INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Your lease includes provisions regarding your rights as a tenant that you can cite in a letter to your landlord. These provisions will support your position and make your arguments more persuasive.  It's possible that your lease, or other community rules incorporated into your lease, prohibit smoking in apartments. If this is the case, you definitely have the upper hand in complaining about your neighbors' smoking because they are violating their lease. Even if there's nothing explicitly stated in your lease, you can rely on the covenant of quiet enjoyment, which is implied in all leases by law. Through this covenant, all tenants agree not to do anything that disturbs or causes a nuisance to their neighbors and disrupts other tenants' rights to quietly enjoy their rental unit. Secondhand smoke is a nuisance that can cause significant health problems and impact your ability to breathe – not to mention that it damages the apartment and makes all your things smell like an ashtray. Initiate your effort to involve your landlord with a formal, written letter that explains your problems with the secondhand smoke in your apartment and demands something be done about it.  The word processing app on your computer typically will have a business letter template that will help you format your letter correctly. You want to keep your letter brief – no more than a page – and stick to the facts. Let your landlord know the efforts you've made to resolve the situation amicably before turning to them for help. State clearly that you understand your rights as a tenant and are asking for your landlord's help in eliminating this nuisance. Let them know that you are open to discussing all available options. Provide your landlord with a deadline to respond to your letter. A week to 10 days from receipt of the letter should be plenty of time. If you plan to do something else specifically if you don't get the result you want, let them know. Otherwise, you don't want to make threats that you don't intend to follow through with. Simply say something like "If this matter is not resolved within 10 days of receipt of this letter, I will be forced to take further action." If you have a health condition that is affected or exacerbated by the secondhand smoke, talk to your doctor about it and see if he or she will write a letter to your landlord explaining the health risk the secondhand smoke presents to you.  If you have special sensitivities to secondhand smoke, you may qualify under federal laws that require landlords to provide people with disabilities reasonable accommodation. The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits landlords from discriminating against people who have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity. Breathing is considered a major life activity, which means any health condition that affects your breathing – including severe allergies to secondhand smoke – constitutes a disability under federal law. Reasonable accommodations include smoking restrictions in your building, moving you to another building with smoking restrictions, or sealing off your apartment and providing it with separate ventilation. When you've finished drafting your letter, you should proofread it carefully, then print it and sign it. Make at least one copy of your letter for your own records before sending it to your landlord.  Mail your letter using certified mail with returned receipt requested. This way you have proof of the date when your landlord receives your letter. Certified mail may seem like overkill when you could just take your letter to the rental office yourself, but keep in mind that you need to establish objective proof of your efforts should your landlord refuse to work with you. If you simply take the letter to your landlord, they can later claim they never received the letter and they don't know what you're talking about – and it would be your word against theirs. When you get the green card showing that your landlord signed for and received your letter, keep it with your copy of the letter and mark the date for your deadline on your calendar. If your landlord contacts you regarding your letter, you may want to consider sitting down with your landlord in person and talking about the problems you have with secondhand smoke.  While you want to assert your rights to a smoke-free home, you also should try to understand things from your landlord's point of view. Your landlord is trying to walk a thin line because they don't want to lose any tenants. However, you can point out the damage smoke does to apartments, which impacts their value. Your landlord will have to put more work into cleaning an apartment after tenants move out who have smoked there. Even if the landlord is able to charge the tenants for those damages, it still means the landlord has a longer turnaround time before they can rent the apartment again. You might want to ask your landlord if they would consider imposing smoking restrictions in your building or complex. However, keep in mind that even if your landlord agrees to do this, it may be nearly a year before the problem is fully resolved. Landlords can't change active leases, which means you'd have to wait until the smokers' lease was up before you noticed any difference in the quality of the air in your unit. If you live in a large building or complex, and there are open units available, your landlord may be willing to allow you to move to another unit that isn't near smoking tenants.  By moving to a different unit, you can transfer your lease without causing much additional expense either to you or your landlord. If your landlord has another, smoke-free unit that you can use, offer to clean your current unit after move out and try to leave it in the condition it was in when you first moved there. Even though moving is a hassle, if you're just moving to a neighboring building it's nowhere near as disruptive as moving to the other side of town.

SUMMARY: Review your lease. Draft a formal business letter. Get a note from your doctor, if applicable. Mail your letter to your landlord. Talk to your landlord in person. Find out if you can move to another unit.

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: This type of package includes hotels, food and activities. These are common in Mexico, the Caribbean, Hawaii, in parts of Mediterranean Europe and on cruises. Most all-inclusive trips will cost more up front than non-inclusive trips. If you plan to eat and spend time at the resort, you will save money that you would have spent during the vacation. Baggage costs are rising, so try to split a suitcase with your infant or toddler. Baggage weight can also make you less mobile at your destination, so make sure older kids and teenagers pack only what they can wheel or carry in airports and in cities. Test your child's baggage before leaving. Ask older kids to cart their suitcase up a flight of stairs and tow it for a mile on city streets. This will help to convince them to pack lightly.

SUMMARY:
Book an all-inclusive vacation package. Pack minimally.