If you save often, you can feel free to try out actions / travelling without having to worry about ending up in a dead end. Then you can have a save file where you take the shortest path, spend the lowest amount of money etc, where you apply the solutions you’ve found. That way you don’t have to restart from the beginning just because you couldn’t work out the puzzles quickly enough.
That’s the approach I’ve chosen, anyway. 
playing the game > worrying about consequences
That’s the right spirit!
I’m conscious that some people might be “purists” here and see my method as cheating 
Not yet. But it makes conceptual sense. Kinda like how in Dune you start by having to fly around in your ornithopter and by the end you have mental control of the whole planet.
That being said, I imagine it has more to do with the secret room in this case. 
Well, more with The King
Hush. I’m not reading whatever it says.
Yeah, that’s basically what I’m doing
I’m a stickler for rules and even I don’t do that. I’d never finish a game
No, it’s not cheating! It’s the opposite: You are playing like an adventure game pro! And in Zak you have to explore the world a little bit more than in other adventure games. It doesn’t matter if you explore the different countries now or later.
Mt Rainier looks like a Sierra background! Maybe this is why I’m being so cautious 
No cliff edges – check 
No shards of metal – check
No death-snog aliens – check
(spoilered in case I mean WHEN people play Space Quest)
Listen to her @PiecesOfKate! She sounds like a real expert after just one day of Zak, giving excellent advice
(Make us proud, Katie!)
Don’t forget the sandworms and other spontaneously appearing aliens!
Is it too soon to tell them there is a check near the end that says “sorry, you have saved too many times, you are a cheater and you’re dead! (And we wiped all your save gamea too)” ?
Current thoughts:
I hope I didn’t waste that egg.
Dammit, I thought the tree branch might lift up the floorboards. But I think I probably need a dollar, based on the newspaper article. Maybe.
What have you done with it (so far)?
We’re only purists in what you should play *cough* C64 *cough *, not how you should play. In hindsight, we only didn’t save more than a few games stated because of save and load times, disk space and disk errors 
I used it in the microwave to distract the hostess. I’m only wondering because I’d already used the bathroom distraction (by the way who ‘turns on’ a sink?) so I probably didn’t need both if I’d been quick enough.
So you think you are?
Oh, perhaps not then
I’m sure you and @tasse-tee can “turn on” anything if you put your minds to it… (sorry, 
) Well, imagine a boy who learned English mainly from playing Zak and turning on everything… 
Load a savegame and try it!
More specific spoiler:
This is one of the more difficult puzzles because it relies on timing and you have to do the same thing twice in a row (distract the stewardess).