Budget Travel

With summer vacation season approaching, the hunt for great travel deals has moved to the top of a lot of to-do lists. But as you're clicking around the Web for cheap flights and bargain hotel rooms, and crunching the numbers to see how much fling you can afford, don't forget to check for discounts that may be lying fallow behind the plastic in your wallet.

The Economist has released something a little less dry – even juicier – than its normal fare: The annual Big Mac index, which compares burger prices around the world.

The hush that falls over those gathered at Hollywood Forever Cemetery isn't just a sign of respect for the dead. On select evenings, it signals that a blockbuster movie screening is beginning. The cemetery movie series is an unexpected-yet-perfect way to pay tribute to legends like Rudolph Valentino and John Huston. "You're literally a few feet from someone who has worked on these movies," says Cinespia series cofounder John Wyatt.

Like most budget travelers, the word that makes eyebrows leap the highest is 'free'. While the you-get-what-you-pay-for statute makes it uncool to grade, compare or criticize free stuff, certain free attractions are indisputably superior to others and, in many cases, completely outshine their un-free neighbors.