Canadian snowbirds may soon be able to spend as much as two months more nesting down south next year.

U.S. legislation now being debated in Congress would allow Canadians aged 55 and older to spend up to 240 days in the country without a visa, almost two months longer than the current 182-day annual limit.

The provision is not yet law, but it has the backing of New York Senator Charles Schumer, a legislator who has long been keen on finding ways to get more Canadians spending their dollars across the border.  

It's beginning to feel a lot like summer.

And with the Victoria Day long weekend upon us many Canadians have turned their thoughts to adventure and warmer climates.

Even though there's a lot of excitement about upcoming fun in the sun trips, travellers have three top worries while away: the weather, losing something important and requiring medical attention.

According to a study by BMO Insurance, 83 per cent of Canadians are planning on taking a vacation this summer however, only half actually purchase travel insurance.

While many drivers instinctively want to "beat the system" after being pulled over, the odds are against you.

"But, officer, I didn’t see the sign!" ranks as the the top excuse in a recent survey of explanations drivers give when stopped by police. Not that it generally gets them anywhere.

Being lost and being "unaware" of car equipment failure are also among the typical excuses drivers offer when pulled over for a potential ticket.

Renting out your Florida condo can be a good way to offset some of your costs. But be wary when it comes to writing off expenses, experts warn.

Don't expect to rent out it out for a month or two during the winter and deduct a year's worth of interest and other expenses, for instance. The CRA expects to see such expenses be pro-rated, allowing you to deduct them only for those months when income was actually being earned.

If you've advertised that the property is available for rent but it still remains empty, you may be able to write off the expenses for this open time period. The time spent trying to find a tenant may be considered a deductible expense,providing you can document your efforts.

Forget about deducting the cost of your flight down there, however. And the same rules apply if you're driving.

Spring is in the air and so are Canadian travellers.

It seems the cold, dark months have been with us for forever. Everywhere I go I hear people talking about heading to warmer climates or I see their vacation photos from some sunny paradise posted on their Facebook page.

If you haven't gotten away yet, don't worry.  There may be hope yet. A new survey reveals that at least 79 per cent of Canadians are planning on hitting the sunnier trails this season.

It seems that some cash strapped families are listing their spare rooms on rental websites like Airbnb.com or 9flats.com, which help you to rent a room in your home for short periods to make some extra cash.

Lost privacy and the possibility of choosing a noisy or messy tenant mean that taking in boarders isn't likely to be everyone's first choice. But taking in students, overnight travellers, or airline employees looking for a "crash pad" can work, particularly if you've had kids of your own.

Be careful though. As soon as you rent out part of your home, you've changed the use of that part from your primary residence to a rental property, the folks at Turbo Tax advise.

Accordingly, during the time that you own and rent out space in your home, you'll need to claim that rental income on your tax return. You'll also have to let your insurance company know that things have changed a bit.

You can claim proportional expenses — such as taxes, insurance, minor repairs and maintenance and interest expenses — incurred to earn that rental income though.

When it comes to holidays, who you go with can be just as important as where you go and how much you're willing to spend. 

Assuming you're not simply stuck with the kids during March break, consider your travel companion carefully, as the wrong choice can mean the difference between a great trip and a disaster.

Consider taking a test run first. Overnight trips or even a weekend outing may help you both get a good idea about your compatibility.

One pair of women knew each other from the gym, but had never spent a lot of time together. Turns out one was an unstoppable chatterbox who yakked incessantly about anything and everything.

"I will never, ever travel with her again," her disgruntled partner fumed, "and I don't know how I'm going to make it through the next five days without strangling her."

Most Canadians don’t think twice about the need for car insurance, but many are willing to take the risk of travelling uninsured, according to a survey from American Express Canada.

Only 59% plan to purchase travel insurance prior to taking off on their next trip, which isn't that surprising considering that 30% (42% of those 18 to 34) admit that they’ve actually never purchased such coverage.

What's holding them back? Well, they're not sure whether they're getting a good deal or not (72%), think there's too much jargon and don't understand what coverage includes (66%), and that it's just too complicated to compare one product to another (65%).

And, even when they do buy, it's tough to collect. At least that's what one Toronto man argues, even though he may not have been completely forthcoming during the application process.

For all the griping about airline fees we do in this space and in the comments below, what is it we most care about when it comes to flying?

No, it ain't baggage upcharges and having to pay for an in-flight sandwich. It's safety, plain and simple.

Indeed, fees and travel taxes only obscure the end game with flying: get us there in one piece.

Which airlines do that best? You might be perturbed that no Canadian airline, nor American airline, ranks inside even the top 15 in safety among the world's carriers.

Airline fees, it is no news to report, are getting absurd, although there’s no real way to talk about them without having it sound like an awful stand-up bit.

But then what else can we say? Not to sound like Jerry Seinfeld or anything, but the thing about airline fees is they’ll always be there, because for the most part they’re the only way airlines make money in their world of razor-thin margins. They need the mark-up.

Surely what other explanation could there have been after the recent news that Southwest would begin charging passengers a fee for … not showing up to their flights?

So under that premise, that airlines will gouge early and gouge often, it’s high time we salute a traveller that does his best to avoid paying.