This week, we had the pleasure of chatting with Veronica Belmont, Internet television It Girl and tech know-it-all extraordinaire who has captured the hearts of geeks and nerds everywhere in her current role as host of Revision3’s Tekzilla, and, before that, on Mahalo Daily and CNET. Of course, she wouldn’t describe herself that way. The 20-something San Francisco resident proved herself to be ultra down-to-earth, funny and personable when we caught up with her to pick her brain about some very important tech and travel topics. Like, for example, the reason my GPS is constantly hurting my feelings. Read on…

When was the last time you took a vacation and were totally “off the grid?” Does that notion even sound appealing – or totally nightmarish?

I’ll just say it’s been well over a year since the last time I truly unplugged. Honestly, I don’t even think it was on purpose. I went to Big Sur, and there just happened to be no cellular reception! My email went unanswered for a record 3 days. The Earth, shockingly, continued to turn.

How does it feel to be known as one of the sexiest geeks alive?

You’re embarrassing me! Do I have to answer? OK, well, I have to say that it’s a little odd, because I never thought of myself that way. It’s flattering that some people do! Next question!!

Favorite airline? (Is it Virgin America? We knew it!)

Oh man, do I really give off that vibe? Yes, Virgin America is my favorite, and I swear that it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they play Revision3 content. I fly a few times a month, so any steps that an airline takes to make the experience better means a whole lot to me. I’m pretty sure they have the best cocktails too.

Favorite hotel or hotel brand?

I’m a big Westin fan, when I get to stay there. I do not, however, appreciate paying $15 for a bottle of contact saline solution. Also, any hotel with a sand-bottom pool gets me every time.

You live in one of the best cities on the planet: San Francisco. (I’m a bit biased, considering that I live there, too.) What are three things any first-time visitor to San Francisco must, must, must do?

Definitely eat a burrito in the Mission, preferably at Taqueria Cancun and then bike in Golden Gate Park all the way down to Ocean Beach to burn it off!

Let’s talk about GPS devices. Which one is your current favorite?

My current favorite GPS device is the Dash. From a geek’s perspective it’s great, because you can send it addresses from your computer when you’re planning a trip, and the device will update wirelessly when you’re ready to go. The live traffic updating is really convenient too.

My Garmin says, “recalculating,” in a really condescending way. How can I stop taking it so personally? (Note that I’ve already tried changing the voice from the nasal American woman to the stuffy British man. It helped, but not much.)

Your GPS sounds like a jerk. I suggest selling it and going with a TomTom. That way you can have Mr. T or Tom Selleck reading your directions! If that’s not an option, just remind yourself that at the end of the day the voice in your GPS is trapped inside a little gadget, while you’re visiting interesting and wonderful places.

I’m a frequent traveler, but a pretty bad photographer. Still, I like to try. And cool gadgetry and features make me happy, even if I never actually RTFM and, consequently, never end up using them. What digital camera would you recommend for someone like me?

My favorite point-and-shoot camera is the Panasonic Lumix, and you can’t really mess up a picture too badly with that one. If you want something a little more high-end, I use the Canon G7 as my day-to-day camera, even if it’s not quite pocket-sized. But the pictures are great!

Do you have any strategies for making it through airport security efficiently with a bunch of tech gadgets in tow?

Despite the fact that I carry a small army of gadgets around with me, I’m shocked that I don’t get stopped more often. I keep all gadgets in my carry-on, because frankly I don’t trust airlines to not rifle through my stuff. My best tip is to invest in a bag that has lots of wonderful compartments of various sizes, so every gadget has its own home, and you always know where to find it.

When you travel, are there any rules that you live and die (or fly) by? Can you share them with us?

I never check luggage unless it’s absolutely necessary. I’ve gotten to the point where I can pack for a week or more just out of a carry-on case, which is no small feat for your average lady. If you must check luggage for an extended trip, bring a couple of days clothes with you on the plane just in case, as well as all gadgets and chargers. I also always keep my toiletries on the outermost compartment of my carry-on, for easy access through security and to prevent too much damage if anything leaks!

Want more Veronica? You can catch her dishing out tech advice and insight alongside co-host Patrick Norton every day on Tekzilla.

