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The most important thing to consider when travelling alone is safety. While today's world of smartphones, instant communications and i-everything provides some comfort, there are still some more ' traditional ' ways to stay safe. Here are some tips when traveling solo... Keep up communication Always inform family and friends where your heading, how you can be reached and provide them with a full itinerary of flights and transport. If you're being collected from the airport, ask the tour operator or hotel sending the transportation for the name of the person or service picking you up along with their phone numbers as well as those of the destination. Also, select flights that arrive during daylight hours, and try to connect with people on the other side using social media. Leave valuables at home Apart from your passport, wallet and any other travel documentation you might need for your specific destination, it's best to leave valuables in the form of expensive jewelry and gadgets at home. Keep the trip light and casual, leaving more room to pick up souvenirs from the destination itself. The same rule applies for large sums of cash. We all hate bank charges, but not as much as getting a a load of money stolen, so withdraw money when you get there. It's just not work the risk.

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.

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

When the smartphone was in its infancy and app stores were not yet operational, its best built-in app to help travelers was the Maps app. There were no walking directions provided, just a map that you needed to interpret to help you get to your destination. These days, smartphones have so spoiled us that we wonder how we have lived without it. For example, the technologically-advanced descendant of the first map app now features not only driving and walking directions, but also directions for those who take public transportation (for some countries, at least). This has made it easier for travelers to navigate through some foreign countries the same way that natives do. With the right apps, you can turn your smartphone into an indispensable travel companion that can save you money; if your pockets cannot afford travel just yet, you can even do a little armchair traveling from your smartphone. Below are some handy apps to have when exploring foreign territory: > Bla Camera Pro ($0.99, iOS) > Camera Plus Pro ($1.99, iOS) > Google + > Google Maps (Free, iOS/Google Play) > City Maps to Go (Free, iOS/Google Play) > VSCO Cam (Free, iOS/Google Play) > Pin Drop (Free, iOS) > Metro (Free, iOS)

You've spent months scouring the Internet for the perfect washer and dryer combo to complement your newly renovated laundry room. Finally, you've located what appears to be the perfect match at the right price. Suddenly the deal is off. Your credit card won't go through, and you have no other immediate form of payment to use before the sale ends. It's happened to many of us: You go to close the sale or pay for a meal and are told: "This card's been denied. Do you have another form of payment?" Don't think that this is always a result of sheer financial irresponsibility.

"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.