Lines, Reading Between Them When It Comes to Brochures and Websites

Susan Stellin, author of How to Travel Practically Anywhere (Houghton Mifflin, $16, www.amazon.com), loosely translates travel phrases that can be misleading.

Beachfront Condo: There might be a highway between your condo and the beach, so don’t assume you can walk barefoot to the ocean’s edge.

Ceiling Fan: No air-conditioning.

Cozy: Tiny.

Family-Friendly: Expect cannonballs at the pool. Not necessarily a good choice for romance.

Garden View: Usually the opposite of ocean view, meaning you could be staring at a parking lot.

Hip: Often affiliated with a high-profile architect (even if he designed just the washcloths). Tends to signal insufficient lighting in rooms, impractical furniture, and guests who may not be sympathetic to your child’s meltdowns.

Lively Nightlife: Bring earplugs.

Remote: There’s one restaurant…if you’re lucky.

Rustic: Sometimes refers to a ski lodge with pine paneling, but this could also mean that your only heat source will be a fireplace.

Walking Distance: That walk to town may feel more like a hike.

Passport, How to Get One in a Jiffy

What should you do when you plan an international trip and realize, mere weeks before departure, that — gulp — your passport has expired?

Your Best (and Cheapest) Plan of Attack: Contact the U.S. State Department (www.travel.state.gov) to set up an appointment for an expedited passport at one of the 13 regional passport agencies. This will run you $60 in addition to application fees and overnight fees for a three-week turnaround, as opposed to the regular four- to six-week wait for a passport, says Cy Ferenchak, deputy spokesperson for the Bureau of Consular Affairs. Passport seekers can also visit the Bureau of Consular Affairs website (www.travel.state.gov) to get more information.

Next Best: Enlist the help of an expediter service (there are more than 200). Although these services are pricier than the government route, most guarantee your passport to you in as little as 24 hours. Visa HQ’s 24-hour expediting service is $200; three-day service is $150. Another expediter service, www.rushmypassport.com, offers 24-hour service for $299, plus a $135 government fee. Expediter services usually have passport forms online, and the process includes mailing the forms along with original documents, such as proof of identification. Once your passport has been processed, your documents, along with the passport, are sent back to you, explains Kimberly Carroll, director of marketing for Visa HQ (www.visahq.com). But before you send in documents to an expediter service, Robert Smith Jr., executive director of the National Association of Passport and Visa Services, says to call. These services have application quotas, so customers may need to contact several companies before they find one that can help them.