Every week, I run across a handful of news stories, features and blog posts that stand out from the pack. What hit my mental dashboard and stuck this week:

Recession-Proof Travel: How to Save Money When it Matters

Naked Pilot, Flight Attendant Charged After Romp in Woods

Tales from ‘Fareland’

Not that Kind of Crystal

The True Adventures of Marital Bliss Inside the Golden Nugget’s Spa Suite

Urine Collecting Underwear for Pilots

5 Common Airline Ticket Errors and How to Avoid Them

If anything says summer, it’s a good old-fashioned road trip. And according to some calculations from the Car Care Council, a non-profit that educates consumers on the importance of proper vehicle care, driving can save you a bundle on your next family vacation.

If you’re looking at a trip of 500 miles or less for a family of four, the Car Care Council’s Rich White says driving is a far more cost-effective and convenient way to travel than jumping on a plane - even if you’re driving an SUV and gas were to hit $5/gallon this summer. White estimates that a family of four traveling on a 500-mile trip would save at least $1,000 by driving, maybe more.

Read on for White’s thoughts on why driving kicks flying’s butt, what to do before you head out on the trip and how to stay safe and happy along the way.

Other than saving money, what advantages are there to driving?

Travelers have so much more control over every part of their vacation by car as opposed to by plane. When you go, when you arrive, when you stop to eat, if you want to change your itinerary - that costs you nothing. Try to do that by plane, there are fees. Even if you could find an alternative flight, you’re at the mercy of someone else when flying, and you have very little flexibility and no options. Now they’re charging for a second bag. You’re going on vacation, and you can only take one bag – if you pack your car, you can take a gallon of facial lotion if you want.

You’re based near DC. Would you rather spend two hours stuck in traffic around the Capital Beltway or two hours stuck at the airport waiting for a delayed flight – and why?

I think because you can control when you’re driving, you can avoid the beltway during rush hour, you have alternative routes. You can go down 181. You have no choice when you go to the airport. If you take an hour to get to the airport, and you get there an hour and a half early, and you stand in line and then you leave, get to the other end, and then wait in line to go get a rental car, for a 500-mile trip, you’re spending almost as much time as you would had you driven. And then you have none of the other advantages of driving.

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Through Thursday, you can get some decent deals on AirTran fares with its all-destination fare sale. To score the best fares, you’ll need to:

1. Purchase your ticket directly through AirTran (800-AIR-TRAN).

2. Purchase tickets at least 10 days before your departure date.

3. Travel on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday.

4. Complete travel by Nov. 5, 2008

Happy hunting!

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s new bumping rules take effect one week from today. The last time the rules were updated was 1978 - you know, before disco died, around the same time I was eating mushed peas and carrots from tiny jars and putting blocks in my mouth - so the changes are pretty big news for airline consumers and reflect the government’s attempt to alleviate travelers’ woes after what many have described as the worst year for airline consumers - ever.

The new rules essentially double the amounts airlines are required to offer passengers who are involuntarily denied boarding. But oh, the fine print! If you really want to geek out, check the links to the official documents at the bottom of this post. For everyone else, here’s what you really need to know when you head to the airport:

Ch-ch-changes: On May 19, passengers who are involuntarily denied boarding on flights will be entitled to compensation up to $400 if the airline reschedules them on a later flight arriving more than one hour but less than two hours (four for international flights) after their originally scheduled arrival time and up to $800 if the airline reschedules them on flights arriving more than two hours (four for international flights) after their originally scheduled arrival time. The compensation you will receive is calculated based on the ticket fare you paid. The $400 and $800 figures are the maximum amounts passengers are entitled to receive from the airline.

The fast track: If you are involuntarily denied boarding on a flight, but the airline is able to reschedule you on a later flight that will put you at your destination within an hour of your original arrival time, then you will receive no compensation.

The switcheroo: If the airline denies passengers boarding due to a plane change that results in fewer available seats, then passengers are not entitled to compensation under the DOT rules.

More after the jump….

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Europe is arguably the most popular destination for first-time travelers abroad, but the reality is it’s incredibly expensive, especially with the current pace of the dollar versus the Euro. However, that shouldn’t deter you from heading abroad. We’ve got a few good tips that can save you money.

1. Travel in fall
Why fight crowds and pay higher prices on hotels and flights? Granted the weather is fantastic, but if you go in autumn the weather is still fair (and not blazing hot in some parts), and you’ll pay significantly less.

