The data contained in the HPI indicates that hotel prices in Latin America have increased for five quarters in a row, which provides evidence of the economic growth occurring in the region. Hotel prices in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro rose 20 percent during the period, and prices in Brazil rose 19 percent. Brazil is now the third most expensive country in the world to book a hotel room.

Hotel prices rose moderately in Asia during the period, with several cities in the region being identified as top cities worldwide visited by Americans. Hong Kong ranked in the top ten, and Singapore, Shanghai, Dubai and Beijing ranked in the top 25. Singapore’s hotel prices rose 18 percent during the period.

The HPI is derived from prices paid by hotels.com customers worldwide, using an average of the number of rooms sold in each region where the hotel company does business. The data is gathered from 140,000 properties in 18,000 locations.

Priceline.com’s so-called Travel Ekspert, Brian Ek, notes that probably the best advice for people is to pay attention to what days they are traveling.

Prices can vary dramatically from day to day and certain dates around the holidays can prove excessively expensive, in addition to generally being the busiest and most frustrating to travel on.

For the week leading up to Thanksgiving, the primary day to avoid is Wednesday, November 23, as many people plan their travel for the first opportunity after work or school lets out. Coming home, travelers should avoid Saturday through Monday, when the bulk of vacationers will be returning.

Travelers should also avoid the Thursday and Friday before Christmas weekend, December 23 and 24, as well as Christmas itself and the day after, December 25 and 26.

In general aiming for early or late flights will save the most money, though mid-day tickets can also be reasonable.

While this might seem like a lot of hassle, tickets for Thanksgiving and Christmas have risen 6 percent and 3 percent over last year, respectively, making the extra effort worth the savings.

Unlike the earlier Chevy Volt the company introduced last year, the new Chevy Spark EV will be entirely electric with no second engine. The vehicle falls into the mini-car category, around the same size as the Mini Cooper.

A gas-powered version of the car goes on sale next year, but the fully-electric Spark is expected to hit the U.S. in early 2013, though little is known about the car’s specifications.

“EVs can be a sound solution for customers living in megacities and urban centers,” Jim Federico, a GM global vehicle line executive, told Bloomberg. “The technology is ideal for smaller vehicles like the Spark. It can provide a viable solution in markets where the infrastructure is more mature.”

Nevertheless, the company has seen slow sales for its current electric model, with only 4,000 Volts sold since they were introduced. The company expects sales to grow as the car enters more markets, but initial forecasts were around 10,000 by the end of 2011.

The current service began earlier this year with the $700 million acquisition of ITA Software. The move brought a quick investigation by the Department of Justice on anti-competitive grounds, as ITA provides flight data for several of the main players in the airline search industry, including MIcrosoft, Kayak and Expedia.

The deal was ultimately approved and completed in April, leading to the rapid development of the new Google Travel. This program allows for basic searches based on dates and destinations, as well as more complex filters based on airline or number of connections.

TechCrunch notes that as of now Google Travel lacks certain features common to other sites such as information on hotels and the ability to book multi-city trips, but it is expected to steadily expand into such services.

Kayak released a statement acknowledging “Google is a formidable competitor, but they haven’t been successful in every vertical they’ve entered.” The site expressed confidence its technology would prove superior and it would continue to compete.

1. Las Vegas, NV

2. Austin, TX

3. Montreal, Quebec, Canada

4. New York, NY

5. Miami, FL

The Terrafugia Transition could actually be described more as a driving plane, designed less for the daily commute and more for easy transit to and from local airstrips. The 19-foot-long, 26-foot wingspan Transition can carry two people and a limited amount of cargo a range of around 500 miles in the air. Changing from car to plane takes less than one minute.

While the Transition only requires a driver’s license on the ground, in the air it requires the same sport pilot license as similarly sized planes. Nonetheless, at $250,000 each, the Transition offers interesting potential for pilots looking to simplify the ride home or save on storage costs.

CNET first reported on Terrafugia in 2006, when a group of MIT students decided to try to make the dream of flying cars a reality.

