Belgian group Zap Mama brought down the house with a performance at Conde Nast Traveler's 2007 Readers' Choice Awards, October 10, 2007.
All Photos: Billy Farrell/PMc

by Beata Loyfman

Yesterday I brought you the recap of Conde Nast Traveler's Readers' Choice Awards ceremony. Today, as promised, I've got the scoop on all the stars who joined us in celebrating the magazine's 20th anniversary at the post-award party.

Here are a few highlights from a fabulous night:

While setting myself up in the crowded press box, I noticed actor and Daily Show Senior Political Correspondent Aasif Mandvi politely waiting to check in at the guest line -- on the wrong side of the red carpet. I made myself useful and guided him around the tent and into the celebrity entrance. That's me, rescuing stars one at a time! After a red carpet stroll for the photographers, Aasif kindly stopped to chat about his favorite spots. He loves to kick back at the Club Med in Turks & Caicos and dreams of visiting Egypt and China.

Alan Cumming and Debra Messing had a ball co-hosting the Readers' Choice Awards. When they stopped to chat, I discovered that Debra is a true Traveler fan. She routinely tears out pages from the magazine and files them away for future planning. And they are both fans of Room With a View. Since yours truly is responsible for the page, that was a great compliment!

One of Alan's favorite destinations is the One&Only Ocean Club in the Bahamas, the winner of the Atlantic Ocean Resorts category. Debra had a great tip for traveling with a child: Bring an iPod and portable speakers so that you don't have to be at the mercy of voltage variations. What a great idea!

Rapper/Actor LL Cool J was eager to talk about his favorite city: Paris. He loves its cultural attractions, ornate architecture, and beautiful amber lighting, especially in the springtime. C'est magnifique! When choosing a hotel, gym amenities are a deal-breaker for LL. He's a big fan of the facilities of the Four Seasons (four-time 2007 Readers' Choice Awards winners). Judging by LL's impressively fit physique, the man knows what he's talking about.

After a fantastic stage performance by Belgian group Zap Mama, I caught up with LL again in the VIP area. He was eager to tell me about his recent trip to South Africa. He loved the country's cosmopolitan vibe and beautiful scenery. Like Aasif, LL says Egypt is one of his dream destinations, along with Morocco, Tahiti, and of course, there's always Paris in the springtime.

Later on, Mario Cantone and Kim Cattrall took a break from filming Sex and the City: The Movie to join our party and chat about their favorite spots.
Read on for the details.

Actors Alan Cumming and Debra Messing emceeing the Readers' Choice Awards at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in New York City.
Photo: Billy Farrell/PMc

by Beata Loyfman

What do the CEOs of the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago, the Oberoi Vanyavilas in Rajasthan, and Jet Blue have in common? They're all celebrating today because they've won their respective categories in Conde Nast Traveler's 2007 Readers' Choice Awards.

The annual ceremony honoring our readers' favorite cities, islands, hotels, resorts, airlines, and car rental agencies was held last night at New York City's Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum. But you don't have to wait for the November issue to find out all the big winners, because I've got the scoop right here:

The theme of the evening was "The Power of Travel" and before handing out the awards, each of the presenters told a personal story about how travel had changed their lives. Scottish actor and emcee Alan Cumming taught us an important lesson about packing lightly -- it involved an inebriated tryst in a hotel room and waking up in the airport surrounded by a group of Hasidic Jews...Well, it was an important lesson nonetheless. He then presented Florence with the award for the best European City.

Cumming's co-host Debra Messing recounted how backpacking through Europe as a teenager changed her from a scared American into a self-reliant, curious traveler. She also (rather unsuccessfully) tried to keep Alan from sharing any further tales of his escapades.

