For our slide show of the world's most iconic bridges, click here. (Hint: The super-gorgeous photos are the last five in the slide show.)

And let us know if there's a cool bridge we've left off by mistake.

One in ten leisure travelers go on vacations alone, says a new report from the Travel Industry Association.

Finding fellow travel-mates can be difficult. Budget Travel's assistant editor Naomi Lindt has rounded up some resources for women who'd like to travel on their own or with other women. Feel free to post any advice of your own below.

One of the best bloggers covering budget-conscious travel is Tim Leffel, and today he spotlights a Spirit Airlines sale on flights to Guatemala from Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles. Fares on this sale are as low as $176, plus taxes and fees. That's roughly $250 off typical fares on these routes, says Tim. Click here for details. And for the best vacation packages all over the world, check out our Real Deals, which you'll find by clicking here.

That's the question posed by K.C. Summers, the longtime editor of the Washington Post's Travel section, on our partner blog, Travel Log.

She wonders "if travel guidebooks have become irrelevant -- outdated before they even hit the shelves."

Budget Travel has compared the pros and cons of guidebooks, user review sites, and other sources of information in an article called "When Everybody's an Expert, Who Can You Trust?"

Anonymous user-review websites are increasingly popular alternatives to guidebooks, of course. But like guidebooks, they also have flaws. Zagat reviews, for example, are powerfully influential. But this SmartMoney article accuses Zagat of grade inflation.

What do you think about guidebooks and their alternatives? Feel free to add your two cents below.

The Southern California CityPass gives the term "marketing gimmick" a good name.

Until this spring, the Southern California CityPass didn't include both Disney parks and Universal Studios parks on the same ticket. But now this pass includes admission to Universal Studios Hollywood, Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure, SeaWorld Adventure Park, and the San Diego Zoo for $189 per child and $235 per adult. Compared to the cost of booking each theme park ticket separately, that's a savings of $30 to $46 per person. If you're planning to stop at multiple parks, this CityPass may be worth checking out.

Multiple-attraction passes aren't that worthwhile at many destinations worldwide. Either they tend not to include all the top sites you'll want to visit, or they don't have a significant savings off the cost of buying individual passes.

In an article titled "Next Stop, Squalor," Smithsonian magazine talks about organized tours of the world's worst slums. (This topic is one that Budget Travel touched on in its 2004 article, "Reality Tours to the Emerging World.")

Poverty tourism is the most common label used to describe the trend in tours that allow travelers to see the wretched of the earth up-close. Some folks--though not BT--also call the trend "poorism."

As Smithsonian's article points out: "For years, tour operators have been escorting foreign visitors through Rio de Janeiro's infamous favelas, with their drug gangs and ocean views, and the vast townships outside Cape Town and Johannesburg, where tourists are invited to mix with South Africans at one of the illicit beer halls known as shebeens. A nonprofit group in New Delhi charges tourists for guided walks through the railway station, to raise money for the street children who haunt its platforms."

We salute Gadling for spotlighting a new website, Urbanrail.net, that offers the world's most thorough online guide to the public rail systems. Gadling also points out a feature that's great for budget-conscious travelers:

A section on Practical Information includes the operating hours and the costs. More importantly, it lists various passes which can help make your visit all the more economical. For example, a single ticket on the Oslo T-Bane costs 20 Norwegian Krone. Yet, a 24-hour "Dagskort" pass costs just 60 NOK--a much better deal if you plan on taking many rides throughout the day.

British Airways and several other airlines are discussing plans to alternate the direction that seats are pointed in their planes. This knee-to-knee seat configuration, which you can see in this photo, would allow airlines to squeeze extra seats into both the economy-class and business-class sections of many planes, says this story in the Times (of London).

Let us know what you think by posting a comment below. (We tip our hats to Travel Log, IAG, and Upgrade: Travel Better.)

You already know that Tahiti is a set of serene islands in the South Pacific. But you may not know that it was once the home of indigenous tribes that practiced unusual customs. For example, the typical victorious warrior used to "pound his vanquished foe's corpse flat with his heavy war club, cut a slit through the well-crushed victim, and don him as a trophy poncho," according to anthropologist Lawrence Keeley.

Um, on second thought, never mind about the customs.

Tahiti is bliss incarnate, which is why you should consider booking a last-minute air-hotel package for a six-night stay from Air Tahiti Nui, starting at $1,252 per person....

Airlines are canceling hundreds of flights around the country due to a kind of storm that happens "once every 20 years." By Sunday, the storm may be "as strong as a Category 1 hurricane," according to the National Weather Service.

Here are six tips if your travels are affected:

If you've ever braved the lengthy lines to enter the Vatican Museums, you will be disappointed to hear that thanks to newly reduced hours, the wait to get to the ticket booth has grown even longer.

Until last month, the ticket booth for the Vatican Museums opened at 8:45 A.M., meaning early-birds were often in line well before 7 A.M. Those who were part of an organized tour or with reservations could skirt the line and waltz in through a separate entrance.

Now, those who are not part of a group or who do not hold a reservation have to wait until 10 A.M. And, to make matters worse, the ticket booth now closes at 12:30 A.M. in low-season and 3:30 P.M. in high-season--over an hour earlier than in the past. By compressing the time to get in and visit via the stand-and-wait method, the Vatican Museums hope to "train the tourists" to use its newly revamped reservation system, which requires an advance purchase that's at least one business-day in advance and a written request that's faxed directly to the Vatican Museums. (For instructions, see the Vatican Museums website by clicking here.) Less patient travelers can try one of Rome's many booking agents, who slap on hefty fees for the booking service.

It's all part of a play by museum officials to phase in reservation-only entrance by January 2008. This reservations-system will be good for budget-conscious travelers in the long run, however, because it will also serve to control the flow within the museum, meaning visitors will get to view the artworks and chapels in a less-chaotic manner. Unfortunately, to make up for lost revenue due to the reduced number of visitors, the entrance ticket has increased to $18 (or 13 euro).
--Barbie Latza Nadeau, a Rome-based reporter for Newsweek for the past decade as well as a contributor to BudgetTravel.com.

CORRECTION 3/10/2007, 3pm ET: This post initially linked to stories by Barbie Nadeau, which are no longer available on the Newsweek website. We regret the confusion.

Over at Gridskipper.com you'll find an interesting item about JetBlue. It says that the airline "has stopped taking customer calls -- if you ring JetBlue's toll-free number, an apologetic lady greeter says that they're not accepting new contacts due to high volume..." Read the whole post at Gridskipper.

Curious, I called JetBlue just now. I got through to a reservations agent within about eight minutes, which isn't too bad when compared with the hotlines run by other airlines. Perhaps the poor customer service earlier this morning was only a hiccup.

Tell us about your customer service experiences with various airlines during this storm and its aftereffects by posting a comment below.

Today, Wired posted a story about the travelers' watch lists kept by various governmental agencies and airlines. The story highlights cases of mistaken identities between legitimate and illegitimate travelers.

The article highlights the story of Princeton professor Walter Murphy, "one of the nation's most respected constitutional law professors," who was put on a watch list--even though he is not a threat to the U.S.

Here's the good news: In February, the Department of Homeland Security set up a new webpage that allows people to "resolve possible watch list misidentification issues." But the process isn't as effective as many people would like it...

It's unnerving to be pulled aside by passport control officials, as I can say from personal experience....

Costs for travelers to East Africa have been on the upswing. Take, for example, the costs of visiting Tanzania's Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which is famous for having a volcanic crater with a spectacularly wide diameter. In 2005, a one-day admission fee was $30 per person. Now it's $50 per person. An identical price jump has happened at the nearby Serengeti National Park.

Elsewhere in East Africa, admission fees have jumped $10 per person in the past year at the Lake Nakuru National Park and the Maasai Mara Game Reserve. Each spot now charges $40 per person per day.

Costs for visas, departure taxes, and accommodations are also on the rise. To stay within your travel budget, you'll need to track down safari bargains. Here are two key options for keeping your safari costs low....

Out of Atlanta: Check out the two-day fare sale that Airtran is running. The discount airline is offering tickets for travel during the month of May (with some dates excluded). A sample round-trip fare between Atlanta and L.A. is $190, after taxes and fees. That's about $120 less than the typical fares on that route, according to our quick search online comparing other fares.

Out of New York City and Washington: On the fancier end of the airline spectrum, MAXJet, the all-business class airline, is running a special that ends today. Travel between Washington Dulles and London Stansted starts at $1,000 roundtrip. Travel between New York JFK and London Stansted starts at $1,200 roundtrip. (To read more about MAXjet's five feet of legroom, four course meals, and other perks, click on this Budget Travel article.)

For package deals for travel elsewhere, visit our Real Deals section.

Last week, Christopher Winner, the Rome-based editor of The American magazine, answered more than 100 reader questions about Italy in one of Budget Travel's weekly live chats. (Read the informative transcript by clicking here.)

Winner's publication recently picked the best dining spots in top Italian cities. I trust this list partly because it's written by English-speaking Italians and American ex-pats and is intended for use by English-speaking visitors to Italy. I also trust this list because...

McCarran International Airport in "Sin City" has opened a new rental-car facility that puts all of its companies in one place.

On the plus side, the airport is now running a single fleet of buses--which all look alike--to shuttle passengers who are renting from any of the companies. This bus fleet replaces the various vans run by the airport's 10 competing car-rental companies.

On the down side, the new car-rental facility is about three miles from the airport. That puts most of the lots at a further distance. So, next time you fly into Las Vegas, plan to spend a few extra minutes picking up your rental car. And before you depart, consult this website.

--Dickens World is set to open next month in Kent, England. This theme park features rides based on 13 of the novels written by you-know-who. The Guardian in London got a sneak peek, and has this gem of a quote from a park official: "Visitors are not going to come here to be depressed so our role is to entertain them. We're not going to have starving babies crawling around on the cobblestones." The park will instead feature a log flume ride that illustrates the happier side of Great Expectations.
--See videos on Google maps when you use Venividiwiki (whose motto is "I went, I saw, I share"). This new website lets you pick on a spot on a Google Map and see videos of attractions located there. The selection of videos is strongest for Western European destinations, not surprisingly. You can search by activities, events, places, and other criteria. Try it here. And for Budget Travel's choices of the best tricks to do with Google maps, click here.
--British Airways has been named the world's best airline in an annual, comprehensive survey of frequent fliers. Continental won for being the best carrier based in North America.
--Treehouse inns allow you to wake up with birds on your windowsill. These cottages, you see, are perched among the branches of tall trees. HotelChatter is highlighting the latest such lodging, Free Spirit Spheres, in this post. You'll find Budget Travel's online video of similar inns with birds-eye views by clicking here. One example is the Out'n'About Treesort, in southwest Oregon, which is less Spartan than the Free Spirit in that it comes with electricity and heat, and usually a refrigerator and sink to boot.

If you haven't heard of RSS feeds, you're in for a treat.

"RSS feeds" is a dumb name for a fabulous technology. It's free and a cinch to use. Best of all, you can take advantage of this technology without needing to download any software.

An RSS feed lets you read in simple lists all of the headlines of the latest stories from your favorite websites and blogs.

Most of the top news websites, such as Washingtonpost.com, offer these feeds, too. So do travel sites and online travel agencies, such as Priceline.com. Once you start using RSS feeds, you'll be hooked.

By the way, "RSS" stands for: "I'm Ready for Some Stories!" (Okay, that's a fib. The acronym actually stands for "really simple syndication," and you can learn the nitty-gritty details by clicking here. But why bother?)

Let's get hopping. It'll take you about 10 minutes to simplify your Web surfing...

What do Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow , and Vienna have in common?

Each city offers train service between its international airport and one of its major downtown train stations, and each city offers check-in at its train station.

The best part of Vienna's City Airport Train is its check-in service at the Wein Mitte train station downtown. On the last night of a recent visit to Vienna, I went to the train station, checked-in for my flight, confirmed my seat assignment, and dropped off my luggage. For the rest of the night, I was carefree.

My morning trip to the airport was a breeze. I didn't need to worry about hauling my bag around a subway system during the rush hour. Once I arrived at the airport, I saw people standing in a line to check-in, and the line looked like it would take about 30 minutes to snake through. I smiled to myself that I had stood in line for less than five minutes the night before.

Here are the details:

--Parents find that it's getting harder to take vacations. The traditional three-month school vacation has shrunk to two in most parts of the country. This shrinking timespan is pressuring working parents, who compete with co-workers to book vacation weeks. Yet some parents are fighting back through their state legislatures: Six states have passed laws in the past three years delaying school opening dates until late August, according to this story in the Wall Street Journal (online subscription required). In the meantime, parents can use Budget Travel's Family Handbook, which offers ways to cut costs, entertain the kids, and resolve common problems.

--London for less during the summer. Discount airline Zoom is set to offer round-trip airfares from New York City for $700, after taxes. That's the word from the ace airfare trackers at Airfarewatchdog.com. This Just In has been following this story, and we'll let you know when Zoom, a Canadian air carrier, starts selling tickets in the U.S. The first flights are slated to depart around June 21.

--Signspotting overseas. Imagine seeing this phrase on a sign during a visit to Japan: "Conform to Japanese Customs!" Heck, don't imagine it. Look at the sign itself here, posted by the blog Japundit. Every month, Budget Travel invites readers to write captions for funny photos like that. See this month's contest by clicking here.

--"Can you still recline on the cheap?" In a word, no. It's becoming harder to buy more than one seat and stretch out on transatlantic flights, as CloudTravel points out in this post.

I'm irrational when it comes to photography, and maybe you are, too. During my vacations, it feels really urgent to preserve my memories with my camera. But when I return, I just stuff my snapshots into a shoebox. That's obviously not a good way to organize them -- or preserve them.

I recently decided that scanning my images and storing them on a DVD would be a more responsible thing to do. A DVD seemed like a neater, safer way to store photos than a shoebox. But I was in for a surprise...

Leave your wallet on your beach towel. Carry a fancy cell phone that stores all of your financial information without any password protection. Email your credit card's three-digit security code to a hotel clerk...Oops, wrong list!

If you're savvy enough to be reading Budget Travel, you're already savvy enough to safeguard your financial information when you travel. But Peter Tarlow, an expert on tourism, crime, and event security for the consulting firm Tourism & More, has shared three pieces of advice with the This Just In blog. These tips may surprise you...

Gas prices continue to soar above $2 a gallon. [Correction: This sentence has been updated since posting. See details at the end of this post.] This morning, the AP reports that the average price for self-serve regular has hit $2.87.

In other words, the average driver is paying $1.38 more per gallon now than they were in April 2003. That means that drivers like you and me will spend roughly $760 more on gas this year than we did four years ago, assuming we buy 10 gallons of gas a week. Yowzah!

Here's a tip on saving money when you hit the road for a long trip:

You already know that gas stations along major highways often mark-up their prices. But you may not realize that it's easier than ever to find stations selling cheaper gas. This year, several online mapping services, such as Mapquest and AAA.com, started letting users print out driving directions that mark the locations of gas stations on maps--and say what the latest gas prices are at those stations.

Want the details?

--New airline to connect smaller cities. SkyBus will soon fly between dozens of cities (such as Columbus, Nassau, and Kansas City) currently underserved by major airlines. The official announcement is due in a few days, says Online Travel Review. This Just In will keep you posted. For news on ExpressJet, a similar airline that started flying between small cities this month, click here.

--HotelChatter.com has started a database of reader reviews. Learn more by clicking here. While you're searching, note that you can find a hotel database targeted at budget-conscious travelers and vetted by Budget Travel's writers and editors by clicking here.

--We knew her before she was a star. Clotilde Dusoulier, the Paris-based food blogger at Chocolate & Zucchini, was recognized for the high quality of her first cookbook in Sunday's New York Times. You'll find her top picks for Parisian restaurants and bakeries in the Budget Travel story, "My Paris Is Better Than Yours." And mark your calendars for June 5, when Mademoiselle Dusoulier will take your questions about Paris in a live chat at BudgetTravelOnline.com

--Attention all hikers and campers. The Feds have launched a website, Recreation.gov, that puts all of their information about National Parks, wilderness areas, lakes, and other protected areas in one place. (Via the AP wire.)

--The no-fly watch list strikes again. A Washington Post columnist was recently caught by the long arm of U.S. passport control. Read his story here, and This Just In's recent story here.

Until now, there's been a common flaw with most Web travel agencies and fare-searching sites: They've been created by geeks, and these geeks tend to present information in ways that only super-logical people, such as Star Trek's Mr. Spock, can easily understand.

Luckily, a new service from FareCompare.com lets you find the lowest fare in a visually intuitive way. To check fares, you simply move your cursor across a map. As you do so, fares appear above the cities on the map. You can quickly see if you'd save more money by flying into an alternate airport at your U.S. destination, such as New York's J.F.K. instead of LaGuardia. You can also tell the website to show you only the fares you care about, considering your travel dates, preferred airline, and departure city. Check the feature out by clicking here. (Hat-tip to TravelWeekly.com.)

This morning, Columbus became cheaper to fly into and out of, thanks to the new low-cost carrier Skybus. Tickets went on sale for flights that begin departing on May 22. The airline, which uses new 140-passenger Airbus planes, connects Columbus with Boston (via Portsmouth, N.H.), Seattle (via Bellingham, Wash.), Los Angeles (via Burbank, Calif.), Kansas City, Mo., Richmond, Va., Greensboro, N.C., Oakland, Calif., and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Fares start at $10. Learn more at Skybus.com. (via the Columbus Dispatch.)

--If the passenger next to you is sick... will you get sick, too, after your flight is over? No, say medical researchers, who were interviewed for this Wall Street Journal article (subscription required). Here's the money quote: "The air on planes is better than in most home and office environments since it changes much more frequently. On most commercial planes, at least half of the air comes from outside the aircraft and passes through a high-efficiency particulate air, or HEPA, filter which removes contaminants." You're also unlikely to fall sick if the previous occupant of your airplane seat was sick. Cruises, though, are another story entirely. Learn how to stay healthy on cruises, by clicking here.

--European railways to challenge discount airlines. That's the surprising news from German business daily Handelsblatt. In December, a new "Railteam" program will aim to make it easier for travelers to book discounted travel across Britain, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, and Belgium. When the railway companies reveal more details, we'll pass them on to you. (Courtesy of the fine bloggers at EuroCheapo.)

--Has it been 400 years already? In 1607, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone and Rory O'Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell, fled Ireland. This event provided an opening for the British to expand their rule over the island. History buffs can learn more about talks, festivals, and marches commemorating the event by visiting a new website, Flightoftheearls.ie. (Thanks to reader John McNeal for the tip.)

--Our website has a new baby sister. And she's "green"! Sprig.com was launched earlier this week to cater to the interests of people who want to do a little bit more to care for the environment -- without obsessing over it. And, yes, there's a travel-related angle here. Sprig offers travel tips as part of its lifestyle section. For example, Sprig recommends you consider flying Virgin Atlantic because, among other things, the airline plans to start flying planes on plant-based fuels next year.

Houston's ArtCar museum has just opened, giving respectability to artists -- or "Cartists" -- who decorate ordinary cars in ways beyond your wildest imaginings. Gadling has the scoop with an amazing parade of photos. Take a look here.

Several major airlines guarantee that the fares they sell on their websites are the cheapest available. More specifically, American, Continental, Delta, United, Northwest, and US Airways make promises that go something like this: "If you purchase a ticket on our website and the price goes down before midnight for the same flight itinerary, you can make a claim and receive a refund of the difference in price plus an additional bonus."

Well, the folks at FareCompare.com recently tested these guarantees. They bought tickets, waited for fares to drop, and then asked for refunds. It turns out that the airlines make you run in circles to actually claim a refund. And given that the amount of money in dispute is often small, you might as well never file a claim. Hats off to FareCompare for its legwork. For the details, click here. And to read our advice on how to make the most of FareCompare's services, click here.

A Harry Potter theme park is in the works. Universal Studios is in talks with novelist J. K. Rowling to build a Harry Potter theme park in Florida, according to news first reported by the Scotland on Sunday and since confirmed by other sources. The new rides will probably become part of Universal's Islands of Adventure in Orlando. If the deal is signed, the half-billion-dollar park could open as early as 18 months from now. Feel free to propose names for the rides that should be created for "Hogwarts World" by posting comments below.

Meanwhile, The Simpsons will get their own attraction at Universal Studios Florida next spring. "The ride will use the 80-foot-tall movie screens and motion-simulation vehicles from Back to the Future: The Ride, to give visitors a virtual-reality trip through a cartoon theme park called "Krusty Land," says the Orlando Sentinel.

Kids get more respect: Starting on May 19, 2007, Royal Caribbean cruise line will begin to allow parents to enroll their children in their frequent cruisers reward program. Kids who are enrolled will be able to get a gift of Crayola Twistable crayons or a messenger bag, plus a coloring book. Meanwhile, starting Memorial Day, Omni Hotels will begin offering free gift packs full of toys to the children of guests, upon request, at any of its locations in the U.S. and Canada.

Beware of free wireless hot-spots. Many hotels and other public places offer free wireless Internet access. But travelers should be wary of such services. More and more crooks are using technology to trick laptops into opening themselves up to unsafe networks instead of legitimate ones. The danger: Your data can be quickly copied and misused. PC Magazine finds that the trick is hard to detect and is nearly foolproof. The solution is to never let your laptop automatically detect and log on to a wireless network. Instead, you should manually type in an access code that you request from a hotel or whomever is providing the free "wi-fi" service. Pay-for-access services, such as those offered by many coffeeshops, are less vulnerable to this problem because they require users to actively choose the wi-fi network they are logging into, instead of carelessly allowing their computer to tap into the strongest available signal. (hat-tip, WashingtonPost.com)

New space shuttle thrill ride opens soon. The Kennedy Space Center will open a new launch simulator on May 25. The so-called Shuttle Launch Experience allows 44 visitors at a time to feel and hear what it's like to be hurtled into space. Once "in orbit," the payload bay doors open to reveal a simulated view of the Earth. Tickets, which include a full run of the visitor center's exhibits, cost $38 per adult and $28 per child. (Given the high prices, you'll be glad to know that the visitor's center is not taxpayer-funded.) You must be at least 48-inches tall to ride the simulator. Facts about the new ride will soon be posted at the Kennedy Space Center website. For general tips and ideas on planning a vacation with your family, click here for Budget Travel's advice.

Flirting tips for single visitors to London. If you'd like to take a guided walking tour in London that offers the best techniques and spots for flirting, click here. The tour costs about $40 and includes practice sessions with random strangers. This tour could prove very popular. The Brits have the world's sexiest accent, as determined by a poll on BudgetTravel.com that received 2,092 responses. (info on the tour via Gadling)

Oops! This Just In's readers have pointed out that I was wrong to say that gas prices continue to "soar above $2 a gallon in many states" in my Monday post "Pain at the Pump". Turns out there's apparently nowhere in the U.S. where gas is for sale for less than $2 a gallon. I made the error by looking at reported gas prices at GasPriceWatch.com that were less than $2 a gallon in Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Kansas. But it turns out those prices are outdated, which I should have seen, given that the website reports the dates on which the prices are reported. I regret the error. Today's lowest price nationwide is $2.41 per gallon in High Point, N.C., and the highest is $3.89 per gallon in Needles, Calif., according to GasPriceWatch.com. The national average is now about $2.91 per gallon, higher than the $2.87 per gallon (according to a survey of 7,000 stations) that was reported earlier in the week.

Last year, vacationers brought roughly 9,000 dogs and cats to Hawaii. That was 3,000 more pets than in 2003, when Hawaii first loosened up its rules regarding out-of-state pets, according to this AP story. Under its new rules, the state allows visitors to bring their dogs and cats if they can document that their pets are free of rabies and if they pay a fee of $165 per pet. Pets had previously been quarantined for 120 days. Since Hawaii threw a bone to vacationers by changing its rules, more hotels have been setting aside rooms offering creature comforts.

Cat and dog owners traveling anywhere in the U.S.--not just Hawaii--can find a list of accommodations by turning to PetsOnTheGo.com and PetsWelcome.com. Dog owners, in particular, may learn some new tricks on how to travel with a pooch by reading this Budget Travel article.

America's top architectural wonders. A new website, FavoriteArchitecture.org, offers images of our nation's most popular buildings, monuments, and bridges as picked by a national survey. The most popular piece of architecture is the Empire State Building. Surprisingly, only two hotels were ranked among the top 25 wonders: the St. Regis in New York City and the Bellagio in Las Vegas. For a slide show of cool modernist houses you can visit, click here. For a slide show of the world's coolest bridges, click here.

US Airways is fixing its reservations-system. As many of you know, the airline's system has a track record of imploding whenever a large storm causes flight delays. The airline is hiring 1,000 workers whose jobs will be to rebook passengers when trouble strikes, according to this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. US Airways also plans to replace 600 troublesome reservations-booking machines within the next month.

Freebie! Norway's capital -- Oslo -- has been ranked the world's most expensive city in a survey by the global bank UBS. (For example, a Big Mac that averages $3.22 in the U.S. costs $6.63 in Norway.) Oslo's tourist board has now responded with a free, easy-to-download, 86-page guidebook that offers some tips on how to have a cheap time in the city. This guidebook lists restaurants where you can get meals for between $8 and $16. It also suggests inexpensive activities, such as touring the city by tram and shopping at consignment shops. (Yep, they really had to stretch to find cheap things to do.) You'll find the guide by clicking here. You can also learn about government-subsidized farmhouse lodging in Norway by clicking on this Budget Travel story.

Tip from a reader of this blog. In Germany, a coaster is known as a Bierdeckel. In many establishments, bartenders use these coasters to run your tab, marking on the edge each time you get a beer. They make good souvenirs: cheap, light, easy-to-pack!--Mike Anderson (For more reader tips, click here.)

Google mashups, of course.
Before you take your next trip, don't just settle for a standard map of your destination. Go online first to see if some creative person has whipped up a free, customized map. New mashup Google maps highlight selected locations with boxes that fly over the maps and typically display addresses and phone numbers.

Here's the fastest way to see if there's an enhanced map of your destination. Visit this website, Google Maps Mania. Then search on your destination either by clicking on the "By Country" link or by entering your destination's name in the website's search box. You'll find both the link and the search box in the top right-hand corner of the website's main page.

For example, click on this Prague 360 map. Besides seeing the typical Google map of the Czech capital, you'll see teardrop-shaped markers for various spots around the city. By clicking on each marker, you'll see photos of the location or additional information about events scheduled to take place there. For instance, if you click on the link "Flying above Petrin Tower -- Prague Skyline," you'll see a 360-degree image of Prague's skyline, which you can click and drag for an adjustable view. (Neat!)

This service allows you to plan for aspects of your trip in ways that your guidebook won't. Budding photographers can spot the most promising locations for taking scenic photographs. Nightlife-lovers can find out about the latest lineups at top concert venues. Travelers willing to take public transportation can plot out where subway and tram stations are in relation to their hotel.

Many U.S. and Western European cities have well-developed Google Map Mashups, which you can find by clicking here. However, most destinations around the U.S. and the world still don't have a lot of customized maps available. If the location of your next trip doesn't have a cool map now, bookmark the Google Maps Mania site and check back six months from now. New maps may have been developed by then.

Another cool planning tool is Google Earth, which incorporates satellite data into Google's streetmaps. Learn about the latest cool features of this free software by clicking here.

Low-cost airline Aer Lingus is holding a sale that ends tomorrow. It's offering some amazing fares for summer travel. Round-trip tickets for flights departing from New York or Boston and arriving in Dublin or Shannon cost $498, plus taxes, which can add up to $220. Fares are good from July 1 through the end of August, when fares ordinarily hover around $900, plus taxes.

Fares departing from Chicago and arriving in Shannon are also $498 round-trip. Fares out of L.A. are $399 round-trip, flying into Shannon or Dublin. Note: Aer Lingus is starting service from San Francisco to Dublin, for $400 round-trip. (Taxes add about $200 a ticket for each of the above offers.)

For details, click here.

It's Budget Travel's credo that you don't need most travel products. Our official reason is that we think they're almost always a waste of money. Our unofficial reason is that you'll look like a total geek if you carry around some of this stuff. In fact, nothing says "geek" like a pair of bottle-opener sandals. Well, on second thought, maybe an 84-tool Swiss Army knife screams "geek.' Here's a full round-up of travel gear for geeks. (I would like to add another product to this round-up: Vibram's new aquasocks with toes. As a very wise man -- who happens to be my boss -- once said, just because you can make toes out of neoprene doesn't mean you should.)

America has been rated the world's most unfriendly destination for foreign travelers in a new global poll. Only Canadians still like us, or at least, they are the only nationality that continues to visit our country in the same numbers as in 2000. The drop-off in European and Japanese visitors is all the more astonishing because today's exchange rates with the euro, the pound, and the yen make the U.S. relatively cheap. Details on the global poll can be found in this article in the New Zealand Herald (via BoingBoing)

What's the world's most treacherous road? This blogger and the Washington Post both say they have found the answer: Bolivia's Road of Death. This road has a 40-mile, unpaved section that is a lane "hacked out of the mountainside, bordered by 3,000-foot cliffs." (See images at the Dark Roasted Blend blog.)

I recently told you about the slide show "How to Take Better Pictures of Your Friends," put together by Budget Travel's photo department. You may also be interested in some expert scrapbooking tips and some time-saving tricks for making photo books.

Discount airline Eurofly is worth considering for your next trip to Italy. Eurofly is a low-cost carrier based in Milan that provides nonstop service between New York City and Bologna, Bari, Catania, Lamezia Terme, Naples, Palermo, Pescara, and Rome. These cities make convenient jumping-off points, whether for exploring less-touristed regions like Apulia (fly into Bari) and Calabria (choose Lamezia Terme) or Italy's best-loved destinations. Bologna, for instance, grants easy access to Tuscany to the south and Venice to the north while Rome and Naples put the Amalfi Coast within a short drive. All flights are nonstop on Airbus 330-200 planes. Even if you plan to visit Italy this summer and don't live in the Big Apple, you may save by flying a U.S. discount carrier to New York City and then catching a non-stop flight on Eurofly. You can only find its fares at Eurofly.com--not through Web travel agencies, such as Orbitz, or meta-search websites, such as Kayak. As a fun side note, Eurofly is the official airline of the FC Inter and AC Milan soccer teams and the Ferrari racing team.--Kate Appleton

Those last-minute Southwest fares aren't always great deals. A new study from the University of California, Irvine, finds that "last-minute airfares are more expensive on Southwest, on average, than on other airlines when consumers use online searches like Orbitz or Travelocity." In other words, if you're shopping for last-minute tickets, don't just visit Southwest.com and pick the lowest fare you see. Be sure to comparison shop by using an online meta-search engine, such as Kayak.com. You may find a lower 11th-hour fare on another airline. (hat tip, the Star-Telegram in Fort Worth/Dallas)

MAXjet is offering new nonstop flights between L.A. and London. Starting at the end of August, the all-business-class carrier will offer fares starting from $1,398 round-trip, plus taxes of about $300, according to a press release. These fares are considerably lower than the current business-class fares on this route. MAXjet will fly between Los Angeles International airport and Stansted airport, the latter of which is a 45-minute train ride away from central London. Last fall, Budget Travel gave MAXjet an Extra Mile Award for offering "champagne cocktails and spacious leather seats with no middle rows" and airfares that tempt middle-class travelers. MAXjet also has gateways in Las Vegas, New York City, and Washington, D.C.

