Racking up the corporate karma points, JetBlue announced today that any ticket holder who loses his or her job on or after February 17 can receive a full refund for any ticket purchases made between February 1, 2009 and June 1, 2009.  To apply, ticket holders must download the appropriate documents from The JetBlue Promise program, complete and notarize them, and return via certified mail and fax. 

There is one item to note. While JetBlue says that it will automatically cancel your flight upon receipt of your notice, they may ding you a $100 cancellation fee if they determine that your job loss does not qualify.  Remember, job loss must be involuntary, so don't bother trying to get yourself fired in hopes of getting off the hook of paying for that Cancun trip. Of course, these days, who would want to be fired?

Australia's Bunyip State Forest burns on February 7, 2009
Photo: AAP

by Brook Wilkinson

Do-gooder travel company G.A.P. Adventures has put out a call for donations to the victims of the bushfires that have raged across Australia in the past few weeks. More than 1,800 homes have been destroyed and 7,500 people displaced by flames that raced across the landscape. The death toll has now reached 200. G.A.P. will match every dollar donated to its Australian Bushfire Appeal and send the total to the Australian Red Cross, which has already set up 20 evacuation centers to provide first aid, food, and shelter to victims.

It's not that Australia is the company's bread and butter--only three of the 903 upcoming trips you'll find on its Web site are to the land down under. And it's not that the fires hit close to home--G.A.P. is based in Toronto (though one of their five brick and mortar "concept stores" is in Melbourne, close to the inferno's ground zero). This is a travel company that has long had an ethic of giving back, even before Condé Nast Traveler named it to our Green List back in 2006. G.A.P. had founded the Planeterra Foundation three years earlier to support local communities, particularly in areas that their clients visited.

Even in lean times like these, every dollar makes a difference.

Further reading:
* Planeterra Foundation
* Responsible Traveler: Making a difference

Oodles of asparagus
at the Hollywood Farmers' Market

Food-crazy Daily Traveler Mollie Chen is just back from a long weekend in Los Angeles, where she checked out some of the hottest names in the west coast culinary world. Stuck in our New York winter doldrums, we vicariously lived a hang ten existence, too, following Mollie's every sandal-clad step--and every sumptuous bite--on Twitter. In case you have the Monday--err, Tuesday--blues, you should follow Mollie, too:

* ok virgin america, wow me. 7:16 AM Feb 13th
* plus one for nice attendants, minus ten for group of 35 teenagers sitting behind me 7:17 AM Feb 13th
* Jet blue beats virgin on snacks basis alone. Hello la la land! 2:40 PM Feb 13th
* Akasha, culver city. Cool lights, organic gin 3:28 PM Feb 13th
* Infiltrating BA offices 1:12 AM Feb 14th
* Stolen cupcakes 1:49 PM Feb 14th
* Have a crush on abbot kinney's 3 square bakery 3:46 PM Feb 14th
* Nothing says vday like margaritas and griddled cheese 1:19 AM Feb 15th
* west coast bartenders wear vests too! great drinks at comme ca last night 10:46 AM Feb 15th

Photo: © Albert Vecerka/Esto.
All Rights Reserved.

by Liz Granger

Tourists, rejoice! Visitors to New York City can now bid adieu to the woefully conspicuous guidebook. NYC & Company has revamped its visitor information center, trading racks of brochures for eco-friendly digital kiosks.

I visited the new office this morning before work, and planned a personalized weekend itinerary of boutiques, bars, and spas (a broke girl can dream). I slid a "puck" across a large, waist-level map of Manhattan and the boroughs to find points-of-interest within 25 minutes of my puck's location. Enter Edith Machinist, Temple Bar, and the Russian & Turkish Baths. Once I finished selecting locations, I carried my puck over to a wall-sized screen. Like magic, when I placed my puck onto a nearby pylon, a flyover Google Map view of my itinerary appeared on the screen. Another pylon allowed me to print a color copy of my itinerary, complete with a map and contact information for each site.

Apart from the swanky minimalist interior, the best part about NYC & Co.'s updated information center is that you can email or text yourself data right from the site's kiosks. Instead of reading fan-fold maps on the subway, your smartphone displays all the information you need. Now nobody has to look like a tourist.

Further reading:
* If you like being conspicuous--and cute
* Amazing: Simple ideas done right

by Ondine Cohane

I always wanted to do a trip with upscale outfitter Abercrombie & Kent but somehow I never got the chance. So my ears pricked up when I heard news that on Thursday, February 19, the company will launch an online auction of some of its destinations. Here's how it works: at 9AM CST, five different luxury itineraries will go on sale at five percent off the usual price, and then every half hour that rate will drop five percent more until 3PM. At that time, anything that's still available will be 60 percent off.