For more highlights from the Readers' Choice Awards, read on.

by Brook Wilkinson

It's gratifying to see how much attention Conde Nast Traveler's 20th anniversary issue has been getting after all the thought, effort, and late nights we poured into it. It's a weighty issue (literally, at 400 pages) that we started planning even before the September '06 issue hit the newsstands. Way back then, I heard my colleagues whispering around the office about our top secret cover subject, code named "World Citizen." I eventually figured out that they were talking about Bill Clinton (whom Wonkette claims would make a better first lady than Judi Giuliani). In our interview Clinton says, "I believe that those of us who have had the benefit of lots of foreign travel have an obligation to share what we think we know with our fellow citizens." This pretty much sums up what we're trying to do here at The Perrin Post.

It was nice to see World Hum, one of the best travel blogs out there, give us props not just for the Clinton interview, but also for Pico Iyer's memoir of his early days as a Let's Go writer, Wendy's round-up of her 30 favorite travel secrets, and Mark Schatzker's trip around the world in 80 days going no faster than 100 mph (an article eagerly awaited by those of us who followed his journey online).

Gadling, another of my daily reads, praised the announcement of our partnership with the Five & Alive Fund, which improves the health of children aged five and under around the globe. Conde Nast Traveler has pledged $20,000 to the fund and will donate $5 from every new subscription as well. It's all part of our effort to give back to the planet that we've spent 20 years exploring.

My personal contribution to the September issue?  The World Savers Awards, our annual compendium of travel companies that are helping preserve the environments and communities around them. I've helped direct this project (previously called the Green List) for the last few years, and I'm heartened each time to see the good works being carried out around the industry.

There's a bunch in the issue that's not online, such as the Wommies, "8 trends, concepts, and innovations of the past two decades that have changed the way we travel," and a four-page map of Mark's trip, broken down into segments that you or I could do ourselves. So grab a copy off the newsstand (if you can lift it) before it disappears in a week or so.

Austin, Texas: Home of the annual SXSW Interactive Conference. Will YOU be there?
Photo: Brent Humphreys, Conde Nast Traveler

by Wendy Perrin

Attention, fellow bloggers:  One of the winners of last winter's Where's Wendy? contest, Sheila Force-of-Nature Scarborough of Family Travel: See the World With Your Kids, has proposed a panel on travel blogging for the next SXSW Interactive Conference.  Now, I've never been to SXSW.  Nor am I much of a conference goer (I already spend way too much time on the road without them). Nor do I have any overwhelming desire to board a plane to Austin (despite the cool things I've heard about it from fellow Conde Nast Traveler editor Graham Boynton).  BUT I can tell you that if SXSW approves Sheila's panel, no way am I missing it.  After "meeting" Sheila through the contest, and then meeting her for real back in April over our contest-winner dinner in Chicago, I know how much there is to learn from her and how fun her panel would be. 

If Sheila's "Blog Highways" panel sounds interesting to you, vote for it via the SXSW Panel Picker. Apparently about 80 of the conference's panels will be chosen this way (out of at least 700 that have already been proposed. Yikes!).  And if there are any particular travel-blogging experts you'd like to hear from on the panel (my personal picks would be Mark Ashley, Jim Benning, Mark Johnson, Tim Leffel, Leif Pettersen, Rolf Potts, and Brett Snyder--hint hint), let Sheila know.

Jamil Moen, Claire Danes, and Julianne Moore at Conde Nast Traveler's Hot List Party, April 19, 2006.

By Beata Loyfman

Every spring Conde Nast Traveler celebrates the Hot List, our May-issue rundown of the best new hotels of the year, with a swank party in New York City. Last night, hundreds of spruced-up guests piled into the Lower East Side's new Bowery Hotel, where the red carpet weas a wall of flashing cameras and high-wattage stars.

If your invite got lost in the mail (or you're just too cool for our little shindig), not to worry. I've got the full play-by-play here.

6:30pm - I arrive at the venue after a very un-glamorous ride on the F train. (Note to self: six-inch heels and the subway don't mix).

7:12pm - The first flash goes off as Sherri Saum from FX's Rescue Me christens the red carpet. She stops to chat and tells us about her summer plans. She can't wait to escape to the beaches of Santorini, Rhodes, and Crete in Greece. The main goal: "I'm going to be naked and drinking grappa as much as possible." May we also suggest adding the small Aegean islands of Paros and Symi to the itinerary?