The 25 travel wonders of the British Isles have been picked by the U.K.'s most prestigious newspaper, The Times.

Britain's popular airline BMI is planning to add flights between the U.S. and the U.K. next March, according to London's Guardian Unlimited. Let's hope that this move will spark a fare war that makes it more affordable to see some of those 25 travel wonders.

New Mexico has launched the wackiest state tourism campaign ever. Check out its new website, which is riffing off the state's association with Area 51 and UFO sightings. TV, print, and online ads are being rolled out. At the new website Newmexicoearth.org, you can click on one of the links to see one of the "out of this world" videos and learn about some off-beat tourist attractions. (via TripCart)

When one of our readers, Eric Tennen, recently went on vacation in Rotorua, New Zealand, he tried out a new thrill called the Zorb. As you see here, Eric was strapped into a small spherical chamber, which is cushioned by two feet of air inside a larger inflated ball.

The National Park Service plans to hike entrance fees at more than 100 parks, monuments, and other areas within the next few years. But popular protests could forestall the price hikes. "Park superintendents can recommend that the agency director, Mary Bomar, rescind the increases if enough people protest," says this Associated Press story. This summer, higher park passes and vehicle fees are set for 11 parks, such as Muir Woods and Bryce Canyon. Scores of other parks will see fee hikes after that. By 2009, the most popular parks, such as Yosemite and Glacier (in Montana), will charge up to $50 for annual passes. Fees per person would range from about $5 to $12. Per vehicle, they would be about $10 to $25. To protest, contact the site manager of individual parks. You can find the email or mailing addresses of site managers by looking for individual park webpages, which you can find at the National Park Service's main website, NPS.gov. (Thanks to Kurt Repanshek, author of National Parks of the American West for Dummies, for giving this heads-up on his National Parks Traveler blog.)

Overnight train travelers can often get themselves upgraded to sleeper seats at little cost. On its long-distance routes, Amtrak offers private rooms with seats that fold out into beds. (You'll find Amtrak's description of these rooms by clicking here.) The cost of a roomette is typically several hundred dollars more than a coach seat. But you can often buy an upgrade from coach to this more comfortable spot by paying only about $100 more, according to this story by James Gilden in the L.A. Times. Gilden recommends you take the following three steps to score a comfortable roomette at a low price. First, travel mid-week and at a non-holiday time because demand for upgrades will be weaker. Next, check online at Amtrak.com and buy an upgrade. "See what room you are assigned. If it is a single-digit number, it's likely sleepers are available on that train; Amtrak assigns rooms starting with the lowest numbers first. Then you can cancel the upgrade and take your chances at the station or onboard." For the full article, click here. For other tips and strategies on bargain train rides, see this Budget Travel interview with a top train expert. For tips on Canadian train travel, click here.

Fare sales to Las Vegas and Orlando are getting better at a little-known airline. Allegiant Air is a low-cost airline that focuses on leisure travelers and operates primarily out of Las Vegas and Orlando. Its fares don't show up at the major online travel websites, such as Expedia. But this young, profitable airline uses new jet planes to provide non-stop service to more than a dozen less-trafficked airports, such as Billings, Des Moines, Fargo, Knoxville, and Missoula. Recently, Allegiant has been "slashing fares on the weekend for travel two or three weeks ahead," reports AirfareWatchdog.com. If Allegiant serves your city, you may be able to travel to Sin City or one of the Sunshine State's most popular destinations at a low cost. But you'll have to visit Allegiant's website, AllegiantAir.com, to check its routes, schedules, and fares. For information on two other little-known airlines, Eurofly and Condor, read this blog post at This Just In.

Book a stylish, centrally-located London hotel at a discount. Budget Travel recently introduced readers to the Hoxton Hotel, which debuted last fall in London's financial district. Each of the hotel's 205 rooms feature "wood paneling, down duvets and pillows, and a fridge filled with free mineral water and milk." (See article here.) Turns out that the EuroCheapo blog has discovered a trick for booking a stay at this cool hotel at a discount. Simply sign up for the hotel's email newsletter, which offers exclusive sales. You'll find rooms available for between $10 and $160 a night. (Even a $160 a night room is still a deal in London, because of the watery value of the U.S. dollar agains the British pound.) Details here. And for more suggestions for cheap hotels in London, click here.

Good-bye, seatback TVs on airplanes. Hello, personal media players....

A reader has written us to complain about a story that Budget Travel ran a couple of years ago, called "My Hometown: Chattanooga." (Read it here.)

Lisa Lowe Stauffer, who is a native-born daughter of the city, says the article "wasn't bad, just superficial." She adds: "There's so much more to Chattanooga than funky shops and the Choo Choo."

Now, personally, I still think very highly of the piece that Budget Travel ran. But I thought I'd share with you Stauffer's own, unedited take on this much-beloved city...

Sleep in a cave house. Thousands of residents of the cathedral town of Guadix, Spain, live in cave houses, carved out of the surrounding sandstone mountains. These cave homes feature all of the standard modern conveniences, as you can tell by the TV satellite dishes that most of the cave dwellers have stuck above their doors. Curious? Then try renting one of these cave homes for a short stay. One agency, Cuevas Pedro Antonio, offers 19 rental units, each with a kitchen, a terrace view of the Sierra Nevada, and access to a pool. Room rates are about $120 a night, assuming a four-night stay. Details here. Guadix makes a convenient stop on a typical circuit of the popular destinations in Mediterranean Andalusia. (Hat tip to the Times of London)

Sleep inside a windmill. On the Greek island of Zakynthos, two cape-top windmills are romantic places to stay, says Eleni Gage, a Budget Travel contributor. From the balconies of either of these windmills you can take in glorious views of the Ionian Sea. Rates vary by date, but expect to pay about $200 a night per family. Details here. The owners also offer small boat tours of the area's most popular attractions--including the Blue Caves, which are unusual rock formations over the Ionian Sea--at times of day when larger tourist boats aren't disturbing the scenery. Trips cost about $14 per person, and you don't have to stay at a windmill to take the trip. Details here. (On a related note, you can read about the secret hotels of the Greek Isles by clicking here.)

Stay on your own private island in the South Pacific for about $200 a night....

Discount airline JetBlue booted its founder, David Neeleman, today. The company's board of directors removed Neeleman from his chief executive role as punishment for his recent poor management, which led to last February's canceled-flights fiasco. Let's take a moment to pause and thank Neeleman for having invented JetBlue and many of its innovative perks, which Budget Travel recognized last year with a 2006 Extra Mile Award: "Rather than removing amenities and nickel-and-diming customers with $7 sandwiches and $25 excess baggage charges, JetBlue actually added perks. The airline gives every passenger on an overnight flight a free Bliss Spa kit with earplugs, eye masks, mint lip balm, and a small tube of lemon-and-sage body butter moisturizer." More recently, Neeleman had his airline reconfigure the seats on its aircraft to provide between 34- and 36-inches of legroom. Travelers nationwide ought to be grateful to JetBlue for setting such a good example for the proper treatment of coach-class passengers.

One more thought: Neeleman, 47, had an inspiring personal story. Growing up in Utah, he was the guy many teachers never thought would amount to much. Yet he overcame a debilitating brain disorder to eventually found a multi-billion dollar airline company, as detailed in this Fortune profile.

All that said, JetBlue's handling of passengers last February was unconscionable. So let's hope this management change, justified or not, lets the airline get back on track soon.

Fly to Germany on a $500 round-trip airfare (after taxes). The little-known German airline LTU International Airways is holding a fare sale for departures this month from Ft. Myers, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City. For example, round-trip flights departing this month between New York City and Munich start at $318, plus taxes of about $120. Or fly between Miami and Berlin for round-trip fares starting at $368, plus taxes of about $150. Details here. One downside of LTU is that its departures are infrequent. For instance, it flies merely twice a week from Las Vegas to Germany. Its fares also do not show up in the search results of many online travel websites, such as Kayak.com, so you may want to comparison shop at LTU.com when researching a trip to Germany. (Related note: You can read about Germany's Fairy-Tale Castle Hotels by clicking here.)

Freebies in Delaware. On Saturday, May 19, residents can flash their driver's license or student ID to get free access to any of 48 attractions in the state, such as Monster Racing Excitement at the Dover Speedway, Governor Ross Mansion, Fenwick Island Lighthouse, and the Museum of Small Town Life. Alas, the state's prime jewel, Longwood Gardens, isn't participating and will charge $14 per ticket as usual. Editor's Note: There's a good reason why Longwood Gardens isn't participating. It's in Pennsylvania, not Delaware. I regret the error, and thanks to reader Mike for pointing out the mistake.

Memorial Day bed and breakfast deals. You'll find packages for stays in California, Connecticut, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Ohio by clicking here. For other deals in these and other states, visit the excellent website BnBFinder.com. Hint: Click on its "Specials" page to find its most surprising deals.

Jump-start your trip-planning for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing...

As one of eight master brewers for Guinness, the Irish stout maker, Murray is an international ambassador for the brand. This year he expects to hopscotch Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean over the course of about 20 weeks. He will, as always, be thanking pub owners for selling Guinness and offering tips on how to store and pour the beverage.

Given his broad travel experience, Murray knows by heart a variety of spots worth visiting. His favorite place to take his family on vacation is Quinta do Lago, an oceanside resort town in Algarve, the most southern region of Portugal. Last year he went there with his wife and their two sons, a one-year old and a four-year old. Here's what he has to say about the place:

"I would recommend it for American families for a few reasons. First, the town's restaurants and hotels are set up to entertain small children. You can walk into any restaurant with two kids and let the kids be themselves without feeling self-conscious as a parent. The pools are designed to be safe for children, and there's always someone around to mind them. Second, the weather's good and the beaches are fantastic. Third, it's a favorite destination of Irish and British families, but I'd be totally surprised if any American family visits there. So if you are an American visiting the town, you will truly feel like you are visiting another country because none of your fellow citizens will be near you, while you'll still enjoy the benefits of child-friendly facilities and English-speaking staff."

While I chatted with Murray, I had a few pressing questions to ask that weren't precisely travel related, but he was kind enough to answer them anyway...

Here's a quick rundown on how to get the best deals for inter-city rail travel in Europe.

1. European websites frequently sell tickets at lower prices. For example, French Railways often supplies lower prices on its website for tickets that are identical to the ones it sells via RailEurope.com, an American agency. To be sure, agencies like RailEurope.com sometimes do provide superlow deals, such as a current discount of 50 percent off train tickets on Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam routes. (Details here.) Still...you gotta shop around--and not merely rely on American sites for one-stop shopping--if you want the best deal.

2. English speakers living in the U.S. can still buy discounted tickets through European websites. Your first stop online should be at Seat61.com. This amazingly helpful British website offers step-by-step advice on how to pinpoint the best route for your desired itinerary...and also how to find the cheapest tickets. (The site's editor, Mark Smith, answered reader questions yesterday at BudgetTravel.com. Transcript here.)

3. Booking at the last-minute? There may be a deal for you online, too. In the same way that airlines offer last-minute deals to fill empty seats, Europe's rail networks have deeply discounted point-to-point tickets. You'll find examples here.

Gamblers are on a roll. Spirit Airlines now flies nonstop between the gambling meccas of Atlantic City and Las Vegas. This new seasonal service lasts until Aug. 12. Sample last-minute fares are $178 round-trip.

Spirit is attempting to cash in on a growing trend in gambling vacations. High-rollers (and suckers) boosted revenues at casinos nationwide by roughly 7 percent last year, reaching a record $32 billion. Sources: TravelDailyNews; TravelMole.

(By the way, talking about Vegas gives me an excuse to link to a fun Budget Travel article that's on a loosely related topic: "Confessions of a Vegas Massage Therapist.")

More travel companies are offering healthier food. Radisson and Carlson properties will stop using shortening that contains trans fat at their roughly 600 hotel restaurants nationwide, according to this report by Travel Weekly. To learn about other hotels, resorts, and cruise companies that have banned trans fats, read this BudgetTravel.com article.

New York City taxicabs are getting an upgrade...

London fare war on the horizon. "By the end of June, there are expected to be 35 daily nonstop flights between London and New York, offering more than 10,000 seats every day, one-way--accounting for about half of all flights between Europe and New York," says the International Herald-Tribune in this report. By my back-of-the-envelope calculation, that's a jump of roughly 11% from last year.

I'm going to bet that the airlines struggle to fill all of those seats. Americans are leery of visiting Britain because it's so expensive right now. As you know, the buying power of the U.S. dollar against the pound is at a record low. Expect to see fare sales to London in June, as airlines rush to lure travelers to Britain with offers of discounted seats. Rather than cut back on flights, Delta, Virgin, Air India, American, British Airways, United, and Zoom will likely enter a price war because they can afford to do so. The profit margins on this route are sufficiently high that they can trim fares without being hurt too much--unless oil prices spike.

Lonely Planet has issued a new edition of their venerable South America on a Shoestring guidebook. This guidebook remains the preeminent favorite of backpackers, as travel writer Tim Leffel points out in this blog post. Learn more about the guidebook and where to buy it by clicking here.

Correction: In this blog post on Friday, I said that Longwood Gardens is in Delaware. Actually, it is five miles across the border in Pennsylvania. I regret the error.

Poll: Should you lower the window shades during a daytime flight?....

Scouting out a trip to New Zealand--Middle Earth in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy--just got easier. The New Zealand tourism folks, who always seem to be ahead of the rest of the industry, created a layer for Google Earth with helpful visitor info and resources. No idea what Google Earth does? Check out our story on Google Earth here.

Now, as you're viewing New Zealand from above using Google's satellite images, you can simultaneously check out local tourism info. Just go under Google Earth's Travel and Tourism layer and click on "100% Pure New Zealand." Icons for black feathers and blue hikers pop up, indicating spots for local tourism offices and recreations areas respectively. Click on these icons and you're given a thumbnail sketch of what's there, as well as links to activities, accommodations (including farmstays, B&Bs, and other unusual places to stay), and scenic highlights--of which there are many in New Zealand.--Brad Tuttle, Senior editor.

Customer satisfaction with the major airlines, especially United, has been tanking. The airline industry received a combined score of 63 out of 100 in a survey released today by the University of Michigan. That was a 3 percent drop to the lowest level in seven years--lower than even the IRS's score of 65 in customer satisfaction.

The survey asked consumers to rate their satisfaction with the services they buy in a variety of industries. About 20,000 consumers, including about 4,000 airline and hotel customers, were surveyed during the first three months of 2007. The top airline score: Southwest's 76. The second-place finisher was Continental at 69. Tied for third place were US Airways and Northwest; both received scores of 61.

The worst performer was United with a failing score of 56. Down 11 percent in its score from this time last year, United is not only the lowest scoring airline by a substantial margin but is also one of the lowest scoring of 200 companies in 40 industries. Read more about the American Customer Satisfaction Index by clicking here.

Baltimore finally clears the air. On New Year's Day 2008, the city bans smoking in bars, restaurants, and other public places, including taxicabs.

European cities--and some entire countries--are trying to kick the smoking habit, too. You can see which European countries have banned smoking by clicking here to see Budget Travel's map.

In case you've been living under a rock and haven't heard...Here's the story about Kool-Aid Pickles that everyone's been talking about. (See the New York Times story here.)

Farecast gives you an idea of what price is a fair value by predicting whether fares for your itinerary will rise or fall during the next week. This free online service uses a historical database of more than 175 billion airfare prices from most of the major airlines to try to crack the airfare guessing game. Currently, it predicts what prices will do for flights between 75 U.S. airports. The website also acts as an ordinary booking engine, listing the lowest fares available for your particular itinerary and allowing you to "click-through" to airline websites and purchase tickets.

Farecast recently paid an outside company, Navigant, to audit its forecasting error rate. The findings: Farecast is right about three out of four times. This winter, travelers using Farecast saved about $54 off of the cost of purchasing two tickets on average, says the website.

Here's how the service works...

Picking a cruise itinerary used to be a hassle. You had to wade through a dozen brochures, and you didn't get a good sense of the differences between itineraries. But that's starting to change. An Australian cruise company called Clean Cruising has come up with an innovation sure to sweep the U.S. cruise industry soon: virtual cruise itineraries.

Let's say you'd like to learn more about a Princess cruise off the coast of Alaska. Go to the website of the online travel agency (and environmental champion) CleanCruising.com. Then click on the Alaskan itinerary you'd like to learn more about. On-screen, you'll find a Google map that's marked with each port of call. Click the "Play 3D Movie" button, and you'll be able to follow a virtual cruise ship as it traces the ship's charted course along the surface of the earth. The website uses Google's latest technology, but you don't have to download any software to enjoy it. Even better, this website uses a special overlay of photos and video. At each port of call, you can a see a panoramic view of what the stop looks like.

Here's the revolutionary, industry-changing part that's great news for budget travelers...

Airlines are competing to offer discounted air tickets for multi-stop, round-the-world travel. British Airways is running a special on round-the-world tickets. Visit anywhere from three to six continents at your own pace and flexible schedule for economy-class prices starting at $3,900. Details here. Meanwhile, Air New Zealand is offering similar round-the-world fares for as little as $3,104. Details here. These prices are generally lower than what you'd pay by stitching together point-to-point tickets from these airlines. But, if you're willing to sacrifice flexibility for a specific itinerary, turn to round-the-world specialists such as AirTreks.com instead. Airfares from specialists often cost hundreds of dollars less, though they usually have more restrictions.

For advice on how to plan a "RTW" trip from globe-trotting journalist Gayle Forman, click here.
To see the trailer of a new documentary about round-the-world travel, click here.

Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville
This museum traces the history of the Texas prison system since 1848. The permanent exhibit on capital punishment features "Old Sparky," the electric chair that dispatched 361 prisoners from this mortal coil between 1924 and 1964. Another exhibit displays prison contraband, including many of the weapons that prisoners made over the years. The prison hardware exhibit displays classic tools, such as the ball and chain. You'll find photos of exhibits at Txprisonmuseum.org. (Adults pay $4 per person; children ages 6 to 17 pay $2 each.)

Toilet-themed restaurants in Taiwan...

You can do what you love and be paid for it, too. That's one lesson to draw from today's news that the award-winning website World Hum has been acquired by the Travel Channel for an undisclosed sum. World Hum is a labor of love begun six years ago by a couple of friends. Over time, it has become one of the English-language's premier travel publications, online or in print.

In the following interview with This Just In, co-founder Michael Yessis talks about his website and today's most interesting experiments in travel journalism.

Q: For readers who aren't familiar with World Hum, could you please describe what it is -- and why it's unique?

World Hum looks at travel in a way most travel publications don't. It focuses on the experience of travel, and we define travel in a broad way. It's a two-week vacation (if we're lucky) to Italy, sure, but travel is also a way to look at the world those other 50 weeks of the year. You don't have to be planning a trip to enjoy World Hum. The world is shrinking, so much so that it's just as possible to have a travel experience a few miles from your home as it is to have one in the shadow of the Taj Mahal. Cultures around the world are blending in all sorts of interesting ways, too, and we like to keep an eye on how that plays out with travelers.

We're also absolutely interested in the transformational aspects of travel. My travels have affected my life in so many ways, and the same goes for my co-editor, Jim Benning. I'd wager most of our contributors and readers feel the same way, too. The dispatches we publish, the interviews we post, the books we review and the things we write about on the World Hum blog reflect our passion for travel and they way it changes us and the world.

That said, we don't take it all too seriously. Travel is fun, and we like to add a little levity to the mix. One of our latest dispatches, for instance, covers the experiences of a Mexican food addict sampling the not-so-great efforts of a restaurant in Lyon, France to serve his favorite cuisine. (See it here.)

Q: What's up with World Hum and its new partner?

World Hum has been acquired by the Travel Channel. We're thrilled. The Travel Channel believes in what we're building at World Hum and it wants us to continue doing what we've been doing. And our take on travel dovetails with a lot of what the Travel Channel has been doing, showcasing thoughtful travelers such as Anthony Bourdain. We'll be a part of a growing online presence, and with the Travel Channel on the rise -- it recently had its highest-rated quarter ever -- it should offer great opportunities for us at World Hum.

Q: The backstory, please: Who founded World Hum, and when? And who runs it today?

Jim Benning and I founded the site in 2001, soon after the demise of Salon's Wanderlust. We were both fans of the section Don George edited -- Salon posted excellent travel essays every day of the week -- and when it no longer existed we decided to create something that built on what he had been doing. We launched with five stories and a weblog (as far as we can tell, it's one of the longer-running travel weblogs around), and almost immediately the site seemed to strike a chord with travelers as well as with writers and photographers who found that many of the stories they wanted to tell about their travels didn't fit into the traditional travel media formula.

A couple years ago we expanded with several new sections, including books, how to, speaker's corner and a travel advice column from Vagabonding author Rolf Potts. Now we have a mix of contributors from all around the world.

Q: What's next for World Hum?

We want to be a daily must-read for anyone interested in looking at the world through the prism of travel. Initially we'll be doing the same thing we've always been doing, only more often. We'll be publishing new features at least once every weekday, and we'll be expanding the frequency of our weblog posts. Beyond that, we'll be adding longer features and adding audio, video and other dynamic elements to the site. We've also got several new features and some surprises in the works.

Q: Is there any feature on World Hum that you tried on a lark, or against your better judgment, that turned out to be sensationally popular?

European trains on sale. Online ticketing service Rail Europe is offering this promotion: One-way full-fare tickets on all routes of the high-speed Thalys train connecting Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam are now on sale at 50% off the standard rates. Tickets must be booked here by August 15 for travel between June 1 and August 31, 2007. For example, between Paris and Amsterdam the discounted round-trip ticket will cost $170 for economy-class service.

Meanwhile, graduation gifts for student travelers are for sale from competitor website Railpass.com. The gift packs include international cell phone and minutes, a map, and a language book. Details here.

Medal of Honor Museum to open in Charleston, S.C. On May 25, the historic World War II aircraft carrier U.S.S. Yorktown will become a floating museum celebrating the lives and heroics of the 3,462 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients. The museum will feature four exhibits including The Wall of Honor, Combat Tunnel, Freedom Isn't Free, and Hall of Heroes. Learn more at Patriotspoint.org.

Memorial Day trip planning. If you want to get out of town for the long weekend, you'll find some deals on rooms with this promotion at Hotels.com.

Codzilla strikes Boston.

Flying this holiday weekend? You can check current delays at U.S. airports by clicking here. Flying overseas? Allow extra time if you're visiting the following cities: London, Cancun, Rome, Italy, Paris, and Barcelona. The reason? Airports in those cities will be the busiest this holiday weekend, according to Orbitz.com.

Kudos to Hotels.com for ending its $25 fees to change or cancel bookings. Users of the Web agency can now add nights, swap hotels, or cancel their reservations without being hit with a fee. Be aware, though, that the hotels may still slap on their own fees, which you'll still have to pay.

Take a peek at the future of online mapping here. An ambitious student in Germany has put together a panoramic virtual drive through Berlin. You got to see it to believe it. If the map inspires you to travel to Berlin, then check out the city's unusual Melt Festival, which is a music event that takes place in mid-July in a former East German mine just outside the capital. Details here and here.

Consider taking a fuel-friendly vacation. The Boutique Hotel Collection, a chain of seven California hotels, is offering a three-day, two-night, "Tanks for the Memories" package. For weekend prices starting at $140 a night, it includes accommodations, a $40 gas card or voucher, a disposable camera, and a photo album. Scenic hotel locations include the Inn at Morro Bay, Morro Bay, and the Inn at Oyster Point, San Francisco. It's available through the summer, with dates and rates varying by location. See details here.

It's baffling why New York City waited so long to get a "duck truck" sightseeing tour. Even a comparatively tiny city like Dublin has been ferrying around tourists on half-boat, half-bus vehicles for years now. But the mysterious wait will end on June 5, when New York Splash Tours launches its fleet of AquaBuses.

As I discovered during a recent sneak preview, the AquaBus charts a course through Times Square, Hell's Kitchen, and a portion of the Hudson River. The tour takes about an hour and its main highlight is when the vehicle slips into a small tunnel that looks like a car wash. Inside, you are surrounded by screens that project images of a storm-tossed sea. The vehicle is then tossed from side to side while you and your fellow passengers are spritzed with water. Stuffed rats race up the side of masts along the tunnel walls, for comic effect. Then, another door opens up, and the vehicle dives into the river. Kids throw their hands up in the air like they're on a log flume ride. They also blow whistles, which they were handed when they clambered aboard.

Overall, the trip is a bargain if you're a parent who wants to keep your kids entertained while giving your feet a rest. Grown-ups with (or without) children may also like the tour because it offers a relatively rare view of the New York City skyline, as seen from the river. On a bright day, the shiny grill of the Chrysler Building causes the pulse to quicken, like the best picture in a children's book.

Tickets cost $29 per adult and $20 for children between 3 and 11 years old. Learn more here.

In Israel, Archaeological Seminars is an organization that is excavating a site at the National Park of Beit Guvrin, which is about a half-hour drive from Jerusalem. Each "Dig for a Day" event includes a rundown of the site's history and an explanation of rudimentary excavation techniques. Then you dig in. Organizers say you have a good chance of finding an artifact because the site was the equivalent of a garbage dump centuries ago, with countless items scattered underground. Your discoveries actually enhance the historical record because cash-strapped archaeologists depend upon the work of volunteers to help them with their research. The price is $28 per adult, and $23 per child between the ages of 5-14. About 30,000 people participate each year. Details here. (Photo of the Beit Guvrim Dig by Pointing via Flickr.)

Other archaeological sites offer dig for a day programs:

In Utah, you can dig for Anasazi ruins. Learn about this and other trips at ResponsibleTravel.com.

In Poland, you can dig for a medieval cemetery. Learn about this and other trips at Archaeolink.com.

Meanwhile, the U.S.D.A. Forest Service runs a Passport in Time (PIT), an archaeological program that offers dozens of volunteer projects throughout the U.S. each year at old mines, former African American slave community sites, and Native American mounds. The program is free to join but volunteers must pay for their own way. (Think: transportation, food, and lodging.) Details at the PIT website, Passportintime.com.

Related link: You'll find our round-up of museums that let kids sleep-over for the night by clicking here.

Nickelodeon said today that it's teaming up with Marriott in creating new kid-friendly family resort brand. It'll take about a dozen years to build about 20 properties, each with a water park. The first resort, a 650-room property in San Diego, will be open within a couple of years. Of course, Nickelodeon already offers Nick Hotels via Holiday Inn.

Tomorrow, the Operation Spy experience debuts at the International Spy Museum in downtown Washington, D.C. Participants ages 12 and older assume the role of U.S. Intelligence officers on an intrigue-filled international mission. The exhibit combines live-action, video characters, special effects, and hands-on activities to simulate what it's like to be a spy. Sounds pretty neat. Be sure to book your timed tickets in advance. Details here.

Ireland price break: $800 per person, air/hotel/car for six nights. Last-minute planners may find that vacation packages offer a way of cutting some of the costs of a trip to Ireland--where Guinness now goes for $7 and Dublin hotel rooms are reaching $400 a night because of the watery value of the dollar. Dooley Vacations is offering a vacation package, starting at $800 per person for travel during peak-season--a savings of about 20 percent off the cost of buying the airfare, hotel and rental car separately. The package includes round-trip airfare on FlyGlobespan from New York or Boston to Knock, Ireland, a six-night stay at multi-room inns, and car rental with unlimited mileage. Book by June 8. For details, call 877/331-9301 or click here.

For a rough idea of what this means, click here and check out the map of the world. Click on any of the numbers on the map, and you'll see the photos that the photographer took at the marked locations.

Geotagging, as this process is called, leapt into the news today when Google announced that it is about to buy Panoramio, a website containing millions of photos whose exact locations are mapped via Google Earth. (For Budget Travel's explanation of Google Earth, click here.)

Travelers who merely want to create an online map for their own use can do just that, too. You can upload your photos to a personalized map on Flickr, Yahoo, or Google, and showcase your years of globe-trotting.

For any given photo, the camera--or a connected device--pinpoints its location by talking with satellites that orbit the Earth as part of the Global Positioning System. The camera notes the latitude and longitude. When the photographer later uploads the photo to an online map, the photo's exact location is plotted. Anyone else in the world reading that online map can see the photo.

Why bother with geotagging? Well, the more trips you take, the more digital photos you'll have...and the more difficult it will become to remember where many of your photos were specifically taken. Geotagging will help you remember the "backstory" behind any photo. And, as technology progresses, new software will make it easier to use this information to organize your photos in an intuitive way.

Even if you don't want to bother with the technology, you can still benefit. By going to a photo-sharing website such as Flickr.com, you can search for photos of your travel destination and do some armchair traveling. Just type in a destination, such as Croatia, at a website like Flickr.com/maps.

Here's how you can get in on the fun if you want to start geotagging.

I'm personally skeptical that the Skywalk is worth $75. But you be the judge: The pop-culture travel blog Jaunted has a video of what the tour is like. (See here.) And if you've toured the Skywalk in person, please share your opinion of it with our readers by posting a comment below.

Borat is writing a travel guidebook. According to this AP story, "Borat, the fictional ambassador from Kazakhstan has a book, with two titles, coming out this fall: Borat: Touristic Guidings To Minor Nation of U.S. and A. and Borat: Touristic Guidings To Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." I wonder which travel magazine will bid to publish an excerpt?

Scuba diving in Paris? "Between now and June 10, professional scuba instructors are offering one-on-one lessons in the heated, above-ground pool at the foot of the tower," according to this AP story. Bizarre.

Luckily, you can keep your miles alive--even if you don't fly. For example, you can redeem some of your miles to buy magazines or other products by shopping at aadvantageshopping.com. This spending counts as "activity," keeping the rest of your miles alive for another 18 months. One cheap option is to buy a bag of Starbucks coffee beans from--of all places--Sears.com, for $11.

