(CNN) — One of the oldest existing man-made structures, more than 2,000 years old and a world-travel icon that ranks alongside the pyramids of Egypt and Stonehenge — the Great Wall of China should be on every traveler’s bucket list.

To make the most of your visit, take some advice from these dos and don’ts.

DO choose a section of the wall that’s right for you.

Most travelers visit one of these sections from their hotel base in Beijing: Juyongguan (closest to Beijing but less interesting than most other sections); Badaling (close but crowded); Mutianyu (farther away but less crowded and set among gorgeous mountains); and Jinshanling and Simatai (farther away still, but perfect for adventurers). Note: Simatai is currently closed for site improvements.

DON’T spend less than two or three hours exploring the wall. You’ll need at least that much time to get the true flavor of the centuries-old structure.

DO go in the spring or fall, when the weather is fine and the crowds are few. Summertime is often too hot, and winter can be treacherous.

DON’T forget plenty of water, sunscreen and a hat if you visit during the blazing summer. You’ll need it all.

DO consider signing up for a day tour at your hotel’s activities desk. It’s the simplest way to go. Tours cost around $30 per person and include mini-bus transportation with an English-speaking guide and driver.

DON’T visit the wall on weekends or holidays, when it is most crowded. Remember, it’s not just foreigners who tour the Great Wall. Chinese love to visit as well on their days off.

DO visit either Badaling or Mutianyu if you have mobility concerns; they both have aerial cable cars. Mutianyu also has a ski lift, but only Badaling is wheelchair accessible.

DON’T expect clear skies. The awful smog that often afflicts Beijing can spread to the wall itself, lending a dull haze to the surroundings. If possible, do try to visit on a breezy day or after a rainstorm.

DO take a ride on the wild, mile-long toboggan track that leads down from the wall at Mutianyu to the village at the base of the wall.

DON’T believe that you can see the wall from space. Apollo astronaut Alan Bean said he tried to spot it, but that no man-made object is visible once you leave the Earth’s orbit.

There are two ways to get up to China’s Great Wall at Mutianyu, north of Beijing. One can climb the 2,500 feet to get to the access point or take the cable car.

I took the cable car, but still ended up gasping for breath and hand-over-handing the final push to the point where further access was restricted.

That I, a woman who walks four miles every day before breakfast, was puffing like a steam engine on the final stretch after riding the first leg should tell you that this is not a climb for sissies. Was it worth the effort? Yes indeed.

Like the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China is a destination so widely known that it took time on first arrival for me to actually process the fact that I was really, truly there. Amid the lush green surroundings, I was placing one foot after the other on the stone tiles laid by so many long-ago forgotten men. The longer my legs and lungs labored with the 45 to 65 degree angle of incline and irregularly stacked but seemingly endless steps, the more impossible it became to imagine how those men ever got the heavy stones and bricks up the mountain to begin with.

The power of numbers could not be any more visible. One million men can do what fewer might never attempt.

When I was still fresh enough to carry on a conversation, I told my Kensington Tours guide, Jasmin Wang, a story from a book I am reading called China’s Wings.

In the book, author Gregory Crouch recounts how an army of Chinese laborers moves a crippled DC-3 airliner into the woods to hide it from Japanese attack planes during World War 2. They do this by carrying the airplane three miles.

Any people who can heave an airliner by hand can build a wall in the mountains or do whatever the hell else they set their minds on doing.

Yoni Falkson, a New Yorker visiting China to celebrate his first wedding anniversary, joined me at the top of the climb and we recorded our ascent by taking photos of each other. I complained my legs felt like jelly but he was tough, he’d already walked from the parking area to the access point, (no cable car for him and his bride) a total – at that point – of 8100 steps, according to his electronic counter. I’m guessing 75 percent of those steps were vertical.

I took it easy on the return trip, stopping often to take pictures of the Chinese brides who were at the wall in full wedding regalia for their official wedding photographs.

I lingered admiring the tiny lavender flowers and made friends with a little girl who was full of pep, unlike me.

Bushed, I collected Jasmin, who had allowed me to make the walk alone, and we headed for lunch at Xiao Long Pu — the Dragon Waterfall restaurant in the town that serves as launching pad for Great Wall hikers.

I didn’t like the donkey meat, but our driver did. The corn cake dusted with sugar and sprinkles went down fine as did a bottle of beer big enough to swab down a mighty portion of the wall and still have enough to float a DC-3. This I found entirely fitting with the mood of the day.