7:20pm - Cynthia Nixon (pictured at right) tells us about her recent trips to the Caribbean. She was particularly taken with Canouan Island, where she stayed at Raffles Resort. Good choice: Not only did the resort make our 2005 Hot List, but we listed it as one of the Caribbean's undiscovered gems. Plus, what better way to celebrate the Pulitzer Prize awarded this past Monday to Rabbit Hole (as well as that Tony Award that Cynthia won for her starring role in it last year) than with an island getaway? None that I can think of. And for all you Sex and the City fans: the movie is back on! Cynthia confirmed that the long-delayed feature film is in the works (again). Fingers crossed it doesn't stumble in pre-production (again).

7:30pm - Terrence Howard (pictured at left with Conde Nast Traveler Editor-in-Chief Klara Glowczewska) stops by to tell us about his upcoming cruise aboard the Queen Mary 2 with his children, as well as a long-awaited experience in Spain. Is he planning to hit the clubs in Barcelona? Nope. "I play flamenco guitar, so I just want to sit in some little spot and watch a real band play and see if they let me get into a couple of songs with them." I suggest he check out Jerez de la Frontera (the birthplace of flamenco), Cadiz, and other towns in Andalusia where the locals haven't heard of Hustle & Flow, Crash or Marvel's upcoming Iron Man.

7:45pm - A flash of red dashes across the red carpet. What is it? A rare bird? No, it's Julianne Moore rushing past the press. Pity she couldn't stop to tell us about her favorite travel spots.

8:11pm - Sex and the City hunk Jason Lewis (pictured at left) clambers over, rubbing his eyes (those flash cameras are brutal). He is thrilled to tell us about his upcoming 36th birthday adventure. Ever since reading Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" as a kid, he's dreamed of climbing the monster mountain. What a coincidence: My blog buddy Brook Wilkinson has made the trek to Kilimanjaro (and has the tattoo to prove it). So Brook, don't keep him waiting.

8:20pm - Iconic DJ Grandmaster Flash arrives (surprisingly sans entourage) and tells us that he'd love to work the turntables in Egypt. Just say when!

8:34pm - I bumble my way into the VIP area -- a cordoned-off section where the celebrities mingle, pretending everyone's not watching, while large bouncers patrol the velvet rope. Bizarre. Pretending I belong, I saunter up to Jason Lewis, who is gracious and humble, and doesn't mind chatting some more about his upcoming Mount Kilimanjaro climb. "I want to see it before the snow is gone," he explains. "That'll happen in less than 50 years." Besides fulfilling a personal goal, he hopes the trip will shed some light on the dire environmental situation. You gotta love a guy who cares.

8:47pm - While playing the pool table, Terrence Howard slows down for another chat. I hope to get some more info about his trip to Spain, but he won't divulge any more details.

9:15pm - I hang out with Ron Livingston (pictured at right), another Sex and the City alum (did someone say reunion?). His top 3 travel experiences: Sifnos in the Western Cyclades, Cambodia, and Tulum. The latter is a particular favorite because of its easy access and quiet vibe.

The festivities went on until the wee hours, but this gal is all partied out.

by Wendy Perrin

Today's the day:  Portfolio.com -- the online arm of the much-anticipated glossy new business magazine Conde Nast Portfolio -- is still in beta, but Joe Brancatelli's new business travel column, Seat 2B (LOVE the name!), is up for everyone to read.

And it all started here!  In January the Portfolio folks asked if I might post a shout-out asking readers to recommend a business travel columnist or blogger.  Portfolio ended up choosing someone recommended by several of you (including myself): Joe Brancatelli, the force behind JoeSentMe.com. His first column?  The Magic Card. Check it out.

by Wendy Perrin

Because Conde Nast Traveler's upcoming September issue is our big-deal 20th Anniversary issue (and, for those of you who have entered our Dream Trip Contest, the issue where we'll be announcing the winner!), I need to dream up a big-deal topic for my Perrin Report column.  The obvious idea is, of course, the 20 (or 30 or 50) top secrets every smart traveler should know. Anything you guys would like to read instead?  Any overarching subject you wish I'd tackle?  All ideas welcome. Just click on "Post a comment" below.  Thanks!