Budget Travel recently published an online chart of the best options for saving miles on American and seven other major airlines--Continental, Delta, JetBlue, Northwest, Southwest, United, and US Airways. Click here to see the online version of the chart. Correction: In the chart that accompanied this blog post and the article in the magazine, we erroneously said that a participant in American Airlines' reward program could keep their account active by buying a gift card from partner Starbucks. Instead, you need to buy a bag of coffee via Starbuck's retail website StarbucksStore.com. Thanks to reader R. Giovinazzo for noticing the error.

In late May, he returned from a multi-country tour sponsored by Stride, the chewing-gum maker. The company was wowed by the attention Matt received for his first video, so they funded his next trip, he says.

Matt is taking a brief rest before he heads back out on the road to visit 13 more countries and shoot a more advanced video. Up next: Google--for some mysterious reason--has hired him to do a project. (Perhaps Google will insert his dancing videos into its street-level maps on Google Earth.)

BudgetTravel.com caught up with Matt to ask a few questions...

Disney Shift: Smoking is no longer allowed in any Disney hotel rooms or timeshares in Orlando. It'll only be OK at certain outdoor spaces. [Related: European governments are cracking down on smoking, as this map shows.]

Movin' movies: Austin's Rolling Roadshow is screening movies all over this summer, including "North by Northwest" at Mount Rushmore. Details here.

Billy Graham Library Opens: Charlotte, N.C., is home to a library dedicated to the evangelist. The building resembles a barn; the entrance is a 40-foot-tall glass cross. billygraham.org.

Correction: On Monday, this blog linked to a chart in a BudgetTravel.com magazine article that contained a mistake: We erroneously said that a participant in American Airlines' reward program could keep their account active by buying a gift card from partner Starbucks. Instead, you need to buy two bags of coffee via Starbuck's retail website, StarbucksStore.com. ($9.50 each)
via Starbuck's retail website StarbucksStore.com.

Americans are workaholics: One in five toted laptop computers on their most recent vacations, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released last week. [CNN.com] For info on how to put your "crackberry" to better use, click here.

Photo by isotopp via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

Possible change to passport rules. This summer, the Feds may allow travelers to present a State Department receipt showing their passport application is being processed, instead of a passport, when crossing borders. The move is an effort to address the three-month backlog in issuing passports, which has upset the travel plans of many Americans. Since January, U.S. citizens have been required to use passports when re-entering the country from Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean by air. [The AP, via Guardian Unlimited]

Volunteer Deals Groups of 10 or more get a discount if they book lodging and airfare for a volunteer vacation through cheaptickets.com. Learn about all of the website's new volunteer vacation packages by clicking here.

India flight Jet Airways plans to bring service to the U.S. in August, with a daily flight between Newark and Mumbai (via Brussels).

AirTran Fees The airline is charging $5-$15 for some aisle and exit-row seats.

Big Apple Deals CityPass has added the Met museum to its New York pass and the Hockey Hall of Fame to its Toronto pass.

New nonstop routes ExpressJet announced new nonstops connecting smaller airports, including San Antonio to Tulsa, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, and Tucson; and Jacksonville, Fla., to Kansas City, New Orleans, and Austin.

Teen programs After consulting teenagers, Royal Caribbean is rolling out new features for them like Nintendo's Wii, teen-only dining, and an ice-breaker jam session with musical instruments.

This summer, the Feds are allowing travelers to present a State Department receipt showing their passport application is being processed, instead of a passport, when crossing borders. [AP via Yahoo]

Earlier: As we reported in this post, the move is an effort to address the three-month backlog in issuing passports, which has upset the travel plans of many Americans. Since January, U.S. citizens have been required to use passports when re-entering the country from Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean by air, according to the State Department.

Itching to hit the road for a few weeks--or months? Then visit Start Backpacking, a website that offers step-by-step advice on how to escape from your cubicle. The site, which launched today, is written for people willing to travel independently for an extended time. It's built by veteran traveler Gregory Rodgers and covers all the basics you need to start "vagabonding."

Now this is an impressive hotel website. The California chain of boutique hotels Joie de Vivre re-launched its website last week, and its new design deserves to win an innovation award. Like a Ron Popeil kitchen gadget ("It slices! It dices!"), the site does everything: Fill out a quiz, and it'll suggest which one of its roughly 30 hotels may most closely match your personality. Curious about the neighborhood where any hotel is located? Then watch one of the site's professionally produced videos about local attractions. Want to make a friend of a fellow traveler? Then look through the profiles of other guests who have visited the hotel. Check it out here.

Las Vegas gets the blogger it deserves. Sin City received its first blogger with a city-wide perspective a few weeks ago when Paul Geary started Las Vegas Is Home. Fans of the city may like this blog's perspective because it riffs on the local news in a casual style. While Sin City receives plenty of coverage for its celebrities and business deals, this blog is unique because it doesn't allow itself to be swept away by the local gusts of hype.

Here's a quick rundown on how to get the best deals for inter-city rail travel in Europe.

1. European websites frequently sell tickets at lower prices. For example, French Railways often supplies lower prices on its website for tickets that are identical to the ones it sells via RailEurope.com, an American agency. To be sure, agencies like RailEurope.com sometimes do provide superlow deals, such as a current discount of 50 percent off train tickets on Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam routes. (Details here.) Still...you gotta shop around--and not merely rely on American sites for one-stop shopping--if you want the best deal.

2. English speakers living in the U.S. can still buy discounted tickets through European websites. Your first stop online should be at Seat61.com. This amazingly helpful British website offers step-by-step advice on how to pinpoint the best route for your desired itinerary...and also how to find the cheapest tickets. (The site's editor, Mark Smith, answered reader questions yesterday at BudgetTravel.com. Transcript here.)

3. Booking at the last-minute? There may be a deal for you online, too. In the same way that airlines offer last-minute deals to fill empty seats, Europe's rail networks have deeply discounted point-to-point tickets. You'll find examples here.

As one of eight master brewers for Guinness, the Irish stout maker, Murray is an international ambassador for the brand. This year he expects to hopscotch Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean over the course of about 20 weeks. He will, as always, be thanking pub owners for selling Guinness and offering tips on how to store and pour the beverage.

Given his broad travel experience, Murray knows by heart a variety of spots worth visiting. His favorite place to take his family on vacation is Quinta do Lago, an oceanside resort town in Algarve, the most southern region of Portugal. Last year he went there with his wife and their two sons, a one-year old and a four-year old. Here's what he has to say about the place:

"I would recommend it for American families for a few reasons. First, the town's restaurants and hotels are set up to entertain small children. You can walk into any restaurant with two kids and let the kids be themselves without feeling self-conscious as a parent. The pools are designed to be safe for children, and there's always someone around to mind them. Second, the weather's good and the beaches are fantastic. Third, it's a favorite destination of Irish and British families, but I'd be totally surprised if any American family visits there. So if you are an American visiting the town, you will truly feel like you are visiting another country because none of your fellow citizens will be near you, while you'll still enjoy the benefits of child-friendly facilities and English-speaking staff."

While I chatted with Murray, I had a few pressing questions to ask that weren't precisely travel related, but he was kind enough to answer them anyway...

The first videoguide to hotels has debuted. Trivop.com, a European Web agency for booking hotels, has filmed videos of several hotels in Paris and has embedded them in a Google map of the city. You can click on a hotel and get a virtual tour of its amenities, helping you confirm if the hotel deserves its star rating. Reviews are pulled in from other travelers via TripAdvisor.com, and a Google mashup map is used, to help you see where any given hotel is located relative to the major attractions in the city. While the videos have been edited in an amateurish way, they provide high-quality images of what the hotel rooms, lobbies, and exteriors truly look like. Check it out here. (Link via Vijay Dandapani)

Future digital maps will offer three dimensional simulations of cities. Consider the new 3-D simulation of ancient Rome, called RomeReborn1.0, that will soon be made available to the public by its inventors at the University of Virginia. This digital model of the city will reproduce for tourists "on satellite-guided handsets and 3-D orientation movies in a theater to be opened near the Colosseum...what the Colosseum, the Forum, the imperial palaces on the Palatine once looked like," according to this Reuters story in the L.A. Times. What's more, "When in virtual Rome, visitors will be able do to even more than ancient Romans did: They can crawl through the bowels of the Colosseum, filled with lion cages and primitive elevators, and fly up for a detailed look at bas-reliefs and inscriptions placed atop triumphal arches," according to this Associated Press article, via USAToday/World Hum.

Meanwhile, Seattle's Pike Place Market is a popular tourist attraction that receives loving treatment in a new interactive map by the Los Angeles Times. See it here. It's a precursor, I think, to the types of maps you'll someday find in digital guidebooks, which travelers will download and read on their personal computers or wireless digital devices.

Or future digital maps may simply be enhanced Google Maps.
For example, look at this superdetailed Google mash-up map of Walt Disney World, which plots every location with a description and photos--including facts about individual rest rooms. (To see details, you need to zoom in by adjusting the map scale with the slider control on the side of the map.) (Link from The Disney Blog).

Moments ago, Marriott announced a partnership with Ian Schrager, the developer of some of the world's best-known boutique hotels, to build roughly 100 boutique hotels within the next several years. The partners say they will have five development deals signed by the end of the year, and that a brand name for the line of boutique properties should appear within a few months.

The news is surprising because in many ways the Marriott brand is the antithesis of what consumers think of when they think of a boutique hotel, such as Schrager's Gramercy Park Hotel, where the news was announced. Marriott hotels tend to have hundreds of rooms that look interchangeable and are designed to consistently deliver a room for the night for business travelers. Schrager's hotels are small and feature modern art, unusual light fixtures, oddly-sized lobbies with wood-burning fireplaces or enormous high-definition TV sets--with no two hotels having an identical look.

Even at the press conference this morning, the different personal styles of Schrager and Bill Marriott were striking. Schrager wore a collarless black shirt and a black sportcoat, while Marriott wore a navy blue suit, a white shirt with a starched collar, and a standard necktie.

Marriott admitted that the guests going to Schrager's hotels haven't been going to Marriott's hotels. But, he said, he didn't see why his company couldn't attract them by building a new set of properties. After all, he noted, Marriott recently announced a partnership with Nickelodeon to build hotels that assiduously aims to please children. "And with this deal we're going after the grown-up kids," he said.* Schrager responded with a funny facial expression that quickly turned into a smile.

Despite differences, money talks, of course. And the boutique hotel segment of the business has been enormously profitable. Marriott's resources--its reservations systems and existing supply channels and staff--could help reduce the cost of building additional boutique hotels, and put them with an reasonable "splurge" zone for budget-conscious travelers.

Earlier: Marriott announces a deal to create kid-friendly hotels.

Related info: For delightfully obsessive coverage of hotel trends, visit HotelChatter.com. Update: HotelChatter has more info on this deal.
*A typographical error in this original blog post said "sad" instead of "said."

Reader of This Just In, Corey Larsen Bauer, writes:

Got a dilemma we need help with....our teenage daughter will be leaving soon to be an exchange student to Norway for a year. What's the best way to store so many photos she'll take? Should she take a laptop to download them on? Or quite a few memory sticks or what?!?!

Well, Corey, Thanks for your message. You must be so proud of your daughter getting to go to Norway! [By the way: Budget Travel has often covered the country often, including this story: "Have You Cruised in a Fjord Lately?"]

My suggestion is that your daughter get an annual "Pro" subscription to Flickr.com, a beguiling website for storing and sharing photos.

The Pro subscription will let her upload her photos from her laptop--or from a friend's computer. That way, her photos will be saved someplace safe in case the camera dies or the memory stick is lost.

What's more, Flickr makes it easy to share photos with others by email, or to make postcards using sites like Moo.com. The site is free to use and to store a small batch of photos, but you need to get a $25-a-year subscription to store an unlimited number of snapshots. However, I think the fee is worth it.

When your daughter takes daytrips around the country or Europe, she could bring along a small 256 megabyte memory stick, which costs about $50 and which can be used as an interim storage device for storing a couple hundred photos (depending on the size of the images and the quality of her digital camera). If she doesn't plan on bringing a computer, she can borrow someone else's to download her photos, if her camera uses a standard cable (such as a USB cable).

Another argument for using Flickr instead of another photo-sharing website is that it is owned by Yahoo, so it will have the financial wherewithal to last for a long time. In other words, by using this site, you have a lower risk of having to switch to another storage site in the near future. For more info on options, consider visiting Digital Photography Review.

Another reader, Vanessa O'Donnell, offers the following tip:

Another option would be to use shutterfly. Photos can be uploaded in the same manner as Flickr but without the cost and prints can be ordered directly from the site. I've used shutterfly numerous times and frequently receive "coupons" from them for things such as 25 free 4x6 or 1 free 8x10

Hey reader: If you have a helpful suggestion, please post a comment!

Curious about this half-medieval, half-modern city set against the Mediterranean? Then consider asking a question of AnneLise Sorensen (shown left). She's the author of Top Ten: Barcelona, and covers Spain for many publications. Submit your question here, and she'll answer it in a live chat tomorrow.

Related: Rick Steves talks about Barcelona. [via CNN.com]

Earlier: When visiting Barcelona, be sure to take a daytrip to nearby Figueres, home of the Salvador Dali museum and other highlights. Details here.

--Cool new guidebooks are hitting stores. A new generation of guidebooks is out to prove that they don't have to be dull and bulky. Instead, they come with glossy photos, slick prose, and streamlined designs.

Case in point: Luxe guidebooks are about the size of bookmarks but a bit thicker. These accordion-style guides cram in plenty of info, along with blunt advice: "Avoid the area of Kuta like you would cholera," the Bali one says. This month, a guide for New York City debuts. Buy it here for $9.

Meanwhile the design gurus at the magazine Wallpaper* are producing handbooks small enough to fit in your back pocket, filled with the most handsome hangouts in 20 cities, with 40 more due in 2007. Tabs make it easy to flip between sections like Shopping and Escapes. A new guide to Tel Aviv debuted a week ago. Buy it here for $9.

Related: Learn about other slick new guidebooks by reading senior editor Brad Tuttle's recent story, here. For advice on how to pick a guidebook for your next trip, click here.

--About 300,000 travelers worldwide are on the Feds' terror watch lists. When you include duplicate names for individuals, the tally tops 500,000, according to this post on ABC News's website.

Earlier: If your name is mistakenly on a federal list, you should ask to have your reputation cleared. Details here.

--Hurricane Katrina disaster tours are a big hit in New Orleans. About half of the tourists taking city tours of the Big Easy are requesting disaster tours, reports the AP in this story. Grey Line was the first to offer coach bus tours that offer lectures on what happened. (Tickets cost $35 per adult. Details here.) Another tour company, Tours by Isabelle offers a post-Katrina review of the city, too. (Tickets cost $58 per person. Details here.)

Earlier: Is "poverty tourism is educational or exploitative? Details here.

--Dubai buys the QE2. The emirate of Dubai has purchased the good ship Queen Elizabeth 2 and plans to turn it into a floating hotel. Story here. [AFP via Yahoo.]

Related: If you're curious about how to visit Dubai on a budget, see this story here.

The lowdown: On Sundays, the restaurant cuts the prices of items on its menu. One course (an appetizer) is $25; two courses cost $37; three courses are $42. Female readers who present a printout of this blog post can receive a 50 percent discount off these prices, paying only $12.50, $18.50 and $21 respectively. It's a ladies-only discount: So if a female reader dines with a male companion, she's the only one who gets the discount off the courses, which already represent discounts off weekday rates. Reservations are recommended. "Casual chic" attire is requested. We're the only major travel publication offering this deal this summer. So, if you go, please be sure to let us know what you think of this restaurant by posting a comment here. (Thanks.)

Related deals: A handful of NYC hotel packages.

More: A Girlfriends' Getaway Planner for New York City.

A reader of this blog, Lyle Harris of Knoxville, asks for advice:

We are planning a trip to Munich, southern France, and Paris for three weeks this September. Each person we ask has a different notion how best to travel. Some say combine rail and auto, some say auto only, some say rail only. What say you?

We plan to take as many side trips as possible and see small villages and wineries. We are in our 50s and the couple we travel with are in their 70s and in relatively good health. We plan to hike and bike on occasion. Advice would be welcomed.

Here's my advice about booking rental cars in Europe. Add your own two-cents by posting a comment below.

Your itinerary promises a memorable trip. The stops in villages and wineries, and the hikes and bike rides, ought to be fantastic.

Assuming that you are comfortable driving in a foreign country with foreign-language signs, a rental car will give you the most flexibility. In your case, a rental car will allow the four of you to avoid hauling your luggage on and off trains. (Another option is to choose a multi-sport tour company, such as Backroads, which will supply you with bikes and hiking guides and use supply trucks to tote your luggage from one stop to the next. However, such tour companies often charge high prices for their European offerings.)

Usually, you can rent a car from a major car rental agency without needing to obtain an International Driver's Permit. But if you get in a car accident--especially in a rural area--having such a permit along with your driver's license may come in handy. Why? Because it may assure local authorities that you are a cautious driver. (In contrast, train travel may take away the worries of driving. If you decide to hit the rails instead, consider buying a multi-stop pass for inter-city rail from RailPass.com.)

Here's Budget Travel's advice about rental cars.

Try AutoEurope.com first. The service rents new cars via the major players, such as Avis or Enterprise, which is important should anything go wrong. Chances are you'll pay less at AutoEurope than at a mainstream agency because you are required to pay a deposit in advance. (But still look at the bigger companies, also, to compare). As a rule, AutoEurope is a top option for short-term rentals all over Europe.

Renault Eurodrive is often a less costly option for longer-term vacationers abroad, meaning people who are staying at least 17 days in Europe and who plan to take out a short-term lease. Compare with AutoEurope's rates.

Hope this helps! Enjoy your trip, and if you come across any good solutions to your problem while traveling, please let our readers know! And, hopefully, a reader or two will post their own suggestions.

Earlier: Budget Travel's top tips for renting cars.

Ever daydream about cruising through the Panama Canal? Well, YouTube has several videos that can show you what the trip is like. My favorite is one that was uploaded a couple of weeks ago. This six-minute video of a Panama Canal crossing was shot from the deck of the Peaceboat as it sailed to Panama City. The video captures the flavor and telling details of the trip and is cleverly set to the song "El Cuarto De Tula" by Buena Vista Social Club.

For a faster tour, look instead for this 90-second time-lapse video of a Panama Canal crossing, which will send you on an amazing race through locks and lakes. The video was shot from a top deck of Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas by a ship employee, Jeff Birmingham, during a May 2003 cruise. [link from CruiseJournals.com, via YouTube]

And here's a historical perspective on the Panama Canal from David McCullough:

The lesson to be learned from the Panama Canal is that it succeeded by taking its greatest problem and making the problem an advantage. The problem was the rainfall and the Chagres River. The Chagres River was a surging monster, a lion in the path, as they said. The key was not to try to dig a Suez-type of canal, a great sea-level trench from ocean to ocean, but to create a lock-and-lake canal, where the ships are lifted up by a series of locks to a man-made lake, and then they sail across that lake, and then they are set back down on the other side by another series of locks. The source of the water is the Chagres.

--The Feds are changing U.S. passport rules yet again. Later today, Homeland Security is expected to announce that U.S. citizens will only have to show a passport or a birth certificate to prove their citizenship at land and sea crossings beginning in January 2008. Eventually, however, the rules will be tightened so that only passports will be accepted by border officials. Homeland Security is responding to a crushing backlog of passport applications. A large majority of Americans do not have passports. [This AP story via CNN.com]

--Sheraton and Westin hotels will ban artificial trans fats from the food they serve guests by year-end. The ban applies to restaurants, room service, and bars. Earlier: Radisson and Carlson ban trans fats. Other hotels, cruise ships, and theme parks are also banning trans fats.

--RV Rally this weekend. The nation's largest RV Rally happens July 19 to 22 at Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center in Redmond, Oregon. Events include a attempt to break the World Record for "Largest Whoopee Cushion Sit"--plus, a canine swim suit competition and dog/owner look-alike contest. A day ticket costs $10 for adults. Campsites start at $169 per couple. Related: Expert RV advice.

--Fare sales to Ireland. Flights from the U.S. to Shannon are as low as $500 round-trip, including taxes. [via Airfarewatchdog.com]

--Travelers are more likely to book a weekend getaway online than a long trip. Three night leisure trips are the most popular type of trips bought at online travel websites, according to a new report from PhoCusWright. [via this June 8 press release]

Today Zoom Airlines, a Canadian air carrier, began its first flights from New York City (JFK) to London (Gatwick). From today until July 14 you can fly to London round-trip for between $536 and $546, after taxes. So, what's the catch? Seats are assigned first-come, first-serve--unless you pay extra to select a seat in advance. "If you do not pay to pre-select your seat, there is no guarantee that you will be sitting next to your travelling companion(s)." Some of the transatlantic flights--on Tuesdays and Saturdays--have layovers in Bermuda. Check the itinerary of your flights before you book. One meal and one snack are included. Only about 44 pounds of luggage is allowed--below the limits for other airlines flying transatlantic right now. (If you fly "premium economy" you can carry up to 66 pounds of luggage.)

Earlier: Zoom promises to frequently offer round-trip airfares from New York City to London for $700, after taxes. The airline flies new Boeing 767-300ERs and it only has economy class and economy plus seats. In other words, seats with 36 inches of legroom are available for roughly twice the cost.

Related:

London's smoking ban starts July 1. [BBC] As this smoking ban map shows, European governments are trying to get their citizens to kick the habit.

London's top tea parties.

The best daytrip out of London: Battle.

What $200 buys in a London hotel.

Wackiest airline commercial ever. [via YouTube]

Yotel is the first hotel to be built inside the Gatwick airport terminal. Inspired by the smart way first-class airline seats use space, Yotel charges rates from $50 a night (but more typically about $110) for a pod that measures between 75 and 107 square feet. Each has a double bed, bathroom with shower, pull-down desk, flat-screen TV--plus free Wi-Fi. At last, the word is getting out that budget travelers like a bit of style.
More info: Until recently, most transatlantic flights from the U.S. flew into rival airport Heathrow. But within the next nine months, several airlines will begin transatlantic service to Gatwick, making Yotel's new rooms more appealing to Americans.
Related: Discount carrier Zoom flies into Gatwick from N.Y.C

Photo contest at the national parks. From now through Sept. 29, Canon invites you to submit your favorite digital photographs of an American park to its
Digital Learning Center. The prize for the best landscape and wildlife pix is a trip to one of the major U.S. parks of their choice, along with a full suite of Canon photographic equipment.
Earlier: How to take better photographs of your friends.
Related: Free photography classes this summer at
Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon. For more details, call 888-390-9829.

Kids fly free in Europe on Austrian Airlines, in a deal available until June 30. [via Eurocheapo]

Sedate your kids? [via the Wall Street Journal]

Find family lodging in Europe with these two cool websites.

California theme parks deal.

Rock 'n' Roll summer camp for parents & kids. [via the Los Angeles Times]

The campaign to Leave No Child Inside. [via The Daily Transit]

It's getting harder to take family vacations.

One of this year's picks is Charlottesville, Va., which Budget Travel recently profiled, too. [Photo: My Hobo Soul via Creative Commons and Flickr]

Here's the full list:

Versailles reopened its Hall of Mirrors today. After a three-year restoration, the 8,640-square foot gallery is open to visitors again. Most of the hall's 357 mirrors date back to the 1600s. The cheateaux of Versailles was the onetime home of Marie Antoinette and other French royalty, who--as the mirrors make obvious--loved themselves dearly. Tickets cost $27 per person. [French Tourism]

Dubai is heading to the big screen. Yesterday, Paramount announced that it will film a political thriller set in Dubai, according to Variety. The script involves a plot to attack the U.S. economy. No doubt, this film isn't what the tourist officials at Dubai want to see hit the screens. (Perhaps the emirate will buy Paramount to stop the filming.)

Dubai, as you may know, has been busy touting the upcoming construction of Dubailand. This series of delights in the desert will include replicas of the Pyramids, the Eiffel Tower, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Also to be included: Tiger Woods Dubai (a 25-million-square-foot golf course), a Universal Studios theme park, a museum with the name Louvre, and 50 themed hotels with 60,000 rooms. In the meantime, there is a lot to see and do in this Middle Eastern destination already. See our story: Dubai: Just Add Money.

Las Vegas gets a movie, too. "What Happens In Vegas" is the title of an upcoming comedy. The plot: After a night of mischief, two people get married. Hijinks ensue. By the way, "What happens here, stays here," is one of the most successful tourism campaigns ever, first launched four years ago. But tourism officials in Las Vegas are testing a new slogan: "Your Vegas is showing." [story here via Las Vegas Review-Journal and this story via the San Diego Union Tribune]

Related: Visit the 10 locations of 2006's coolest movies.

The number of flights canceled in the first 15 days of June was up a whopping 91 percent compared with the same period last year, according to this article in the Wall Street Journal. Airline delays were also widespread. Roughly one out of three U.S. flights failed to arrive on time from June 1 through June 15. Passengers on Northwest and United have been particularly hard hit by both cancellations and delays.

To cope with summer air travel, consider these tips from Budget Travel's editors:
Wield your cell phone like you're Jerry Macguire. If you're at the airport when your flight is canceled, call the airline's 800 number while you're walking to the airline counter (and stay on while in line); this increases your chance of getting on the next flight. To be prepared, print out this wallet card with a list of airline 800-numbers.

Get confirmation numbers. If you're not planning on rebooking yourself onto a later flight, then get a confirmation number, or, even better, a confirmation email. If you don't have proof in writing, you're facing an uphill battle if the charge eventually shows up on your credit card bill.

Sign up for alerts from your airline. If your airline won't send text messages to your phone, then you can always use Google. Just send a text message to "Google" (466453) from your cell phone and you can get all kinds of info. For flight arrival/departure info, type the flight number; for example, for Delta Flight 395, type DL395--the code you'll find on your boarding pass. If you have access to a Web browser, you can access FlightStats.com.

Be wary of tight connections. If your itinerary requires you to change planes, you face a risk that you may not make your onward connection if your first flight is delayed. Budget-conscious travelers often face this problem for a simple reason: Some online travel websites sell discounted tickets with layovers that require you to make unreasonably tight connections (or implausibly quick transits through airports). Be attentive to the layover time between flights and consider paying a little more to book an itinerary with additional time to make any connections.

Clearly, Cecilia is a great person to ask for travel advice. She has broad travel experience as a Finn who works in the U.K. for a Danish company. Plus, she's a professional innovator, with a sharp eye for creative vacation spots.

So where in the world would Cecilia say you should go on vacation?

"My recommendation has to be Pietra Santa in Tuscany, Italy, a stone's throw from Pisa, known for the leaning tower. Pietra Santa is the home of sculptors from all over the world. Originally even Michelangelo lived here. It has the best foundries in the world, having cast sculptures for Ferdnando Botero, Henry Moore, Mitorai and many more. It further has countless marble-yards, where you can turn up, rent yourself a spot, a block of marble and the tools and have a go yourself and not forgetting the delicious food and cappuccinos in-between. Italians have turned having lunch into an art-form and if you want a piece of the real Italian culture, in an authentic setting unspoilt by truck-loads of tourists--look no further.

My dad moved there in the early nineties, which is when I discovered it too. I have visited many times--almost every year if I can make it! Pietra Santa is great for a day trip from Pisa, or you can stay at the many tiny little hotels around and in Pietra Santa itself, and go dip your toe into the sea at Forte di Marmi, the beach resort nearby. It is affordable, genuine and a wonderful place to get your creative juices flowing!"

Can you recommend a restaurant in Pietra Santa?

What is your favorite celebrity's favorite hotel? Sabrina Dent, who blogs at Wandalust, has posted a review of Hotels of the Rich and Famous, a website that helps you track the favored hotels of A- and B-list celebrities. She finds it easy and fun to use--and I do, too. For example, you can find Angelina Jolie's favorite hotels worldwide.

The best blog on the national parks has just gotten better. Kurt Repanshek, the author of a series of books about the parks and a former Associated Press reporter, has teamed up with park advocate and multimedia talent Jeremy Sullivan to create a informative website, National Parks Traveler. The advice for families is particularly strong. Kurt's occasional criticism of the Bush Administration will not be to everyone's liking, though.

It sounds like the punchline to a bad joke: What's the perfect gift for a budget traveler? An ice-cube maker for the car. Shirley Bragg points out on her always sensible blog Southern Byways the obvious flaw behind this idea. The more ice cubes you have, the more pit stops you'll need to make.

Reader tip: "Clean up your cookies--it could save you money! I used a well-known travel site to price tickets for a trip. I kept checking, to see if prices would drop. That flight stopped being listed after a week, and the next best flight kept getting more expensive. A few weeks later, I checked prices from a different computer. Whaddya know? The original flight was available, for $50 less than that next-best flight. That evening I checked again from my PC, but the flight I wanted was not available. I deleted the cookies for the site and tried again. Voila! The flight I wanted, at the price I wanted." --Kelly Malasics, Bridgeport, Conn.

The Feds are tightening up airport security. Today, the Transportation Security Administration took over the job of checking passenger I.D.s at airport security lines at New York City's JFK airport. It was the start of a national rollout of about 2,000 federal screeners, who will appear at airports nationwide within the next 18 months. [Source: Aviation Week]

Want to have your own travel TV show? Then follow the example of Robin Esrock, a Canadian who dropped out the rat race on his 30th birthday for a round-the-world trip that was only supposed to last a year...and that has never stopped. Esrock filmed clips of his travels and posted them on YouTube, and he also wrote freelance articles in a style modeled after Hunter S. Thompson. He built a website called Modern Gonzo, and he's been rewarded for his self-promotional efforts and multi-media storytelling talents with his own upcoming TV show on the Canadian cable channel OLN.

Travel photo contest. Trafalgar is once again holding a photo contest inviting people who have taken one of its previous tours to submit a short journal or story along with a photo. After a first round of judging, the winner will be selected by public vote.

Tours, shows, exhibits, and other activities are being booked by some travelers farther in advance than ever. The reason: Internet travel sites, in an effort to distinguish themselves from each other, have been adding activity and excursion options to the menu of products they sell. For example, these days many websites, such as Travelocity, allow you to book a double-decker bus tour of New York City at the same time that you book your airfare and hotel room. Generally speaking, it has become easier to plan vacation activities in advance, and more and more travelers are doing it.

Eventually, an increase in the number of early bookings will make it more difficult for spontaneous travelers to book activities on the fly. Luckily, that's not a problem yet.

