More than 120,000 additional room nights at more than 200 hotels are now available to be booked by travelers still planning on hopping the pond to London for the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer.

Earlier this week, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, or LOCOG, returned approximately 20 percent of the hotel room nights it had reserved back to the hotels.

LOCOG had contracted with a large range of London hotels to reserve blocks of rooms that were to be set aside for the Olympic family — media, International Sport Federations, the International Olympic Committee, people working at the games and sponsors. They contracted more than 40,000 hotel rooms.

As part of these agreements, LOCOG releases its unsold rooms back to the hotels to be sold to the public for the summer of 2012.

But does that mean that you should rush to book a newly available hotel room? Well, there are a couple things to consider.

First off, do you have tickets to the events?

CoSport is the only LOCOG-authorized ticket reseller of individual event tickets, ticket packages and hospitality packages to the Olympics and Paralympics for Canada and the U.S. Jet Set Sports handles corporate accommodations, event tickets, catering, ground transportation, management and other services for the games.

After Facebook's IPO filing on Wednesday, many of the company's employees became millionaires overnight, at least on paper.

A few hundred of the company's employees have enough stock to pass the $1 million mark, according to estimates by Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.

Of course, no one knows what the share price for Facebook stock will be at the time these employees are allowed to sell their shares, most likely in mid-2013.

But that hasn't stopped some Facebook employees from planning their vacations. One group of current and former Facebook workers has begun preparing a joint expedition to some jungles in Mexico to excavate the site of Mayan ruins, with the help of archeologists, according to London's Daily Mail.

Where should the newly minted millionaires go on vacation? We're not millionaires at Budget Travel, but we have put lots and lots of thought into dream trips that are authentic and worthwhile. So, here's some unsolicited travel advice for the Facebook millionaires. Hope they "like" these ideas.

Vietnam Why not suck up to the boss? In December, billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg took a trip to Vietnam—which bans Facebook, making for a truly "unplugged" vacation. Zuck traveled with friends by chartered helicopter from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay, and spent the day on a junk cruise ship and kayaking, according to The Atlantic Wire. If Vietnam is good for the top chief, why not for his merry band of stockholding employees, too? But it's best to see something different in Vietnam, obviously. We recommend Tam Coc. As we reported in "what's better than Ha Long Bay":

"Tam Coc is known as the 'Ha Long Bay of the rice fields'—and why filmmakers chose it as the glorious setting for Catherine Denueve's famous scenes in Indochine.* If you rent a motorcycle and go to backroads, you can stop at an ancient capital, or climb towering limestone cliffs to pagodas with giant views. in nearby Cuc Phuong National Park, you can see very rare gibbons not found elsewhere and hike in solitude in the jungle."

Australia If Zuckerberg and the gang are tired of being pale from sitting in front of computers all day, maybe a trip south is the answer. Down Under, we mean. A trip to Oz that skips the tourist crowds but still grasp all the sea-, sun-, and kangaroo-soaked magic. As Andrea Minarcek reported in "How to See the Best of Australia," the most authentic way to see Australia is to skip the high-profile places. For instance, avoid Ayers Rock, which sees a half-million tourists a year, and go to just-as-pretty Chillagoe, which is easier to reach from Sydney and has a population of merely 350. Also worth a visit (on the other side of the country) is Wineglass Bay, a protected part of Freycinet National Park, on Tasmania's breathtaking east coast, popular for sea kayaking, boating, rock climbing, and bush walking.

Easter Island It's a real pain to get to, with multiple flights required. But it's worth it: As writer Gigi Guerra wrote in "Meet the Moai," "rows of mysterious giant stone heads, gazing out to sea, inspire travelers to venture to this remote, magical island in the South Pacific." It's an iconic spot to take a photo for posting as a giant Timeline photo.

Azores As we wrote in this year's "Top Budget Travel Destinations", "this chain of nine volcanic islands lies 930 miles off the coast of Lisbon,...and is dotted with baroque churches, black-sand beaches, and crater lakes. It's about as far from a cubicle and online socializing as you can imagine.