Tara Kyle, a new blogger for The Perrin Post, in Conde Nast Traveler's 14th floor office overlooking Times Square, New York City, April 2, 2007.

by Wendy Perrin

You are facing west.  To the left are neon billboards below where the ball drops on New Year's Eve.  To the right, in the background (see the bit of light green roof?), is the New York Times building on West 43rd Street.  Directly behind Tara stands Reuters' Americas headquarters. And in front of her stood me, earlier today, on a chair, snapping this photo.

Tara Kyle has been behind the scenes at The Perrin Post since January, when she started interning here while wrapping up her year at Columbia Journalism School (check out her master's degree project exploring the post-9/11 experience of Muslim youth in New York City). I'm thrilled to announce that she will now be blogging for us too.

Tara hails from Juneau, Alaska -- known for its mountains, glaciers, and a harbor that hosts approximately 1 million cruise-ship passengers each summer -- although before settling in Juneau her family moved between Connecticut, Virginia, Florida, and California, thanks to her father's Coast Guard career.  During college at Dartmouth, where Tara was president of the daily paper, she studied abroad in both Edinburgh and Berlin. She has journeyed from Ireland to Israel and loves to hike, ski, swim, and snowshoe.

Please join me in welcoming her to our blog community.

by Wendy Perrin

Remember a couple of months ago I posted a shout-out that a "high-profile publication" was seeking a business travel expert to share advice online?  Great news: The publication, which I can now reveal is Conde Nast's soon-to-launch business magazine Portfolio, considered your recommendations and chose someone suggested by several of you: Joe Brancatelli, the force behind JoeSentMe.com.  Joe, whom I consider God's gift to business travelers, is my go-to person when I'm stumped by an airline question -- such as when reader MarjDavies asked whether Delta has eliminated business class on some flights to Rome, or when reader DCLinda asked if she could combine two cheap one-way air fares to save a bundle on a roundtrip without getting busted.

Joe's new online column launches on April 24th.  Congrats, Joe!

P.S. Click here to see Portfolio.com's cool slide show (and to see where I work: in the first slide, the Conde Nast Building is on the left).

Brook Wilkinson, my trusty deputy of nearly 5 years, is joining The Perrin Post.

By Wendy Perrin

Hooray! My prayers for help with this blog -- which I love writing but is a total time suck -- have been answered! Brook Wilkinson, my right hand at Conde Nast Traveler, will be joining me here, helping to answer readers' questions and post travel news we think you should know.

If you're a Conde Nast Traveler reader, Brook is probably familiar to you: She masterminds our annual Green List, road-tested the Andes and the Amazon for the Iconic Itinerary in our Jan 2007 issue, patrolled Sydney Harbor with Australia's ace shark trackers for The Fabulous 50 (Dec 2006), and compiled the Whole-Year, Whole-World Island Finder (July 2006). If you don't subscribe to Conde Nast Traveler (which means I must warn you: DO NOT rely solely on the online versions of our articles! Vital maps, charts, and advice sidebars accompanying these articles are in the printed magazine only!), then you might remember Brook from our business trip to Cannes together, where we ate magically, shopped surgically, sampled the nightlife, and snuck into the Carlton Hotel's kitchen to watch the chef in action).

Brook Wilkinson, me, and Peter Greenberg lunching at the Carlton Hotel's
brasserie in Cannes, France, December 6, 2006.

As the magazine's associate consumer news editor, Brook assists me with most of the projects I head up. She's an adrenaline junkie who has bungee jumped, skydived, paraglided, raced cars, and summited Kilimanjaro. Last year alone, she was on every continent except Antarctica. She's equally at home at the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge (where she was a year ago) or the Portland international youth hostel (where she was last weekend). Please join me in welcoming her to our blog community!

