, which were double-wall premium structures with...

For the first time, the Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs will participate in the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Assn.'s  30^th annual Global Convention, which begins Thursday (today) and continues through Saturday in Chicago.

The website of the bureau, the arm of the State Department that helps protect Americans traveling abroad, now devotes a page to the interests of LGBT travelers. 

“In February, we also held our first Smart Traveler Day LGBT Roundtable, where we highlighted ongoing efforts to keep U.S. citizens informed and connected to the latest and most accurate travel information,” said John Whiteley, a spokesman for the bureau.

The Bureau of Consular Affairs recommends all Americans sign up for the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive travel alerts and warnings about their destinations.

A free Smart Traveler app for iOS and Android phones and tablets has been created to provide mobile alerts and information.

Country Specific...

Can a value-hunting traveler truly be loyal to loyalty programs?

Name: CooBoutique.com

What it does: Rewards you with cash back for booking luxury hotels through its website and rewards points for sharing with your social network.

What's hot: Cash is hot. I liked seeing how much cash other users were getting for their bookings as I was searching for hotels in the U.S. And when I looked up the member page (free), I saw that I could earn as much as 4% on my bookings. I also could earn points by reviewing hotels, sharing recommendations with people and planning a trip on Coo. The more points I earn, the quicker I can move up the membership levels to earn increased cash back — up to 7%.

What's not:My airline frequent-flier program gives me points for booking with its partner hotels, some hotel chains give me free nights for booking a certain number of nights with them, still other travel sites offer me frequent-flier miles if I book a hotel through them — and those are just a...

You know the zombies that pop back to life even after you stab them with a pitchfork? It's the same with smartphones.

That's the bitter lesson I learned after returning home from Greenland and getting a $1,106 bill from Sprint for international data roaming, even though data roaming on my iPhone 4S was turned off.

How could this zombie data usage happen? And how can I find out if it's happening?

Smartphones are the undead of phones. They keep looking for a way to connect to data, even when you don't want them to. Even when you think data service is turned off.

The formula is: smartphone + international travel = watch out.

I had a BlackBerry before my iPhone and never had a single data charge when traveling internationally.

But data-rich smartphones are different. Data roaming may be turned off, leaving only voice roaming active so you can call home. But if the phone keeps trying to connect to data, it may succeed. Possible scenarios:

• A smartphone's location services, push...

When packing, pick one basic color around which to create your "fashion palette" so you have plenty of mix-and-match outfits to choose from.

Marlene Hassel

Newport Beach

Keep extensive notes on your trips. I have traveled a great deal and have kept those notes. I filled up a notebook on my 30-day trip across Europe on a Eurail pass. Now that I am about to celebrate my 100th birthday and am writing my memoirs, I have all the juicy details of things that happened on my trips: forgetting to take a towel to swim in the Olympic pool in Munich, Germany; the reception I went to in Salzburg, Austria; the green and red figs in Dubrovnik, Croatia; the 550 steps at Santorini, Greece. I suggest everyone keep notes of their trips as I did. It has become a euphoric experience reading and reliving my trips again.

Helene Iberall

Laguna Woods

Buy a road map book of the country or city in which you're driving. We recently drove two weeks through Ireland and Northern Ireland. We tossed the GPS and did...

Credit cards make sense for travelers for many reasons, including getting free or low currency exchange rates when abroad, free rental-car insurance coverage and reward bonuses earned for dollars spent. But there's a word of caution that comes with this too.

Reward cards work well for those who pay their bills in full, Card Hub Chief Executive Odysseas Papadimitriou said in a statement. Otherwise, folks are better off with a 0% interest rate offer (Citi Diamond Preferred Card and the Slate Card from Chase don't charge interest until after at least a year) that allows them to pay off a vacation over time. (All of this assumes you have good credit and qualify for the cards in the first place.)

Back to...

Two Seattle tour companies have launched Travelers Against Plastic to motivate travelers and tour operators to say "no" to disposable plastic water bottles and choose other methods of ensuring their water is safe to drink. 

Crooked Trails and Wildland Adventures launched the website, which allows travelers to make a no-plastic-bottle pledge, on March 22.  By last week, 136 people and 10 tour operators had signed the pledge.

Eight of 10 single-serving plastic water bottles wind up in landfills, according to the Recycling Institute. About 34.6 billion bottles are emptied annually in the U.S.

Chris Mackay, co-founder of TAP and executive director of Crooked Trails, says her guests are told to be prepared to clean their own water on their travels. In 2008, a guide to Machu Picchu in Peru watched in disbelief, Mackay says, as her group filled their water bottles from a waterfall, then cleaned the water.

Mackay says the surprised guide said, “On behalf of my country, I want to thank...

In the April 14 On the Spot column ["She Can't Wait for Her Next Passport"], reader Lisa Kim Davis of West Los Angeles expressed her concern about having her passport at the ready. Called away for business travel, often at a moment's notice, she couldn't risk having that document out of her control for the four to six weeks that regular passport processing would take. Further, a passport with less than six months until its expiration could present a problem in some countries that insist on a document that has at least three and sometimes six months until it's out of date. The solution: an expedited passport.