What vacation would YOU take if you had a windfall of $1 million? Let us know in the comments!

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In an attempt to calm weary cruisers in the aftermath of the tragic Costa Concordia accident, cruise lines have systematically rolled out messages about the safety and security onboard their ships.

In the wake of the Jan. 13 accident off the coast of Isola del Giglio, Italy in which at least 17 people have died, Carnival Corporation & plc, parent company of Costa Cruises, launched an audit and review of all safety and emergency response procedures across all of the company's cruise lines.

"This tragedy has called into question our company's safety and emergency response procedures and practices," Micky Arison, chairman and CEO of Carnival Corporation, said in a statement.

"While I have every confidence in the safety of our vessels and the professionalism of our crews, this review will evaluate all practices and procedures to make sure that this kind of accident doesn't happen again."

Costa Cruises' sister company Carnival Cruise Lines reached out to its customers on Facebook to ensure that all its "vessels meet or exceed international safety and training requirements. All of our ships also conduct emergency response drills every three to six months with the U.S. Coast Guard," the company said.

Celebrity Cruises emailed past passengers and provided them with a link (click on the "Safety and Security" tab about halfway down the page) to its safety measures.

"Our captains across the Celebrity fleet hold degrees from some of the world's finest maritime institutions … Essentially, we have three people onboard every Celebrity ship who qualify as a captain," Celebrity President and CEO Dan Hanrahan wrote in the letter.

Free, public domain books—mostly classics and thrillers—can be snagged in popular formats, such as .mobi for a Kindle or EPUB for a smart phone. Read old favorites by Jane Austen and James Joyce as well as adventure tales and modern romances.

Wattpad is a star e-book app for delivering up to 100,000 free e-books (Android, iPhone/iPad, Blackberry, Windows Mobile; free).

Project Gutenberg has 38,000 free downloadable books that are readable on nearly any device.

The iPad's iBookstore automatically includes this library of free books.

For Kindle devices, point your browser to m.gutenberg.org to download the files to your computer and then transfer them to the Kindle via USB cable. For Android and iPhones, use go to the same site and download the files directly.

Barnes & Noble Nook users can bag some from e-books on this special page.

Google Books lists nearly three million free e-books, which can be browsed by clicking on its Free Favorite Classics and Free Action Adventure shelves. The files can be read on most devices, except for Kindles that aren't the Kindle Fire.

Kindle users can also often borrow books from up to 11,000 local U.S. libraries (where you have a library card) by going to this link.

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In this season of elections and campaigns in politics, Hollywood, American Idol–land, and beyond, the closest contest of all may well have been Budget Travel magazine’s 7th "Coolest Small Towns." It was so close, in fact, that we have declared a tie between Beaufort, N.C, and Hammondsport, N.Y.

Hammondsport and Beaufort had been locked in fierce battle for much of the month-long vote, seesawing back and forth for the top spot. In the final hours of online voting, toward midnight of Jan. 31, the traffic was so intense that it crashed the Budget Travel website. The site had been programmed to cut off voting at the stroke of midnight and declare a winner, and at precisely 12 a.m. it did—picking Beaufort, which was technically ahead by a few votes at that time. However, since voters in several parts of the country had been locked out due to the site crash, Budget Travel editors decided it was impossible to determine which town would have won had all things been equal for all voters. "We have to declare a tie," said Lisa Schneider, the general manager for digital products. "It’s the only thing that’s fair under these circumstances."

In the end, more than 360,000 votes were cast, with Beaufort and Hammondsport receiving 36.2 and 36.0 percent of the vote respectively. Third place went to Weaverville, Calif., with 13.0 percent. The contest is open to towns with populations under 10,000. Last year’s winner was Lewisburg, W.Va.