Case in point: I recently chatted about this trend with Michel Barraud of Paris Vision, which runs more sightseeing tours in the capital of France than any other company. (Paris Vision is such a large company that the chances are high that you're handing money over to them if you do any sightseeing in the City of Light, such as a nighttime cruise of the Seine.)

The author of the Harry Potter books will stop in three cities to give Americans readings of her latest novel. The October tour will have three announced stops: in Los Angeles, in New Orleans, and in New York City. Rowling will read from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at these events.

Scholastic Books is holding a contest in which 1,000 winners will be chosen, and each winner will be given two passes to a Rowling appearance at New York's Carnegie Hall. Details will be announced July 31 at Scholastic's website.

Update, July 2: There seems to be some confusion. As I've emailed the readers who posted comments below, the contest is not being run by this website or by Budget Travel. To enter, you'll need to mark your calendars for July 31 and visit the website run by Scholastic.
(This post was modified since it was first published.)

Our recent Real Deal on Morocco for Less really ticked off an ex-pat who lives in Morocco and blogs at Cat in Rabat. In a post titled, Morocco for More, she writes that it's outlandish for us to consider $125 a day per person to be a "budget" trip. She says $125 a day isn't budget travel, especially for a place that's not as expensive and popular as, say, many Western European destinations.

Cat in Rabat makes a larger point, too: Even if we had really wanted to plan a budget trip to Morocco, we'd be hard pressed to succeed. Here's why:

Morocco is not a cheap country. And not that it should be--although it would be nice if it were--but there is an expectation that, as a developing nation, it is. Or ought to be. In truth, some things are cheap: rent is cheap (although rents are on the rise), local transportation (with the exception of domestic airfares) is still cheap, and anything made of leather is risibly inexpensive, but it pretty much ends there. Between holiday housing developments sprouting like poisoned mushrooms along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines and the Western predilection for building guest houses and renovating derelict ryads in Morocco's medinas, real estate is starting to go through the roof. All this, in conjunction with the hoards of cash-carrying tourists disembarking from cut-throat European airlines, is serving to not only test the local infrastructure but to ensure that prices will go up up up.

Meanwhile...the blogger Morocco Savvy makes the following comment:

Worse yet, their site says "The Real Deals." Travel around Morocco, even for my slightly older and slightly picky parents, still averaged around $125 a day--FOR TWO! As for myself--unless I'm stuck in a 4-star hotel paid for by the conference I'm attending and forgot to eat dinner so must order the nasty 75dh chawarma that isn't even really a chawarma but more like chicken and cabbage in a baguette--travel around Morocco is more like 125 DIRHAMS [$15] a day.

Hmm...Well, as the guy who wrote the Morocco for Less piece, I was surprised by these reactions. Here's my response:

1) As always, "budget" is in the eye of the beholder. Not every package Budget Travel's editors recommend will be right for everyone. We know that some travelers are willing to pay a little more for an escorted trip to avoid having to research reputable companies that offer activities such as a mountain-bike ride or a nine-hour hike through the mountains of the Tamatert Valley. And some travelers like the idea of a tour company using its size to make sure that an activity, such as a valley tour, will happen at an appointed day and time. Yet if you're an independent soul who prefers simple, or ineffable, pleasures, by all means, know that you can enjoy many aspects of Morocco for as little as about $10 a day. Many travelers have done it, and if you're one of the travelers who have, feel free to share your travel suggestions by posting a comment below.

2) If this package costs too much per day at $990 for eight-nights (plus airfare and some meals), then consider instead a 20-night tour of Morocco that costs only $1,218 (including a local payment of $408, but excluding airfare and all meals). This latter deal, which Budget Travel spotlighted in its July issue, works out to about $61 a day. The cheaper-per-day trip is best for travelers who feel comfortable navigating Morocco on their own. The more expensive-per-day trip will provide assistance to help you maximize your time in the country by arranging in advance for bike rides, tent stays, and sightseeing. Why does the one trip cost twice as much per day? The extra cost is to help ease your way into a country that has a very different culture than America's--and an unfamiliar language to boot. (There's additional value provided by this package, too. Keep reading to find out.)

3) I passed along the criticisms of the trip to Intrepid Travel, the company that offers the package. Spokesperson Dyan McKie offered a detailed response. Here's one point she makes:

We use local operators who help us piece together some of the arrangements like our Camel Safaris into the desert, the mountain biking, etc. We could probably do it cheaper if we did it ourselves but as Intrepid's number one core value is Responsible Travel. It wouldn't be very responsible of us not to support the locals. Therefore, we use their local services, even if it costs us more money.

Dyan also points out another advantage to spending a extra money on an Intrepid Travel package, instead of piecing together an itinerary as a backpacker. For a single traveler such as herself (who is female and doesn't speak Arabic nor French), getting around Morocco is not as easy as it might seem to some people. Intrepid specializes in making solo travelers comfortable in its small groups. It doesn't charge a single supplement, unlike most tour package companies. And in a country like Morocco, Intrepid's group leaders can make female travelers feel more culturally comfortable--and culturally aware of how their actions are received locally.

Finally, Dyan added one relevant note. Intrepid Travel's package includes a homestay with a Moroccan family.

Independent travelers can't just turn up to someones home in remote areas and ask to stay. (Though I am sure the very experienced traveler has but generally travelers wouldn't.) We offer them a once in a lifetime experience.That's cheaper than the budget hotel but we like to support the family while we are staying with them. Allowing their children to get an education, assisting in farming and agricultural support, etc. Again this is in accordance with our core values--we want to give our clients that special experience but don't take for granted that these families who are letting us into their lives.

In hindsight, I realize that I should have included more of the above details when I described the value of this package. I'll know better next time. And if any reader still thinks I'm in need of correcting, please post a comment below. Thanks.

This winter, a new rule required passports for flights home from Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean, just like other countries around the world. But the government was overwhelmed by a deluge of passport applications, and it responded by relaxing the rules for the summer. Until Sept. 30, if you have a confirmation slip that your passport application has been accepted (which can take a week or more for you to receive), you can still fly home from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, or the Caribbean with a government-issued ID, such as a birth certificate or a driver's license.

The rules are different if you're driving across the border or sailing a cruise. You won't need a passport for those trips--at least not for this year.

But next year, even driving across the border may require either government-issued ID or a passport, according to the most recent announcement from the Department of Homeland Security. By early January, U.S. citizens may be required to show a passport or an acceptable alternative form of I.D. The bad news: It apparently won't be good enough to show a traditional state driver's license. Under proposed rules, states will be required to create enhanced forms of identification that are more secure than standard driver's licenses.

For example, the state of Washington is developing an "enhanced driver's license" that will provide Washington residents, who voluntarily apply and qualify, with a document that is acceptable for use at U.S. land and sea ports. The enhanced driver's license will cost slightly more than a standard one, and residents will need to go through a process of proving their citizenship and identity that is similar to the process for applying for a passport. The enhanced licenses may include electronic chips for faster identification by border control officials using electronic scanners.

Until Aug. 27, you can tell the government what you think of the proposed new rules for border control by visiting Regulations.gov and searching for docket USCBP-2007-0061. The website will fetch for you the proposed rule with the title "Documents Required for Travelers Entering the United States at Sea and Land Ports-of-Entry from within the Western Hemisphere." To the right of the document, you'll see link that says "Add comments." Click on the icon that looks like a cartoon balloon of someone talking, and you can submit your comments on the proposed rules.

Update (7/5; 9:30 ET): As I have emailed most of the people who commented below, if you want your comments read by the government, you need to submit your comments to the government through the Regulations.gov website, as I described above. Comments posted below are not being forwarded to the government because the government requests that individuals submit their answers individually.

Bran Castle is for sale. The asking price for the 13th-century property in Transylvania, Romania, is at least $80 million. [Bloomberg and AP story via Yahoo]

Related: Why Haven't You Heard of Sibiu, Romania?

Great travel ideas from other travelers can be found at a new website, Here or There. Travelers post their most amazing travel experiences, and other readers rate how cool they think these trips are. Like Flickr or YouTube, this site uses a clever algorithm to calculate which stories, photos, and videos are the most popular, counting the number of times each tale is viewed, noting how well it is rated by other travelers, etc. Recent trip ideas include auditioning for a reality TV show called Shipwrecked, riding a Maglev train in Shangahi, visiting Salvador Dali's house, or checking out the Druids of Nebraska. Unfortunately, Here or There is still new, so it still lacks a critical mass of stories. In other words, it'll take a lot more users to submit stories before it becomes as engrossing as Flickr and YouTube.

The best website for finding and booking an inter-city bus is GotoBus, run by the online company IvyMedia. The site sells tickets for several bus companies that are alternatives to the industry's gorilla, Greyhound. While you should also compare prices at Greyhound's website before you book, GotoBus's rates are hard to beat. And the bus lines are just as good as Greyhound.

Awful cruises: Have you recently been on a cruise where something went really wrong? Then consider complaining to the cruise company by following this advice. Then check out Budget Travel's advice on How to Complain When Things Go Wrong that applies to all travel situations.

Great travel writing: If you're looking for some laughs, consider reading what is one of the funniest stories ever to be published at World Hum: The Joy of Steam. This story will make you laugh out loud as you follow the conversation between two guys nervously entering a scary Turkish bath and stripping down. Along the way, the writer painlessly passes along some historical insights, such as the fact that Turkish baths were/are actually Roman baths, updated and adapted by Ottoman culture. (The story was included in last year's edition of Best American Travel Writing.)

Beware of London's Heathrow airport. If you can't avoid using this airport this summer, be sure to allow two hours if you have to change planes in its overcrowded terminals. Passengers at the airport tend to jam together, elbows out, instead of lining up in an orderly manner. The airport's luggage check-in process is also hopelessly outdated--making it slow and unsafe. Lock up your luggage. The locals have nicknamed the airport "Thief row" given the absurdly high number of thefts there. "It's like a fourth-world country," according to this article and this article in USA Today and in this commentary by Tyler Brule in the FT. [Photo: Kaptain Kobold via Flickr.com/Creative Commons]

After years of endangerment, our national bird is now easily spotted along the upper Mississippi River (from Minnesota to Illinois); in the Minnesota Valley refuge; Oregon's Bear Valley and Cape Meares refuges; Virginia's Mason Neck, James River, and Blackwater refuges; and the Chesapeake Bay's Rappahannock River refuges, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

[Photo by Frank Wouters via Flickr and Creative Commons]

American adds daily flights between London's Stansted airport and New York's JFK starting on October 29. Later, on March 30, 2008, American will begin daily flights between Heathrow airport and Dallas/Fort Worth and Raleigh/Durham. The airline will run one daily departure from Gatwick airport and one from Heathrow non-stop to Dallas-Fort Worth instead of twice daily from Gatwick.

Tomorrow is the Calgary Stampede. More than one million visitors will see barrel races and bronco-riding contests. Details--including last-minute vacation packages--can be found at the Calgary Stampede's website.

Tour operator Globus is offering a discount. Between now and Sept. 30, you can receive $500 off per couple on next year's river cruises. See details at Globus's website.

Minimalist beach vehicles: Not far from downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina, you'll find a beach that has many unique concept cars, whose bodies have been taken off to prevent rust from the sea air. These all-frame cars are cool beach vehicles. [via Buenos Aires Spotting blog]

[Photo: Buenos Aires Spotting blog]

Yesterday, The New York Times had a great story titled "Ugly Airline Math." (It was also their most e-mailed story of the day.) Here's the money quote:

The on-time performance of airlines has reached an all-time low, but even the official numbers do not begin to capture the severity of the problem. That is because these statistics track how late airplanes are, not how late passengers are. The longest delays--those resulting from missed connections and canceled flights--involve sitting around for hours or even days in airports and hotels and do not officially get counted.

In fact, one MIT study found that the actual delay time is two-thirds longer than the official statistics.

Back in mid-May, The Wall Street Journal reported a great story, "Why Those Government Stats on Airlines Are Misleading". The paper pointed out two facts:

1. "As many as half of the flights of major airlines aren't counted in their results, including many flights with horrendous service records," says reporter Scott McCartney. Whenever a major airline such as Delta puts you on a flight operated by one of its small, regional carriers, such as Comair and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, any delays you experience aren't included in Delta's official count of flight delays. And--surprise, suprise--the flight delays on these smaller regional carriers (for Delta and for other major airlines) are much worse than the industry average.

2. In a follow-up story, "Why Flights Are Getting Longer," the WSJ reported that flight delays are even worse than official stats reflect. Airlines are padding their published flight schedules to add in extra time on their routes and reduce the chances that their flight is officially delayed. In other words,...

A check of two dozen flights from June airline schedules found that "block times" --the time airlines allot in their schedules for the trip -- are about 10% higher than they were in June 1997....Many delays are now simply being incorporated into schedules, at high cost to consumers and airlines. Congestion at airports and in the sky have forced airlines to pad their schedules more than ever so flights have a better chance of arriving "on-time," which the Department of Transportation defines as within 15 minutes of the airline's scheduled arrival time. Flights now arrive technically "on-time," but with 30 minutes or more of delay written into the flight plan.

There's yet another problem. When airlines screw up or foul weather strikes--causing a delay to an inbound flight, some airline employees refuse to hold flights for onward connections for fear of incurring an official delay on the second, outbound flight. In other words, as Jim O'Donnell posted to a New York Times blog: "I have lost count of the number of times I've been on a modestly delayed inbound flight to Dulles on United, only to lose the ongoing connection by literally 1-2 minutes--because the gate crew were eager to show *that* flight was on time...There's an information and management gap here for airlines that could be overcome quite easily."

So: What can airlines do to cut down on the number of delayed flights?

Companies such as Raytheon have a solution: The nation needs to update its air traffic control system by buying new equipment. Outdated machinery for air-traffic controllers causes planes to zigzag, or hop-scotch, the country instead of flying shorter, more-direct paths.

Feel free to share any thoughts you may have about flight delays by posting comments below. (See other reader thoughts on handling flight delays here.)

Since the site launched last September, people from 143 countries have placed orders for Moo MiniCards, which can also function as luggage tags or, as Moross suggests, a handy conversation starter to pull out at the bar or beach. "The coolest thing about Moo cards is what people are doing with them," he says.

The larger NoteCard size, even cooler in our opinion, has been popular for birth announcements, save-the-date invitations, and holiday greeting cards. They can be mailed as postcards or tucked in an envelope, and have a bendable edge allowing the cards to balance upright on a table. Moo will be rolling out stickers on July 19th and envisions printing photo albums and all sorts of products down the road.

Ordering is easy: You create a log-in name and password; upload photos directly to moo.com or select photos you've already posted to photo-sharing sites like flickr.com; and choose whatever mix of photos, text, colors, and fonts you desire. In a neat case of old-technology-meets-new, delivery is by Royal Mail. Global shipping rate, $5; MiniCards, $19.99/set of 100 and NoteCards, $24.99/set of 16.

...were announced today in a global poll of about 100 million people. Here's the list:

the Taj Mahal, in India
the Colosseum, in Italy
the Great Wall of China
Machu Picchu, in Peru
the Chichen Itza pyramid, in Mexico
the Statue of Christ Redeemer, in Brazil
Petra, in Jordan

The "eighth" wonder of the world is the Pyramids at Giza, in Egypt. It's the only surviving wonder of the seven wonders compiled by Greek mathematician Philon of Byzantium in 200 B.C. [Source: International Herald-Tribune]

The voting process was criticized because multiple voting was allowed. The poll organizer, I Media Corporation, received money whenever people voted by text message, a more common practice in other countries. The poll was also
attacked as unscientific by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

Earlier: Find out which wonders of the world were picked by Budget Travel's readers. Scroll down through the comments of our earlier blog post.

Today's the birthday of Tai Shan, the panda cub at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

See a video of Tai Shan playing. [Courtesy of our partner site, WashingtonPost.com]

Learn how to hug a panda in China for only about $125.

Catch our slide show of baby animals in zoos nationwide.

Find out "What's New In Washington D.C. This Summer".

Should you buy trip protection insurance for your next vacation? No doubt you've heard many conflicting answers to that question over the years. To quote from this Los Angeles Times story, "Don't buy travel insurance, says Consumer Reports. Do buy travel insurance, say consumer advocates Clark Howard and Ed Perkins. Don't buy travel insurance, says the Consumer Federation of America." So what are you supposed to do? Here's Budget Travel's take:

If all you have reserved are flights and hotels, insurance generally isn't worth it: You can rebook a flight and only suffer a $100-per-ticket (or so) fee, and hotels rarely have strict cancellation policies. But if you're headed on a cruise or a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, such as a safari, insurance looks better and better, because tour operators and cruise lines (which are less likely to get any last-minute bookings) tend to penalize those people who cancel. You should also consider buying travel insurance when you think the odds are decent that you won't be able to take the trip for one reason or another. Just make sure you understand up front exactly what is and isn't covered, which situations allow you to cancel, and what the cancellation time frame is.

Two new sightseeing cruises of New York City focus on Manhattan's architecture and history. The history cruise, formulated by a group of New York historians, covers four centuries of Manhattan history. The architecture cruise, created with the help of the American Institute of Architects, includes talks on the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the New York Life Insurance Building, and a few buildings in Brooklyn, too. Each cruise lasts 90-minutes, is run by NY Waterway Tours, and departs from Pier 78 on West 38th Street and 12th Avenue. Each one also includes the standard photo opportunities of the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and so on. Cruises have a limited schedule. Tickets are $23 for adults, $13 for kids, $19 for seniors $19. Details at nywaterway.com.

(Earlier: The duck truck takes Manhattan.)

Here's a story from Britain's Independent on how to be a travel explorer, visiting someplace few other people have ever visited.

A new travel blog is born. The Chicago Tribune, which has one of the finest Sunday travel sections in the country, has given birth to a baby blog. Welcome, Taking Off. (And if you live in the Chicagoland area in particular, be sure to sign up for the blog's newsfeed, which is an easier way to read the blog.

Soon Americans will have an easy way to sample those supercheap vacations than Western Europeans always seem to be enjoying. Up until now, Americans haven't been able to easily take advantage of the no frills airlines, such as Easyjet and Ryanair, that enable Western Europeans to hopscotch their region cheaply and on short notice. The key problem is that none of the major transatlantic routes from the U.S. have stopped at the airport hubs that offer quick onward connections aboard these discount airlines. But that's about to change.

As we recently reported, on October 29, American Airlines adds daily flights between London's Stansted airport and New York's JFK. This development means that you'll be able to fly to the central hub of British-based discount flights from anywhere in the U.S. that American Airlines flies.

Even better, Easyjet will make it easy for you with its new vacation packages. You can combine one of its supercheap flights--(think $30 plus $160 in taxes round-trip between London and Rome)--on a no-frills plane with a discounted stay at over 10,000 hotels across Europe. EasyJet has a hub in England, but it will roll out the packages in Germany, France, Holland, Italy, and Spain during the next month. You can book the packages at its Easyjet Holidays website.

Yep, as Budget Travel reported in another blog post, it's becoming a low-fare world.

But here comes the bait-and-switch. Just as Americans are about to get easy access to Europe's discount fares, a new report suggests that the discounted fares aren't such great deals. A survey reported in London's Guardian found that, when flights offered by no-frills and full-cost airlines were compared in terms of excess baggage fees, allocated seating and a meal, full-service carriers were about a third cheaper. You see, Europe's low-cost airlines--even more so than America's low-cost airlines--charge fees for all aspects of a trip, such as passengers wanting to sit together, in-flight meals and extra baggage.

For example, the survey found that "the average minimum cost of an Easyjet flight to Malaga in the next week is $231, but British Airways' average is $250." Go a couple of pounds over your bag weight-limit at check-in, and you'd be better off flying with British Airways because it includes many of the extras in the price of its ticket that Easyjet charges fees for." A tip...Be sure to find out the weight limits on luggage that your airline charges. More than any other fee, this one could surprise budget-conscious Americans traveling on Europe's low-fare carriers. Weight limits as low as 30 pounds per bag sometimes apply. You can find weight-limits listed on the websites of the low-cost airlines. And you can find the websites of the low-cost carriers by visiting WhichBudget.

Who doesn't love the Italy of postcards? Perhaps you dream of a raven-haired girl wearing sunglasses and riding a Vespa down a narrow stone street. Or maybe you think of a flock of sheep racing across a road that was engineered 2,000-years ago. Possibly, you dream of the Vatican's majestic shrines.

And if this picturesque Italy is the Italy you're planning to visit soon, you can submit any trip-planning questions you may have right now by clicking here. Our Rome-based expert on Italy, Christopher Winner, will provide answers at BudgetTravel.com at Noon Eastern next Tuesday.

But don't take the postcard pictures of Italy at face value. Or else you might be surprised when you get a glimpse of the real Italy.

Case in point, #1: The fashion designer Valentino is celebrating his fashion house's 45th anniversary with an unusual exhibit. Next to a large white marble altar erected in 9 B.C., known as the Ara Pacis, Valentino has staged about 200 female mannequins. They're arranged in prayerful poses, wearing his designer clothes in red and black.

To understand how, well, un-American this event is, consider what it would be like if the Ford Motor Company showcased some of its vintage automobiles inside the Lincoln Memorial.

But in Italy, this mixing of the state's most precious cultural treasures and a modern marketing campaign is roundly applauded. Even the president of Italy and the mayor of Rome visited the exhibit.

Whatever you think of the event, the Ara Pacis--with or without the Valentino exhibit--is one of Rome's coolest new attractions, as Budget Travel reported in this story.

[If you want to learn more about the Valentino exhibit, read the AP story at the International Herald-Tribune website.]

This month, there's another--and less flattering--example of how Italy can feel foreign to American sensibilities.

India's Jet Airways announced yesterday that it will begin its first flights to American soil. Starting August 5, this airline will begin daily flights between New York City and Mumbai, with a layover in Brussels.

But here's the truly exciting news: Jet Airways is setting a new industry standard for economy-class seats. On this transatlantic route, Jet will be the first carrier to use economy-class seats that recline a full 40 degrees* from an upright position. It has a 32 inches of legroom. The seat also includes a little net to cradle your feet while you're sleeping. And its headrest is the most fully adjustable one I've ever seen in economy-class.

In another nice touch, every seatback features a 10-inch touchscreen TV, which is the same personal entertainment system that business and first-class passengers use, complete with on-demand movie choices.

Here's hoping that other airlines follow Jet's model and install decent seats. The key principle here is that Jet's baseline level of service for economy-class isn't chintzy.

*Update: 3:16 P.M. ET The original version of this sentence mistakenly said "50 degrees."

Jet hasn't announced its fares yet. At the press conference yesterday, I asked around, and the estimate was a starting price of $800 for seats booked at least 21 days in advance for the New York-Brussels-Mumbai route. This blog will update you when Jet announces its precise fares.
Update: 10:30 P.M. ET Jet has loaded its new fares into its website. On the Newark to Mumbai route in mid-August, there is good availability for $850, $870, and $875 fares (plus taxes of about $300) for your standard combinations of departure and return dates. That $1,175 after taxes is a good price when compared with the $1,694 lowest fare (Delta) we could find on repeated searches for flexible dates on the same route during the same period. However, Jet may bump up its fares in due course...so snap up those tickets while you can.

Virgin's new low-cost U.S. airline will take to the skies next month. Tickets will go on sale shortly. The new airline's hub will be in San Francisco. Expected destinations are New York City, San Diego, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. [This Associated Press story via USAToday.com]

JetBlue may allow passengers to send emails and text-messages for free from their own phones while airborne, starting within the next several months, according to this story in the Financial Times.

Hotwire is waiving its $6 fee for booking airfares this summer.

Cruise news: Carnival has debuted a new website, FunShipIsland.com, which shows videos and illustrations of shipboard activities and on-land excursions. The videos include cute shots of passengers playing with dolphins.

Rail travel in Europe is getting easier. Starting this summer, Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, and Switzerland will make it easier to hop from the high-speed rail line of one country to another. For example, from now on, if you miss a connection between the major high-speed trains of any of these two countries, you can hop on the next train, regardless of the type of ticket you have. For info on buying tickets, see RailEurope.com.

If you haven't used the metasearch site Kayak in a while, you may like some of the new features that the site has added.

When you search for a fare now, you have a choice of views. Sure, you can still view the traditional list of fares from lowest to highest. But you can also click on the word "matrix" and see a grid of fares ranked by airline. The matrix makes it easy to discover which airline offers the lowest price for nonstop, one-stop, and two-stop flights. (This type of matrix display was pioneered by Orbitz.)

If your dates are flexible, you should click on the word "chart" to see average fares across a period of several days, displayed--surprise!--on a chart. Say you're shopping for a flight from Washington, D.C., to Louisville departing in a few weeks. After you enter the cities and dates at Kayak, a line graph shows the average fares available for that route over about 30 days. This chart hands travelers one more tool to find the best deal online.

Related: Why You Should Kayak Before Booking a Cruise.

Fun factoid: The founder of Kayak, Paul English, is donating his mathematical expertise to the Harvard Medical School in a project to help improve the efficiency of hospitals in Rwanda. He is applying to the problems of medical data the lessons he has learned while fine-tuning fare searches. [Source: Wired.com's Epicenter blog.]

Have you ever been involuntarily bumped when a flight was oversold? Well, it's time to speak up.

The Department of Transportation is seeking comments from the public on its airline compensation rules for passengers who are involuntarily bumped.

Which of the following policies is best?

--Leave the current compensation limits in place. These limits are $200 for a short delay for rebooking (meaning two hours) and $400 for a long delay (meaning more than four hours). For more explanation of the current rules, see below.

--Boost the current compensation limits to $290 for short delays in rebooking and $580 for long delays.

--Boost the compensation limits to $400 for short delays in rebooking and $800 for long delays.

--Boost the limits to $624 for short delays in rebooking and $1,248 for longer delays

--End all limits and make compensation for short delays equal to the value of the ticket, or double the value of the ticket for long delays with the payment doubling for longer delays

Here is further explanation of the current rules.

The Department of Transportation requires compensation for passengers who relinquish seats voluntarily. There's no federal standard for that compensation--you're only guaranteed something, usually a flight voucher. For passengers who are involuntarily bumped on domestic flights, the rules are as follows: If you're on another flight within an hour, you get nothing; within two hours, the airline pays you the equivalent of your one-way fare ($200 max); more than two hours later, you get 200 percent reimbursement ($400 max). Here is the government version of its rules.

You must contact the Feds directly if you want to voice your opinion. Comments posted to this blog will not be forwarded to the government.

For step-by-step instructions in how to post your comment, read on...

Starting Monday July 16, in New York City, L.A. and San Francisco, you can get driving directions delivered to your cell phone via a text message.

Here's how it works: You first call 347/328-4667 ("Directions" spelled on a keypad).

Next, say where you are, whether it's a street address or an intersection.

Then you just name your destination, which can be a street address, intersection, or business name, such as Starbucks.

You'll immediately receive a text-message with point-to-point directions. The free service is from new outfit called Dial Directions and the info comes from MapQuest. Luckily, you don't need a fancy smart phone to use the service. Any dumb phone will do.

Plus, outside of your cell phone provider's charges, there's no cost for getting information via text message.

I tested the service and found that the point-to-point directions were easy-to-follow.

One downside is that when you call 347/328-4667, you have to talk to a computer instead of a real person. If you hate that type of experience, you won't like this service. But I found that the computer understood words with a high degree of accuracy.

(Cartoon: DialDirections.com)

Related: More tips on maximizing your phone.

Earlier:
Jet Airways is launching U.S. service with great economy-class seats.
Virgin Atlantic is launching U.S. service with hip new planes.

An airport is not a place where you can come away with much faith in human decency.

Just consider what happened at JFK for one week in late June and early July.

A Scottish discount carrier with the funny name of FlyGlobeSpan was scheduled on June 28 to depart from JFK airport and fly to Ireland.

It took a week to depart. The most galling part? The airline refused to rebook its passengers on flights served by other airlines.

Here's the skinny:

Time travel is possible. And our future looks bright.

What am I talking about?

Well, if you visit Korea this year, you'll get a glimpse of technologies you won't find in the U.S. yet. You see, in the late 1990s, the Korean government invested in a nationwide high-capacity broadband network. Ninety percent of Koreans pay less than $30 a month for incredibly quick Internet service for their PCs and cell phones. In comparison, only 75 percent of Americans have broadband access at home, and relatively few have such speedy Web service on their cell phones.

Given this universal, superfast Internet service, companies like Google can offer Koreans the richest possible Web services.

Take, for example, the Google homepage that greets Google users in Korea today. It's animated. When you move your cursor over the icons underneath the Google search box, you'll see them jump up and down, helping to explain their purpose. Google doesn't offer this animated page in the U.S. because it would the page would take too long to load for many users.

Today, a new discount airline, Virgin America, began selling tickets at its website. New York to San Francisco fares start at $278 round-trip. Flights start August 8.

This is good news for travelers flying across country because Virgin America is expected to undercut the fares offered by other airlines to win passengers on key routes. For example, the inaugural trans-continental route (between San Francisco International airport and JFK airport) starts Aug. 8 with $138 one-way fares, compared with JetBlue's recent offer of $209 one-way fares (out of nearby Oakland airport to JFK).

Virgin America's hub is in San Francisco, with nonstop flights to New York City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. (To see the full combination of routes from various cities, check out Virgin America's current route map.) Virgin America will serve as many as 10 cities within a year of operation, and up to 30 cities within five years

Virgin America will raise the bar on the level of service expected in economy class. (Remember, British parent company Virgin Atlantic is the airline that invented seatback entertainment systems, which currently offer 54 channels of entertainment.)

In a great perk, every seat will have an electric 110-volt outlet, so you can power your laptop or other electronic device for long transcontinental flights. Each coach seat will boast 32 inches of legroom (which is an inch or two more than the industry standard for economy-class), and the "reclining pivot is forward and up an inch to spare the knees of the passenger behind you." And did I mention that the seats are leather?

The 9-inch seatback touchscreens will allow you entertainment options including 25 on-demand movies for $8 a pop; free live satellite TV channels such as ESPN (and its four sister channels), CNN, FX, Independent Film Channel, and the Food Channel; free interactive Google maps; and an ability to order your in-flight meal electronically. You can even use your seatback system to swipe your credit card to make any on-board purchases (primarily food). You'll also be able to send instant messages to fellow passengers who agree to receive them. (You'll have complete control over who can send you messages, in case you're worried about textual harassment.)

Tickets are for sale through VirginAmerica.com and Orbitz.
[Update 7/22: JetBlue and Southwest are lowering their prices to compete with Virgin America.
Related: YouTube has a two-minute video of how Virgin America's seatback TVs work.)