Follow Christine Negroni on Twitter:  www.twitter.com/cnegroni

By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — To snag the best airfares, travelers need to be adventurous and willing to pick up at a moment’s notice.

FILE – In this Friday, May 25, 2012 file photo, travelers arrive at Orlando International Airport make their way to baggage claim in Orlando, Fla. Flying this summer doesn’t need to be expensive, as search engines, social media, creativity and flexibility can make finding bargain airfares easier. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

FILE – In this Wednesday, May 23, 2012 file photo, an Air China jet prepares to land at the Capital International Airport in Beijing. Flying this summer doesn’t need to be expensive, as search engines, social media, creativity and flexibility can make finding bargain airfares easier. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)

OK, now let’s be realistic. Most people making summer travel plans need just that: plans. They get a week off, maybe two, and aren’t going to spend hard-earned cash on a last-second whim.

But great deals are still within reach for those who have even a little flexibility in choosing where and when to travel.

The average roundtrip domestic ticket will cost $431 this summer, an increase of 2.6 percent from last year, according to Kayak.com. But remember: that’s an average. One trip might cost $800 while another can be found for $200.

“Airfares are high but there are pockets of cheap out there,” says Seth Miller, an information technology consultant who writes a blog under the name The Wandering Aramean. Miller does his best to beat the system by connecting in strange cities, flying at off hours and taking advantage of sales often offered when an airline adds a new destination.

Here are some tips from Miller and other expert travelers on how to combat rising airfares.

— LAST-MINUTE WEEKEND FARES

When airlines don’t fill planes for an upcoming weekend, they slash prices.

Each Tuesday, they email offers for that coming weekend or the following one to fliers who have signed up online for the deal alerts. Travelers have to depart late Friday night or anytime Saturday and come back Monday or Tuesday. An added plus: weekend getaways save precious vacation days.

Recent offers include: Houston to Memphis for $180, Huntsville, Ala. to Chicago for $174, Washington D.C. to Greenville, S.C. for $157 and Charlotte, N.C. to West Palm Beach, Fla. for $240.

— TWITTER AND FACEBOOK

Airlines are experimenting with sales on Twitter. At the forefront is JetBlue, which tweets last-second fare sales and vacation package discounts from (at)JetBlueCheeps. Some deals apply to just a few seats and are gone within hours.

“If you find something, jump on it,” says John DiScala, who each year flies around 150,000 miles, visits 20 countries and writes about it at JohnnyJet.com.

JetBlue recently tweeted a sale at 3:16 p.m.; it ended at 6 p.m.

Airlines announce special sales to those who “like” their Facebook pages and sites like AirfareWatchdog offer fare alert emails (airfarewatchdog.com/fare-alerts/).

There are also frequent fliers who search for and post cheap flights in online discussion boards. Two of the better discussion boards are: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals-372/ and http://milepoint.com/forums/forums/mileage-runs-mattress-runs-travel-hacking.6/

— FLEXIBLE DATES

Looking to go to Paris for a week but don’t care when in the next few months? ITA Software’s airfare search (matrix.itasoftware.com) provides a calendar of the lowest fares.

Just enter the departure and destination city — nearby airports can even be added — and then how many nights to spend there. It will find the cheapest prices for a month out from a given date. The length of the trip can even be a range, say five to seven days.

— CHASE THE FARE, NOT THE DESTINATION

Want to know the cheapest fares from a departure city to anywhere? Check out Kayak’s explore tool (kayak.com/explore). It allows travelers to search multiple airlines at once this way. A map pops up with all the destinations under a set budget point.

Searches can be done for a particular month or for all of summer. The query can be narrowed by activity — beach, golf, gambling, skiing — or by continent.

— ODD CONNECTIONS

Fares to Hawaii might be steep. But connecting though another city with a sale to Hawaii, could save a lot of money. Use AirfareWatchdog’s “fares to a city search” (airfarewatchdog.com/cheap-flights/to-a-city) to see if there are any less expensive indirect routes to your destination. Instead of flying from, say, Boston to Honolulu, it could be a lot cheaper to book two separate tickets — the first between Boston and Houston and the second from there to Hawaii.

“If you can save $1,000 per couple and get two cities for less than the price of one, it’s a no brainer,” says Georgia Hobica, founder of AirfareWatchdog.

___

Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott.

___

June 08, 2012 01:36 PM EDT

Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.