I’m not using the title of this post to be arrogant. The reason that I wrote that I’m a smart traveler is because I want to help others make their travels go as smoothly as possible. All of the things that I now know were learned the hard way, so if I could spread this knowledge to others, it would make me feel good knowing that they will be able to avoid all of the hassles that I had to endure in order to learn what I know now.
For me, the most important part of being a smart traveler is knowing how to save money. If you are able to save money every time that you go on a trip somewhere, you will be able to take more trips in total (because of the money that you will have saved).
From all of my experience, the best thing you can do to save money is make your arrangements ahead of time. For example, I took a trip to Los Angeles last month, and because I used the Internet to make my reservation three weeks before my trip began, I was able to pickup a cheap car rental at the airport when I arrived in Los Angeles.