Sex and the single air passenger. (Includes a brief history of the "mile-high club" and a sad study of how many flight attendants are harassed on flights.) [via Airline Confidential]

Denver: Single parent vacation package [via L.A. Times]

Traveling alone and need help with planning?
Beth Whitman, author of Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo, will answer your questions about solo travel Tuesday at noon E.T. Submit a question now! By the way, Beth blogs at her website.

The Best U.S. Cities for Singles [via Gadling.]

The pros and cons of backpacking alone. [Ubertramp.]

JetBlue and Southwest said they will match the low fares of Virgin America, which starts flying Aug. 8.

JetBlue will match Virgin America's fares for routes between New York City and San Francisco. These fares start at $278 roundtrip. JetBlue will also match the fares for flights between Washington, D.C., and San Francsico, when Virgin America begins service on that route in October.

Southwest says it is now matching fares on one route and undercutting Virgin America on other routes. [Source: Bloomberg News].

You'll find Virgin America's scheduled flight times neatly listed on the Cranky Flier blog.

Earlier: Virgin's new low-cost U.S. airline debuts.

The success of Eurocheapo, a hotel review website, isn't exactly the world's greatest mystery. But it certainly raises an eyebrow, because modest Internet companies aiming to please budget-conscious travelers rarely make a buck, as EuroCheapo does. Founded six years ago, the website now earns enough to afford to have three full-time workers and a handful of freelance hotel reviewers in Europe.

The company's success, while modest, seems to be due to its focus on the post-backpacker crowd, meaning travelers who are too grown-up to stay at hostels but who don't travel with children and who don't insist on luxury lodgings. Most of the hotels it reviews are relatively cheap--say, in the $83 to $193 per night range for hotels in Rome's central Campo dei Fiori neighborhood in high season.

EuroCheapo pays freelance writers to visit and review hundreds of hotels. The best hotels in its reviewers' eyes are featured online. "We spotlight hotels that give you an authentic sense of the city you're in," says Tom Meyers, EuroCheapo's founder. "If I'm sitting in the room of a hotel in Berlin, I want the decor to say to me, 'Hey, You're in Berlin'. I don't want it to have that bland feeling of an international chain hotel."

A few weeks ago, EuroCheapo added "hotel meta-search" to its website. Now you can see its hotel reviews alongside listings for hotels it hasn't reviewed. Many, though not all, of each group of hotels can be booked online via partner hotel-booking engines, such as Venere and Booking.com. Similar to a TripAdvisor model, you can see expert reviews (highlighted as "Editor's Picks") side-by-side with hotels that have only been reviewed by anonymous customers at hotel booking sites such as Venere.

This move to mingle hotels that have been vetted by reviewers following consistent standards alongside reviews of hotels anonymous customers is an interesting development. Other travel websites will be eyeing EuroCheapo's move and mimicking it if it's successful.

Tomorrow: The funny and surprising story of how college student Tom Meyers raised the cash to create a successful Internet travel business.

[Correction: My original posting misspelled Campo de' Fiori. I regret the error.]

The Luxor is getting a face lift. The pyramid-shaped building that casts a beam of light across the city will renovate its interior and most of its hotel rooms. A new show featuring magician Criss Angel and the acrobatic performing troupe Cirque du Soleil will open next summer. Other renovations will take place over the course of a couple of years.

Call it the "Laugh Boat." The first-ever "Improv School" cruise is being offered on a 7-night Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Valor, departing November 18. The National Comedy Theater, a training program for comics, will offer four 90-minute workshops for passengers. No experience will be necessary to participate. Guests also will perform in an amateur night revue and see a show put on by the pros. Book the trip via CruisesOnly, the largest U.S. cruise agency.

West Virginia is running a contest that offers a grand prize of a new Toyota Camry hybrid. Submit a one- to three-minute video of your vacation in West Virginia for a chance to win. Contests details, including video requirements and judging criteria, are listed at www.WVisCalling.com.

TripAdvisor has a new feature that allows you to plot the places you've visited on an online map and share the map with your friends. (A free membership with the hotel-review website is required.)

Rumor: Walt Disney World may soon announce that it is pledging that all of its 18 hotels will meet new, industry-leading standards for environmental practices by next spring, reports the Orlando Sentinel. If true, each hotel will pledge to use non-toxic cleaners and meet measurable goals for conserving water and energy. Disney is often a bellwether of industry trends. For instance, Disney World led the industry last fall by moving to ban trans-fat foods from its parks, a practice that is now widespread among resorts, hotels, and cruise ships.

The Kingdom Rules. According to a press release from Zagat Survey, 48 percent of those surveyed picked the Magic Kingdom as their favorite park. Epcot was the 2nd favorite, with 36 percent of the vote.

Cool map of WDW: Check out this super-detailed Google mash-up map of Walt Disney World, which plots every location with a description and photos--including facts about individual rest rooms. (To see details, you need to zoom in by adjusting the map scale with the slider control on the side of the map.)

3 Ways to Avoid a Crowd at Disney World. [via Disney AnonyMouse blog]

Yesterday, I told you about the helpful website for budget travelers, EuroCheapo. There's an amusing story behind the founding of the website.

Back in the late 1990s, Tom Meyers was a Columbia undergraduate living briefly in Paris as part of a study abroad program. He attempted to create a travel business that would hire American students to serve as tour guides in Paris. But the idea was a bust. He returned to the States, taught himself an Internet programming language, and became a producer for a dot-com company.

In 2000, at a Fourth of July family picnic in Bellevue, Ohio, Meyers revealed his latest idea for a business. Why not launch a website that posts reviews of European hotels? (None of the major guidebooks were doing this at the time.)

Meyers asked around the table for possible names for his dream company. One suggested name was Antsy Pants. Meyers liked the idea and soon bought the right to use the www.antsypants.com domain name.

Three days after Meyers registered this name, he received a call from a company offering to buy it for $5,000. Meyers researched the company and discovered that it had deep pockets. He haggled and eventually received $20,000. He used the cash to fund his start-up, which he named eurocheapo. He moved to East Berlin, where rents were as cheap as $300 a month, and launched his company on June 14, 2001, which is when this photo was taken:

The ultimate website for packing well is OneBag.com. Created 11 years ago, this site encourages people to travel with only one bag, as its name suggests. But even travelers who carry several bags will find useful packing tips on this site.

A few years ago, I met OneBag.com's creator, Doug Dyment. He's a technical marketer in San Francisco who uses the site to share his thoughts on the the superiority of traveling light. He's refined his strategies over the years as he's learned from hundreds of fellow travelers who have e-mailed him.

Dyment, one of the most gentlemanly fellows I've ever met, has a fantastic trick for preventing your clothes from becoming wrinkled. As he says, "The common practice of individually folding items of clothing, then piling them atop one another, is just about the worst thing you can do from a packing perspective." His trick is "bundle wrapping" instead. His explanation is better than any I can give, so I encourage you to visit his site.

Ojai is a southern California town that editor Erik Torkells dreams of retiring to. Much of the town's charm is captured in this Budget Travel report. Pronounced (oh-high), Ojai is a home to many spas, including The Oaks at Ojai, which is turning 30 this year in October. Spa specials of 30 percent off can be found at the resort's website.

We wrote about New York state's Roxbury Motel in our roundup of groovy motels in April 2005, but the owners just completed a significant expansion/extension last week. There are some pretty great images on the Roxbury Motel's website.

Today's reader tip: You can knock $25 off your next restaurant tab by using a $50 gift certificate you buy at half-price through restaurant.com. You can buy gift certificates good at eateries in your destination city. The site has a database of thousands of restaurants.--Derrick Tennant, Atlanta, Ga.

Chris Idzikowski, director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre, is a Scottish sleep researcher who surveyed thousands of passengers on British Airways to discover the best strategies for avoiding jet lag. Here are some of his tips for avoiding jet lag.

If you're traveling east, be kinder to yourself because your body will find it more difficult to adjust to the shorter day, according to medical research. Be particularly careful with unfamiliar foods for the first day or so. Your gastrointestinal system has a biological clock that can be upset by the time change, making food processing more difficult.

Beware of melatonin pills, which offer an artificial version of a hormone that helps regulate your body clock naturally. They're not a quick fix, and they only work if you use them along with a careful exposure to light. Consult your doctor before taking this medicine, or you risk making your jet lag worse. If you use melatonin and don't feel an effect, stop taking it rather than increase the dosage. The side effects are unpredictable.

Light seems to be the best way to fight jet lag. Our eyes transmit light signals to our brains to control our body clocks. Expose yourself to light (sunlight is roughly three times as effective as standard indoor lighting). To learn how to do this,

Alitalia has launched a sale to more than 20 Italian cities, with round-trip fares beginning at $569 for travel between Rome and New York City, including taxes and fees. The Winter Escape to Italy fares must be booked by August 20 and are good for trips from October 29, 2007 through March 13, 2008. (Be warned that there's a $50 surcharge for weekend travel.)

Northwest Airlines still needs pilots. The beleaguered airline has been canceling and cutting flights by the hundreds thanks to a pilot shortage, and August may be the most trying month yet for passengers. While there are plans to hire another 250-350 pilots in the next year, for now, you'd be wise to steer clear of Northwest, if possible--and brush up on their flight delay and cancellation policies at nwa.com.

American Airlines is putting in-flight WiFi to the test. We learned via Gadling that American has partnered with the company AirCell and will begin testing high-speed broadband service in 2008 on some of its Boeing 767-200 aircraft transatlantic flights. (Get the details at aa.com). If they succeed, passengers might soon be able to pay a fee to check e-mail and surf the Internet on PDAs or laptops all flight long. A step forward or backward for the air travel experience? You tell us.

Starting in September, leisure travelers have a new car rental company to consider. Simply Wheelz is advertising rates as low as $15 a day on weekdays. And it promises faster service than the typical rental car counter by offering self-service kiosks, modeled upon Alamo's pioneering self-serve kiosks. Here's how it'll work: You'll print out a reservation document at home, similar to an e-ticket. Then, when you reach the Simply Wheelz office, you'll wave your document--and your driver's license--in front of a scanner. The kiosk will print out a rental agreement, which you can take to the lot to pick up your car. The company should get off on a good start because it is owned by Hertz, an established brand. The first location is the Orlando airport. The Simply Wheelz website, Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline and Travelocity have begun to accept reservations.

Correction: In my original post, I misspelled the word wave, writing instead: "you'll waive your document"

The new low-cost carrier Virgin America takes flight tomorrow (Tuesday), and I dropped by JFK airport this morning to receive a tour of one of its new planes.

My guide was Adam Wells, the man most responsible for designing what's in the hulls of Virgin America's aircraft. We walked through a plane sitting on the tarmac. Adam pointed to the tinted windows, which filter out harsh sunlight. He said that the glare-reducing windows combine with soft interior lighting to help passengers appear healthier. Once he pointed this out, it became obvious: There was no harsh yellow and green light, which makes passengers in many standard airplane cabins appear washed out. "The goal is to make passengers feel more relaxed," he said. And his theory is that passengers will relax more if they look around and see other people looking relaxed.

Credit: Virgin America

Adam was quick to point out another of the features he championed: A sleek mini-bar at the back of the coach class cabin from which passengers can fetch waters and sodas in mid-flight. If you want food, you press the button marked "food" on the remote control that is hidden in your armrest, place an order using a touchscreen TV, and then swipe your credit card through the bottom of your seatback screen to pay.

My favorite unique service is that you can use the "Qwerty" keyboard on the back of your seat's remote control to sound off about your experience. When was the last time you heard of coach class passengers being encouraged to email a customer satisfaction survey to corporate headquarters in mid-flight?

Earlier: Virgin America has sparked a price war.

For a recent road trip, I knew I wanted to see several destinations scattered across a wide area. But I struggled to puzzle out a sensible sequence for visiting these places. I soon discovered that Mapquest has a unique tool for planning road trips. The tool is still in beta-testing, but I find it works quite well as it is. Here's the skinny:

Southwest Airlines may change its boarding procedure. In a test that began this week in San Antonio, passengers are asked to board the plane one-by-one in an assigned order, rather than board in one of three groups. When passengers check-in for their flight, they're assigned individual boarding numbers. Once they board the plane, they still have their choice of seats on a first-come, first-served basis. [Dallas Morning News]

Tour operator Jet-A-Way Holidays has gone belly up. If you have an outstanding trip, contact the company by email. [Modern Agent]

New airport X-ray machines may speed up security lines. Screeners at Cleveland airport's Concourse C checkpoint are permitting laptop computers and liquid-filled containers to be screened inside their carry-on bags--sparing travelers from having to remove items from their bags. New equipment allows the screeners to peer inside bags using three-dimensional images. Dallas-Fort Worth and Baltimore-Washington International airports will be next to get the machines. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

More workers are buying additional vacation days. Seven out of every 50 large companies now permit employees to purchase additional vacation days, according to a report in BusinessWeek.
If your company does not currently offer this service, consider suggesting it to your benefits department. The cost of the additional vacation time is deducted from your pay over the year, often in pretax dollars. Xerox began offering the benefit this year, and about 2800 of its 28,400 U.S. workers purchased an additional week.

Disney-MGM Studios will change its name in January. The new name will be Disney Hollywood Studios. [The Mercury News]

Avoiding America may be the latest travel trend. Air New Zealand is offering round-the-world tickets that avoid stopovers in the U.S., aiming to attract travelers from Australia and New Zealand who are heading to Europe. Some non-Americans like to avoid the U.S. because our country requires passengers hopping planes to other countries without leaving our airports to be fingerprinted and to have their baggage rechecked.
Air New Zealand's round-the-world (RTW) service from Auckland to Europe provides a hassle-free transfer at Vancouver, British Columbia, skipping layovers in L.A. or Hawaii. This program is part of a larger trend of people avoiding the U.S.
But don't think that Air New Zealand is anti-American. They're just pro-business. In fact, for trips starting October 26, the airline is catering to Americans by offering round-the-world tickets departing out of L.A, with stops in Auckland, Hong Kong, and London, for a starting price of $3,110. That rate is an unusually good value when compared with the starting prices for RTW tickets on the three major airline alliances.

New Iraqi airline bans Iraqis. [Jaunted]

This fall, impressive new water slides are coming to Carnival cruise lines. Debuting on the Imagination and the Inspiration ships, each WaterWorks/Twister water slide will be about four-decks high and about 300-feet long.

American Airlines will test in-flight Internet access. Starting in 2008, passengers on some routes will be able to log onto the Internet via Wi-Fi at broadband speeds. The price hasn't yet been set, but will probably be about $10 a flight. Other airlines are in talks with various Wi-Fi service providers, including Southwest, JetBlue, and Virgin America. [via The Seattle Times]

Europe is on course to require its airlines to be more honest in their advertisements. British-based budget airlines, including easyJet, Ryanair, and bmibaby are being required by the country's Office of Fair Trading to include the cost of taxes and fees in the prices they advertise. The cost of taxes and fees are sometimes double the advertised fares. A similar ruling by the European Parliament is on track to affect other low-cost carriers in Europe by the end of the year, according to the Telegraph.

Rome will hold a citywide, all-night party on Sept. 8. [For details, read La Notte Bianca 2007.] In other news, the fashion designer Rudolph Valentino is so happy at the success of his recent show at the Ara Pacis museum that he's agreed to open a museum in his own honor in Rome, rather than Paris, where he did much of his life's work. [via the Globe and Mail]

Does Elvis live in Buenos Aires? Some people in Argentina think so, and they've put together a nine-minute long, documentary-style, English-language video featuring interviews with citizens of Buenos Aires who claim they have seen the King living in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. The video aims to promote a new book by a lost soul named Jeronimo Burgues, who has apparently spent a decade interviewing more than 150 people to make the case that Elvis went to Buenos Aires as part of some sort of witness-protection program, in exchange for incriminating evidence against the Mafia. I prefer to think that Elvis--if he went to Argentina instead of Heaven--simply realized that Argentina is a great travel bargain for Americans. (A tip of the hat to Buenos Aires Spotting.)

Nothing's a sure thing at an airport, except for exasperation. I recently discovered something new to be exasperated about. It turns out that the electronic boards in airport terminals, which announce flight arrivals and departures, can sometimes be misleading.

My friend and I were recently departing from the Louisville airport. Our flight was canceled. But we wouldn't have known this fact if we had relied on the terminal's electronic boards, which wrongly said our flight was departing on time.

Luckily, I found out about the flight cancellations via an alert to my cell phone. I had signed up for the alert when buying my ticket. And I had bought my ticket via Orbitz, after finding the fare through a Kayak search. As Orbitz promised, an alert by voice mail to my cell phone warned me that our flight was canceled.

It wasn't just Louisville's terminal electronic boards that were misleading during my trip. The electronic boards at New York's LaGuardia airport also displayed wrong information, this time affecting my second flight of the evening. This flight was an onward connection out of Charlotte. The plane--like many planes this summer--was grounded on the tarmac for a couple of hours. Yet when the passengers sitting near me called their families at LaGuardia to report the delays, the families told them that the airport arrivals board was saying the flight was "on-time"--a physical impossibility....

British Airways is offering roundtrip fares to London, starting at $317 for flights between New York City's JFK airport and London's Heathrow. (Taxes and fees add between $125 and $243.) Comparable airfares are available from 19 other U.S. cities. For $99 more each way, travelers may upgrade to business class, World Traveller Plus, from any U.S. gateway to London.

Travel is valid from Oct. 25 to Dec. 18, and Dec. 24 to Mar. 25, 2008. If you travel on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, you'll pay an additional $30 each way. Minimum stay of Saturday night is required. Book by end of the day this Friday (midnight ET). Learn more at ba.com/august.

Related: Zoom is a Canadian discount airline that began competing this summer with British Airways for service between New York City and London's Gatwick airport.

Update: The original post erroneously said the U.S. departure airport for the starting price of $317 was LaGuardia. It's JFK. I regret the error.

Alessi is the hip housewares brand that features supercute designs, such as corkscrews shaped like colorful parrots.

Jan's top recommendation is Heron Island, Australia. "I visited once during a 2004 trip to Australia," he says. "I wish my family could go every year!"

Why Heron Island?

"It must be paradise on Earth. The island is about 800 metres long and 300 metres at its widest and one-third of the island is taken by the University of Queensland, where they operate a Coral Research Station. The island has just one resort, no further buildings.

You can swim straight off the beach to an endless garden of coral where the waters are literally teeming with beautifully coloured fish and marine life."

The roosters wake you. You emerge from your room to find your host mother, who greets you with a smile, a plate of fruit, and a sing-songy Buen' dia, mi hija! Como almanece. ("Good morning, my child, how do you rise?"). The best way to learn to speak Spanish is to go abroad and study. And you'll find fantastic deals on language-immersion classes in Nicaragua.

Learn the details in this new story by Joshua Berman.

Real Deals: Volunteer in Nicaragua, $850

Or: Take an 7-night diving adventure in Nicaragua for $855 from G.A.P. Adventures. This package includes a stay at Little Corn Island, located about 45 miles off the eastern shore of Nicaragua. You'll stay at Casa Iguana, which offers 11 private cabins overlooking the water. You'll find other scuba-diving packages through divelittlecorn.com.

Elsewhere: The L.A. Times reports on the happening town of Granada, Nicaragua.

Related: Here's an interview with Joshua Berman -- coauthor of Moon Living Abroad in Nicaragua, GoToNicaragua, and the fantastic blog "The Tranquilo Traveler" -- on how he became an established travel writer.

Every fall, cruise lines move many of their ships to new seas and climates on what they call "repositioning" cruises. They discount the rooms--charging less than $120 a night per person for interior rooms, for example--because these itineraries are generally one-way and hit passengers with the additional cost of buying one-way plane tickets home. These cruises also usually last longer than seven days, which isn't to everyone's taste, so cruise lines try to make these trips more attractive with lower prices. As a rule, passengers pay less per day for these longer cruises than for standard ones.

The most interesting repositioning cruises are in the fall, says Paul Motter, editor of Cruisemates.com. The reason: Fall is when some cruise ships return from a summer in Europe to head down the East Coast, while other ships return from a summer in Alaska to head down the West Coast.

Here's a sampler of deals, with rates starting at $479 for six-night cruises on ships with standard amenities and rising to $1,700 for 13-night cruises on luxury liners. Rates are based on double occupancy and include taxes and port charges....

Hurricane Dean has led to a travel advisory for the Caribbean. Many airlines, such as American and US Airways, are relaxing their rules on re-booking travel. If you have plans to fly in, or cruise through, the Caribbean or the American Southeast during the next week, be sure to consult with your travel provider before you depart.

It's time to plan for Thanksgiving(!). Data-crunchers at the website Farecast.com have studied the fare pricing trend for Thanksgiving '06. If history repeats itself, you'll find that the best fares for Thanksgiving flights will go on sale during the last week of August and the first two weeks of September, with some fare sales launching around mid-September.

Avis has begun to offer chauffeurs at selected rental car locations. To qualify for the service, you have to be a member of the Avis First frequent rental program, with approximately 18 rentals a year to qualify. Rates vary by area.

A new website allows you to earn frequent-flier miles as you surf the Web on any topic. ZooMiles allows you to enter your frequent flier number for Alaska, Delta, Continental, Midwest, Northwest, and US Airways, and then earn up to 1,000 miles a month for surfing.

High-tech, self-guided walking tours of Yosemite National Park are now available. The hour-and-a-half tours involve holding an electronic device that's similar to a GPS unit. As you walk along a trail, the device determines your location and offers you relevant video and audio information about the landscape around you. The device guides you along the 1.6-mile paved Lower Yosemite Falls Loop. You can rent the units at the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center for $10 for adults (plus $1 for headphones). (Earlier: A new way to explore Jamestown.)

Forgotten Canada. Overall U.S. visits to our neighbor up north have plummeted by more than one-third over the past five years. Same-day car trips are have dropped nearly in half. But you can buck the trend. Learn about the charms of Toronto's restaurants and Montreal's hip attractions for girlfriend getaways.

Earlier: No Cuba for you!

The best blog for tracking travel freebies is Glen Leff's View from the Wing. He recently reported on how anyone carrying an American Express Platinum card can now access American Admiral's Club lounges, along with immediate family or up to two guests, prior to boarding American flights. "This adds American to Continental, Northwest, and Delta in the stable of airline lounges accessible with a U.S.-based Amex Platinum card," says Leff.

Rick Steves, the travel expert known for his "Europe Through the Back Door" guidebooks, tours, and TV programs, has a blog. He provides a steady stream of insights on travel, along with the occasional odd tidbit, such as his recent blog post about eating fried sperm in the Czech Republic.

It's a special challenge to travel with a teenager. A parent who runs ExitRowSeat.com offers five tips on traveling with teens in this blog post. Here's one of the tips: Let them maintain contact with their friends:

Three weeks without their friends is cruel and unusual punishment for most teenagers. Find hotels with Internet connections or close to Internet cafes so the kids can get online to chat or exchange emails. Learning the latest gossip at home is more valuable knowledge to your teenager than the fascinating food preferences of ancient Romans. It is also a time to reflect on their travel, the boring morning at the museum is suddenly a cool experience to see Michelangelo's David when chatting to friends who spent the day watching Sponge Bob.

Once upon a time, flying as an air courier had near mythical status among travelers as a great way to save money. But the opportunities dried up in recent years, partly because of the success of FedEx. Yet there are still air courier opportunities out there, as the Go Budget Travel blog describes in a recent post.

A pilot talks back. More specifically, a woman who says she's a pilot for a major airline has been putting together a podcast of her experiences, complete with audio outtakes from her flights. She's funny! Betty In The Sky With A Suitcase. (Thanks, Airline Confidential!)

Stay overnight in a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, by following this tip from the blog Wandalust. "The Louis Penfield House in Ohio can be rented for a minimum of two nights. Up to 5 people are allowed to stay at any given time, with a cost of $275 per night, plus tax."

Harry Potter hijinx uncovered! Slate has the dish on why Disney abandoned a plan to build a Harry Potter theme park, allowing its rival Universal Studios nab the contract to build one instead. Disney thought that J.K. Rowling was too demanding in her expectations of what the park should be like.

Japan pampers its pets like no other country. Here's the proof, via the fun blog Japundit. [The U.S. isn't far behind in pet-pampering, however. Consider the new travel kit for pets, called Sexy Beast ($30).

More travelers are heading to Chicago this Labor Day weekend than any other city, according to Hotwire.com. The Los Angeles Times' Daily Travel Deal Blog has the scoop on some travel deals to the Windy City.

...will soon be available on Google Earth, the free software program that incorporates satellite photos, hotel reviews, and other data into Google's street maps.

On Monday, Google mixed together its digital archives of much of the world's published literature with its Google Earth mapping service.

Here's the explanation from Google:

In June, Delta kept passengers of flight 6499 on the tarmac for seven hours.

How bad was this experience? You can get a sense by watching this seven-minute video, filmed and edited by a passenger.

Listen to how the passengers were denied food for six hours, while the crew was allowed to leave the plane.**

Be warned, airlines: More and more passengers are going to be documenting poor customer service.

By the way, you don't need a video camera to file a complaint. You can simply call the government's Aviation Consumer Complaints Hotline, at 202-366-2220, or send an email to airconsumer@dot.gov.

Update, 8/28: You can post a comment right now on the question: Which airline do you refuse to fly, and why?

**Editors' note: Pilots must receive eight hours of rest every 24 hours, according to government regulations. If an airline fails to let one of its flight crews rest, it will face fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the circumstances. However, there are no federal regulations limiting the number of hours that pilots can keep passengers on a plane that is grounded on the tarmac.

Windjammer Barefoot Cruises has an intense following among many budget travelers. Windjammer's four yachts and schooners offer laid-back Caribbean itineraries. With main decks close to the waterline, its boats are small enough to allow passengers to dive off the side, when anchored. The cost of the cruises is typically $1,000 to $2,000 a week per person, including meals and taxes.

This summer has been a bad one for Windjammer, though. The company has had money problems. Workers have recently gone on strike. And this week, Windjammer, one of the last family-owned cruise lines, was taken over by a buyout company, according to the Miami Herald. The new owners will hopefully inject enough cash to resolve the strike and help repair the fleet.

You'll find more Windjammer coverage at CruiseCritic.com.

Air France has raised the bar for airlines in reporting their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. AirFrance.com now offers a CO2 emissions calculator (in English and in French).

According to the airline, "Unlike many other CO2 calculators whose results are based on theoretical and undifferentiated data, Air France's calculation tool uses actual operating data recorded on each flight and route. It integrates the distance flown, the type of aircraft operated, the actual fuel consumed on the segment, the number of passengers carried, and the weight of baggage and goods carried on board. The calculator excludes the weight for carrying freight."

In a month's time, AirFrance.com will also offer a way to purchase carbon offsets.
Learn more about carbon offsets in this Budget Travel article.

Should a $5.50 carbon offset donation be mandatory and added to the price of every domestic round-trip flight automatically? Vote in our poll (which is currently voting 2-to-1 against such as charge.) And feel free to share your thoughts about carbon offsets by posting below.

If hotel lobbies aren't your kind of dating scene, you may be interested to learn about three new dating services that are available via cell phone.

This month, Match.com launched a mobile dating service that allows its more than one million paying members to send messages to potential dates from their phones, according to Reuters. The service costs an additional $5 a month on top of the $17 a month members pay for six-month contracts.

Want something faster? MeetMoi is a new "location-based" dating service. You send a text-message to the website providing your current Zip Code or street address. MeetMoi then tells you if there are any other members of the service who have said they're looking for a date in your area. You also receive info about people whose profiles match your criteria. The service is free to join and costs 99 cents for 10 anonymous text messages. [via SmartMobs]

Prefer to talk to someone before you meet them? Zogo is a dating service that connects singles who want to talk by smartphone. Surf to Zogo.com on your phone's Web browser and see a list of singles who meet the criteria you've provided. If you find a member's profile interesting, you can click to ask for a phone call with the person. Zogo then passes along your request to the person via text message. If the other person agrees, you can have an instant phone conversation without each member learning the other's phone number. The service is currently free. [via the Orlando Sentinel]

About 3.6 million U.S. cell phones subscribers used a mobile dating service in May, the most recent month with available data, according to the research firm M:Metrics.

Photo: MeetMoi publicity

Here's advice on flirting for women travelers, as two bar owners and authors told our readers in the 2007 issue of Girlfriend Getaways.

Are you comfortable with dating on the fly? Or do these cell phone services make you queasy? Feel free to sound off by posting a comment below.

Some of our most popular Real Deals have been vacation packages put together by G.A.P. Adventures, a Canadian company that specializes in outdoor adventure travel. These packages include escorted, small-group tours, which come in cushy and rough-and-tumble versions.

G.A.P. Adventures has been launching "stores" worldwide. The latest store to open is at 364 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. Assistants can help custom-tailor the best package for you.

Photo: Rick McCharles, Creative Commons

Here are some recent Real Deals involving G.A.P. Adventures. Airfare is additional.
In the Buddha's Footsteps, $745 a Person.

Costa Rica Volunteering & Tour, $695.

Myanmar Revealed Over 13-Nights, From $905

Hiking Through Navajo History, 7 Nights, $1,395 Per Person.

Thailand for 11 Nights, From $870 a Person

This weekend, Southwest Airlines returns to San Francisco airport, flying 18 daily departures. In 2001, Southwest shut down operations at that airport. But the airline has apparently decided to return to SFO to challenge United Airlines. Introductory fares of round-trip to Las Vegas for $118 and round-trip to Chicago for $189 can be bought now for travel between August 26 and October 31. See Southwest.com.

Photo: Yolopey, using a tilt-shift effect on the photo, via Flickr & Creative Commons

Fun facts: Southwest's website is a hit. It's the number one airline website for online revenue, according to PhoCus Wright. It's also the largest airline website for unique visitors, according to Neilsen/NetRatings.

Related: Southwest says the early response has been favorable to its test of a new boarding procedure. In a test that began this week in San Antonio, passengers are asked to board the plane one-by-one in an assigned order, rather than board in one of three groups. When passengers check-in for their flight, they're assigned individual boarding numbers. Once they board the plane, they still have their choice of seats on a first-come, first-served basis. According to Gadling, "They've doubled the size of the 'A' group and done away with the C group completely, and families with small kids get boarded between 'A' and 'B' groups."

Elsewhere: Spirit Airways CEO: "We owe him nothing"

Many blogs have been on fire with the story of two travelers, Christy and Jim Boswell, who complained by letter to Spirit Airlines about a three-hour flight delay in Orlando. The couple asked for compensation because they missed a concert in Atlanta. The couple wanted to be reimbursed for their $73.60 airfare, plus their hotel room, concert tickets, and airport parking--for a total of $376.84. They argued that an unusual level of compensation was required because of the particular way that they and other passengers were poorly treated by Spirit's employees during the delay. (Full email reprinted below.)