A trip that sounds particularly appealing is a ten day excursion down the Nile on the Sun Boat IV, which received a high rating on this year's Readers' Choice Awards. Egypt is on my wish list. The combined itinerary to Botswana and Zambia sounds wonderful, too. I spent a memorable two weeks in Botswana in 1994; it is now my favorite safari destination. For one, I never felt there were a lot of other people around, but more importantly, I saw amazing numbers of birds and other animals from the Kalahari desert to the Okavango Delta. To get you in the mood, check out Peter Haje's August 2007 feature, "Of Lionesses, Leopards, and Lechwe," about Zambia's uncrowded assets. The Botswana and Zambia option would normally run $7765,  but if it's still available by Thursday's afternoon deadline it will go for $3106, a savings of $4659.

Divers will want to consider the Clipper Odyssey's voyage to the Solomon Islands, where World War II wrecks and pristine reefs are home to tropical fish and crystal clear water. The site says that there are a number of other sales being offered, too, like a $2300 off per person to the Galapagos and 15 percent off a "Wine & Chocolate" barge cruise through Burgundy. Get surfing!

What Continental engineers
were drinking the morning of
the test flight. 
Photo: texasterritories.com

by Guy Martin

Texans like stuff big. It's apt, then, that the U.S.'s first-ever trial burn of plant-based fuel on a commercial airliner took place aboard Continental Airlines Boeing 737 flying out of Houston last month. Big-ass jet, big-ass engines, big-ass mix of jet fuel and . . . what was that, again? Algae? Jatropha? The mix for the two-engine jet was, according to Continental's spokesman, one engine on jet fuel (kerosene) and the other running a 50/50 mix of jet fuel and algae-jatropha juice. Engine didn't even need to be retrofitted, just ran like a wild bronc. Hot damn! Ro-day-oh!       

This epoch-defining eco-milestone should finally confirm for the 282 million non-Texans among us that the noble Lone Star State does in fact have it all:  killer barbecue, killer chili, killer beer, Flaco Jimenez and the Texas Playboys, the Alamo, that superhot al-Qaeda target living on that little ranch in Crawford, and not least, the jeans-with-rhinestone-appliqué-on-the-butt thing that has held mall rats around the globe in thrall for decades. How could any state in our beloved union possibly top that? 

Despite Continental's test flight, let's not, in the service of greenhouse analysis and proper historical context, forget that every man, woman, and child in Texas owns an average of six to ten trucks at any given moment.

CCTV Building, pre-fireworks
Photo: MKMedia / Flickr

Gung Hay Fat Fire! A most unfortunate beginning to the Chinese New Year (HuffPo)

Someone get this guy a travel writing gig.  And maybe a sandwich as he seems to be a couple short of a picnic. (International Herald Tribune)

Dubai feels the pinch. It had to happen sooner or later. (NYT)

London, birthplace to the twit, now has the Twitter bug, just like CNT's own Wendy Perrin

Dr. Wangari Maathai was presented with the Chairman's award at the 40th Annual NAACP Image Awards in LA last night. We spoke with the environmentalist last February

Long live the king--but not queen. 
Image: Showtime

by Beata Loyfman

As you may have already noticed, the Daily Travelers have quite a few guilty pleasures: Obscure Danish musicians, chocolate-covered anything, and of course, nakedness. Well, our latest guilty pleasure is Showtime's sexified, loosely historical series The Tudors, which features the intense Jonathan Rhys Meyers as King Henry VIII. The show has it all: Brooding royals, scheming clergy, beheadings, and a bevy of tasty morsels for His Highness to choose from--ahh, it's good to be king.   

Every episode of The Tudors leaves us panting . . . for more shots of 16th century Britain (were you thinking of something else?). From the rolling hills of Hever Castle to the sprawling Westminster Abbey in London, the destination is as much a part of the story as corsets and infidelity. Check out this handy Tudors Wiki for behind-the-scenes photos and info on set locations.

A jaunt to some of these historic sites is just the thing to refresh your memory in time for the premiere of season three. Good thing the Brits are fond of their historical architecture, since much of what you see on the show is still around. There's Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral, plus the Tower of London, where Anne Boleyn and others who lost favor with the king also lost their heads.

In addition, low winter rates means you can get nonstop flights to London on Continental, British Airways, and other airlines for under $500. Cod piece and lance not included.