By Wendy Perrin

Which is more likely:  Getting a stomach bug in India or deep-vein thrombosis on the flight there?

If you're my Conde Nast Traveler colleague the Materialist, thrombosis.  Fortunately, though, it was a false alarm, and she is alive and well and blogging at us from India, where she is probing the country's gems, both hidden and not-so-hidden, in order to write Conde Nast Traveler's next Iconic Itinerary.  Earlier this week she was drinking martinis with buddies in Delhi delving into Delhi's grit and grime in the name of journalism.  Then she was luxuriating poolside at the Taj Hotel Chandela racing through Khajuraho like a madwoman.  Today I got an email that she was at the Taj Mahal at sundown. God, I hate her.

Who exactly is the Materialist?  She prefers to remain incognita, but I'll drop a clue anyway.

Magazines 24/7: Connecting With The Consumer, the M.P.A.'s third digital summit, Feb. 27, 2007  Photos courtesy of the M.P.A.

By Wendy Perrin

In my six months of groping my way blindly through the blogosphere, there's only one thing I've learned with any degree of certainty:  Success is measured by how many blogs you link to. (A pretty dumb measure of success, dontcha think?)  The more links you make, the more blogs link back to you, which means the more traffic you get. So here is my attempt to fill a post with as many links as possible:

Last Tuesday I was on a Magazine Publishers of America panel talking about "THE DO'S AND DON'TS OF BLOGGING."  (As if I know!)  The moderator was Heather Green, an editor at BusinessWeek who writes Blogspotting -- a blog about (you guessed it) blogs.  On the panel with me were Justin Fox, the business and economics columnist for TIME who writes its blog The Curious Capitalist;  Ben Williams, editorial director of New York Magazine's Web site, which has two very popular blogs, Daily Intelligencer and Grub Sreet;  and Jay Bryant, director of online products for TVGuide.com, who has started like a gazillion blogs, both editor-written and reader-written.

So, the day after the panel, Justin from TIME posts an amusing take on our discussion, wrapping up with this:

"When it comes to blogging, we magazine people feel like poor little upstart outsiders. Heather asked why no magazine blogs had cracked the Technorati Top 100 of the most linked-to blogs (actually, National Review Online's The Corner is No. 65, and I'd like to think our own Swampland will make it at some point). NYMag.com editorial director Ben Williams said it was because our blogs haven't been around nearly as long as the "established blogs." The blogosphere arose in part as a rebellion against the establishment Mainstream Media. Now it is its own establishment. So we're the scrappy little guys (in our midtown Manhattan skyscrapers) taking on the Mainstream Blogosphere. Yeah, that's it!  &$#@ the MSB!" 

Brett Snyder, a.k.a. The Cranky Flier.

By Wendy Perrin

Congratulations to Cranky for beating me (sob!) and the other finalists who were up for Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog in the 2007 Travel Blog Awards.  Cranky also won in the Best  Single-Author Blog category. And he deserves it, for his nifty blend of insight and humor, and for holding down a full-time job while also single-authoring a blog. Believe me, I know what a time suck that is.

What I don't know is:  That's an awfully comfy-looking airline seat.  Is he flying in business class?  And if so, why's he cranky?  Maybe that kid behind him is kicking his seat?

You can check out the blogs that won in the other categories at Upgrade: Travel Better.

By Wendy Perrin

It's the last day you can vote for your favorite travel blogs in the 2007 Travel Blog Awards.  A panel of judges -- namely, John Brownlee of Table of Malcontents; Matthew Daimler of SeatGuru; Henry Harteveldt of Forrester Research; Darryl Jenkins, a veteran aviation consultant; Michele McDonald of Air Transport World;  and Michael Miller of The Velocity Group -- voted The Perrin Post one of five finalists in the category of Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog.