The airline offered $200 worth of vouchers for free future travel.

The couple was still unhappy and sent Spirit Airlines an email, which was forwarded to the CEO Ben Baldanza, whose response went back to the couple, along with fellow Spirit employees. Here was what he wrote:

"Please respond, Pasquale, but we owe him nothing as far as I'm concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He's never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny."

The couple was surprised by this email. Christy sent the CEO a response to ask why he sent the e-mail. She never heard back, according to this interview in the Orlando Sentinel.

This story has been posted on several blogs, starting with its first appearance on Alex Rudloff.com and then on Gadling, Today in the Sky, The Consumerist, Jaunted, Upgrade: Travel Better, and Rick Seaney.

All of those blogs have taken the Spirit CEO to task for his attitude toward his customers.

Related: A passenger on Delta Flight 6499 strikes back.

If you're curious, the full email exchange is posted below:

Chemists at the University of California at Davis--the Harvard of enology--invented the machine with funding from the resort. The machine can test if oxygen has leaked past the cork and allowed the wine to become vinegary. The machine uses nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy--the technology behind MRI scans at hospitals--to test the level of acetic acids in your wine. It's a bad sign when the machine finds a lot of acetic acid.

Guests staying at the resort can test one bottle for free, says a spokeswoman for the hotel. To test more than one bottle, guests pay a fee of 10 percent of the value of the wine, with a minimum $50 charge. That's the same fee you'll pay if you're not a guest of the resort but you drop by anyway and request that one of your bottles be tested.

Some studies estimate that one in eight bottles of premium wines (meaning wines costing $8 or more) are spoiled. The machine has not been subjected to rigorous independent testing, and it may not be foolproof. High levels of acetic acid or only one of the many possible signs and causes of damage to wine.

Learn more about the machine and the resort by calling Crystal Springs at 973/827-5996.

Photograph by Linda B. (the Wine Diva), titled "Corkhenge", via Flickr & Creative Commons

Related: Check out these articles on wine and travel.

The Vatican has teamed up with the Italian postal service to retrofit cargo planes to carry passengers to key Catholic pilgrimage sites in Europe and Mexico.

The airline, Mistral Air, has begun to fly to the Loudres shrine in France. Future destinations will include the shrine of Fatima in Portugal, the shrine of the Madonna of Guadalupe in Mexico, Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and Czestochowa in Poland, according to the BBC.

As the blog Airline Confidential notes: "While [the airline] does not claim any higher power, it rather marvelously states that it will show mercy, if not charity, in the fare structure."

The planes are decorated on the outside in the Vatican colors of yellow and white. On the inside, you'll find sacred inscriptions. Booking can only be done in Italian by phone at the moment. Get contact info at Mistral Air [BBC.]

Update: Aug. 28: CNN.com offers video of the flight.

"A dozen protesters on surfboards blocked Hawaii's Superferry from docking for two hours on Sunday," according to the AP, via Yahoo News. The protesters are worried about the ship's environmental impact.

Earlier: Budget Travel's story on the new Superferry.

Related: Here's a report on the protest from a local TV news show:
'

And here's video of what it was like to ride the SuperFerry on its inaugural voyage.

Update 8/28: The protesters win! A judge has put a temporary halt on Superferry trips, according to CNN.com.

Rex Airlines has begun to offer a Backpacker Pass that offers unlimited travel on any flights to destinations across Australia for one to two months. Prices are about $410 for a one-month pass and about about $780 for a two-month pass. Routes link Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide with far-flung destinations, such as Kangaroo Island, Ballina, Cooper Pedy, and Broken Hill. For example, here's a sample route between Sydney and Kangaroo Island, which would take 19 hours to drive but can now be reached cheaply by an afternoon flight.

View Larger Map

More details at Rex Airlines.

Many of the short clips are mini-travel documentaries. One dude tours toxic plants in Toronto. Another scours the Caribbean for unusual sexual practices. In general, the Vice mag folks go where most travelers fear to tread.

The travel clips are generally short and silly. There's one exception--a particularly well-made video of a trip to Chernobyl, which is nine-minutes long and rather depressing. It's bizarrely compelling to watch as a handheld radiation-counter goes beserk, and it's poignant when the camera zooms in on the fading posters that hung in school buildings in the nearby town.

You can catch these quick flicks at VBS.tv.

Related: Chernobyl, of course, was one of the destinations on BudgetTravel.com's 2007 "Not List," celebrating the places you don't want to visit.

Elsewhere: Despite urban legends to the contrary, Chernobyl has not become an animal paradise because of the lack of interference by humans, says the New York Times.

Photo by icanteachyouhowtodoit via Flickr.

The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered airlines to inspect the wing slats on airplanes after a malfunctioning part on a China Airlines plane caused an explosion and fire last week. (Aug. 27)

See this AP video:

I tested the service sporadically throughout the day, and found that it performed best on heavily traveled routes. But it didn't always deliver the lowest available fare on less trafficked routes, such as between Louisville and Minneapolis/St. Paul.

As always, no single Internet source is definitive when it comes to booking low fares. (Sigh!) My plan for the next few months is to use one fare tracker among the many available, such as Sidestep's, Yapta's, Farecast's, AirfareWatchdog's, FareCompare.com's, Orbitz's, etc., to track fares. But before I book a ticket, I'll compare flights on a metasearch site. At the moment, I alternate between Sidestep or Kayak because they allow you to simultaneously search on Expedia and Orbitz to make sure you find the lowest fare among the three websites. Other metasearch sites are CheapTickets and Yahoo's Farechase.

Other Budget Travel staffers have different approaches, and I'm sure you have your own favorite strategy, too. Please let us know your experience with fare tracking sites by posting comments below.

Related: Check out the reader comments about Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity and other travel search engines.

Earlier: Get cash back when fares drop.

Photo: Dan4th via Flickr. (Creative Commons)

At airports where wireless Internet is available, or for travelers who have Web-enabled phones and PDAs, this announcement is great news--and will hopefully inspire copycat moves by other airlines. In a summer of delays, it's nice to hear an airline actually do something--even something small--to improve the situation.

Earlier: Kudos to Continental from Budget Travel editor Erik Torkells.

Photo: Courtesy Alex S. on Flickr. (Creative Commons)

The airfare prediction website Farecast is taking on hotels, offering rate advice for major properties in 30 U.S. cities. Rather than predict rates, the site tells you if the rate at any given hotel is a good value when compared with the hotel's rate history and other factors.

You plug in your dates and preferred neighborhoods to stay at your destination, and then you add your wish list of preferred amenities. The site maps hotels that meet your criteria, along with the lowest rates available and advice on whether to book one or keep looking. As explained to us by Farecast CEO Hugh Crean: If a hotel rate is highlighted in red, it means that the rate is a relatively good deal when compared with the hotel's past history, local demand, and other factors.

Farecast crunches the numbers on hotel rate data that it receives from Orbitz and other sources. The site doesn't sell hotel rooms but sends you to these sources for booking.

Currently, the buying tips for hotel rates are only available for 5,000 hotels in 30 U.S. cities. Also, Farecast does not collect rates directly from major hotel chains, which often guarantee the lowest rates by booking on their websites.

Farecast has made its name as a website that predicts whether fares on a route will rise or fall within the next week. In July, Farecast had more than 500,000 users, according to the Boston Globe. It's the first company to bring data-mining techniques to hotel rates, giving it a head start on its competition.

Earlier: A new website lets you tour European hotels from home.

Which airline do you refuse to fly, and why?

Christopher Elliott, the nation's top travel ombudsman, has an article today on CNN.com in which he talks about people's "no-fly" lists. (He says he gets the most complaints about US Airways.) The editor of Gridskipper, Chris Mohney, responded with his own personal "no-fly" list. (In a word: AirTran). Mark Ashley of Upgrade Travel Better says he hears more complaints from readers about Spirit than any other airline.

One exec at Spirit airlines says that travelers don't care how badly an airline treats them, as long as they can get the cheapest fare. Is that true for you? Which airline is on your "no-fly" list? Feel free to sound off below.

Update, Sept. 6: Our most popular blog posts lately.

If you're planning to spend more than $200 on a digital camera within the next six months, and if you care about F-stops, lenses, and other advanced functions, be sure to visit Digital Photography Review. Think of this website as a hyper-detailed Consumer Reports for high-tech cameras. It specializes in thorough product testing and detailed reviews. This website also offers video clips of hard-to-explain camera features and functions.

With a $1,299 list price (ouch!), this camera isn't for most travelers. (For price comparison, Nikon offers a D40/D40X at about $550/$700 and Canon offers a Rebel XTi at $700.) But the features that this Panasonic camera is debuting may set the some standards for digital "single-lens reflex" model cameras, and many of its features will likely trickle down to cheap cameras within a few years.

Among its many tricks, this camera can detect up to 15 human faces and automatically set the best focus and light exposure to capture the subjects clearly. The camera also has a viewfinder that flips out as much as 180 degrees, a feature common on many videocameras but relatively rare on digital "still" cameras. The screen also automatically adjusts its brightness depending on the surrounding conditions--becoming brighter on a cloudy day, for instance. The camera even uses supersonic vibrations to shake off dust clinging to the sensor and marring images when you change lenses. [via Digital Photography Review]

The first European mass-printed travel map, the first secular illustrations of the New World, and other images shown in this slide show are from a collection of 60 original works on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., through mid-September, titled "Fabulous Journeys and Faraway Places: Travels on Paper, 1450-1700."

The participating restaurants include Cero at the St. Regis, Cohiba Brasserie (in Pembroke Pines), Himmarshee Bar & Grille, Lola's on Harrison, and Mark's Las Olas. A complete list of participating restaurants is at sunny.org/dineout. The program is co-sponsored by American Express, but you do not need to use an AmEx card to pay for your meal. [via the Miami Herald, from an article not online]

Related: Find BudgetTravel.com's latest Real Deals in Florida.

See some astonishing, 360-degree images of the "new" seven wonders of the world by visiting the 7 Wonders Panoramas website.

For example, you can feel like you're standing in the middle of the red rock walls of Petra, Jordan. Using your mouse, you can pull the image around you so that you see the scene "immersively." (Note: If you don't already have Apple's QuickTime software on your computer, you'll need to download it for free to see these panoramas.)

Earlier: BudgetTravel.com readers list their own favorite Wonders of the World. And this blog also told you about the picking of the seven new wonders of the world in this previous blog post.

If the tests with about 1,000 passengers are successful, the high-tech cards will be offered to nearly 15 percent of Air France customers. [via Agence France-Presse]

Photo by Fazen. Find her portfolio on Flickr.

Next month, Hewlett Packard's new iPAQ 310 will hit store shelves. It's the first GPS unit from the nation's largest consumer electronics maker. Like other GPS units, this device is a hand-held computer that can help you plot your location within about 20 feet on a built-in electronic map of the U.S., using a network of satellites. The device can direct you to your destinations, one turn at a time, using automated voices. Pricing hasn't been set yet, but HP says its new iPAQ will cost around $400 to $500.

This added competition among the makers of GPS units is good news for consumers. Prices may drop in time for holiday shopping. Already this year, Garmin and Magellan have cut the prices on their GPS units to between $200 and $600.

One of the most distinctive feature of the iPAQ 310 is that you will be able to use it to download road trip itineraries and other travel recommendations from other iPAQ users. Here's how: You'll tether your iPAQ 310 to your PC or Mac, visit a yet to be announced HP website, and download map information provided by other iPAQ users. At first, this feature will probably appeal to small business owners who have teams of employees on the road and who want their road warriors to share travel information. But eventually leisure travelers will be sure to get into the act, mix and matching their road trip information with each other.

Here's the recent Budget Travel roundup of GPS devices.

And here are a few more details on the new iPAQ 310:

Tarlow is currently taking questions from readers like yourself. (Click here to submit a question.) He will respond with answers in an online chat tomorrow (Tuesday) at BudgetTravel.com between noon and 1 p.m. Eastern time.

Tarlow and I recently talked about today's top security issues. He unnerved me with the following thought: Many famous hotels are in denial about the safety of their buildings...

Breaking news from CNN.com:

"A second young woman has come forward to claim that Southwest Airlines employees made her cover up on a recent flight, leading jet-setters to ask: Will my outfit fly?"

[You know the writer of that sentence had a smirk on their face when they wrote it this morning.]

Find the full story here at CNN.com.

We avoided writing about the first incident last week, thinking that TV news was already offering great coverage. (Cough-cough.) [You'll find MSNBC's video coverage and commentary here.]

But now Southwest has done it again! And two incidents are considered a trend in Internet journalism. So, if you have any opinions on this growing trend, please sound off by posting a comment below! Should airlines enforce a dress code, and what should the minimum standards be?

Up until now, the airlines have allowed any given senator an option to hold seats on multiple flights even though he or she had only bought one ticket for one flight. In other words, senators have been able to book confirmed reservations on multiple flights, improving the odds that they will depart on at least one of the planes.

But new Senate ethics rules threaten fines and imprisonment to any company that offers handouts to senators. In response to these rules, Continental, Delta, and Northwest have withdrawn the privilege. They say they fear that by giving senators this privilege they risk being accused of offering handouts. After all, ordinary customers are not offered this service.

Some senators are annoyed. They have asked the Senate's rules committee to make a statement to the airlines assuring them that they can offer this favor to senators without breaking any ethics rules about handouts.

"It's really hard because if you can only book one flight, and you can't make that flight, then you're stuck," says Senator Diane Feinstein, Democrat from California, who suddenly has to fly like the rest of us.

The country's most famous webcomic is probably Penny Arcade, whose work is on display. Other represented artists include Jorge Cham (PhD), Pete Abrams (Sluggy Freelance), and Dan Goldman (the author behind the Eisner-nominated Shooting War and an upcoming graphic novel about the presidential campaign).

The museum itself is on the fourth floor of a nondescript building on Broadway in a bustling SoHo shopping district. (By the way, if you've never visited a Japanese-inspired Uniqlo clothing store, be sure to pop in to the one a few doors down from the museum.) Hours are Friday through Monday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.; tickets $5, kids 12 and under enter free. Moccany.org.

Patricia Rain is an international vanilla specialist and anthropologist who has worked for years in Veracruz, Mexico. Patricia gave Budget Travel invaluable help during its recent report on vanilla's sexy history, Romancing the Bean.

Patricia, who blogs about All Things Vanilla, has just reminded us that our reporter visited the vanilla fields of Mexico last spring—long before Hurricane Dean swept through and destroyed up to 90 percent of citrus, bananas, coffee, cacao, vanilla, and sugar cane exported to the U.S.

Tourism to the vanilla fields of Veracruz is still available, despite Dean's damage. The tours described in the story are mostly still worth taking. And your tourist dollars can still help the local economy.

But Patricia has asked us to pass along the following plea for help:

"Unless we help the farmers with basic needs, such as roofing, they will all come to the US, most often illegally, desperate for work. If you visit the website of The Vanilla Company, you can learn about local efforts to help get galvanized roofing for the poor and indigenous farmers there.

There is a way to help the locals, too, if you wish to do so. The Vanilla Company has an account set up for disaster relief. Checks can be made to Valley Presbyterian Church, 945 Portola Rd Portola Valley, CA, 94028, 650/851-8282. In the memo on the check it should say: ITFN Disaster Relief. Thank you for your help."

Andy Gates of Jacksonville, Fla., is suing US Airways for not allowing him to fly because he was deemed unable to assist in his own evacuation in the event of an emergency. [Story via Channel 4 News in Jacksonville.] Gates has dystonia, which is a neuro-muscular disease that impairs his movement. He says he can get in and out of his wheelchair, controlling his legs and arms. He also says that he has flown several times before without a problem or an objection by flight crews.

U.S airlines are required by federal law to deny flights to any person with mobility impairment so severe that they are unable to assist in their own evacuation. But making that judgment call can be tricky. If you have thoughts, feel free to post a comment below.

This week, Charlie Suisman, who runs the excellent ManhattanUsersGuide.com, answered reader questions about New York City travel in a live chat at our website.

Here are some of his tips.

Q: Where are the cheapest hotels to stay in New York City?
Charlie Suisman: Many of New York's hotels have just gone nuts with their pricing. It's ridiculous. But you don't have to spend a fortune—however, it's still going to be more expensive than most other American cities to sleep. Here are a few picks that, depending on the time of year, should have rooms between $100 to $250: The Pod Hotel, Rooms to Let, Second Home on Second Ave, Country Inn the City, Mayfair New York, Broadway Inn, Abingdon Guest House, and The Larchmont.

Q. What's a good neighborhood to stay in? Somewhere besides the usual Times Square?
Charlie Suisman: Definitely! Whenever my friends and family come to visit, I suggest they stay anywhere but Times Square and midtown. Nothing wrong with it, but you'll get a visitor's view of the city, rather than an insider's. And so many great chefs, and shops, and nightlife is now below 34th Street. So, I'd suggest staying in the West or East Village. If you want to get a *really* different angle on the city, try the Lower East Side. It's far from bucolic, but there's so much history there, not to mention a definite hipster scene. The Hotel on Rivington caters to the neighborhood's new-found vibe.

Q.What's your advice for visiting Manhattan during Christmastime?
Charlie Suisman:There are so many things to do at holiday time, it's hard to select just a few -- there are annual holiday markets at Grand Central and Bryant Park, Paul Winter's annual (number 28, I think) Winter Solstice Celebration at Cathedral of St. John the Divine, is great. There are many Messiah performances -- of all kinds. There's a tradition at the 21 Club of the Salvation Army doing these boisterous singalongs at lunchtime -- there's nothing like those anywhere. There's Tuba Christmas at Rockefeller Center (Rock Center is the city's unofficial Christmas center, with its mega-tree and ice-skating rink).

Q: We only have two nights in NYC. What should we see?
Charlie Suisman: The first thing I'd do is go up to one of the observation decks, either the Empire State Building or the one at Rockefeller Center. I'd go with the latter because it's likely to be less crowded. Get an overview of the city, to see how it's laid out. The best thing to do in New York is walk -- it's the best way to get a feel for the city. I'd get out of midtown, too -- go to the Flatiron district, Greenwich Village -- that's where a lot of the action is these days. But since you're here for a very short time, you'll probably want to check out a few of the must-sees. For museums, choose from the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art (I feel terrible leaving out so many other amazing museums!). If the weather's nice, I'd go down to Battery Park and see the Statue of Liberty from afar (rather than spending the time getting there and back). See a Broadway show. Central Park has never looked better and an afternoon stroll there would be memorable -- you could also hire a horse and carriage from the area of 5th Avenue and 59th to give you a tour of the park. Great shopping is always there for you -- Saks, Bloomingdales, and every small shop you can imagine. Or just wander. That sense of discovery can be the most fun of all.

Q: My daughters and I would like to visit NYC and would like to know what time of year to come to get the best hotel prices. Thank you.
Charlie Suisman: You can generally find the lowest rates in January, February, and March. Some hotels will offer weekend packages, which can bring the rate down further. And don't just assume that a rate you see on the website is the lowest price you can get. Call the hotel and chat with someone from reservations. A little luck may be involved, but you may be surprised to get a lower rate -- with some polite persistence -- if the hotel isn't that busy.

(See full the transcript here.)

EARLIER: Most popular blog posts.

Find more tips at ManhattanUsersGuide.com.

USA Today is reporting that

starting in early November, Southwest is going to automatically give passengers an assigned number within in its current boarding groups: A, B and C. They'll get the number and the group when they check in, which can be done within 24 hours of a flight. Another change: A and B groups will also be expanded to 60 passengers.

The new policy means you don't have to squat a place in line to have a chance to grab your preferred seat. [Via USA Today.]

More disturbingly, Southwest is also ending its policy of allowing families with children to pre-board. Details, here.

Learn more about Skybus in this earlier blog post.

Despite lots of snarky comments in the press and the blogosphere, this Columbus-based airline has packed its planes full of passengers. The additional gateways will bring the number of cities Skybus serves to 15.

How can Skybus afford to offer such low fares? It's superefficient. Each of its five planes average 13.2 hours of flights per day. In contrast, United and America West, using the same model plane, fly fewer hours: 11.9 hours a day, says BloggingStocks. More hours means more cost savings for Skybus and its passengers.

Photo by the inimitable Jessie Barber, via Flickr.

It's hip to like Herodotus this year. The best-selling book Travels with Herodotus, by the late Ryszard Kapuscinski, has been raved about in the New York Times and on blogs like World Hum.

However, the book recently received a strange review by Glen Bowersock, an expert on ancient history who works at the Institute for Advanced Studies, located on Einstein Drive in Princeton, N.J. Mr. Bowersock has written quite a bit about the ancient world, and he says he likes Travels with Herodotus. But he slaps the book around with so many back-handed compliments that the publisher ought to sue for abuse.

Here are some key points:

As noted earlier this week, Southwest is changing its boarding policy.

And as the blog Upgrade Travel Better has noted, Southwest's new policy makes it more important than ever that you check-in online as early as possible, if you want to grab the best seat.

For a price, there's an easy way to check-in as early as possible: BoardFirst.com—a website not affiliated with Southwest—will automatically request an A group boarding pass from Southwest when that flight opens for online check-in 24 hours before departure. This service spares you the trouble of having to log on 24 hours before you depart to claim your place in a virtual line. The service costs $5 per boarding pass secured, or—obviously—$10 per roundtrip.

The owner of BoardFirst.com declined an interview request about whether anything would change in its service in light of Southwest's new rules.

Related: Southwest also stopped pre-boarding for families. See the firestorm of opinion at the L.A. Times Daily Travel Deal blog.

Gawk at a shark, octopus, dolphin, turtle, and assorted fish in brilliant shades of neon and bizarre patterns and textures, in our slide show. Of course, the book is available at Amazon.

This fall you'll be able to cozy up with your friends under patio heaters at about 1,000 cafés and restaurants in New York City. A new regulation allows anyone with a licensed sidewalk cafe or restaurant to add the space heaters, extending the time that patrons can hang out alfresco.

More news from New York: The city is launching a NYC Sunday Stays promotion at roughly two dozen hotels, offering discounted Sunday night room rates of 20 to 30 percent. Details here.

The largest travel insurance company, AIG Travel Guard, has revamped some of its policies, shaking up the industry.

I'll give a rundown on the biggest of these changes in a sec. But first, let's quickly recap Budget Travel's stance on travel insurance:

If all you have reserved are flights and hotels, insurance generally isn't worth it: You can rebook a flight and only suffer a $100-per-ticket (or so) fee, and hotels rarely have strict cancellation policies. But if you're headed on a cruise or a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, such as a safari, insurance looks better and better, because tour operators and cruise lines (which are less likely to get any last-minute bookings) tend to penalize those people who cancel. You should also consider buying travel insurance when you think the odds are decent that you won't be able to take the trip for one reason or another. Just make sure you understand up front exactly what is and isn't covered, which situations allow you to cancel, and what the cancellation time frame is.

Traditionally, travel insurance policies have limited the reasons for paying out claims. The most common permissible excuses for canceling a trip were a medical emergency or a death in the family. That was about it.

Say you had a boss who is the kind of a jerk who makes his staff cancel their trips to finish a project. You'd be out of luck--and out of your trip expenses--if your boss forced you to scratch your vacaton. Most policies did not cover such situations.

Then, a year ago, the insurer Access America began to allow travelers to insure against trip cancellation due to unreasonable bosses, corporate mergers, and business disasters (such as fires). The cost of this BizPak option is $19 per person, per trip, on top of a standard travel insurance policy.

Thus began a trend in the industry toward offering broader trip insurance options.

A couple of weeks ago, the largest travel insurance company, AIG Travel Guard, rolled out the same "cancel for work reasons" clause, charging $24 a person.

The company also introduced "cancel for any reason"

The Feds have counted up how many times airplanes have been stranded on the tarmacs of U.S. airports because of flight delays. The numbers ain't pretty.

In June alone, 462 flights taxied out and were stuck on tarmacs for three or more hours, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. That was roughly 6 percent of flights. (Update: When I posted this 2 hours ago, I wrote 16 percent. Whoops!)

And yesterday the Inspector General for the Department of Transportation issued this report about stranded flights (Warning: Link will open as an Adobe PDF).

The report found that many airlines lack system-wide policies about how to handle these delays, even though they happen hundreds of times a month.

Here's the money quotes from the report:

Of domestic flights arriving late in 2006, the average delay was a record-breaking 54 minutes....Based on the first 7 months of data, it is clear that 2007 could be even worse.

Update 9/27: Editor Erik Torkells calls for a 3-hour rule.

Elsewhere: Former airline analyst Jared Blank calls for a passenger revolt:

It's up to passengers stuck on the runway for hours to invoke their right to habeas corpus - either give me a legitimate reason why I'm stuck here, or let me off this plane. Ring the flight attendant button. Ask questions. Call the airline's headquarters and ask to speak to flight operations (they won't put you through, but they'll put you through to someone...and you'll make your point.) It's enough already. As I've said before: the fact that these companies think that keeping you in a cramped area (31" pitch, my ass) with screaming babies with no idea when you're leaving and no access to food is an acceptable way (let alone legally acceptable way) of treating people is the biggest issue. Enough is enough.

What do you think? Should the airlines be required by law to allow passengers to get off of a plane after a certain number of hours on the runway? Feel free to sound off below.

Earlier:
Video shot by a passenger of a 7-hour tarmac delay.

Our readers tell off the airlines.

A Southwest pilot blogs about long waits on the tarmac.

A news bulletin from The Guardian (a London newspaper):

Nepal's mountaineering authorities are calling for a ban on nudity and attempts to set obscene records on the world's highest mountain.

Last year, a Nepali climber claimed the world's highest display of nudity when he disrobed for several minutes while standing on the 8,850m (29,035ft) summit in temperatures of about minus 10 °C (14 degrees Fahrenheit).

Story link, here.

More Fun Stuff: Pluto flips out at Disneyland.

As a traveler, you may have seen at one time or another an Auntie Anne's pretzel stand because they're common at airports (as well as shopping malls). The story of why Anne Beiler founded the company will give you something to think about the next time you're hungrily eyeing a pretzel at an airport gate.

The temptation is strong. You know that many motels have an occupancy limit of four persons to a room, assuming there's two beds. And you know that it's typically against the rules to sneak your children into your room—especially if your children are under the age of 12.

So why not sneak your kids in? After all, the worst that can happen is that the neighboring guests will snitch on you and the front desk will ask you to leave.

The trick is as simple to pull off as it sounds: You park your car out-of-sight, drop by the front desk, and then check-in without mentioning your children. Next, you sneak your children into your room.

You may be tempted to pull this trick because, otherwise, you'll have to pay for a second room. And that presents its own problems, as Matthew Franck points out in the St. Louis Dispatch:

Unless a hotel can offer connecting rooms, my wife and I are faced with the prospect of splitting up and dividing the kids, like picking teams on a playground. And deciding who gets the fussy baby can ruin not just a vacation, but a marriage.

Sure, there are a few downsides to this approach.

Galway is the costliest place to stay in Ireland, with hotel rooms costing about $200 a night on average, according to a recent survey of 30,000 hotels across 1,500 locations by Hotels.com's office in Britain.

Galway, arguably Ireland's cultural center, is also one of the costliest places in the world to sleep. Galway hotels charge more on average than hotels in Tokyo, Singapore, and San Francisco. Visitors to Galway will best save money by booking their stay at an inn or hotel outside of the city.

As a recent article in the Irish Independent notes, the national average price of hotel rooms in Ireland is about $170 a night—below the average of $224 nightly hotel rates in Britain, and also below the average of $185 a night average hotel rate across western Europe.

Another option is to book a vacation package that includes stays at bed-and-breakfasts, which are cheaper than hotels. Here's one deal: Seven nights' accommodations and a five-day rental car from $599 per person, based on double occupancy, via Brian Moore International Tours. Details, here.

Here's something new that could save you a few steps at the airport. Nine U.S. airports now offer kiosks that allow travelers without checked baggage to check-in on their own for multiple airlines. According to an article in USA Today, the following airports have the kiosks: Las Vegas, Maui Kahului Airport in Hawaii, New York John F. Kennedy, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle-Tacoma, Washington Dulles, and Westchester County (New York). Additionally, USA Today reports that "Minneapolis-St. Paul has turned them off while making software changes but will restart them soon."

The next time you're at one of these airports you'll be able to use one of these common kiosks found throughout the departures area rather than have to seek out one of the machines branded by your airline.

EARLIER: Have you ever bought an upgrade at an airport kiosk?

The editors at TripAdvisor have come up with a list of 10 places that have ghost tours and other shockers.

But I'm not sure that their suggestions are all that good.

Topping their list is the Farnsworth House Inn in Gettysburg, Penn., because it offers Civil War-themed ghost tours of its attic and basement.

Oddly, customers reviewing the Inn at another online review site, TravelPost.com, generally hated it. Anonymous customers posting at Yahoo!'s Travel Page didn't like it much either.

In fact, most of the customer reviews on TripAdvisor's own page for the hotel are rather sour, too!

Hmmm...What about #2 on the list?

Within a few years, you might no longer be using paper boarding passes to go through airport security checkpoints. Instead, you might be registering your cell phone number with your airline to receive a text message with a boarding pass bar code. You might then be holding up the screen of your cell phone under the airport security scanner, rather than show a paper record. Air Canada, Air Berlin, ANA, and Spanair already offer the service in their countries, and U.S. airlines are pressing for government approval to offer the same service here. It might save them some money.

Full story in the Houston Chronicle, by way of USA Today's Ben Mutzabaugh.

EARLIER: Travelers can use their cell phones to alert each other about delays.

RELATED: Nine airports now offer check-in kiosks for multiple airlines

No other airline chief has ever had a week like this.

Richard Branson, whom you know well as the top backer of Virgin America and Virgin Atlantic, was seemingly everywhere.

He jumped off a building in Las Vegas. But the stunt was botched by a snag. He suffered a cut hand and bruises when he dropped from the top of a 120m (390ft) tower and crashed into a wall.

But he was still smiling. He reported that Virgin America is making scads of money, and he expects it to be profitable much faster than expected.

He kissed Kyla Ebbert, the woman known in our previous blog posts as the Southwest woman who revealed too much.

He also rang the bell to open the New York Stock exchange.

And he threw a celebrity-filled party in Las Vegas. Details at Jaunted.

And Budget Travel awarded his company an Extra Mile Award last night at a fabulous reception in New York. (He flew his team on his private jet so that they could attend the event while he rested up.)