The next season of The Tudors debuts March 9. Check out the trailer here. Just make sure you have a cold shower ready.

Further reading:
* Travels in TV Land Parts One, Two, and Three
* Boldface: Celebrity travel

 Photo: Dave Sherman / AP Photo

In The Daily Beast, Clive Irving, the senior consulting editor here at Condé Nast Traveler, finds connections between last night's crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 near Buffalo and other incidents involving turboprops and ice. 

There is something hauntingly familiar about the crash of the Bombardier Dash 8 commuter plane in Buffalo. While a lot more information is needed before investigators can be sure of the cause, there are precursors that suggest a pattern.

It begins with the crash of American Eagle Flight 4184 at Roselawn, Indiana, in October 1994. It was a different type of plane, a European-built ATR-72 (the Bombardier is a Canadian plane). The cause was ice on the wings.

For more...read the The Daily Beast.

Further reading:

* 50 Killed in Plane Crash Near Buffalo (NYT)
* Clive Irving on The Radical Future of Flying (CNT/Nov. 2008)
* Flying into the Unknown (CNT/Nov. 2007)
* Clive Irving on Test Flying the Blended Wing (Video)
* On the Fly:  Airline coverage on the Daily Traveler

by Sara Tucker

From the Aggregator's "good news" file: "New research from the Mayo Clinic shows that people who volunteer have lower rates of heart disease and live longer," celebrity doc Sanjay Gupta reported last month, right around the time our new prez was urging us all to lend a helping hand in honor of MLK. "People who volunteer are overall more physically and mentally fit than those who don't," the doctor added, citing "previous studies."

Studies like the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey of 30,000 American households, which found that volunteers were 42 percent more likely to say they were "very happy" about their lives than nonvolunteers. The results were reported in this New York Sun editorial.

And studies like this one, which found that "money can buy happiness as long as it is spent on other people or on pro-social causes."

Dr. Gupta's prescription for physical and mental fitness includes "40 to 100 hours a year" of volunteer work, an amount that "breaks down to just a few hours a week."

Or a few days' worth of vacation time per year? Travelers, take note.

Further reading:
* Travelers for a Healthy World
* Volunteering in America (Web site of the Corporation for National and Community Service)
* What the travel industry should do about giving back
* Make a Difference: Travel right, do good
* The Aggregator: News of the week in links

Let's hope his next costume
doesn't involve stripping bare. 
Photo: Virgin America

by Barbara S. Peterson

The Virgin Group and its frighteningly peripatetic chief, Richard Branson, have been hard to ignore this past week. In the space of a mere six days, they launched both a new airline, VAustralia, with fares as low as $549 roundtrip from Los Angeles to Melbourne (it's also flying to Sydney and Brisbane), and new transcontinental flights on Virgin America. (Fares from the new Boston terminal start at $109 one way with daily flights to SFO and LAX and they've got WiFi on every plane.) The linking of these two networks--VAustralia passengers will be able to connect with Virgin America at LAX--marks the first time travelers can circumnavigate the globe exclusively on Virgin-branded airlines.

So what's the matter with this picture? Other than yet another sighting of Branson in a silly costume, that is? Virgin America is losing money--quite a bit of it--a fact it was only just now forced to reveal under the Transportation Department's disclosure rules. Virgin had tried to keep the information under wraps, arguing that it's a private company, but the DOT didn't buy it.

We at the DT get the arguments about Valentine's Day. It's nothing more than a conspiracy created by manufacturers of holiday cards and assorted stuffed animals.  But given the recent sweetheart deals surrounding hotel stays, we're willing to grit our teeth at all those "happy couples" who like to rub their relationships in the faces of "cough" their single friends and check in for a little pampering.

Check out the holiday hotel offers after the jump.

by John Oseid

Everybody talks about a Plan B for life these days; I've decided that mine is to become a Flamencologist. This week, I learned about the dozens of complex and fascinating palos, the different forms that make up flamenco, and now bulerías and soleás, fandangos and siguiriyas are stomping around in my head.

Now's your chance to get on board. Tomorrow through February 22, the World Music Institute will sponsor the ninth annual New York Flamenco Festival. Not since Romany heartthrob dancer Joaquín Cortés was palling around with the likes of Madonna, Naomi, and Elle a few years ago have so many flamenco stars been in town. (Here are dates for other cities, including London.)