Last week, the Nevada state legislature passed a law legalizing the use of driverless vehicles on public streets pending regulations crafted by the state’s Department of Transportation. Google is thought to be one of the primary proponents behind the law, as the company looks to test its new driverless car in real-life conditions.

According to ZD Net, Google’s cars have already driven nearly 140,000 miles in testing. The company promotes the concept as a means of reducing traffic and improving fuel efficiency. Google is hardly the only company to look into automation in cars, however. Forbes reports that Volkswagen has developed a new “Temporary Auto Pilot,” which could control a car even on the highway, though it is intended only as a supplement for a driver rather than a replacement.

Reuters notes that automated vehicles have already seen extended use in some industrial purposes, such as driverless mining trucks.

On the whole, satisfaction with airlines fell to 65 out of 100, a 1.5 percent drop and roughly on par with recent performances. Delta Air Lines plummeted to the bottom of the major airlines with a score of 56. Business passengers in particular voiced their dissatisfaction with airline services, raising a major threat to the industry.

Smaller airlines posted a much higher average of 76, improving by 1.3 percent, but only a limited number of people can take advantage of these more popular flights.

Instead, travelers can consider turning to the lone bright spot in the industry, Southwest Airlines. With low fares and no new fees for previously free services, travelers looked past the company’s sparse accommodations and gave the company an 81 rating.

On a more positive note for travelers, USA Today reports that the survey found hotels were generally rated much higher, averaging a score of 77.

Nearly all credit cards in the United States rely on magnetic stripes, as they have for decades. In Europe, Canada and much of the rest of the world, however, the credit card industry is well on its way through a transition to chip and PIN technology. These new cards include an embedded microchip that substantially increases data security and requires active authentication in the form of a PIN. According to Visa, nearly 60 percent of all European credit cards rely on chip and PIN technology.

Many travelers from the U.S. have found themselves stuck without any cash and with a credit card they did not realize was outdated. Some American banks have begun to offer new hybrid cards that include both technologies, but only to a few thousand customers so far.

Instead, Higgins notes that simply asking cashiers to swipe the old cards can work more than some might think, since most registers still accept magnetic stripes even if employees do not realize that. Anyone traveling to an area that relies heavily on chip and PIN cards, however, should consider options like the Travelex preloaded cards, just in case some business only accepts this type of card.

Edmunds.com looked at two of the biggest-name plug-in cars this year, the pure-electric Nissan Leaf and the hybrid-plug-in Chevrolet Volt. Obviously the Volt can go as far as necessary on its conventional engine, but its electric range reaches only between 30 and 40 miles. Relying exclusively on its electric engine, the Leaf clearly far outstrips the Volt, but still limits drivers to roughly 100 miles before requiring a recharge. Perfect for day-to-day driving, but not as good for the occasional road trip.

Limited range in itself is a problem, but Edmunds points out that most conventional cars also need a refill after around 300 miles. The biggest issue for electric cars is the combination of short range, as well as the requirement of frequent recharges, and extremely long recharge times. The Leaf needs between 4 and 8 hours with a special recharging setup, while the Volt can take as little as 4 hours with a 240-volt power supply or as much as 10 hours with only 120 volts.

The Leaf can be charged in as little as 30 minutes with a special quick-charge station, but these are still few and far between. In either case, these cars can easily become impractical if you live in an apartment and cannot install your own charging station.

Enter MIT professors Yet-Ming Chiang and Craig Carter. Along with some of their students, these two researchers developed a new approach to an old technology known as semi-solid flow batteries. Flow batteries are a relatively old concept that suspends charged particles in a compound that resembles slime, but the low energy density of these semi-solids requires the use of huge storage containers that generally make more sense for industrial purposes.

The MIT group was able to improve the energy density 10 fold, allowing for flow batteries small enough to use in automobiles and actually smaller than existing lithium-ion electric car batteries. The biggest advantage to these new batteries, however, is that pumping stations could remove depleted material and replace it with a fresh charge in the same time and similar fashion to present-day gas pumps.

Compare that to the concept Wired reported on a couple years ago of battery exchange stations.