This year’s nail-biter was helped in no small part by the rising influence of social media networking as a virtual get–out–the–vote tool. The BT Coolest Small Towns page earned over 70,000 likes on Facebook and was Tweeted more than 3,300 times (including a Tweet by best-selling novelist Nicholas Sparks that said: "Everyone please vote Beaufort, NC! If it wins I will giveaway a few signed novels!" Sparks lives in New Bern, N.C.). On Facebook, readers and fans from all over the country banded together, proclaiming their love and support for their favorite small towns, sharing videos of their towns, and even dedicating their Facebook profile pictures to the cause (we're talking to you, Kim Price, Erin Cassidy, and Morgen McLaughlin).

Mindful of the bragging rights—not to mention the potential marketing payoff—officials in several of the nominated towns campaigned tirelessly for their home bases. Local mayors gave repeated newspaper interviews. "There were 647 towns that were nominated and we made the top ten!" said Beaufort mayor Richard Stanley. New York State Senator Thomas F. O'Mara released a statement in support of Hammondsport, the only town in New York that made the top ten.

Local media in all the top–10 towns joined in the chorus, sometimes gently, sometimes not. "No offense to the current leader, Hammondsport, N.Y., but Weaverville has a charm all its own and certainly deserves the notice," read an editorial in the Record Searchlight newspaper in Redding, Calif.

But mostly, the towns were just grateful for the attention, no matter how the race finished. "It's an honor to be recognized in the top 10," said Jerome, Ariz. Mayor Jay Kinsella. Jerome finished in 8th place, with almost 5,600 votes—not bad for a town with only 378 residents.

On a long flight, some passengers may have something more in mind than just finding a seat mate who is a quiet and polite neighbor. Some may want to flirt.

But travelers who have chemistry with each other may find it awkward to take the next step. What if you get off the plane without swapping numbers?

Stepping in to the breach is new website We Met on a Plane (wemetonaplane.com), which is like the "Missed Connections" section of Craigslist.

Plug in your flight information and post a message that you're looking for someone. If the person also come to the site and posts a message, the two of you may connect with each other via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The service is free.

Yes, love truly can be made in economy class. Last summer, 31-year old Australian Will Scully-Power was flying back to Sydney from Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and shared a seat with a young woman named Maia. The woman was on her way to her home in New Zealand. They began chatting, and hit it off with each other, even watching a movie together, according to The Australian. She gave her e-mail address to him before they parted ways, and he followed up with her afterward. Fast forward a bit, and they were married.

This month, Scully-Power launched wemetonaplane.com as a tool to help people re-connect if that precious e-mail address for phone number wasn't exchanged. It isn't a dating site, per se, according to CNN Go, which broke the story. It's more of a site for reconnecting people who have already met and struck romance in mid-air—admittedly, heavily pressurized cabin air.

Scully-Power claims there are roughly 4,000 Internet searches each month by people trying to find fliers they found romantically interesting. He hopes that advertisements on search engines and other online marketing techniques will help direct many of those lost souls to his website, where they may have a better chance of finding their better halves.

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Whenever I reach a new city, finding authentic restaurants and food carts is one of my top goals as a tourist. Sorry, Golden Gate Bridge. I’ll get to you after my sixth San Francisco–style burrito. But I’ve learned not to always trust guidebooks (which often miss the most authentic and offbeat places in favor of more tourist–friendly picks) and concierges (some of whom have been known to take kickbacks for their recommendations). So just how do you find the best quirky spots?

Here are a few rules I’ve learned to incorporate into my routine:

Follow the taxis: If you’re walking past a restaurant and the street in front is lined with yellow cabs, you’ve probably stumbled upon a foodie goldmine. Taxi drivers from across the globe will often eat out during their shifts and will almost always congregate at only the most authentic restaurants for a taste of home.

Find an obsessive foodie blogger and pick her brain: These days, everyone with a camera phone and an opinion can become a food blogger. But with this massive number of blogs comes a great consequence. There are hyper–specific food blogs dedicated to almost every food you can imagine. Not just cuisines, but specific dishes, like French macarons and New Mexican green chile. These people are experts on their micro–specialties. Google a dish before you go, send a note with questions, and listen to the blogger’s advice. Chances are your taste buds will thank you later.