You can get an expedited passport through the State Department, or, if your travel plans demand it, you can go to the U.S. Passport Agency at 11000 Wilshire Blvd. Or you can hire someone, known as a passport expediter, to get it for you. Here's how the State Department describes them: "Expediting service companies are private companies that deliver passport applications to passport...

This is a site for global travelers who demand more design and style than the average backpacker on a post-college, round-the-world romp.

Name: ThePoshPacker.com

What it does: PoshPacker introduces travelers to hostels and hotels that offer design-driven accommodations without the big price usually attached to them.

What's hot: All accommodations are less than $100, despite the fancy wallpaper, modern beds and surroundings suitable for the trendiest culture connoisseurs. The website's layout is simple. You immediately get a sense of why this hotel or hostel was hand-picked by PoshPacker. Don't miss the "Perks" and "Privacy" boxes. I was able to quickly scan the page and find out whether Wi-Fi was available and whether the place had a rooftop deck, a good restaurant or free breakfast — and private, not shared, bathrooms.

What's not: Besides wanting more hostels in more locations, I wanted to see prices, or a price range on the hotel's PoshPacker page, before clicking through the...

The Tidy Table Tray plus Flexi-Diner looks like a giant clipboard, except the clip is on the bottom instead of the top, and it holds food instead of papers.

The Tidy Table is a highchair tray, minus the highchair. The large pressure clip on its underside grabs firmly onto pretty much any tabletop.

A removable insert fits over the tray, lifting out for a quick washing without having to remove the whole tray. The insert has an extended lip that helps keep spills off your child’s lap and compartments in the insert hold a cup and slidable things such as peas and snacks.

The Tidy Tray plus Flexi-Diner is particularly great for road trips, so you’re not at the mercy of whatever passes for a highchair/child tray on the road. Tidy Table Tray plus Flexi-Diner costs $29.99.

Info: Bambinoschild.com.

Follow us on Twitter @latimestravel and like us on Facebook

Despite beefed-up security at airports nationwide in reaction to the deadly Boston Marathon bombings on Monday, the Transportation Security Administration is standing firms in its plan next week to allow passengers to take small folding knives and other formerly prohibited items onto airplanes.

On Wednesday, a TSA spokesman wrote via email that changes would go into effect April 25 as planned.

Before the bombings, more than 100 members of Congress as well as flight attendants and members of the public had asked TSA Administrator John Pistole to scrap the policy.

Some of those pleas have a greater sense of urgency.

Joe Brancatelli, who writes the JoeSentMe travel newsletter and is a longtime industry observer, said in an email to members: “Don't go to the airport hoping things will be straightened out by the time you get there. They won't.”

What's a traveler to do?

Brian Kelly, who runs the website ThePointsGuy.com and is a frequent traveler himself, offers these suggestions:

--Act first, worry about a refund later. If your schedule is such that getting there is critical, make other arrangements.  You can duke it out with American later.

In a tweet earlier today, American said it would waive its change fee.

--If you can’t get through on American’s reservations number — (800) 433-7300 — try calling one of its international lines. Try to use Skype so you don’t run up a big...

Question: My passport will expire at the end of August. Because I travel for my job frequently and sometimes with little advance notice, I cannot be without a passport for the four to six weeks it will take to get a new one. Also, many visas I will be applying for require a passport with at least six months left of validity, meaning I need to get a new one sooner rather than at the last minute. Is there any good way for people like me to transition to their next passport?

Lisa Kim Davis

West Los Angeles

Answer: Yikes. Davis has a problem. If that sounds like a wonderful grasp of the obvious, it's not just the problem associated with the question she asked; like many problems, that one can probably be solved by throwing money at it.

It's a problem that the passport expediters to whom I talked emphasized repeatedly: If your passport expires in less than six months, a country may refuse you entry even if there's no visa requirement. Among those countries that require at least three and...

With this app you can create a tasty, bite-sized primer you can sink your teeth into before — and during — your vacation.

Name: Triposo.com

What it does: It's a global destination database that lets you download maps, travel information and recommendations on more than 150,000 destinations in 200 countries and use them offline.

What's hot: I've never experienced such a quick place-by-place download option from an app. Download your guide and then turn the pages like a magazine, or delve right into practical info in "Things to Do," where you'll find Yelp reviews, WikiTravel descriptions and practical info such as hospitals and grocery stores. Build your own guidebook portal and bookmark your favorite restaurants, museums and more so you can return to your personal section at a later time.

What's not: I was a little hesitant to use the hotel booking process. There was so much info to fill in; I didn't feel it was user-friendly.

travel@latimes.com

We recently dined at Acqua Pazza in Rancho Mirage. The service was excellent and the food choices unique. I enjoyed acorn squash stuffed with quinoa and currants ($12.99), plus gelato for dessert. Pastas from $13.99, entrees from $15.99.

Acqua Pazza, 71-800 Highway 111

Rancho Mirage; (760) 862-9800, http://www.acquapazzabistro.com

Cheryl Kohr

By email