The winner will now be chosen by the general public. That means you!  And when you can make a difference, shouldn't you seize the opportunity?  Cast your ballot before 5 p.m. E.S.T. today by clicking here. Don't want to vote?  It's still worth checking out the smart and imaginative sites on the list. I've discovered some terrific ones, including three of my competitors: Cheapest Destinations, Cranky Flier, and Today In Travel. The other competitor, View From The Wing, has been required reading for travel dorks like me for years now. Good luck to everybody!  The more of us out there enabling savvy travelers to share make-or-break-your-trip advice, the more empowered we will all be when we travel.

By Wendy Perrin

Whaddya know?! Yours truly has been selected as a finalist in the 2007 Travel Blog Awards in the category of Best Informative/ Practical Travel Blog.  If only the competition weren't so stiff! I'm up against some of my favorite blogs:
Cheapest Destinations
The Cranky Flier
Today In Travel
View From The Wing

The finalists were chosen by a panel of judges, but now it seems the winner will be determined by the number of votes each finalist gets from the general public, from now through Feb. 28 at 6 p.m. C.S.T.  Since anyone and everyone can vote (but only once), please do so by clicking here!

As for the other award categories, I couldn't be more thrilled that Carolyn McIntyre's Girl Solo In Arabia is a finalist in the overall Best Travel Blog category. When I saw Carolyn (whom I've known for years) in NYC the day before I left for that megaship cruise I'm still recovering from, I told her about the Travel Blog Awards and made her promise to enter. Congrats to Carolyn and all the other finalists!

By Wendy Perrin

I just went to Upgrade: Travel Better and nominated three of my favorite travel blogs for The 2007 Travvies. You can nominate a blog in any of these categories:
Best Travel Blog
Best Destination Blog
Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog
Best Group-Written Travel Blog
Best Single-Author Travel Blog
Best Photography on a Travel Blog

It's fun to scroll through the lists of nominated blogs and click to see what they're about. Because I'm so new to the blogosphere, there are many I'm learning about and instantly loving--e.g., The Cranky Flier (which seems to be a frontrunner).

I know, I know, you can hardly contain your suspense any longer, so I'll tell you my choices. For Best Destination Blog, I nominated Italy Del Giorno. For Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog, The Gate.  And, for Best Single-Author Travel Blog, Upgrade: Travel Better.  Yeah, I know, it's not officially eligible to win (since it came up with the idea for these awards and is the organizer). But I think it ought to be recognized -- for recognizing that travel blogs deserve recognition!

By Wendy Perrin

Yesterday I flew from France to J.F.K.  Now I'm at Newark International waiting for a flight to Miami because -- get this -- I was asked to be a "V.I.P. Judge" in the Bacardi Bartender & Chef Cruise Competition.  Apparently the Bacardi people invite cruise chefs and bartenders to create dishes and cocktails using Bacardi liquors and liqueurs. At first I was going to resist the temptation (I've got two kids at home and a Christmas tree to decorate with them), but my husband Tim urged me to accept the invite and go. I'll be blogging about it tonight--or,if I'm just too jet-lagged, tomorrow morning--from the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove.

By Wendy Perrin

I'm setting my DVR to record "Inside American Airlines: A Week In The Life" -- a documentary that will air tonight on CNBC at 9 pm ET.  Peter Greenberg, the travel editor on NBC's "Today" Show, says he's gotten unprecedented behind-the-scenes access at AA. "Each segment of this program," Peter says, "will have even the most experienced flyers saying 'I didn't know that.'"  That's candy to travel wonks like me.

Conde Nast Traveler's bash last night at New York's Museum of Natural History
Photos: Patrick Butler

By Wendy Perrin

What are the world's best islands?  The Maldives.
What's the best city in Europe?  Florence.
What's the world's best resort? The Four Seasons Bali at Sayan.