Let's say you are heading to the airport and you want to check your plane's flight status or gate info. And let's say you don't remember your airline's telephone hotline, don't have access to the Internet, and haven't signed up for flight alerts from Orbitz or other service providers (as I've previously blogged about)? You can now check flight status and departure info by calling 1-800-Flights (800/354-4487), a free automated service that uses the same data as FlightStats.com, which in turn receives its data from the FAA, more than 140 airlines, and more than 430 U.S. airports and 170 overseas airports. To make the phone system work, you can talk to a recorded lady. You tell her your flight number or you can use the approximate arrival or departure time and city.

The good: The service knows when you're flying on an airline's code-share partner, directing you to the gate of the plane you are flying (which may not be the brand name of the company you purchased your ticket from).

The bad: The recorded lady sounds like she's O.D'ed on Ambien, and when I tested the service by calling on a city sidewalk, she had some trouble hearing my words given the background noise.

The ugly: If you're flight is delayed, this service will be unable to offer you the local or toll-free number of your airline to rebook. So you still need to have BudgetTravel.com's Wallet Card in hand. Download it here.

RELATED: Whom to trust about flight status?

Eid al-Fitr is the Festival of Fast-Breaking that followers of Islam are celebrating right now. Rick Steves has just blogged a post from Turkey about how this is a great time to be traveling. Here's one of his key points:

Ramadan is, in balance, a great time to travel. You don't realize it, but most people are not eating or even drinking all day. I offered my waiter a suck of my hookah water pipe. He put his hand to his heart and explained he'd love to but he was fasting for Ramadan.

If you sleep lightly, you'll wake to the sound of a prayer and meal just before dawn. Sun rises and the day-long fast begins. Then, at about 7p.m. the food comes out, and the festival begins. Mohammad broke his fast with dried date or olive—so that's usually the fast breaker to this day. Saying, "Allah Kabul etsin" (may God accept...your fast today)," the staff at a restaurant where I was just having a drink welcomed me to photo them and then offered to share.

Every time I witness the breaking of the fast, people offered to share their food. At the restaurant I said no, but they set me up anyway—figs, lentil soup, bread, Coke, and baklava. I thought the Coke was a bit odd...but my guide said it's not considered American any more. It's truly global.

This Real Deal offers a sweeping two-week tour highlighting the varied aspects of Turkish history and culture, from Istanbul to otherworldly Cappadocia to sun-kissed coastal towns like Kusadasi, from $1,649 per person—plus taxes of about $116. It's a great deal because as a BudgetTravel.com reader, you get access to the $150 special discount. (But, alas, Rick Steves is not associated in any way with this tour.)

Today Gadling has a roundup of Eid celebrations.

The L.A. Times recently ran an excellent story on how the workers at Egyptian resorts feel about Western tourists when they have to serve them, especially during the fasting period of Ramadan.

Despite being five years old, a World Hum essay by Rolf Potts is one of the best travel pieces to have been written about how American travelers view Islam. (Note, his essay begins with a story about Eid al-Adha, a different festival.) Link, here.

Photo of the Mosque domes in Istanbul, Turkey, by Andrew Ward/Life File/Photodisc .

The wildly popular travel community IgoUgo has picked its list of its favorite "big media" travel blogs. If we may be excused some shameless self-promotion, we were delighted to be included in such auspicious company. Here's the list, in the order presented by IgoUgo:

The L.A. Times Daily Deal Blog

The International Herald-Tribune's Globespotters

Budget Travel's This Just In

USA Today's Today in the Sky by Ben Mutzabaugh

CBS News' How to Travel Guru, by Jim Gullo

The Washington Post's Travel Log

The Guardian Travelog

The Denver Post's Winging It

CNN's Business Traveller Blog, by Richard Quest

Concierge.com's The Perrin Post

If you're flexible enough to travel to a semi-exotic destination on less than a month's notice, you'll find great deals via Intrepid Travel. Escorted tours of semi-exotic destinations, such as the Dades Gorge in Morocco, Nairobi, Cairns, La Paz, and Denpasar are discounted by 20 percent when the date of the tour is fast approaching.

For example, a seven-night Inca Trail escorted tour departing Nov. 12 costs $908 per person (no single supplement) after including a local payment. The trip includes lodging, local transportation, entry fees, some meals, but no airfare. Groups (of a maximum of 16 travelers) tend to dine together.

Intrepid specializes in making solo travelers comfortable in its small groups. It doesn't charge a single supplement, unlike most tour package companies. A team of local porters will carry your bag and sleeping gear while you're on the Inca Trail. Intrepid is committed to giving decent wages to locals.

For a list of their latest 20 percent discounts, visit Intrepid Travel.

We've previously told you about discount airline Flyglobespan and our readers' tales of woe in suffering with its apparently poor customer service, including the story of a seven-day flight delay.

Well, now we learn that the Scottish carrier has had one of its flying licenses suspended, meaning that it can only fly over-water routes if it always stays within an hour's distance of land. According to the BBC, there's an unspecified problem with one of the airline's subcontractors, and such a license suspension is rare.

Sean McLachlan, author of Moon Handbooks London, recently answered your questions about London in one of BudgetTravel.com's weekly live chats.

Here are hot tips for travel within the next few months. You'll find advice on lodging, transportation, top spots for a date, cheap theater tickets, and more.

Street Sensation is posting photographs of every street in central London. It's added links to relevant websites for 3,500 businesses and tourist attractions.

The comprehensiveness can blow you away. Pick a neighborhood you want to visit and then get yourself situated visually. Combine this with a satellite tour via Flickr's world maps or Google Earth's satellite views, and you've got a handful of fun planning tools.

One flaw: We wish they had some way to highlight the coolest places, or maybe let you mark them and add notes. For now, you have to pay about $8 for a printable map.

[Street Sensation]

EARLIER: London: Cheap Sights, Eats, & Sleeps.

Starting in January, low-cost airline Skybus flies out of Greensboro, N.C., to the following places: Boston (via nearby Portsmouth, N.H.); Fort Myers (via Punta Gorda airport); Fort Lauderdale; Gulfport (which is 80 miles from New Orleans); Hartford, Conn. (via Chicopee, Mass.); Jacksonville; and Los Angeles (via nearby Burbank, Calif.). Fares start at $10 for at least 10 tickets on every flight--plus $12 in taxes and additional fees for checked bags and food. Tickets are not available through Expedia.com and other travel websites. They're only for sale at Skybus.com.

For details on Skybus, read this earlier blog post.

But if history is any guide, many of you will not fly Skybus. And because you don't step up, Skybus will fail.

Here's how travelers typically ruin new low-cost airlines:

It may be the world's largest hotel revamp ever, involving 3,125 Holiday Inn hotels worldwide. The owner of the Holiday Inn brand, InterContinental Hotels Group, has warned its franchisees that if they don't freshen up their hotels, they will not be allowed to carry the Holiday Inn logo.

The "motor lodge-style" look is out. Sleek exteriors are in, along with new decor, bedding, and lobbies. Every bathroom will get an improved shower head offering superior water pressure and a shower curtain with a curved rod. There'll be a new, business-like logo, too:

The first batch of 150 hotels with the new look will appear mid next year. Changes will be rolled out elsewhere between then and early 2010. Holiday Inn can afford to make the changes because it's one of the world's most profitable hotel brands. In some parts of Asia, it is even treated as a luxury brand.

The changes were the result of a survey of 18,000 customers. Among the complaints voiced were that front-desks looked too cluttered, and that the hotel exteriors weren't brightly lit. Customers also said that they prefer it when desk clerks address them by their name. These suggestions, among others, are being adopted.

The city of Miami Beach is toasting the end of daily savings time on Saturday, November 3, with a 13-hour party from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Free public transport will connect people to 130 free activities at 80 venues, which will include indoor and outdoor arts exhibits, performances, and fashion shows.

The most talked about attraction is the Spiegeltent, under which acrobats and contortionists will dance to music in ways that, um, simulate various sexual positions. The tent can accommodate about 350 visitors.

The other headline attraction is the hip hop performance artists of the Miami Light Project.

Find a full list of events at sleeplessnight.org.

UPDATE:
JetBlue has launched a sale on airfares and packages like this one that provides round-trip airfare and three nights a hotel in sizzling South Beach from $395. See the Real Deal.

Read more on Miami:
My Hometown: Miami

Secret Hotels of South Beach

Road Trip: The Florida Keys

Many of 'em have been booked up already. Here's this, from the Roanoke Times, a Virginia paper:

Within 12 hours of the sale's start, customers snapped up all its $10 tickets for flights to Burbank, Calif., from February to May, said Skybus spokesman Bob Tenenbaum. The $10 fares are disappearing on some routes. Although the fares are offered on each flight, only 10 such seats are available at that price. Skybus' aircraft average about 150 seats on each flight, Tenenbaum said.

A reader of this blog, Alejandro Crespi, noted that the final prices of other tickets are much higher than $10:

I just went to their web site and tried find a flight from Greensboro to Los Angeles (Burbank) and the first flight is in February, (no flights at all before then) and the lowest price is $75 each way plus baggage fee, taxes etc. Most of the flights are $100 each way, plus extras.

In Skybus's defense, a $200-ish round-trip fare is roughly 40 percent what Northwest was offering on that same route (flying, it must be noted, into LAX instead of Burbank) before the discounter appeared.

Meanwhile, Skybus may soon announce routes between Columbus and Niagara Falls (about 20 miles from Buffalo), and Columbus and Gary-Chicago airport, about 30 minutes to an hour's distance from key parts of the Windy City.

(Thanks for the tip, Lisa!)

EARLIER Many budget-conscious travelers don't support the discount airlines..

Complaining to Airlines: The Nuclear Option as described by Upgrade: Travel Better.

Delta's nasty bait-and-switch, via the well-respected AirfareWatchdog blog.

How to Score $10 Tickets on Skybus via Jaunted.

Will the Feds intervene, or will JFK be full of flight delays next summer? An analysis by The Cranky Flier.

You can already hear the carping below deck. Disney's made a propaganda video for the U.S. government? Groan. It'll be shown to foreign visitors stuck in airport customs lines? Double groan. And with a title like "Welcome: Portraits of America," it sounds as if the film is going to while away its seven-minutes showing Norman Rockwell images and playing the soundtrack that accompanies the nightly Epcot fireworks display.

And yes, it's all true: Disney has donated a seven-minute video to the federal government. Customs and Border Protection officials will begin playing the film on screens in the visitor processing halls at the Houston and Washington, D.C., (Dulles) airports. If the video proves popular, it will be broadcast at about 20 other major airports.

The video is an effort to boost the number of visitors, which has dropped 17 percent in the past six years. The tourism drop is all the more noteworthy because it happened while our country became a more attractive place to visit for holders of many other currencies, such as the euro, the pound, and the yen. During that time, our dollar's value has weakened roughly by half against the euro, for example, putting our country on sale.

The video lasts seven minutes, but the line for fingerprinting visitors is usually longer than half-an-hour. The video shows smiling cowboys, a stern Indian, a happy barista, Vegas showgirls, Seattle's Pike's Place market, artistic dancers, farms, a tanker truck, cotton candy, basketball players, a handicapped athlete, a dogwalker, an Asian American scientist, the Grand Canyon, and the Statue of Liberty.

UPDATE 11/02/07: This video has been removed from YouTube since we wrote this blog post. But you can still see the video for yourself at DiscoverAmerica.com.

There are many free photo-sharing websites, but Flickr is one of the largest, featuring 2.5 million photos uploaded daily by over 15 million members.

For travelers, one on the site's most interesting features is its World Map (www.flickr.com/map). The feature takes advantage of the fact that about 42 million of the photos on its sites have been uploaded with geotags—labels like "Ghana" or "St. Paul's" that notes the spot where a photo was snapped. The map currently shows pink circles indicating where recent geotagged photos can be seen.

The average price for self-serve regular gasoline is now between $2.85 and $2.87, according to two national surveys of thousands of stations. That's the highest level since Aug. 6. For comparison sake, the current average gas price is about $1.35 more per gallon now than in April 2003.

The lowest price is $2.49 in North Ridgefield, Ohio, and the highest price is $3.59 in New York City, according to a survey of about 7,000 stations by GasPriceWatch.com. Hawaii, California, and Nevada are the states where gas is generally most expensive.

So, how can you save gas money on a road trip?

It was one of the most startling survey results that Henry Harteveldt of Forrester Research had seen. And that's saying something, because Henry is the leading analyst of the online travel industry, and he has studied an awful lot of surveys over the years. Earlier in October, Henry released a report with his findings, "Are Online Travelers Saying "Buh-Bye" To The Web?"

He summed up the key findings for me in an interview yesterday:

"What really surprised me in this story was the number of people who use the Net on a regular basis and who travel often but who have stopped using the Internet for travel related planning or buying. In 2005 and 2006, about 20 percent of frequent Internet users and regular travelers had stopped using travel websites. But this year, the number had jumped to 30 percent."

About 30 percent of frequent Internet users had in effect thrown their hands up in the air and said they'd rather call a reservations agent or a travel agent to book their trips.

If you have a digital camera—you know, one of those $200 to $300 point-and-shoots—then you should listen to Allen Birnbach, a professional photographer in Denver and Los Angeles, who offers insights into taking better photos at TakeGreatPictures.com. He also teaches photography to hobbyists who own fancier cameras through his blog, abetterphotograph.com.

In an interview, Allen offered the following tips on taking better photographs outdoors during the winter.

If there's snow, be careful about where you're standing in relation to your subject. The relation between where you're shooting and where the sun is will affect how the snow appears in your photos—as a blank white space or as a textured surface. The key is to have sunlight come in from an angle, says Allen. "Most people would think that their best position as the photographer is always having the sun behind them, but not in this situation. Let's say, we're looking south, and the sun is coming from the east: That would be in an ideal position to get the snow looking realistic and not a blank, texture-less white. Alternatively, if you're facing into the west as the sun sets, you'll get your scene backlit by having sun in your pic. That could also make for a nice effect."

As you may know, Facebook is the social-networking site of the hour. About 46 million members have joined and created profile pages, which list their favorite books, hobbies, and friends. If you aren't already a member, you're missing out on quite the party. It's free to sign-up, so why not give it a try?

Washingtonpost.com (the big brother of BudgetTravel.com) has just launched a very savvy, useful Facebook application called newsTracker. It allows you to personalize the news articles that you want to follow, and it displays these articles in a remarkably intuitive format.

NewsTracker takes about a minute to add to your Facebook page and to customize. I typed in "travel" as a search term. Now, each time I go to my Facebook page, I see a list of stories from hundreds of news sources (not just the WaPo) that match that topic.

Full disclosure: I'm biased in touting newsTracker. The idea for the program came from Don Graham, the head honcho of the Washington Post Company, which owns BudgetTravel.com. Even so, I say without shame that if you're a news junkie or a frequent Facebook user, you'll find it worth taking out this app for a spin. It's fast and easy to install, and if you change your mind about it, it's fast and easy to uninstall, too. Facebook members can check out newsTracker by clicking here.

Windjammer Barefoot Cruises has long been known for a party-hearty philosophy (its first boat was named Hangover). But the company has recently been hit by various financial problems, as covered in a recent Budget Travel feature story.

This morning, the Miami Herald reported that Windjammer has officially canceled Legacy's November 3 and November 10 cruises. The company now says it will resume its voyages—which haven't sailed in weeks—on November 17. [via Miami Herald.]

EARLIER: Windjammer hits a rough patch.

ADVICE What to do if your tour operator goes out of business.

Photo by Digitalfilmphoto via Flickr and Creative Commons

In economy-class, the most important new feature is that the seats no longer recline backward at an angle. Instead, the seats have cushions that slide down and recline into the shell of the seat. This is good news if you're someone who hates it when the passenger in front of you reclines his or her seatback into your space.

But the legroom (called "seat pitch") remains the same: 32 inches. Tall passengers may find that Cathay Pacific's seat cushions now slightly move one's legs forward. However, airline spokespeople say this shouldn't be a problem. The seat frame and structure has been designed to max out knee and shin clearance by stripping out the awkward fixtures and fittings that jam up against the kneecaps on many airline seats.

Another change: The pocket (or netting) that's used for storing magazines and other items has been moved by designers from underneath the tray table to underneath your seat, lessening the chance that your legs will touch it.

Here are some other perks of the economy-class seats:

Discount airline Southwest has introduced a new Business Select fare that is $10 to $30 higher each-way than its usual refundable fares but comes with a guarantee that the buyer will be among the first to board the plane. Frequent fliers will also get to jump to the front of the line.

Your chances of getting to board first have dropped dramatically—unless you buy this higher fare or you're a frequent flier.

The Business Select fare also comes with bonus frequent flier credits and a free cocktail.

While Southwest is not introducing a separate business class section, the airline's new program is yet another example in a trend of airlines offering shabbier service to budget-conscious leisure travelers. See the Budget Travel editor's letter, "Maybe We Should Charge Extra to Read This Page."

[Note: This post was revised for clarity on 11/9]

Update 11/8: More than 50 people have already commented on Southwest's own blog post on the changes.

EARLIER Southwest knocked off BoardFirst.com, a company that would get you one of the "A" boarding passes if you paid it $5.

About 50 readers responded to our recent post, Dumb websites are turning off travelers.

We noted that there's been a drop in the number of people using the Internet to book travel. Nine percent fewer people booked trips online this year than did a couple of years ago, according to the survey of about 60,000 Internet users by Forrester Research, which is a technology consultancy. Another top consultancy, PhoCusWright noted a similar drop during roughly the same period, reporting a 6 percent jump in the number of people making travel plans without the Internet.

The 50 comments from readers split between a majority of people who had been disappointed at one time or another by online travel companies and other travelers who had nothing but good things to say about the Internet.

Readers offered several examples of out how travel websites aren't nimble when it comes to special circumstances, such as funerals (Allen's story), or special needs (such as David T.'s story about needing a room for a person with disabilities), and complicated itineraries, (such as Kristin's round-the-world trip).

Brian L.'s story is a case in point of how travel websites are generally bad at amending reservations that have already been made--even though travel plans often change prior to departure. (By the way, Brian, I hope you finally got through to someone on the phone to help you.)

One well-put comment was from Tony W.:

If you are doing something non-trivial, the travel sites aren't very good at finding all of the alternatives, so you either have to be imaginative or persistent. To see what I mean, try searching for flights from SFO to Bangalore with a return from Hyderabad. Some sites send you east, some send you west, and it's nearly impossible to screen by airline or alliance.

Another problem is phantom, or "come on," prices that can't actually be booked when you click through. As one commenter discovered, a major meta-search site was recently quoting $175 to Europe, but on further inspection the ticket turned out to be much more expensive: "Then you find that's only one way; that the price may vary depending on the specific departure date; that one must add in various taxes; whatever."

Of course, I'm not saying the Internet is a waste. The problem is that some websites are not doing as much as they should to be as useful as they could be. They're losing customers as a result. And other industries have found solutions that online travel companies have been slow to adopt.

Read all of the comments, here.

Sometimes the simplest tips are the best. New York's recent cover story "Gridlock at 30,000 Feet" had this gem of a tip for choosing a security line at the airport.

GO LEFT
Statistically, right-handed people (and Americans specifically) have a tendency to turn right when they enter a room.

While you're checking out a travel destination, you can get other information about it, such as info on local hotels, photos of local attractions. Check the layer folder in the Layers panel, and click on the Places of Interest checkbox. Some options include Wikipedia info about destinations worldwide, Panoramio photos uploaded by amateur photographers worldwide, and YouTube videos uploaded by people worldwide.

If you like, you can download a file and see an animated version of clouds moving across the Earth's surface in the past day. (More info on that below...)

The case: Three disabled people who like to use Segways are suing Walt Disney World in federal court. Disney has denied the travelers permission to bring their upright, two-wheeled, motorized scooters into Disney theme parks.

The larger issue: Between 4,000 and 7,000 people with disabilities move about on Segways. And several of these people with disabilities believe that Segways are more dignified to use than wheelchairs.

[via the Orlando Sentinel]

EARLIER Too disabled to fly?

This month, Omni Mandalay Hotel at Las Colinas, near Dallas (Irving), is testing an online room service feature that's an industry first. Guests can use their laptops to log onto a webpage where they can place room service orders, fill out electronic comment cards, and request that a housekeeper clean their room. In future tests, the online service will become also available through the guest room TV and remote control. If the test goes well, Omni will expand the service to its 44 other high-end properties in North America. GBCblue is providing the technology.

For comprehensive Omni Hotels coverage, see HotelChatter.

Pope Benedict XVI will visit Washington, D.C., and New York City next year. He'll say Mass at Yankee Stadium. The Archdiocese of New York says it plans to distribute the tickets through its parishes, though it has yet to decide when to begin handing them out. Tickets will also be available to worshipers coming from elsewhere.

PREVIOUSLY ON THE BLOG A Catholic low-cost airline takes to the sky in Europe.

Travelers who are involuntarily bumped from a flight when it is oversold may start receiving better treatment next summer.

The Department of Transportation says it will propose doubling the fee that airlines must pay to travelers who buy tickets but wind up without a seat. The proposed increase would make the fee $400 to $800, depending on long the passenger has been delayed. The rule may go into effect next summer. First, though, the airlines and other industry players will have a chance to talk with government officials about the fairness of the proposed rule change.

Meanwhile, for passengers who are involuntarily bumped on domestic flights, the rules are as follows: If you're on another flight within an hour, you get nothing; within two hours, the airline pays you the equivalent of your one-way fare ($200 max); more than two hours later, you get 200 percent reimbursement ($400 max). These compensation rules are based on decades-old guidelines, and have not been adjusted for inflation over the years.

Passengers who relinquish seats voluntarily face different rules. There's no federal standard for that compensation. You're only guaranteed something, usually a flight voucher.

The ultimate website for packing well is OneBag.com. Created 11 years ago, this site encourages people to travel with only one bag, as its name suggests.

A few years ago, I met OneBag.com's creator, Doug Dyment. He's a technical marketer in San Francisco who uses the site to share his thoughts on the the superiority of traveling light. He's refined his strategies over the years as he's learned from hundreds of fellow travelers who have e-mailed him.

Dyment has a fantastic trick for preventing your clothes from becoming wrinkled. As he says, "The common practice of individually folding items of clothing, then piling them atop one another, is just about the worst thing you can do from a packing perspective." His trick is "bundle wrapping" instead. His explanation is better than any I can give, so I encourage you to visit his site, onebag.com.

We loved the exotic passport stamps that readers of BudgetTravel.com recently shared.

Here's a slide show of the most fascinating ones, from Laos, Turkey, Libya, Sri Lanka, Burma, Nepal, Brazil, Suriname, Mozambique, and Bangladesh.

Since publishing the slide show, we've received a couple more rare ones:

When my husband and I traveled to Zimbabwe in 2005, we got this cool stamp. We were there on a hunting safari and I got to go to Victoria Falls too. The falls were so powerful and beautiful! At the time the country had it's share of troubles, and it's saddening to know that it has continued it's spiral downward. With the fastest growing inflation in the world and severe shortages of everything, the country is in great turmoil.—Wende Warren, Milwaukee [who has a blog].

Update 11/28: It’s not too late, you can still send us your coolest passport stamps

It turns out that Florida's tourism office has created an online guide to movie-quest (and TV-quest) sightseeing in the Sunshine State: Movies in Florida.

Moviegoers might argue over the most interesting film ever shot in Florida (Apollo 13? True Lies? All About the Benjamins? The Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan series?), but why bicker over one spot when you can visit a bunch of 'em. Okay, so some of the movies mentioned in the guide are kind of lame (Clambake, for instance), and a few of the films only had a few minutes of on-screen film actually filmed on location in Florida (such as Midnight Cowboy, with only the closing sequence shot there), and a couple of the movie locations are in the Charlotte Harbor area, a region that's pretty dull except for the Everglades. But who's bitching?

Some films were obviously shot in Florida (Apollo 13, Goldfinger, Cocoon), but others are surprises, such as Day of the Dead and Meet the Fockers.

See the full list here, and you may find your curiosity sparked. Info on maps, hotels, etc., can also be found on the site.

SLIDE SHOW We rounded up the year's most travel-inspiring flicks into a slide show, in which Bud Travel pops into the films in a Zelig-like way.

RELATED See our Web roundup of the places where celebs hang out in L.A. and N.Y.C.

Alex Frankel recently did some undercover journalism by taking a job at Enterprise-Rent-A-Car. He reports on his stint as a counter clerk there—along with his brief gigs at a Gap clothing store, a Starbucks shop, and an Apple store—in his new book Punching In.

In the following Q&A, Alex talks about Enterprise—plus his tips for booking a rental car with any company:

The FTC is taking a look at the companies and organizations you can pay to "offset" carbon emissions from flying, according to Travel Weekly. Can't say we're surprised. Check out "On Flier's Remorse," a story we ran a few issues ago--it points out that for the same flight, four groups each calculated the amount of emissions to be widely different, and the amount it cost to buy an offset ranged from $26 to $97!

Broadway is on sale: The Broadway strike has ended. If you book by Dec. 12, you can save up to half off several award-winning Broadway shows, including Spring Awakening, The Color Purple, Spam-a-lot, Legally Blonde, and Mamma Mia, by booking via Travelzoo.com.

Airlines are tightening baggage rules on flights to Latin America: Most major U.S. airlines refuse to accept more than two checked bags per person. You can't pay extra for additional bags. Details at the blog Upgrade: Travel Better.

The E.U. may owe you money: Did you know that if your flight from Europe back to the US is delayed in arriving more than 4 hours, the airline is required to pay up to $900 according to EC regulations? Lesser amounts are due passengers for shorter flights and delays. And the rules apply to cancellations too. Details at the blog Airfare Watchdog.

Park from a cruise from Tampa: Learn more from ace blogger Brook Wilkinson. You'll find advice on parking at Seattle, San Diego, Galveston, Norfolk, and Bayonne, N.J., in our drive-up cruise ports story.

Improve your odds of getting a Las Vegas upgrade: Tim Leffel reports on a website, FrontDeskTip, where you can find out what your chances are of getting an upgrade at a Vegas hotel by slipping a clerk $20. Details at HotelChatter.com.

Fly straight to a Caribbean beach: Learn which airline flights fly direct from your nearest gateway city by using our drop-down menu.

EARLIER Dumb websites are turning off travelers.

Images from hundreds of west-facing webcams worldwide can be seen at the website Eternal Sunset. Unfortunately, many of the views are only "at sunset," not necessarily "of sunsets." But a realtime global map shows you where you have the best chance of clicking to see a true sunset in progress.

By the end of the year, Orbitz.com and Cheaptickets.com will offer hybrid rental cars from Avis and Budget locations nationwide. The gas/electric cars include the Ford Escape, the Toyota Prius, and the Nissan Altima. [via PR Newswire]

EARLIER Rental car companies add green machines.

RELATED Confessions of a rental car salesman.

Today, Continental Airlines and the Transportation Safety Administration have begun to allow travelers to use their cell phones or PDAs (personal digital assistants) as boarding passes in tests at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Here's how it works. If successful, the program will spread nationwide. [via the Houston Chronicle]

EARLIER This Just In predicted that paperless checkin would soon hit America.

MORE ON CONTINENTAL Gridskipper reports that Continental has begun a program where you can pay to offset your flight's contribution to the Earth's destruction. This news is surprising, given a recent announcement that the Feds are investigating such programs.

When Tony Pierce became editor of LAist.com, he pumped up the site's metabolism by tapping a lot of great writers and pushing them to cover the city's music scene and outrageous headlines smarter than any other L.A. website.

And his vision seems to have paid off, as LAist's pageviews have soared. The crosstown behemoth L.A. Times has been so impressed that they're hiring Pierce away to be an overlord of many of their blogs, including the spectacular Daily Travel & Deals blog created by Jen Leo.

Today, Tony answers some questions from our readers about L.A. Here are outtakes:

It can be hard to find a clean bathroom when you're traveling. One solution is to use a bathroom locator service called MizPee if your phone has a Web browser.

We can't make this stuff up, folks.

Here's how it works: Turn on your phone's Web browser, and search for bathrooms by city and street address. The site will fetch a list of the nearest ones, along with details, such as whether each bathroom has a diaper-changing station.

The site, which launched today, has received more than a million visitors during its test phase. The service is available for these cities: Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Manhattan, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Oakland, Portland, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Toronto, and Washington D.C., according to the press release.

It seems the most useful at night, when parking's scarce, or traffic's fierce.

EARLIER Dumb websites are turning off travelers.

MORE SILLY TRAVEL NEWS In China, you can order stir-fried Wikipedia.

Tomorrow, a 32 room-hotel opens in London's Heathrow airport, offering free Wi-Fi and other perks. Yotel rates start at $50 for four hours (but more typically about $110). Inspired by the smart way first-class airline seats use space, Yotel offers a pod that measures between 75 and 107 square feet. Each pod has a double bed, bathroom with shower, pull-down desk, flat-screen TV—plus free Wi-Fi. Earlier this summer, Yotel opened a hotel in Gatwick airport. At last, the word is getting out that budget travelers like a bit of style.

Frisked, frazzled, and fed up, travelers have recently been filing more and more complaints about airport checkpoints with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Last August, there was an 88 percent spike in the number of complaints, compared with August 2006. In September, there was a 71 percent flare up in complaints, versus the previous year.

The TSA has offered a surprise defense. The agency says that, until about a year ago, it was accidentally losing customer gripes and was incorrectly counting how many complaints it was receiving. This is a bit like a doctor saying, "Yes, you do have a lot of cancer cells in your body, but at least it's not that much more cancer than you had last year because we were wrong last year when we told you that you had hardly had any tumors."

Okay, that was snarky, I admit it. Sorry. And I salute the TSA for redoubling its effort to count its sins correctly—a duty mandated by Congress. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the agency has added telephone lines and computer resources to track complaints.

But I just wish that the TSA would do a better job of responding to traveler complaints by addressing the most-griped about problems. In September, gripes about screener courtesy were up 138 percent, and complaints about processing time were up 430 percent.

The spike in complaints may have been due to an August ruling by the TSA that required air travelers to remove large video game consoles, DVD players, and remote control toys from their carry-on bags.

An alternative explanation for the rise in complaints is that travelers like you and me are to blame. We Americans may feel that a terrorist attack isn't likely because in recent years law enforcement, military actions, and good luck have prevented attacks. But as our fear subsides, we might be losing our patience about security checkpoints.

What do you think? Have airport checkpoints gotten worse?

photo of Rachel Bilson, star of the O.C., via PopSugar

Opening tomorrow in theaters nationwide, Atonement is a startlingly faithful adaptation of the 2002 best seller by Ian McEwan. Set in Britain before and during World War II, the movie traces how 13-year old Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) disrupts the budding romance between her older sister Ceclia (Keira Knightley) and Robbie (James McAvoy) by accusing Robbie of a crime.

