The best city breaks in the USA

This series of articles about credit cards, points and miles, and budgeting for travel is brought to you in partnership with The Points Guy.

Late last year, I was itching to leave my hometown of Los Angeles and booked a short trip to the East Coast. But, as soon as I boarded my return flight, I realized I couldn't wait to get back home.

This month saw the launch of what many in the travel blogosphere are calling the best travel-rewards credit card ever: the Sapphire Reserve Visa card from Chase.

With Delta and United’s transition to spend-based loyalty programs last year, and American’s upcoming later this year, there’s no longer room for debate as to the industry standard. Travelers should now expect to be rewarded according to their spend, not according to the number of miles they fly.

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.

Looking for a new museum to add to your travel to-do list? TripAdvisor (SmarterTravel’s parent company) has released the Travelers’ Choice Top 25 Museums of 2018, including the top 10 worldwide and the top 10 in the United States, with some surprising frontrunners. The findings also highlight bookable ways to see each winner—think VIP tours and scavenger hunts—with some offering the added perk of allowing you to skip the lines to get in.

If your airline loyalty has been on autopilot for the past few years, this would be a good time to reassess your choice of frequent flyer programs. A lot has changed, and not for the better.

Hotels, flights, clothes, shoes, luggage, and pretty much anything else a traveler could need is all on sale in honor of the Fourth of July. Here are the best sales to shop.

The esteemed Dr. Beach has released his annual list of America’s top ten beaches, and you’ll want to visit all of them this summer—doctors orders.

J.D. Power is out with its annual list of the best airlines for customer satisfaction, and the ranking is once again topped by familiar liveries. Alaska Airlines is the best airline for the eleventh consecutive year—yes, eleventh—and Southwest topped the low-cost category for the second straight year.

IdeaWorks is out with its annual reward seat availability survey, which ranks airlines’ reward programs based on how easy it is to redeem frequent flyer points or miles for reward travel. As any frequent flyer knows (and as common sense dictates), this metric is essential to determining the value of an airline reward program. It’s sort of the whole point, right?

Wondering what the best airlines are according to the average flyer? TripAdvisor (SmarterTravel’s parent company) gives a good idea in its Travelers’ Choice best airline rankings each year based on real travelers’ reviews. And the results are different than most trade studies that list the “best airlines.”