SmarterTravel Holiday Gift Guide

Lots of us are choosing to holiday with friends rather than family. According to a survey by Expedia of 24,000 adults across 17 countries, 65% of people planning to travel in the next 36 months will be doing so with friends. Holidaying with your mates is great fun – but the sudden change from casual socialising to spending 24/7 together can be challenging. Here’s how to navigate some common sources of stress – and ensure you’re all still speaking to each other when you get home.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Daniel Glazer . The following has been edited for length and clarity.

With its white-sand beaches and sparkling turquoise seas framed by palm trees, lush greenery and soaring mountains, there could hardly be a more romantic destination than the Caribbean. Whether you want to snorkel with spectacular sea life, indulge in a moonlit dinner á deux, have your cares massaged away or lounge together in a private cabana, the Caribbean offers the ultimate idyllic couples’ escape.

If American Airlines’ recent scheduling glitch left you wondering whether your holiday flight would be cancelled for lack of available pilots, you can now rest easy.

Sale season is in full swing—which means now is the time to stock up on travel accessories and essentials. Whether you’re on the hunt for gifts or need to prepare for an upcoming trip, the hottest travel products on Amazon are the perfect place to start. Here are this year’s must-have items.

When experts name the “best” days to travel, they usually name the days airfares are lowest—which often aren’t optimal for most people once you factor in personal convenience and schedule constraints. There’s typically a reason why these ones are the slower travel days.

Most travelers now say their smartphone is the single most indispensable item they carry, ahead of even their toothbrush, deodorant, and driver’s license. And if you’re like most people, the first thing you do when you get to the airport is look for free Wi-Fi.

When do you find the lowest fares for Thanksgiving and December holiday travel? Right now, says the latest data from Hipmunk, derived from analysis of historical buying patterns. Specifically, you can find the lowest fares for both Thanksgiving flights and the winter holidays during the first week of September. But don’t give up if you miss that week:

Booking holiday travel usually means watching vigilantly for the lowest-possible fares of the busy season, but it turns out this should also be a time to look out for travel scams. As the holidays bring an uptick in online purchases like travel booking, the risk of online fraud rises as well, online travel fraud prevention company Forter reports. A new report by the company found that e-commerce fraud rose 13 percent in 2017, with travel-related fraud specifically rising 37 percent—and holiday travel scams comprising a large part of it.

Is it too soon to think about the holiday flights? No way, says CheapAir. They’re already tracking flights, and released an early look at the best days to fly for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.

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If you save your holiday shopping for the last minute or are looking for quick and easy gift ideas, then Amazon online shopping is your saving grace—these seven Amazon holiday shopping tips will help save you time and money this season.