We learned all this and more last night at Conde Nast Traveler's annual Readers' Choice Awards ceremony, which honors the destinations, airlines, hotels, cruise lines, et al., that the magazine's well-traveled readers have rated the world's best. The award ceremony will be televised on the Travel Channel on October 25 at 8 pm E/P, but instead of making you wait, I'll share some of my favorite moments:

The actor Liam Neeson, a dedicated flyfisherman, told this story before handing out the award for best airline:  He enjoys discovering rivers off the beaten track and was once fishing in Patagonia with a 9-year-old river guide in a remote spot so "pure" that not only had the boy never heard of Paraguay, he'd never even heard of New York.  LOVE that!  The winner of the award for best U.S. airline, by the way, was JetBlue.  Singapore Airlines beat out Cathay Pacific and Emirates for best foreign airline--which surprised nobody, since Singapore has won for 18 of the last 19 years. Everyone laughed when Singapore's head of North American operations accepted the award and said, "In the words of Madonna . . .  'lt's just like the very first time.'"

I also enjoyed when Marcia Gay Harden, who was presenting the awards for best Mexican resort (La Casa Que Canta in Zihuatanejo) and best Atlantic Ocean resort (One & Only Ocean Club in the Bahamas), recalled how she was first smitten by the travel bug: As a child, she and her 4 siblings flew to Japan. (Harden's mom deserves a red badge of courage.  Can you imagine taking 5 kids between the ages of 9 and 2 on a 15-hour flight?!)  The flight attendant gave Harden a pen and a coloring book, and she couldn't have been happier. Ever since her first moments in Japan, she said, "I've loved looking for the next best place to go."

The comedienne Sandra Bernhard, who makes no secret of her lesbian leanings, announced,  "I'm proud to be bi. . . coastal" and then handed out the award for best city in the Americas (outside the U.S.): Vancouver. The Vancouver award accepter quipped that yes, it's true, in Vancouver "you can ski and golf in the same day. . .but only if you come back early from sailing."

Ivanka Trump said that one of her most meaningful vacations was when she spent two weeks traveling in Patagonia alone and learned a lot about herself.  The cruise-line awards she handed out were perhaps the biggest upset of the evening. Crystal Cruises, which has been rated the best large-ship cruise line for the last 11 years, was edged out by Regent Seven Seas by 1/10 of a percentage point.  As for best small-ship cruise line, Sea Dream Yacht Club (click here for my recent post about it) snatched the honor away from longtime favorite Silversea.

The complete award results can be found in the November issue of Conde Nast Traveler (and at cntraveler.com starting Oct. 24).  Or you can tune in to the Travel Channel on October 25.

Natasha Richardson in the green room before presenting awards onstage at the Conde Nast Traveler 2006 Readers' Choice Awards ceremony, Oct. 16, 2006

Ed Fuller, Pam Richards, and Mark Conroy, Oct. 15, 2006
Photo: Patrick Butler

By Wendy Perrin

The reason you haven't heard from me in the past few days is that I've been busy round-the-clock gearing up for Conde Nast Traveler's most action-packed two days of the year. The fun started yesterday, with our 2006 Top Travel Specialists Awards--an annual shindig honoring the world's most knowledgeable, well-connected travel agents (yes, there is such a thing as an excellent travel agent).  As part of the event I moderated a panel of industry leaders:  Ed Fuller, who runs Marriott's seven hotel brands in Asia, the Caribbean, Hawaii, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East; Pam Richards, Commissioner of Tourism for the U.S. Virgin Islands; and Mark Conroy, who heads up Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Regent Hotels.

By Wendy Perrin

In case you think the life of a travel writer is glamorous . . . tomorrow morning I get to drag myself out of bed at 5:15 a.m. to fly (in coach) down to Orlando to speak at a new travel-industry event called THE TRADE SHOW (TRADE conveniently being an abbreviation for Travel Retailing And Destination Expo) at the Orange County Convention Center.  Just looked at the speakers' schedule and noticed they've got me and Rick Steves both speaking at 2:00.  As a huge fan of Rick's guidebooks and public-television show, I'm bummed.  If we're speaking at the same time, how am I supposed to hear his talk?  Hopefully I'll have a moment to at least shake his hand before zipping from the Convention Center back to the airport to fly home so I can be back in the office Monday morning. Yes, the life of a travel writer is a glamorous thing.