Visit tvfoodmaps.com: One of my new favorite tools for restaurant picks is a website called tvfoodmaps.com, which curates recommendations from television shows like Man vs. Food, Top Chef, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. No need to grab a pen and a pad every time you see a great place on the Food Network late at night. This site has you covered. Even better, you can search by zip code and find any nearby spots that were featured on any show.

Rely on friends—you never know who’s been to the city before you: Any time I’m traveling somewhere, I’ll mention my vacation in a Facebook status and reach out to friends with a line like, “Help! Going to Santa Fe. Where should I eat?” You never know who might have lived there as a kid, had a college boyfriend from there, went there every summer to visit a favorite great–aunt. Most people are so proud of their foodie finds that they’ll want to respond with a suggestion—even if you haven’t seen them since third–grade Little League.

So how about you? Do you have any must-try tips for finding the best off-the-beaten path eats while traveling?

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This is a little embarrassing, especially for the editor of a travel magazine, so no laughing.

I arrived at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday morning for my daytrip to Chicago, where I was scheduled to speak at the Travel and Adventure Show. I was there ridiculously early (a bad habit, I’m afraid) and the terminal was empty, so I walked up to one of the boarding pass kiosks and inserted by credit card. No Itinerary Found, the machine said. Well, that was clearly wrong. I tried again. No Itinerary Found. Seriously?

A pleasant woman standing behind the counter nearby noticed my frustration and asked if she could help. Something must be wrong with your computer, I said, because it can’t find my reservation and I know I’m on the 9 a.m. Flight to O’Hare. She took my driver’s license and starting punching away at her keyboard. Are you sure you’re traveling today, Mr. Peyser? Yes, I said, calmly. Did someone make the reservation for you? No, I did it myself, and directly on the United website, I replied, a bit less calm. At last, she found my reservation—for Sunday, February 26, at 9 a.m.

I still don’t know how that happened, though I did once set out for the Munich airport a full day before my flight, so anything is possible. Anyway, the point is that before my panic turned into something ugly—it was just before 8 a.m., an hour before "my" flight—the supervisor behind the counter beckoned me over. After punching away at his keyboard, he said he could get me on the 10 a.m flight for a mere $600 more than I’d already paid. Ugh. Was there anything he could do? I was tempted to tell him that I was speaking at a travel show in a few hours, but considering my predicament I wasn’t sure he’d believe me.

The best route, he explained, was to call United’s online booking center, because I had made the reservation through them. They would probably remove the $150 change fee, at least. He gave me the number and told me to come back when I’d sorted it out. (He had also suggested I might do better on a last–minute–deals website, but of course there was no free WiFi in the terminal, so that was out.)

The first person I spoke to on the phone was a little help—he could waive the change fee, but the new ticket was still $400 more, and I’d have to get the last flight out of Chicago, even though I’d originally booked the 5 p.m. flight. When I whined (nicely!) about that, he connected me to another department, and I proceeded to tell my sad story all over again. When I told him I wanted to get on the 9 a.m. flight, now departing in only 45 minutes, he put me on hold for a few minutes; I assume he was having a good laugh. But when he got back on the line, he had indeed found me a seat on the next flight, and also on a plane leaving Chicago at 7 p.m. The cost was “only” about $200 more.

Back in the good old days of flying, United might well have rebooked me on the spot and for a minimal fee, if they charged me at all. Still, considering how much we all complain about the price–gouging, unaccommodating airlines, it was reassuring to get where I wanted to go with relatively minimal hassle and cost. The helpful United employees took a bit of the sting out of the experience, too. Almost as amazing: both my flights were on time.

—Marc Peyser

Skiing has a reputation as a pricey, perhaps even snobby sport. But even if some skiers seem to have their noses raised in the air, there's no reason to pay through the nose to ski.