On February 21, the great flamenco innovator Enrique Morente's daughter will command Carnegie Hall. You know the gorgeous Estrella Morente's voice as the one behind Penélope Cruz in the Pedro Almodóvar hit Volver. If the above video of Estrella performing her song "Zambra" doesn't make an instant fan out of you, I'll eat my castanets.

Other festival highlights include the Antonio Gades Company performing Carmen on February 19 at the New York City Center, followed by the First Family of dance, Los Farruco, on February 21-22. Here is wonderful vintage footage of the patriarch El Farruco, and here the younger generation lets loose at a juerga, or party, filmed for a TV show. Don't try the table dance at home.

More music after the jump.

A room fit for one, I think.

by Mollie Chen

This is why I love Brits: even their version of a romantic weekend comes with a nice dose of humor. While New York restaurants are shaping pizzas into hearts and plastering the walls with red tinfoil, the luxe Babington House is going more low key with a handful of fun, well-priced packages. The Somerset hotel just had its 10-year anniversary and celebrated by--what else?--buying sumptuous new linens, building three new garden villas, and opening a brand-new spa. Cowshed Relax is fully tricked out with a mud chamber, two hammams, a modern sauna, and a long treatment menu ranging from scrubs to soaks and facials to wraps. I feel in dire need of the "Toxic Cow," a recharging spa package that includes a night's stay, mud treatment for two, and a facial. And despite my longtime aversion to Valentine's Day, even I can appreciate the Spoilt Cow gift package, which includes a chic scented candle with a note tucked inside asking, "Will you spend a cozy night with me at Babington House?" How can you say no to that?

If you're feeling more starry-eyed than I, stay tuned tomorrow for a last-minute round-up of where best to spend your Valentine's Day.

Further reading:
* In other Brit hotel news, the five-star Royal Garden Hotel in London is welcoming American visitors with guaranteed dollar rates starting at $375 for a superior room. If you book three nights in one of the new garden rooms, which have great views over Hyde Park, you get the fourth night free. (These rates are good through April 19, 2009.) Call 866-521-7017- or visit royalgardenhotel.co.uk to learn more.
* Video: Hot List London

Go here to bid on a vacation at the Arenas del Mar hotel in Costa Rica, pictured above.

by Brook Wilkinson

Taking a page from popular travel auction sites Luxury Link and SkyAuction, The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) has debuted a new monthly feature that lets supporters bid on travel packages. First up: Costa Rica. From now through February 28, you can bid on 13 different hotel and tour packages in Costa Rica, all provided by TIES members. Most of the proceeds go to TIES, a non-profit that supports ecotourism initiatives around the world, with 5 percent going to a community-based organization in the featured country. This month that money will benefit the Yorkin community, which has established an ecotourism program to help them recover financially from devastating floods that hit last November.

I've been to three of the hotels offering auction packages this month--Lapa Rios, Finca Rosa Blanca, and Arenas del Mar--during a trip I wrote about in our August 2008 issue, so I can promise that you won't go wrong by bidding on any of those packages. Lapa Rios is a lovely jungle lodge on the Osa Peninsula, and is the only property in the world to be named to both Condé Nast Traveler's Green List and Gold List. Finca Rosa Blanca is a charming coffee plantation outside San Jose, a great place to start or end your trip, and Arenas del Mar is a beach resort by the same owner, which earned a place on our 2008 Hot List.

Right now, you can still bid well below market value for all three of these packages, and ten others. It's a great way to support a worthy organization, and get a green vacation out of the deal.

Further reading:
* Gold List 2009
* Responsible Traveler: Making a difference

by Julia Bainbridge

Last night, some of New York's leading chefs took recipes from their own books to prepare dishes at Tabla's 10th anniversary celebration. Dan Barber poached eggs from his farm, David Chang riffed on his favorite ingredient, pork belly, and Floyd Cardoz, the man behind the restaurant, served up one of his New Indian dishes to benefit non-profit Pratham's Read India program.

Slumdog Millionaire has stirred up some controversy in Mumbai, but the truth is, as Pratham board member Arvind Sanger said last night, the movie does represent what the city's slums are like. And they are large--India is home to one third of the world's poor. Pratham's mission is to ensure that every child there is in school and learning well. Over two million children have already benefited from Pratham's pre-schools, remedial learning programs, and libraries. Now with the Read India program, the organization is attempting to eradicate child illiteracy in India; by 2010, it hopes to teach 60 million children across the country how to read.

Success so far has been astronomical: Twenty one million children have learned to read since the program started just one year ago. Hopefully dinners like Tabla's will double--even triple--that number. 

