You know the types: the over-chatty seatmate, the pre-teen blasting LMFAO at full decibels through his headphones, the log-sawing snorer who doesn't realize he's depriving you of a good flight's sleep. Traveling often means finding yourself exposed to sounds, sights, and stomach-turning stenches you'd rather avoid. Here are a few tips on how to deal with common travel annoyances.

Don't get us wrong: We love a good guidebook. But when it comes to finding under-the-radar travel spots-the little seafood joint with no sign that was the highlight of your Caribbean trip or the candle-lit hut in Austria where you sipped mulled wine with the locals after sled runs under the stars-you usually have to dig deeper than the official editor-approved must-do's. Here are a few ways to go about unearthing travel tips that will really make your vacation one to remember.

Resurrecting some of your high school Spanish, French or German can come in handy when you're traveling -- even a little residual Latin can sometimes help you make sense out of a foreign sign. But while basic expressions like "¿Una cerveza, por favor?" and "Où est la piscine?" may be engrained in your brain, they'll only get you so far when it comes to really communicating abroad. So what to do when you're traveling to a place where the signs all look like Greek (or is that Cyrillic?) to you, and making sense of your surroundings doesn't seem so simple after all?

The chance to follow the Florida spring break trail last week – from St. Pete Beach all the way to South Beach – was an education for Terry Ward. Here are the top five things she learned from the experience.