Product Description

Renowned travel authority and NBC Today show travel editor Peter Greenberg shares his insider secrets.

Americans now travel more than ever before. Yet as our traveling has increased, the service we receive from airlines, hotels, and other agencies has deteriorated dramatically. Industry surveys reveal what you already feel: growing dissatisfaction among travelers of every age, income, and education level. We've been abused by the travel experience. Peter Greenberg is here to help. The Travel Detective tells you the things most travel agents can't — or sometimes just won't — tell you. In his characteristic friendly and conversational tone, Greenberg tells how to find the secret walk-up fares that can save air travelers hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on last minutes flights; which coach seats on which planes are better than first class; the secret rule to know to avoid being bumped from a flight, which cruise ship brochures lie; which credit card companies are fastest — and slowest — to come to your aid in a foreign land, or worse, in the U.S.,; which hotels have the best — and the worst — fire and crime safety records, and how you can protect yourself; how to negotiate the best hotel room deal; which hotels have the worst water pressure in their showers (and better yet, how you can get great water pressure, even at those hotels); and much, much more. Accessible and entertaining, The Travel Detective gives you the information and tools you need to make every trip an affordable pleasure.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #491381 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-03
• Released on: 2005-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

From Amazon.co.uk
The Travel Detective is the guide-to-end-all-guides on how to get to your destination and have a good time, explaining how to beat the airlines, hotels, cruise lines and car rental agencies at their own games.

Peter Greenberg is hands-down the right man for the job. Here is a guy who checked in a double porcelain sink as a carry-on, just for laughs, crisscrossed the country on six different airlines over two days to see if the flights would be on time, and tested credit card company claims for global assistance in an emergency by getting stuck in a ghost town in Death Valley. Not only that, he's travelled to 120 countries around.

A tourist, says Greenberg, is a victim waiting to happen. The travel world is full of ridiculous and draconian rules, but there are no shortages of ways to finesse them. You just have to know what to avoid and how to ask the right questions. Greenberg explains how to get the cheapest fares and beat the Saturday night stay requirement. He tells you the truth about frequent-flyer programs, where the secret flights and even secret seats are, and how to avoid being a PAWOB (passenger without bags). He's got tips for travelling with kids and pets, and the truth about the safety of infants flying on laps (as well as that infamous first-class flying pig). Once you've made it to your destination, he'll fill you in on the best time to call to get the lowest hotel rates, the right question to ask to get a room with good water pressure and how to avoid hotel and rental car rip-offs. He's even got advice for finding a cruise that lives up to its seductive description. This is a useful, fun and readable guide. --Lesley Reed, Amazon.com

From Library Journal
In this entertaining book, Today show travel editor Greenberg reveals many insider secrets on how to get the lowest fare, make plane reservations, get the best airplane seat, negotiate the best hotel room deals, and much more. Greenberg, who is also the chief correspondent for the Discovery Network's Travel Channel and editor at large for National Geographic Traveler, devotes about three-fourths of the book to air travel, delighting in offering well-deserved criticism of the airlines. His air travel tips are useful and deserving of all serious travelers' attention, especially those traveling on a budget. Though the book omits three areas of travel that form an increasing part of America's traveling experience organized tours, travel by car, and train travel it is packed with valuable information and features an authoritative, and quite funny, voice. Recommended for all libraries. George M. Jenks, Bucknell Univ., Lewisburg, PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Peter Greenberg is the travel editor for NBC's Today show. He is also the chief correspondent for the Discovery Network's Travel Channel and editor at large for National Geographic Traveler magazine. He lives in Los Angeles, but he's never home. Go figure.

Customer Reviews

95% worthless
Given the massive changes in airline policies and security since 9/11, the vast majority of the advice in this book is no longer applicable. Greenberg focuses so much on flying - almost 240 of the book's 375 or so pages of content - that you'd think there was nothing more to travel than the flight. There's also a bizarre jump from an abbreviated pet-friendly lodging section (a whopping two paragraphs) smack into the middle of a discussion on how to get the best deal on a hotel room. Clearly, whoever edited this cut a big chunk out, and deprived the reader of who-knows-how-much information. There are some useful tips and hints in here, but not enough to justify owning it.

Too Much Schtick
If you would like to read Peter Greenberg's stand up act, get this book. If you are looking for clear, concise travel tips, keep looking. Reading this book, it feels like jokes outnumber useful tips 10 to 1. The first 10 pages are Jay Leno's take on traveling!?!? That's not what I call useful travel tips.

Waste of time for anyone with travel experience
If you have very little travel experience you may be able to get something out of this book but for the rest of the world it is a waste of time.