Here are four easy strategies to keep the costs of skiing in check:

SKI PACKAGES Ski resorts and mountain towns hate for precious winter weeks to pass by while area hotel rooms remain empty. To attract skiers and boarders to the slopes, not to mention nearby restaurants and hotels, just about every resort offers a constantly shifting roster of hotel-lift ticket packages. They're often terrific values, especially during midweek and early- and late-season periods when hotels struggle to fill rooms. Sometimes, the price you'll pay for lodging and a lift ticket is nearly as cheap as what it'd cost just to buy a lift ticket on the spot. To scope out packages, check out ski resort websites, specialists like Ski the Rockies, state ski association sites such as Ski Utah, and, of course, Budget Travel's Real Deals.

DISCOUNT LIFT TICKET SITES
Before embarking on any ski trip in which lift tickets aren't included, take a moment to visit a website such as Liftopia or LiftTickets.com. These sites sell lift passes at dozens of North American resorts for a fraction of the price you'd pay at the mountain-side ticket counter. Discounts start at around 15 percent, and range as high as 70 percent, with the bigger discounts available for off-peak times paid for well in advance. The one catch with discounted tickets purchased at such sites is that they must be paid for ahead of time, and cancellations or changes are not allowed. It's also worth looking into lift ticket discounts provided by resort websites; some mountains will likewise knock off a few bucks, especially for multi-day passes, for visitors who buy online ahead of time.

LIFT PACKS, SKI CARDS
Consider packs of four or six passes and frequent-skier cards as the equivalent of a "buy in bulk" discount. For the former, a resort (or perhaps several resorts) sells a packet of lift tickets that can be used throughout the season for a price much less than it'd cost to buy tickets individually. Frequent-skier cards, by contrast, are sold for a flat fee (perhaps $50 or $75), and then grant the holder discounts on every day skied that season (perhaps 20 percent off weekends, 50 percent off weekdays). The main downside for these packs and passes is that they limit where you ski. Also, in many cases, these options are often only available for sale early in the season. This isn't always the case, though. For example, in New Hampshire, Cannon Mountain's 10 Pack can be purchased at any time: $579 for 10 fully interchangeable adult lift tickets, giving a discount of more than $10 per ticket off the usual price ($68).

GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN
It's hard to say which is worse about an overly crowded ski resort. The masses of people clogging up cafeterias, lift lines, and narrow ski trails are bad enough. Then, there's the knowledge that you're paying top dollar to boot. With some flexibility, careful planning, and a small degree of sacrifice, though, there's a solution for beating skiing's big crowds and bigger prices. The solution boils down to: Go where the crowds aren't, and go when they aren't there. After skiing during a blissfully empty midweek, non-holiday period, it's hard to go back to elbowing for space (and usually, paying extra) on a peak weekend. So take a day (or three) off from work; you won't regret it.

Also, consider going against the grain by picking an off-peak peak. Rather than sticking solely with the Vails and Big Skys of the skiing world, check out smaller B-list mountains like Montana's Bridger Bowl and Colorado's Wolf Creek, where the terrain is superb, the atmosphere is not remotely stuff, and lift tickets top out at $48 and $54, respectively.

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Last Monday, after Leigh-Van Bryan, 26, and Emily Bunting, 24, flew from the United Kingdom to Los Angeles, they were detained by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on arrival, reports London's Daily Mail.

The travelers were interviewed, detained for about 12 hours, and then deported—all because of comments they posted on Twitter earlier this month.

The first tweet, posted on January 3rd, said: "3 weeks today, we're totally in LA pissing people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin' Marilyn Monroe up!" They told The Sun this was a quote from the US TV series Family Guy, though I wasn't able to confirm that.

The second, written on 16 January and found by BoingBoing, was: "Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America." Bryan, an Irish citizen who lives in England, later attempted to explain that "destroy" was slang for "to get trashed and party."

Byran released his TSA rap sheet to the Daily Mail.

He was caught on the Department of Homeland Security's "One Day Lookout" list. The federal agency monitors social media networks for communications of potential threats, outsourcing this job to General Dynamics’ Advanced Information Systems, according to The Washington Post.

