UBER: This is the greatest thing to happen to business travel since Southwest Airlines debuted nationally. If you don’t use UBER now, you eventually will.Why? Taxi’s suck. Not all of them – just most of them. The drivers are questionable (sometimes even scary), the cars are (mostly) gross, the fares are sometimes random and outrageous and they all universally hate taking anything other than cash. In fact, even taxi’s with a credit card meter integrated into the back seat act as though you’re ripping them off each time you pull out your AMEX card.

UBER is the solution to this. It’s sort of like a taxi service – only with nice cars (never a car older than 7 years, with nice drivers (they have been vetted including a background check) and you don’t even have to pay them (or worry about being ripped off on your fare) as the entire thing is charged via the App, automatically, and the fare is always fair! Not every city has UBER, yet, but you’ll wish they all did. Just download the App and put in your information and launch it and it will tell you how close the UBER driver is to you, what kind of car they drive, the name of the driver and how long until they arrive to pick you up. And, it works flawlessly.

Trip Advisor or Yelp: The best a hotel is EVER going to look is how well it looks in the photos of their own website. Trust me, if it looks questionable in the professional pics taken and posted on-line, it will be terrible in person. Trip Advisor and Yelp are chock-full of peer reviews and photos taken by people who’ve just stayed there – and their opinions. Real people – not the hotel’s photographer. So, this is how it will really look when you get there and the reviews people tend to write are accurate. if the last few people didn’t like it, you won’t. Oh, they review restaurants too!

Read a local Newspaper: When you travel, you will feel as if there’s a different local-language spoken in each and every city you visit. And, there is. The local happenings in any hometown are important to most people living there. And, to help “break the ice” for a newbie in town or so that you will know what’s going on locally, consider reading the local paper each morning as you eat breakfast. It matters!

Buy Good Luggage: If a suitcase seems expensive, it’s likely deserving of the price. I have found that good luggage is worth it. TUMI is my favorite but there are a lot of good quality brands out there. Just don’t buy a carry-on for $100 and expect it to hold up for more than 60-days – or, for that matter, a piece you’re going to check under an airplane better have carried a $400 price tag or more or best of luck getting it to hold up more than 6-months. Seriously, for a graduation present from college, ask for good luggage – you need one carry-on sized piece and something that can hold 4-5 days worth of clothing. That’s it. No hang-up bag. Oh, and get bags with 4-wheels – not two! Trust me – you’ll be glad you did!

Hotel Tonight: Get this App! Hotels give them their unsold rooms and they show you the day’s best values. You can book them easily, instantly and securely on your smartphone. And, they’re always cheaper than calling the hotel directly or going on their website. Even if you aren’t paying for your own room, you will look better to your boss if you are always paying less than your peers for travel.

I am sure there are many, many other tips my regular readers can recommend for my college students. Come on seasoned-travelers, what else do you think they need to have? Comment and tell me (and them)!