2. Fly, don’t train
One of the neat things about traveling in Europe is taking the train. You see the countryside, and can visit multiple countries in one ride. However, the train takes extra time you can be using touring the local attractions, and costs hundreds more. Europe has many low-cost carriers like Ryan Air and EasyJet. For instance, you can travel from Paris to Rome from as little as $40 Euros.

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With Mother’s Day on Sunday, Hillary’s run for the nation’s top job saturating our media outlets and the new issue of Budget Travel’s Girlfriend Getaways out on newsstands, it seems like a fine time for a juicy gab sesh about women’s travel.

I was perusing Peter Greenberg’s weekly Travel News Roundup this morning (one of my fave travel sites), and was inspired by 50 Best Girlfriend Getaways author Marybeth Bond’s Top 5 Tips for Women Travelers. Bond, who makes regular appearances everywhere from Oprah to National Geographic, offers some great, all-purpose tips for women on the road.

I’ve got some women’s travel tips of my own, courtesy of a month-long solo travel stint in Thailand, a backpacking excursion through Europe and Scandinavia and the better part of a year living in London with a house chock full of (too many) other chicks (love you girls, but you know I’m right). These may be a little too specific in some cases, but if it can happen to me…It can happen to you, too:

When in Rome: Should you ever find yourself shocked and appalled at the snooty ‘tude and up-turned nose on the Italian shoe saleswoman removing your sneakers to allow you to you try on a pair of way, way too expensive shoes in a posh shop on the Via Condotti, check the bottom of your sneaks. They just might be covered in dog poop. And you just might not have noticed. And this Italian woman in stilettos bending to take off your shoes might just not be as uppity as you think.

Spanish Steps: If it ever happens that you’re walking peacefully down a dark alley, late at night, on the “wrong side” of the Ramblas in Barcelona with your significant other, and a group of five seemingly innocuous, jovial and surprisingly friendly Spaniards approaches you, then try to engage the afore-mentioned significant other in a “football dance” celebrating the country’s recent sporting victory, they might be friendly, nice, football-crazed Spaniards. But they might also be trying to pickpocket your significant other. Which will be unfortunate, but will also sour the significant other on watching football for the rest of your vacation.

More after the jump….

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If there’s an airline miles promotion that every traveler from here to eternity and back again has heard about, it’s gotta be FTD.com’s miles-for-flowers promo. So when an email encouraging me to earn 25 miles for each dollar spent popped into my inbox from Northwest Airlines World Perks this morning, I started to dismiss it with a been there, done that click of the mouse. But then I thought, wait, this familiar promotion is reminding me of something important for anyone who travels these days: you can earn airline miles on almost anything you’d ever need or want to buy.

Whether you’ll actually be able to book award travel with them is another question. But first things first. You’ve got to have the miles to go places with them. And as someone who recently traveled from California to the Caribbean on a 30,000-mile award ticket, I can tell you that the days of getting good deals with your miles are hardly over.

Click through for 5 tips that will help you earn more miles on everything you buy.

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When a trip I’m taking involves more than 10 hours of travel time – not counting any unforeseen delays – I approach it much differently than a quick flight within the continental U.S. or one that takes me from coast to coast. Spending the better part of a day getting to and from a destination is taxing, but add an overnight leg to the journey, a lengthy layover or an impossibly long flight to the mix, and it’s easy to end up cranky, tired, hungry or bored to tears. But none of those things have to happen.

I recently took a trip that involved a five-hour red-eye followed by a six-hour layover and another three-hour flight, and the experience got me thinking about tips for travelers on long-haul journeys. Here’s a list of ideas to help you the next time you’re embarking on such an adventure:

1. Food: Bring it with you. Don’t count on the airline to provide anything except the seat you’re sitting in. I always pack granola bars and make a sandwich or pick up something post-security at the airport before boarding a plane. (And though this may sound like a small point, I’d recommend skipping extras like tomatoes, lettuce and other sog-inducing veggies. There’s nothing quite as depressing mid-flight as a squishy sammie with wet, disintegrating edges.)
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On Monday, the nation’s major carriers implement new fees for checked baggage (you can get the lowdown on which airlines are charging what fees with our Checked Bag Airline Surcharge Chart).

Not surprisingly, other travel companies are seeing the new fees as an opportunity to woo travelers with special luggage-related perks. Here are two:

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