Travel agents—they do, in fact, still exist: living, breathing trip planners who can help you find the best hotel for your honeymoon, the right family safari, or just a great place to vacation when time and inspiration are lacking. The best can even get you a room upgrade or a credit for dinner. What's the difference, though, between a travel agent and a travel specialist? The secret's in the "special," of course: someone with in-depth knowledge of a city, region, or style of travel. A cruise guru. A Caribbean savant. An expert in the ever-changing rules of Cuba travel. But how do you find the right one? How do you know what to ask, or expect? This week, we explain what these mysterious beasts really are, when you should call one for help, and how to find someone who won't have you chasing an umbrella across the piazza.

Since January 27, the less-than-sexy minutiae of immigration policy and the alphabet soup of visa classes have been headline makers thanks to President Trump's executive order on immigration, which has come to be called, simply, "the travel ban." It's a subject dear to our hearts, given its profound and far-reaching effect on border crossings—and unless you're willing to spend a lot of time reading court papers, it can be a challenge to understand. So we decided to dive in and do a play-by-play of how we got to this point and what it actually means for travelers—those directly affected by the ruling, and the trickle-down effect to other parts of the travel industry— knowing full well that news could (and, it turned out, did) break *during* the taping of the podcast.

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Since January 27, the less-than-sexy minutiae of immigration policy and the alphabet soup of visa classes have been headline makers thanks to President Trump's executive order on immigration, which has come to be called, simply, "the travel ban." It's a subject dear to our hearts, given its profound and far-reaching effect on border crossings—and unless you're willing to spend a lot of time reading court papers, it can be a challenge to understand. So we decided to dive in and do a play-by-play of how we got to this point and what it actually means for travelers—those directly affected by the ruling, and the trickle-down effect to other parts of the travel industry— knowing full well that news could (and, it turned out, did) break *during* the taping of the podcast.

One of the questions we get most often at Condé Nast Traveler is how to get the best deal for the next place you're going. Should you buy on a specific day? From a specific airline? On a specific browser? Sadly, there's no catch-all answer to this very old question (though recent data points to Sunday as one of the best days to buy). Instead, we look at the steps you should take to get the best price on your ticket every single time—including price trackers, points hackers, airport hubs, and codeshare partners. We also look at whether money should really be your primary consideration, and debate the pros and cons of hidden-city ticketing. The rest? Well, you'll just have to listen.

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One of the questions we get most often at Condé Nast Traveler is how to get the best deal for the next place you're going. Should you buy on a specific day? From a specific airline? On a specific browser? Sadly, there's no catch-all answer to this very old question (though recent data points to Sunday as one of the best days to buy). Instead, we look at the steps you should take to get the best price on your ticket every single time—including price trackers, points hackers, airport hubs, and codeshare partners. We also look at whether money should really be your primary consideration, and debate the pros and cons of hidden-city ticketing. The rest? Well, you'll just have to listen.

How do you fit a comprehensive primer on traveling to Asia into a 45-minute discussion? You don't. We know. We tried. So consider this part 1. In which, in less time than it takes to get through a TSA line, we take you to Japan to see why Tokyo and Kyoto took the number one and two spots in our 2016 Readers' Choice Awards; to Thailand, where you'll get quality beach time plus the serenity of Chiang Mai's wooded foothills; on an Indonesian island hop (with an impassioned defense of Bali's resilient magic); and on a single-trip sprint through Hong Kong, Macau, Bangkok and more—with enough time left over to eat your way through Singapore's hawker centers. We drop a few surprises on the way—for instance, that Japan is home to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and that you can visit the Great Wall on a six-hour Beijing layover. And that Singapore is home to the cheapest Michelin-star dish on earth. Not covered? The Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Vietnam, Central Asia, or roughly 80 percent of the continent. So, yeah: we'll be back for part 2.

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How do you fit a comprehensive primer on traveling to Asia into a 45-minute discussion? You don't. We know. We tried. So consider this part 1. In which, in less time than it takes to get through a TSA line, we take you to Japan to see why Tokyo and Kyoto took the number one and two spots in our 2016 Readers' Choice Awards; to Thailand, where you'll get quality beach time plus the serenity of Chiang Mai's wooded foothills; on an Indonesian island hop (with an impassioned defense of Bali's resilient magic); and on a single-trip sprint through Hong Kong, Macau, Bangkok and more—with enough time left over to eat your way through Singapore's hawker centers. We drop a few surprises on the way—for instance, that Japan is home to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and that you can visit the Great Wall on a six-hour Beijing layover. And that Singapore is home to the cheapest Michelin-star dish on earth. Not covered? The Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Vietnam, Central Asia, or roughly 80 percent of the continent. So, yeah: we'll be back for part 2.

This time of year many of us in the Northern Hemisphere find ourselves deep in a dark, dreary winter, yearning for an escape to somewhere we can get a healthy dose of vitamin D. On this episode, we talk about sunny destinations ripe for escapes—some that are classics, like Hawaii and the British Virgin Islands, and others that may give you pause (North Pole? North Pole!). So whether you're looking for a Zika-free destination, beaches for a digital detox, or even a winter cruise out of the path of polar vortexes, we've got you covered.

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This time of year many of us in the Northern Hemisphere find ourselves deep in a dark, dreary winter, yearning for an escape to somewhere we can get a healthy dose of vitamin D. On this episode, we talk about sunny destinations ripe for escapes—some that are classics, like Hawaii and the British Virgin Islands, and others that may give you pause (North Pole? North Pole!). So whether you're looking for a Zika-free destination, beaches for a digital detox, or even a winter cruise out of the path of polar vortexes, we've got you covered.

This time of year many of us in the Northern Hemisphere find ourselves deep in a dark, dreary winter, yearning for an escape to somewhere we can get a healthy dose of vitamin D. On this episode, we talk about sunny destinations ripe for escapes—some that are classics, like Hawaii and the British Virgin Islands, and others that may give you pause (North Pole? North Pole!). So whether you're looking for a Zika-free destination, beaches for a digital detox, or even a winter cruise out of the path of polar vortexes, we've got you covered.