Here's the preview:

And here's how to re-create the movie's best moments:

Starting on one plane on Dec. 11, JetBlue Airways will begin offering free inflight e-mail and Yahoo instant messaging services via a broadband Wi-Fi network.

It will be the first U.S. airline to offer in-flight Wi-Fi.

But USA Today reports that the quality of the service is spotty. One of its reporters tested the service on-board the Airbus A320, which was parked Wednesday at a hangar at J.F.K. airport in N.Y.C.

One reporter had difficulty composing and sending e-mail from his Yahoo account, even though he was able to reply to incoming e-mails. E-mails he sent from a BlackBerry provided by JetBlue never reached his intended recipients even though the device confirmed that they were sent. Another reporter had difficulty receiving and replying to e-mails in her Yahoo account.

At the start of the program, passengers can send and receive e-mail from any type of e-mail account on BlackBerry 8820 and 8320 models. Laptop users are only able to use Yahoo e-mail and Yahoo's instant messaging application, at least from the start.

[USA Today has more details.]

This week, The New York Times prompted hundreds of people to write in comments when it published an article called "Aboard Planes, Class Conflict." The Times also launched a very promising blog, Jet Lagged, which will focus on "flying the unfriendly skies" during the month of December. A typical post is by longtime Practical Traveler columnist Betsy Wade, who writes, "To be blunt, I now hate those people in first class."

Hate is a strong word, but you can feel intense anger pulsing in online forums. When this blog recently invited readers to tell off the airlines, we received 140 responses.

For some people, the problem has been the record flight delays, such as a 7-day flight delay this summer at J.F.K. airport. For other travelers, the frustration has been the long tarmac delays, such as the 7-hour delay whose absurdity was captured in a seven-minute YouTube video by a passenger. (Tarmac delays got so bad this fall, for example, that editor Erik Torkells went so far as to say, "The federal government MUST declare a maximum time that passengers can be held on the tarmac.") For still other travelers, the aggravation comes from increased security delays. Complaints about airport checkpoints skyrocketed this year.

If you want to see what the Times readers are saying, visit the new blog Jet Lagged.

The Transportation Department plans to limit flights at J.F.K. airport, according to sources who spoke anonymously to the The New York Times in a story published this morning.

Last January, Congress lifted limits on the number of takeoffs and landings allowed at Kennedy airport. Since then, airlines have scheduled too many flights there. Airlines are scheduling about 100 flights an hour at Kennedy, and during peak demand hours, even more than that. But last summer, the airport was only able to handle about 80 takeoffs an hour, given summer storms and related delays, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The math is obvious. There will be about 20 fewer flights on average out of Kennedy, if the Transportation Department and the Federal Aviation Administration impose limits as expected.

Fewer flights mean that airlines will be able to charge more per flight. Fares are likely to rise because the other area airports are unlikely to be able to pick up more flights on their own.

But nothing is decided yet. The airlines are likely to fight any flight limits in court or by enlisting allies in Congress to pressure the federal agencies.

Here's why: Let's say that 20 flights a day are cut. If those 20 fewer flights cut the service of smaller airlines, such as Spirit and AirTran, the airlines will likely say that the system is unfair (anti-competitive) and arbitrary, especially if it appears to only apply to a single major airport. JetBlue is likely to be hurt the most, given that it flies more planes out of Kennedy than Delta, American, American Eagle, and United Airlines combined.

If the 20 fewer flights cut the service of the major airlines, such as Delta and United, those airlines might go to court. The major airlines would argue that the government is wrongfully taking the existing assets that they have invested to improve terminals. While federal agencies have a lot of leeway to do what they want with commercial airspace, they also are sensitive to political pressure and the potential hassles of judicial hearings and congressional interference.

Kennedy serves more than 80 airlines and an average of 65,000 travelers a day. Along with Newark and La Guardia airports, New York has the world's most crowded airspace, and more than a third of the country's flight delays happen there—causing delays to ripple nationwide, as was clearly explained by a recent story in New York magazine.

EARLIER Rage in the skies.

A new website, TaxiwayEcho.com, is forecasting new nonstop domestic routes that have "high likelihoods of being established." The site says that in tests it has successfully predicted new routes by major airlines about three out of four times. But its guesses about small, regional carrier routes have been worse than flipping a coin.

Here are some of its predictions for nonstop routes:

Unlike airplanes, airships are lighter-than-air vehicles—similar to blimps but faster. Airships wouldn't need airports for takeoff and landing, allowing them a wider range of places to pick up and drop off passengers.

Airships also have the potential to be less damaging to the environment than airplanes and cars, although this hasn't been proven yet.

In October, a company called Aeros began developing a working prototype, using funding from the military's research agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Here's a simulation of what it would look like:

Unfortunately, airships are unlikely to be a budget travel option, at least not at first. Current designs require costly equipment, and Aeros is pitching their first airship as a vehicle to transport executives, most likely between the U.S. and Europe.

Viewers can offer feedback on eight TV pilots that The Travel Channel is considering. Visit travelchannel.com/pilot-week to vote.

The shows premiering the week of December 17 include: Feasty Boys Eat America, Hamburger Paradise, 10 Things You Don't Know About: Florida, 10 Things You Don't Know: Hawaii, 25 Mind Blowing Escapes, Extreme Hotels, Art Attack, and The Deal Hunter.

If one can judge a show by its title, 25 Mind Blowing Escapes seems the most interesting to me.

978,567 Americans visited Spain between January and October. That is a remarkable 22 percent increase over the same period last year, given that the dollar doesn't go very far there right now.

If the trend continues through the end of the year, American traffic to Spain could hit a record. The last record was set in 2000.

And among all of the major destination for American tourists, Spain seems to have enjoyed the biggest jump in American visitors. The Spanish government credits its recent marketing campaign.

Budget Travel's November issue includes a fun story on Chueca, which was one of the Madrid's most run-down neighborhoods, but is now one of its most fashionable.

THE BEST PLACES YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF: La Cerdanya.

EARLIER Free bikes in Spain.

The most respected forecaster in the hotel industry is Bjorn Hanson of the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. His predictions are closely read by investors and hotel owners. He has earned trust by issuing annual forecasts that have proven more accurate than everybody else's for 16 out of the past 17 years.

Here's what he said:

Bye-bye, Windjammer? As an earlier blog post noted, Windjammer Barefoot Cruises ceased sailing operations in September. But it continued to sell cruises scheduled to launch in November. None of those November sailings happened.

Paul Motter, the editor of Cruisemates, is warning people not to give Windjammer any money, even though the company has not yet declared bankruptcy. That sounds like good advice, and it's shared by Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of CruiseCritic.com.

[Update 12/17: On my first posting, I mistakenly said that Paul Motter was editor of Cruise Critic. I regret the error. Here's the latest news on Windjammer.]

This news is a blow to budget travelers because Windjammer's four yachts and schooners offered laid-back Caribbean itineraries on small ships for only $1,000 to $2,000 a week per person, including meals and taxes. If you need a refund, see this helpful webpage.

Today the dollar buys about half as much in 13 western European countries as it did in 2001. But it might regain some buying power soon.

Today, you need $1.48 to buy a euro. But within a year's time, you may only need $1.39—or roughly 6 percent less, say surveys of economic forecasters by the Federal Reserve Board. That's not much of a gain, but at least it's something.

Interestingly, U.S. hotels are slightly better off when the dollar is weak, not strong. Here's why:

The cost of getting around is probably going to keep rising. Gas prices are forecast by the government to rise by an average of 6.6 percent next year.

This week, gas prices are $3, according to the government. Fill-ups cost as much today—adjusted for inflation—than in 1981, the last all-time high. In 1981, gas cost $1.38 a gallon, or $2.83 in today's dollars.

EARLIER How to fight the pain at the gas pump.

We're late on this story, but it's still breathtaking. Last week, The Cranky Flier noticed that the fares offered on USAirways.com are $5 higher than available elsewhere. While some sites, like Orbitz, slap on fees, at least those sites spell out what they're doing. As The Cranky Flier points out, it's especially shady that US Airways is burying the fee in the base fare it is showing on its website because passengers won't realize that they're paying a surcharge.

Our advice: If you plan to book on US Airways, consider using Priceline instead because it doesn't charge a fee for regular bookings (as opposed to its name-your-own-price bookings, which still have a fee).

Alternatively, if you prefer an online agency such as Orbitz or Expedia, try booking them through a cashback portal such as FatWallet or EvRewards. You'll "receive a rebate that in many cases is larger than the booking fee those sites charge," according to expert deal-hunter Gary Leff at A View From the Wing.

EARLIER Cruise lines are adding fuel surcharges after you've paid for your sailing.

In a new feature, Google invites you to type your airline name and flight number into its search box, and it will fetch the latest flight stats, such as whether your flight is delayed.

You may want to consider using Google's new search tool on your cell phone's Web browser. Google is receiving its data from FlightStats.com. And we've found that FlightStats is often more up-to-date and accurate than the monitors in airport lounges.

The chaos on the runways at J.F.K. airport can be dramatic from time to time. For a sampling, listen to this audio clip. It's a recording of a tough-talking "New Yawker" who's a ground controller. His job is to choreograph the movement of airplanes on the tarmac. But on this day, he's nearly overwhelmed, sounding completely confused about where the planes are.

Luckily, he isn't directing planes in the sky. If he was, we wouldn't have shared an audio clip with you because it would have been too frightening!

[audio clip via the Telstar Logistics blog]

EARLIER A Southwest pilot blogs about runway delays.

Virgin America began selling tickets for new Seattle service on Dec. 12. Flights from San Francisco takeoff on March 18 and flights from Los Angeles start departing on April 8. Fares begin at $189 roundtrip before taxes. (We've blogged about this new airline before, of course. And apparently so has everyone else.)

TripAdvisor gets a fresh look. A simplified home page makes it easier to find the hotel reviews and other travel info you want. Read what editor Erik Torkells had to say when he took an advance peek at the re-design.

New York is expanding its hotel discounts. As noted in a previous blog post, the city has launched a NYC Sunday Stays promotion at many hotels, offering discounted Sunday night room rates of 20 to 30 percent off standard rates available on the hotel websites. Since September, more hotels have joined the promotion. These include the Hilton New York, The New York Helmsley Hotel, New York LaGuardia Airport Marriott, New York Marriott Marquis, Renaissance New York Hotel Times Square, The Ritz-Carlton New York Battery Park, and The Ritz-Carlton New York Central Park.

Travel search engine Kayak has raised enough money to buy rival site Sidestep. Each site searches more than 300 travel websites, including airlines, hotels and sites like Expedia.com.

What does this mean if you use Sidestep as a tool to search the airfares, hotel rates, and car rental rates? It means that in early 2008 you will start to see Kayak.com features when you visit the Sidestep.com homepage, including its system for fare alerts.

What does this mean if you prefer Kayak.com? When you use Kayak's home page, you'll soon see one of Sidestep's best tools: a tool bar, which can allow you to search for fares directly on your Web browser, and airport guides, which details where amenities and parking lots can be found at major U.S. airports.

Kayak recently had about 3 million visitors running about 15 million searches a month. The company told the Wall Street Journal that fewer than one in ten people jump back and forth between sites, with most users just sticking to either Kayak or Sidestep. The merger will make Kayak the fifth-largest travel site out there. Sidestep was the pioneer of meta-search, and Kayak the snappy newcomer on its tail. The latest snappy newcomer, Farecast.com, now moves to the number two position.

EARLIER
Kayak Gets a Tune-up.

Why You Should Kayak Before Booking a Cruise.

Web Agencies Leave Customers Unhappier

If you are on Facebook, the social-networking site, you can click here to see the profile for Bud Travel. You can even add Bud to your list of friends. More than 500 other readers already have.

EARLIER

This year, a documentary film called 20 Seconds of Joy will race around the world's film festival circuit, telling the story of gorgeous Norwegian B.A.S.E. jumper Karina Hollekim.

Karina has dived more than 400 times off of cliffs and other tall, fixed objects—with parachutes or wingsuits, of course. The movie focuses on her successful jumps as well as the day in 2006 when she crashed into rocks at about 60 miles an hour. Here's why she likes the sport:

"It forces you to feel. Extreme fear, then relief, then happiness. In my everyday life, I don't feel that much: But in the air, it's like being in love."

If the film is a hit—and I bet it will be—B.A.S.E. jumping events might soon draw far larger crowds of spectators than they currently do. For example, Bridge Day in Fayetteville, W. Va. currently draws tens of thousands of visitors every year, but fresh attention to the sport could draw more than 150,000 visitors >next Oct. 18.

Here's the trailer for 20 Seconds of Joy:

Update 1/16: Here's another cool video about base jumping with a wingsuit.

ELSEWHERE Six name-brand Backpacking Tents are for sale for under $100 each via the >Travel Gear Blog.

China's Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses were arguably the most significant archaeological excavations of the past few decades. Discovered outside the town of Xian, the well-preserved artifacts originally were used as decoration for the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, who was likely the first emperor of China (around 220 B.C.).

This year, twenty of the terra-cotta warriors will be touring the U.S. First stop is the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, Calif., from May 18 through Oct. 12. After summering in Orange County, the exhibit makes stops in Atlanta, Houston, and Washington, D.C. Tickets for the Santa Ana show start at $22 each.

UPDATE 1/10/2008 Atlanta's High Museum will host the exhibit in November 2008.
It moves to Houston's Museum of Natural Science in May 2009.
Then, D.C. gets it at the National Geographic Museum from November 2009 through March 2010.

Via THE MERCURY NEWS

MORE ON THE BLOG Offbeat travel news.

PHOTO BY HELGA'S LOBSTER STEW, VIA FLICKR

The State Department has approved new passport cards that can be used by U.S. citizens instead of a passport when traveling to other countries in the western hemisphere. New technology in the cards will allow them to be read from up to 20 feet away, rather than be swiped through a electronic reading device.

The card will cost $45 for adults, compared with $97 for passports. The card will not be good for travel outside of the western hemisphere.

Crack reporter Jane Engle has the details at the L.A. Times.

RELATED
What are the passport rules again?

ELSEWHERE ON THE BLOG What's new in travel this week.

There's a new ban on spare non-rechargeable lithium batteries in checked luggage. It's not because of terrorism. Instead, the problem is that the lithium batteries can overheat and ignite under certain conditions and the fire systems on plane cargo holds are not designed to stop the fires. Passengers can still check baggage with lithium batteries if they are installed in electronic devices, such as cameras, cell phones, and laptop computers. If packed in plastic bags, spare batteries may be left in carry-on baggage. Details on the Department of Transportation website.

2007 was one of the safest ever for flying. There were only 34 accidents in the U.S., and only 102 elsewhere in the world, involving planes big enough to carry at least six passengers plus crew. That was a record low since 1963, says the Aircraft Crashes Record Office.

What is the nation's busiest airport? Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta. Last year, it had 994,466 flights, far more flights than any other U.S. airport. [via the AP]

›Boston: Why is the Charlie Card awful? If you've ever visited Boston and rode the "T" (subway system), you may have wondered why the electronic card swiping system is so difficult to use. Well, local "user experience expert" Josh Ledwell has the explanation.

›Cool photo...

Above, you're looking at the Optical Glass Bar in Japan. Its metallic, fractal wall surfaces were created by the award-winning designer Olafur Elisasson and the crystalline seats shaped like frozen waterfalls were created by award-wining designer Tokujin Yoshioka. If you can't visit Japan to see it, you can go to San Francisco's MOMA to see an exhibit of similar work by Elisasson. Or you can view a Flash video of the bar at Yoshioka's website. (via +KN)

›Costa Rica says it has the world's first carbon-neutral airline. But a British blogger who has flown the airline is skeptical. He says: The airline's claim is decidedly dubious, lacks independent verification, and can't prove that the tree-planting and other eco-friendly actions it supports wouldn't have been undertaken anyway even if the airline didn't exist. Details at the Guardian Unlimited Travelog.

›Photos of Africa taken from helicopter-height. Michael and his friend Stefan Breuer fulfilled their long-held dream of flying from Hamburg to Cape Town and photographing the scenery at low levels. Their images are amazing. Check out the slide show.

›Surprising destinations for foodies: Ireland, Peru, Jordan, and other countries that you may not associate with culinary excellence have developed "gastrotours" of restaurants and markets, as well as high-end cooking schools. The ubiquitous Peter Greenberg has the details.

›Everything you know about absinthe is wrong.

Perhaps you already have your own absinthe story. You drank it in New Orleans one foggy night, too full of fumes to remember much aside from the cloudy green swirl of the drink as water drip-dropped into the glass. You smuggled a cheap bottle back from Spain and brought it out at cocktail parties like a magic trick....You sipped it in a gloomy underground Czech bar, where everyone looked like spies, and the bartender lit the sugar cube aflame.... Full story at Salon.com.

›Shanghai is becoming a major cruise destination. In 2007, the number of passengers soared 63 percent. And this year, more than 100 foreign cruise ships will visit, especially after a major new port opens in April.

Airtran has cut airfares on many of their routes for bookings made by Jan. 17 and for travel through early March on Tuesdays through Thursdays.

But Southwest's current sale for fares on Tuesday and Wednesday departures beats this Airtran sale on many of the routes, according to Airfare Watchdog.

The lesson? Search around on websites before you jump on a deal that an airline advertises as a "sale."

By the way: Keep in mind that Southwest fares don't show up in the search listings of major engines, such as Travelocity and Kayak. To check Southwest fares, you need to visit Southwest.com.

[UPDATE 8a.m. ET 1/7/2008: Midwest Airlines announced a fare sale yesterday for travel through June 11, 2008. Examples include Minneapolis, Minn., to Toronto, Canada, for $204 roundtrip (a 66 percent drop in price, according to AirfareWatchdog), Hartford, Conn., to Flint, Mich., for $210, and Charlotte, N.C. to Omaha, Neb., for $189. Most fares require either a Friday or Saturday night stay. Must be booked by Jan. 15, 2008 at MidwestAirlines.com or the the top travel websites.]

[UPDATE 1p.m. ET, 1/3/2008: United Airlines is offering deep discounts on both domestic and international airfare for the new year, for booking by January 10, 2008. Sample fare: San Francisco to Shanghai for $518 round-trip. Click here for details and restrictions.]

EARLIER Southwest returns to San Francisco.

MORE ON FARE SALES AirfareWatchdog.

A photographer on Flickr named Hamish Grant has found a collection of over 200 35mm Kodachrome slides of travel and marketing posters from the 1950's and 1960's. Here is one of the gems.

See the full gallery on Flickr.

(hat tip to BoingBoing)

FUN READING A list of the 50 greatest travel books is up at Brave New Traveler. What's number one book, according to Ms. Michaela Lola? Ernest Hemingway's A Death in the Afternoon.

ELSEWHERE
RideAccidents.com describes itself as

"the world's single most comprehensive, detailed, updated, accurate, and complete source of amusement ride accident reports and related news. The site includes a record of fatal amusement ride accidents in the United States since 1972, and, for the past nine years, has recorded all types of accidents, including many from outside the United States."

—L.A. is having its first official restaurant weeks on January 27-February 1, and February 3-8. That means lunches for $15 or $22 and dinners for $25 or $34. (What's taken the city so long?) Find a list of restaurants at dineLA.com.

—Hot tip on booking French railway tickets. It turns out that if you can read in French, you can use a website that offers cheaper rail tickets than the English-language RailEurope.com website. If you or a friend know any French, try booking your tickets at the French National Railway website instead. Here's what the EuroCheapo blog discovered today: The cheapest fare they found for the Paris-Marseilles route next week was $153 2nd Class, $212 1st Class, on English-language RailEurope.com. Meanwhile, they found several tickets, both in 1st and 2nd class (non-refundable) for only $66—dramatically cheaper despite being paid for in euro with a typical 1 percent credit card currency conversion fee. You'll find other booking tips for trains in France at EuroCheapo.

—Zoomarooma is mashup of Google Maps and hotel photos and rates. It's simple to use: Simply move Google's slider to select a destination, such as a city like Miami. Tear-drop markers will appear on a map, and when you click on the markers, you'll see a photo of a hotel and a pop-up booking engine, which you can use to find rates for the dates of your choice.

EARLIER Offbeat travel-related news.

—Beginning Jan. 29, Southwest is reducing free checked bags to two. But this news probably won't bother you because only 2 percent of passengers in 2007 checked a third bag on Southwest. Full rules here.

[UPDATE Jan. 4, 2008: American Airlines is testing anti-missile defense on its planes.

—It's getting easier to share road trip itineraries: Hewlett Packard has created a new website where travelers can use their GPS devices to share road trip itineraries. We've blogged about HP's 310 GPS device before. Here's how the device and the new website can work together: You tether your iPAQ 310 to your PC or Mac, visit www.ipaq.com/navigate, and download map information provided by other iPAQ users.

—Surprising story: This fall, Craig Heimburger traveled southeast Asia with his pregnant wife Tatiana. If you think you already know what that must have been like, think again, and read his blog post at Travelvice.

—Here's how one backpacker uses a plastic bag to wash clothes.

—We've blogged about the TSA's new ban on carrying spare lithium-based batteries, and we've received emails from readers who remain confused about the policy. The FAA has posted its rules on its website. But here's a quick rundown:
The TSA is only talking about lithium-based batteries, not alkaline batteries or nickel-based re-chargeables.
The TSA is only talking about carrying spares, not the batteries already installed in gadgets.
The TSA is only talking about spare batteries being carried in checked luggage, not carry-on.
The rule of thumb is that if you carry spare lithium-based batteries in your checked luggage, make sure that they aren't too big, and only carry two of 'em.

ELSEWHERE ON THE BLOG How to make the most of Restaurant Week.

ELSEWHERE ON THE WEB
—How travelers can effectively complain when they receive shoddy service. The always insightful David Rowell has helpful advice on successful complaining.

Pretty soon, you'll be able to surf the Internet while flying. But this small new service may have unexpected consequences, changing the way airlines run their flights.

In-flight WiFi is definitely on the way: We've blogged about how JetBlue Airways is experimenting with limited WiFi on one flight already. And we've blogged how American Airlines will be rolling out high-speed broadband service this year on some of its Boeing 767-200 aircraft transatlantic flights. Elsewhere, the blog Jaunted is spreading the rumor that Southwest Airlines will also add in-flight WiFi soon.

But it seems highly likely that the airlines will have to do more than just offer WiFi. They will also have to filter the kind of websites passengers can access. For example, they probably won't want passengers to use the Internet to make Web-based phone calls. They will also probably feel obliged to screen out porn sites and other objectionable material, given that Congress recently has been pressuring airlines to shield child passengers from graphic content in their in-flight movies. In Australia, for instance, "Qantas Airways is designing its high-speed Internet services to block sites on "an objectionable list," including porn and violence," according to the Associated Press.

What's more, airlines are probably going to try to make a happy buck off of the Wi-Fi service by offering two-tiers of service, similar to a cable TV model with free basic cable and expensive packages for more comprehensive service. For example, JetBlue and American are considering using systems in which they offer passengers a free Yahoo-like portal on their seatback TVs, offering merely a handful selected of websites for passengers. The airlines may charge passengers fees of about $10 a flight for access to a wider array of websites.

These two factors (the need for airlines to filter Web content and the need to charge for different levels of Web access to maximize profits) may lead airlines to become online publishers, in a way.

In other words, when you use in-flight WiFi, you'll have to go to the airline's "home page", which will appear on your seatback TV screen. That home page offers an opportunity for creative publishing. Once the airlines start getting into the Internet publishing business, there may be surprising side-effects: "Matchmaking services" for people seeking cab rides when they land? Facebook for an airline's frequent fliers? eBay auctions for buying and selling frequent flier points? TripAdvisor-type destination guides exclusively written by and for members of an airline's frequent flier program? Match.com personal ads for travelers on particular routes, such as to Las Vegas?
Here are some of these ideas, sketched out...

Starting Jan. 7, passengers flying through London's Heathrow airport will be able to carry onto flights two pieces of hand baggage. This is a reversal of a previous ruling in August 2006, which limited carry-on baggage to one piece -- period. The rest of the world lets travelers take two bags on board planes, usually one suitcase and one personal bag, like a briefcase or purse.

The one-bag limit is still in place at Gatwick airport.

According to British Airways, these are the new rules:
You can carry onboard one bag no bigger than 22 inches by 17.5 by inches x 9.85 inches, including wheels, pockets and handles. Plus you can tote on board one briefcase or laptop-sized bag. Items must have reasonable weights.

EARLIER TODAY Southwest tightens its luggage rules.

PREVIOUS POST ON LONDON'S HEATHROW AIRPORT Heathrow is an airport with many hassles for travelers.

Y'all are the most interesting travelers we've ever heard of. When we asked you about your travel resolutions for the New Year, more than 70 of you posted comments sharing your plans.

The winner of the most ambitious travel schedule is Pat:

Jan -- India
Feb—Canada-winter carnival
March—Las Vegas
April—Canada -train to Halifax
May—last cruise on the QEII to Med.
June, July, August—time off
Sept—train to Canada west coast and cruise west coast and thru Panama Canal to Miami
Oct—Costa Rica
Nov and Dec—more time off

And the most inspiring trip plan we came across might be Sarah's:

We're heading to Mongolia for the Nadaam Festival of the Manly Arts (wrestling, archery, and horseracing) in July. We'll spend 17 days traveling to Ulann Bataar, the Gobi Desert, Lake Hovsgol and to see the games in Moran where we'll meet the wrestlers in person. Hope to ride a camel, a yak cart, a Mongolian pony and a reindeer before it is all over!

Then again, it might be Jessie's:

Headed for the Adriatic in late May—trying to stretch my dollars: Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (small group trip). Fall will be a trip to Norway or Egypt, leaning toward either trip on my own. Although in my 70's, still traveling as much as I can afford.

Here are some other trip plans that are wonderfully creative:

This April, three Boeing 767-200s will have devices installed on them to stop missile attacks.
The devices detect heat given off from a rocket, and then fire a laser beam that jams the missile's guidance system. Details at USA Today.

OTHER TRAVEL NEWS Next week, London's Heathrow airport is changing its one-bag carry-on rule.

Here's a traffic cam for one street corner in India:

MORE VIDEO ON THE BLOG Here's a taste of what a seven-hour delay on a tarmac feels like from inside the plane.

Sony announced today that it has taken the technology behind noise-canceling headphones a step further with its (eloquently named) MDR-NC500D. Sony claims in its press release that the headphones will block 99 percent of noise in the range of a jet engine. That's good news: Some medical studies say that jet-engine noise helps cause jet lag because the brain gets worn out having to deal with the buzz for a prolonged period of time. Sony's headphones aren't a budget-travel option yet, given their expected $400 price tag when they go on sale in February. But hopefully the technology will filter down to lower-priced models in the years ahead.

Gizmodo, a technology blog that was present at Sony's announcement in Las Vegas, asked Sony what exactly made these a world's first digital noise canceling headphones. Sony says that while other headphones use an analog mechanism for equaling out the sound, their headphones "do an analog to digital conversion using a digital signal processor with three filters. That should, in theory, result in far better sound since the sound gets cleaned up with digital equalizer before you hear it." If you can explain what that means, feel free to post a comment.

EARLIER ON THE BLOG Before you buy a digital camera, visit this website.

If you live long enough, anything can happen.
Here's an audio recording of Rick Steves, travel guidebook writer and tour group leader, singing a rap for his son's high school radio station. He comes on during the last part of the one-minute audio. [via World Hum]

Then you can read our online Q&A with Rick, one of America's most knowledgeable travelers.

The mayor of Paris is proposing that the city offer about 2,000 electric vehicles for the public and tourists to use. The cost in euro would be about $5 an hour, depending on mileage. Details are expected next month, according to the London Times.

You'll likely be able to use an electric vehicle, dubbed by locals Voiturelib' ("free car"), that can go a maximum of about 60 miles an hour, according to the car blog Jalopnik. Under the plan, public cars will be available to the residents and tourists without needing to book ahead. If you subscribed to the proposed service, you would be able to pick a car up from a station and leave it anywhere in the city, with fees being deducted from your credit card.

Paris already has a car-sharing scheme with regular gas-guzzling cars. You subscribe to the services offered by three companies and then whenever you need a car, you pick it up in a parking space near you and pay roughly $4 to $13 an hour, depending on your plan, or a fee by the kilometer driven. When done, you return the car where you picked it up. Gas is included in the price. Tourists can use the services, but be aware that the participating company websites are in French: Caisee Commune, Mobizen, and Okigo.

The program is similar to the free-bicycle program in Paris that we told you about last summer. That program has been wildly successful. Called Vélib', it has spawned its own language: There is the véliber (to ride a free bike), and the derivatives vélibataire (single male cyclist), vélimace (cyclist moving at a snail's pace), vélibation (a drunk night on a free bike), and Vélibabouchka (a bike-riding grandma), according to the Dictionnaire du Vélib' by Anne Abeillé.

The program has also spawned its own traditions. "A seat turned backwards is an indication that that particular bicycle has a flat tire, a broken chain or some other fault, and other users should avoid it," according to blogger Khoi Vinh.

MORE Info on free bicycle programs in Europe by Paul Brady at the blog Jaunted.

ELSEWHERE ON OUR SITE Here's Budget Travel's round-up of free bike programs in Europe.

EARLIER ON THE BLOG Air France starts a carbon-offset program.

At the start of the year, Disney World banned children under 10 from its Victoria & Albert's restaurant in the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

Some of Disney's grown up guests would occasionally like to have "an adult-oriented atmosphere," according to the Orlando Sentinel.

In response to the decision, the blog Parent Dish said, "Even magical kingdoms need places without kids."

Airlines have also shown some exasperation with rowdy children:

Last February, flight attendants on an AirTran plane kicked off a three-year old girl (and her parents) when "she was climbing under the seat and was hitting the parents and wouldn't get in her seat" during boarding, according to an Associated Press story. The airline reimbursed the family for the price of the tickets. AirTran received more than 9,000 e-mails about the incident, and those emails were about 95 percent supportive of the airline's actions, according to MSNBC.

What are your thoughts? Would you welcome establishments—such as coffee shops, restaurants, cruise ships, and select airport lounges—that were "child free"? Or does "child-free" equal "parent hating" in your eyes?

And if you have any amusing or horrifying stories about your encounters with other children on the road, feel free to share!

The VeloDisco is a bicycle powered art vehicle built for Burning Man 2007. The double-decker vehicle is so lightweight that five bicyclists can use pedal power to move up to 30 people at a time.

Here's a video of it in motion: