The trend in hotels these days in NYC, London, Paris, Venice and other large cities is to appeal to tourists with tiny and tinier rooms. They’re promoted as all comfy and cute, but could be viewed as reminders of cramped Army troop train compartments. Or the Three Stooges sharing a boutique room.

Regular-sized hotel rooms are redesigned by cutting them into two or three smaller sleeping areas, and calling them boutique rooms. Of course, that means the hotel earns two or three times what they had been charging for the single, traditionally-sized room. 

It’s similar to what airlines do now to make more money by jamming more passengers into their formerly-comfortable seating areas. So, when you’re making reservations for big-city hotels, be sure you’re aware that when the word boutique appears, you’ll have to pay a hell of a lot more for a hell of a lot less.

The U.S. State Department issued recent warnings about tourists being sickened or worse by poisonous whiskeys. Many are homemade liquors where deadly wood alcohol is used as a cheap substitute for safe commercial brands. 

This time the incidents were reported to be at small cafés in Mexican Riviera cities on the nation’s west coast. Savvy senior travelers should be aware of the potential dangers, and confine alcohol drinking to name brands served in upscale hotels and restaurants.

Visitors to the historic city are not permitted to tote wheeled suitcases along the ancient streets and bridges. According to the Venice City Council, they cause too much damage to the fragile thousand-year-old stones.

So, if Venice is on your bucket list for an upcoming visit, while wandering the historic town, hoist an old-fashioned backpack or fanny bag. Tote only bags that won’t rut the road. Offending tourists could be gigged a fine of more than $600.

Incidentally, the law is somewhat discriminatory. It doesn’t apply to local merchants who daily track through the city with ponderous metal-wheeled carts and other heavy vehicles.

In a recent Yahoo article, the international foodie guru insists he never eats while flying coach. He cites lack of cleanliness, reheating of old food and other unhealthy practices by airline attendants.

Your travel4seniors.com editor, with more than a half-century of flying in the cheap seats, agrees. Also, the price of an airline meal has risen during those years from $5 (often free back then) to as much as $50.