The TSA has not shared its side of the story with the media. Both the Mail and the Sun are known to pay people for the right to publish their stories, which can lead to some people to sensationalize. Bryan has since made his Twitter account private.

What do you think? Share your views by posting a comment

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Competition has been pretty fierce between the top 10 finalists for this year's round of America's Coolest Small Towns. We started out with three–way ties between Cape May, Jerome, and Ste. Genevieve. We saw Weaverville and Hammondsport lead the opening charge for first place, only to see Beaufort sneak up through the ranks as the weeks went on.

We led a campaign on our Facebook and Twitter pages urging groups, visitor bureau fan pages, and local media to get involved. It's been great seeing our readers and fans take it upon themselves to rally the troops to support their small towns; one of them even dedicated her Facebook profile picture to Hammondsport—here's looking at you, Kim Price—while others left detailed, thoughtful comments about why their town deserves to win.

With voting drawing to a close tomorrow, the contest has garnered attention all over the internet—with local citizens, visitor bureaus, local media, and even State Senators getting involved in support of their towns. On Friday, New York State Senator Thomas F. O'Mara released a statement in support of Hammondsport, the only small town in New York that made the top ten. News 14 in North Carolina did a story covering Beaufort's involvement in the contest, encouraging everyone to vote in their favor.

As of right now, Hammondsport and Beaufort are still duking it out for first place, and have been for the past week, with each barely surpassing the other by the end of the day's tally. It's going to be a close race to the finish, and it will be interesting to see if another underdog town will rise to the challenge before it ends.

Who will be deemed America's Coolest Small Town of 2012? Act now—tell your friends, neighbors, parents, and co-workers to support their favorite small town and vote once daily through January 31st.

—Kaeli Conforti

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It's been a rough half–decade for the travel industry, and to compete for ever–scarcer tourism dollars, service providers have been forced to come up with new ways to attract customers—or in some cases (we're looking at you, airlines), to make more money off the ones they have through added fees and higher prices. Customers have fared somewhat better in the hotel realm, as reduced rates, buy–two–nights–get–one–free promos, and added amenities have been hallmarks of the race to put heads in beds. One of the newest perks to be rolled out far and wide is the addition of electric vehicle charging stations to hotels, which are typically free for guests (and sometimes even the public) to use. Unlike tanning concierges or pillow butlers, we think this is one amenity that has real staying power. And it's not just an urban thing, or exclusive to one price point—hotels and resort all over the country (and all over the rate sheet) are hopping on the bandwagon (see list below).

A partial list of places to recharge today:

*In April 2011, the Sheraton Waikiki debuted five charging stations—some of the first in Hawaii—with the capacity to charge 10 cars total.

*Residence Inn Chattanooga added two stations in October 2011.

*In January 2012, The Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa installed its first charger, as part of a larger spring 2012 expansion.

*Seattle’s Northwest Cedarbrook Lodge will have valet–equipped stations in March of this year.

*Hotel Monaco Portland, a Kimpton property, fired up two charging stations in October 2011, and offers guests a 50% discount on parking for hybrid vehicles.

*Four hotels in Knoxville, TN—two Hampton Inns and two Holiday Inns—plus two in Nashville added charging stations this month.

*Comfort Suites Palm Bay in Florida has a charging station.

*The Verdanza Inn in San Juan, PR, has one, too.

*In Boston, the Lenox Hotel has one.

*Marriott added a total of 23 charging stations to its properties—two in NC, six in CA, one in FL, one in MA, one in NV, and one in Denmark.

*Hershey’s Chocolate World in PA added stations last summer.

*Grand Geneva Resort & Spa in Lake Geneva, WI, an early adopter, installed its charging station way back in April 2010.

*The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver, and Fairmont Empress in Victoria all added charging stations in September.

Have you ever owned or rented an electric car? Would the availability of an on-site charging station affect your hotel choice? Tell us in the comments!