Further reading:
* Here's how you can donate to Read India
* Make a difference: Resources for caring travelers
* Amazing: Simple ideas done right

The pickers of Rippon
ready for the new crop.
Photo: Julien Capmeil
for Condé Nast Traveler

New Zealand is an adventurer's fantasy, of course, but a sybarite will find equal pleasure in its diverse and dramatic landscapes. Here, some of writer Chang-Rae Lee's favorite wineries from Central Otago and Queenstown, one of the four regions he visited for Condé Nast Traveler's February feature, "Veni, Vidi, Vino."

* Rippon Vineyards produces a beautifully supple pinot noir. A charming cottage serves as its "cellar door" for wine sales, and you can get a cheese platter to picnic on the stunning lakeside grounds.

* Van Asch's winemaker, Theo Coles, has worked all over the wine world, including stints at Chateau Leoville Las-Cases and at the Tenute Silvio Nardi in Montalcino; his pinots are rich and alive with black cherry notes.

by Kevin Doyle

Can you hear it? Chris Elliott is clanging the death knell of green travel in a recent column. His postmortem is based on a recent YPartnership survey of travelers that found, to quote Chris, that "most of them now say they're unwilling to pay a premium for being green." I'm not taking issue with the facts here--just with the spin. Yes, a slight majority of those polled (53 percent) said they're not willing to pay extra to support hotels, airlines or other travel companies in their green endeavors. But that means nearly half of the travelers surveyed said that they would be willing to pay more. Not only that, but the majority of them said they would pay up to a 9 percent premium. This, during the worst economic downturn in more than 70 years, doesn't portend the death of green travel; on the contrary, it's proof that preserving the planet is still more important than saving a buck to nearly half the people who travel. Which means it's good business.

To be fair, the point Chris is making is a good one: Environmental stewardship is something we should not only expect, but also demand from travel companies. It should be as integral a part of a business as the bottom line, not some facile, feeble, or faux "environmental" effort (reusing towels and linens comes to mind) cooked up by a public relations department to win market share. One way to make that day dawn sooner rather than later is to choose companies with a demonstrated commitment to sustainable practices. A good place to start is with our annual World Savers Awards and with the World Travel and Tourism Council's Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, which just announced its 2009 nominations yesterday. Green travel isn't dead, and as long as we make that clear to travel companies through the choices we make, it never will be.

Kevin Doyle is the News Editor for Condé Nast Traveler.

The scallop and caviar duo
at Inox restaurant.

by Mollie Chen

The inauguration may be over but Washington, D.C., is still on a high--and change is not limited to politics. Last week, I had dinner with many of the city's tourism officials, all of whom were giddy about their new White House residents as well as their own plans for the next few years. "I can't tell you how excited we are to be cool," one of the heads of Cultural Tourism DC said.

Not surprisingly, I was most interested in hearing about all the latest food news. For the past few years D.C. has quietly but steadily been turning into a major food city, bringing in superstar chefs like Alain Ducasse and Laurent Tourondel, as well as cultivating smaller independent restaurants. Read after the jump for what's on the city's horizon.

Here's looking at you, kid.

by Guy Martin

The Daily Traveler first noticed the New York City Police Department's spidery, cool-white Sky Watch when it was deployed in Times Square, just around the corner from the offices, a few months back.  We figured it was a prompt and reasonable civil defense response to the threat emanating from our very own spa and beauty editors' desks, where there are multi-million-dollar stockpiles of unguents and astringents that, as we know from the TSA, can be transformed into a dirty bomb just like that!

Incredibly, it turned out that we were wrong.  The anti-terror logic for the deployment of Sky Watch in midtown Manhattan was the target-ness of Times Square itself, a beloved polyglot perennial on the al-Qaeda hit list.

Welcome to Conakry's Café Obama.
Photo: Irwin Arieff

by Irwin Arieff

So, big deal, a few million people went to Washington on January 20. Myself, I headed for Guinea, in West Africa, where my daughter Alexis is studying, to celebrate President Obama's inauguration from a respectful distance. I think we had the better view.

While Guinea is a country of great poverty and political turmoil, its citizens are deeply inspired by our new president and the idea that similar change could be on the way to Africa. Everywhere we went, people saw the Barack Obama pin on Alexis's purse and yelled out to us, "Obama! Obama!" They pumped our hands in congratulation, bubbling with pride that easily matched our own. We passed the Barack Obama Restaurant, then the Barack Obama Café. Obama T-shirts were draped on bodies of all shapes and sizes. Many shopkeepers pinned big posters of the new president next to their front counters. Taxi drivers stuck small pictures of Michelle, Malia, Sasha, and Barack on their dashboards.

