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Vacation is the time to kick back, relax…and have one hell of a party. A new book rounds up the best places to experience a new culture by getting down with the locals. Researching a book entitled 101 Places to Get F*cked Up Before You Die: The Ultimate Travel Guide to Partying Around the World may seem like the most fun job ever. But editor David S. Miller stresses there's more to it than one might think. He describes the compilation of wild, first-person adventure stories pulled from the community of travel writers that comprise the Matador Network as a "Trojan Horse:" the sensationally-dubbed cover opens to reveal real cultural experiences. The book's crazy title gave Miller pause when he was first approached about the project, but he soon realized there was a lot missing in the current travel literature. Most features flaunt the best beaches and sunsets, but they lack details on how visitors can have authentic cultural experiences. "People are just trying to sell the destination," he says. But he wanted this book to provide readers with "culture and stories you wouldn't find in every travel book." "The whole ethos behind the book is: it doesn't really matter where you go…even in Antarctica or the middle of the Bolivian salt flats…if you're the kind of person who isn't much of risk-taker, this is a time to get out and mix it up," says Miller. The crazy stories told in the book, organized into booze-and, occasionally, drug-fueled chapters like "High Elevation" and "Under the Radar," give readers tips on how to have fully immersive experiences while on vacation. Intertwined among tales of getting "f*cked up" are accounts of how to make real connections with local people who can serve as guides to the region, taking the traveler to the most genuine spots.

If there were a Girl Scout badge for travel, you'd surely earn it after using these tips. Name: "101 Tips for Women Travelers E-book," oattravel.com/101tips Available: Interactive flipbook; .pdf for laptop or personal computers;. epub for iPad (with iBooks), Sony Reader and all other non-Kindle e-book readers;. mobi for Amazon Kindle devices. What it does: This free, downloadable e-book by Overseas Adventure Travel, a company geared toward travelers 50 and older, is chockablock with practical tips to help you become a smarter, better-prepared traveler. The e-book is written for women by experienced female travelers, but any traveler, no matter the gender or age, will be savvier for reading it. What's hot: Many of the tips were new to me. Becki from Tennessee said, "Leave your money belt out until you get past security. New scanning machines at airport security can pick up on a money belt as something hidden beneath your clothing, resulting in your being pulled out for a pat-down and additional questioning." I especially appreciated the appendix with digital resources, clothing sizes around the world and the Bandanarama section: 25 uses for a scarf.

If you are among those set of people who prefer luxury traveling with privacy, then booking up a private transfer service with Noble Transfer is best option for you. Whether you are traveling to Zurich with family, a group of friends, or business colleagues - we've plans for every kind of luxurious Zurich airport transfer that fits in your budget well. With us, booking a private chauffeur is not only east, but way more fast too. Be it's booking an extra seat for your children or speedily getting through all the available offers and select the best airport transfer in Zurich service, our plans as well as site is designed in a way that promises your ease and flexibility over anything else.

"BREAKFAST is nasty, the rooms are nasty." So complained a reviewer of an Oregon guesthouse earlier this year. There is nothing unusual in that: all hotels must deal with the odd disgruntled guest. This critique, though, appeared on TripAdvisor, a travel-review website. When the correspondent went on to document drunken housekeepers and licentious receptionists, the owners sued him. It was more than a point of pride. What customers say on TripAdvisor can make or break hotels. Around 260m people visit the site each month to read some of the 125m reviews. The firm makes money by displaying prices from online travel-agents (OTAs) alongside its reviews, and then charging those agents each time a customer clicks through. It is such a good example of a network effect that it is the subject of a Harvard Business School (HBS) case study. The more users post reviews, the more useful the site is to those about to book a holiday. This makes it more important to hotels and travel agents, who offer better deals. This results in more traffic-and more reviews-closing the virtuous circle. Last year TripAdvisor reported revenue of $944.7m. Because users post reviews free of charge, in 2012, Jeffrey Bussgang, an HBS lecturer, calculated that its gross margin was an astounding 98%. For these reasons, some think TripAdvisor may be able to take on the "big two" OTAs, Expedia (from which TripAdvisor was spun off in 2011) and Priceline, which on August 6th bought up to 10% of Ctrip, a large travel website in China. These firms sell flights and hotel rooms directly, rather than pass booking requests on to others, as TripAdvisor does. But, says Blake Harper of Wunderlich Securities, a stockbroker, the two ways of doing business are converging.

Telegraph Travel's new app promises to cut through the white noise to bring you only the very best of a destination. Written by resident experts, the free app offers innovative functionality and intuitive advice. Want to make the most of your holiday? Let our award-winning experts help you explore the world's leading destinations with this must-have app. Already selected by Apple as one of their "best new apps" it includes New York, Amsterdam, Rome and Paris among its initial destinations, with Barcelona, Edinburgh and Venice among those to follow. Our resident experts have personally reviewed every attraction, restaurant, bar, beach and shop to bring you only the very best the destination has to offer. Built with offline access and solely reliant on GPS to track your movements, there is no risk of expensive roaming charges. Once you have downloaded them - and some 15,000 of you have this week already done so - you can use the apps to navigate around the destination with the Telegraph as your guide. Short, insightful reviews written especially for the app, easy-to-use interactive maps and simple categorisation will help you ensure your next choice is the right choice. We won't just leave you at the door either - each recommendation comes with tips and insider knowledge about the local delicacies to order, how to get the best table, how to beat the queues and how to save money. As well as hand-picked recommendations, our experts have created customised itineraries to help you plan the perfect trip. All the key information - such as phone numbers, prices, websites and booking advice - will also be at your fingertips. Every location is plotted on your iPhone's map, so you can see where you are and quickly get where you need to go and all the information is constantly reviewed and updated. Over the coming weeks we will be adding new destinations and new functionality, but we also want to hear from you. Where do you want this app to take you