It's a known fact that Americans just aren't as good at taking time off as, say, their European or Aussie counterparts. According to a recent study by Expedia, the U.S. ranks among the most vacation deprived nations in the world along with countries such as Canada, Japan and South Korea.

First off, we are only given on average 14 vacation days. The only countries with fewer vacation days are Japan, with an average of 11, and South Korea with an average of 10. Furthermore, we leave an average of 14.3 percent of our vacation days, or two days, unused.

There are other countries that leave more days on the table (perhaps surprisingly, Italians only use on average 21 of their 28 vacations days). But why do we have any unused days at all, especially when we already get so many fewer days than most other countries?

According to Expedia’s Vacation Deprivation study, based on a survey of 7,083 employed adults in 20 countries that took place between September and October 2011, 34 percent of Americans said that a possible reason for not using all their vacations days was because they couldn't afford it. Another 15 percent said they don't plan far enough in advance, and 15 percent said that "work is my life."

Who knew?! Hong Kong’s biggest festival is also one of the cheapest times of the year to visit.

Romance can easily get trampled in frenetic Hong Kong, but February brings out the giddy schoolgirl in this all–business city. It turns out that while the 15–day Chinese New Year festivities start with a firecracker–induced bang, they end on a surprisingly sweet note: the Spring Lantern Festival (February 6, 2012). The festival started as a celebration of the year’s first full moon, featuring multicolored silk or paper lanterns and a menu of sticky rice balls—you know: round, white, and, well, lunar. Over the years, Cupid joined the party. The lanterns, now strung up throughout the city’s parks, provide a dreamy backdrop for strolling singles and their traditional matchmaking games. "As we absorbed other cultures through travel and exposure to the world, we morphed our own festival into a hybrid form of Chinese Valentine’s Day," says Xu Xi, novelist and writer in residence at the City University of Hong Kong. "And why not? Cultures change, but love is universal."

Visitors
17.5% fewer visitors, compared to December high season.

Airfare Savings
18% cheaper
Dec. 2010 avg. ticket: $1,157
Feb. 2011 avg. ticket: $944

Hotel Savings
21% cheaper
Dec. 2010 avg. daily rate: $187
Feb. 2011 avg. daily rate: $148

Hotel Occupancy
9% emptier
Dec. 2010: 93%
Feb. 2011: 85%

Seasonal Event
The Hong Kong Arts Festival celebrates its 40th year with 166 events, from the Beijing opera to an Oscar Wilde play. Jan. 28–Mar. 8.

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Sometimes it matters a lot how close your hotel is to a landmark, such as a famous building, a wedding chapel, or a conference center. Maybe you have limited time and worry about getting lost or delayed. Thankfully, picking a well-located hotel, based on its distance from an attraction that's important to you, has gotten easier with the help of three new Internet tools.

Google's Hotel Finder
This week, Google upgraded its six-month old Hotel Finder tool, enabling travelers to hunt for hotels close to popular landmarks, such as the Empire State Building. Type in the name of a landmark, and Google's Hotel Finder will fetch a list of hotels located within 20 minutes of that landmark by public transit. If you prefer to walk, you can adjust the search settings. (Google has public transit data for 500 places worldwide. Where none is available, Google displays walking time.)

In a neat trick, Google quotes rates at each hotel for your dates of travel, revealing if each rate is a particularly good deal. Case in point: The Econolodge Times Square, which is within a 15-minute walk of the Empire State Building, recently had nightly rates of $101, which Google says is a 49 percent discount off its average rate over the course of the past year. One downside: Hotel Finder works only for US cities at the moment.*CORRECTED at 2pm ET.

Cartoo
Once you’ve picked a hotel, it would be nice to know how far you could travel from it within a set time, such as the number of blocks in Chicago that you might cover in a 10-minute radius from the Millennium Hotel. Luckily, new site Cartoo shows you just that, plotting on a Google map how far you can go, whether by car (or by walking or bicycling, where such data is available). It works similarly to Google Hotel Finder for locations worldwide.