Luckily for us, Alexis's apartment in the Camayenne neighborhood of Conakry, the Guinean capital, had electricity on January 20. By about 4 p.m. local time (Guinea is five hours ahead of Washington), friends began arriving at her place to watch the proceedings on CNN International. By zero hour--noon EST--we were 11 strong: five Americans, three Guineans, a Tanzanian, a French diplomat, and a British think-tanker. All the Americans cried as Aretha Franklin sang "My Country 'tis of Thee," and we were all crying by the time Obama took the oath. We toasted the new president with Fanta, milk, and one guest's donation of Hungarian champagne.

A peek inside the Hotel Shangri-La.

by Ondine Cohane

Heading to Los Angeles? I was just there last week and have some new discoveries.

First stop: I checked into the Hotel Shangri-La in Santa Monica, which is undergoing a huge $30 million renovation. Not to be confused with the brand of the same name, this is a family-owned boutique hotel, right on Ocean Avenue. The property is still under construction--the restaurant, pool area and rooftop bar are to be completed in the next month or so--but I already love it. Rooms have original Art Deco details and are super comfy, and the views from the oceanside rooms are iconic. The staff is super friendly, from Matt, one of the managers, to the cleaning staff, to Freddie the valet, who could teach all of us how to do our jobs with a smile. For now, the property is offering special introductory rates of $265.

* See? To honor these brave men and women, Gawker's video staff has put together a compilation of the best of on-air weatherman "floof goofing."
* Pink Panther Deux is out--and so is the fact that they filmed parts of the Paris-based film in Boston (Jaunted). Faux pas or bonne idée?
* A few states south, New York solves its aromatic mystery (New York Times).
* Hopefully Venice will solve that, too, now that people should have no excuse for using its streets as a urinal (Reuters).
* Now for a pay toilet that will accept this.

Photo: Paul Keller, flickr.com

by Sara Tucker

The recent announcements that Guantanamo will close and Abu Ghraib will reopen have piqued the Aggregator's interest in a sector of the tourism economy with potential for substantial growth. The Iraqis have promised to turn part of the notorious Baghdad prison into a museum, and some (like this blogger) say Guantanamo should be similarly preserved.

As the world's leading jailor, the U.S. has quite a stock of potential museums at its disposal, though how many of them could be moneymakers is anybody's guess. Probably a lot: Alcatraz attracts more than a million visitors a year, Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary gets upwards of 150,000, and Montana's Old Prison Museum draws 45,000. Why the fascination? It's the "shock and horror" of seeing the way the inmates lived, a Montana museum official told the New York Times. "It's like going by a car accident. You can't help but look."

That sounds about right, but is it, well, right? A senior Iraqi justice official has said the Abu Ghraib museum will feature "execution chambers and torture tools used by Saddam's regime, including an iron chain used to tie prisoners together." Is this a good idea?

by Beata Loyfman

You may have noticed that the Daily Traveler has a soft spot for this soccer-bending British import. (Thanks for the visuals, Just Jared). After all, he has provided plenty of clothes-free fodder. Check out my personal brush with the shirtless wonder here. But Becks has been quiet lately, and with good reason: He's busy wrangling his way out of his contract with the LA Galaxy to join the footballers of AC Milan. You know what? If I had made a big deal about relocating to the U.S., and all these celebs flocked to throw me parties, I'd keep my plans to bail quiet, too.

We can't blame him for the move, either. As the European fashion mecca, Milan is the perfect place for his couture-loving missus. Plus, the Italians are far less inclined to mock Becks' high-pitched voice and bum ankle.

Unfortunately for travelers on this side of the pond, Milan is one of the pricier cities in Europe. Even in this economy, hotel rates can cause respiratory distress. Luckily, there's a solution: Stay in one of the picturesque towns on Lake Como, just north of Milan and take shopping day trips. Check on Venere, one of our favorite sites for European hotels, where you'll find accommodations at rock-bottom rates. For example, Hotel Barchetta Excelsior has rooms overlooking the lake for as low as $139 per night. The site is currently running a weekend special for Hotel Terminus which includes two nights of B&B accommodations, a tour of the area, free use of the sauna and fitness center, and a mystery welcome gift for $179 per night.

Hey, at these prices, you can even afford to splurge on those designer duds on Via Montenapoleone.

Further reading:
* Milan Elements of Style
* Boldface: Celebrity travels