10 hotel chains on sale: Book 2 nights, get 1 night free

Rather than blog about the latest airline news or innovation in rental cars (which is what I normally do), I thought I'd put out a little plug instead. We're currently soliciting nominations from readers for our annual "Coolest Small Towns" package in the magazine, and I want you to contribute! Click on this link, and tell us about a cool small town that you think deserves recognition, whether it's for its thriving art scene, eclectic mix of residents, or fantastic local restaurants. We definitely want places with an edge to them—so don’t go for quaint. And the towns MUST have a population under 10,000. Besides that, anything goes. I recently visited a couple of towns we included in this package over the past couple of years, Catskill and Hudson, both of which are in New York's Hudson valley. While Hudson is thriving—it has restaurants that can rival those in New York City—I was saddened to see that Catskill isn't doing that well. Perhaps it's the economy—it's tough for out-of-the-way towns to prosper when nobody's spending money. Catskill is a dreamy little place—the architecture is fantastic, and the few antique and crafts shops on Main Street are well worth a visit if you happen to be in the area. (You can visit Catskill and Hudson the same day; they're across the river from each other.) Maybe getting your small town in our magazine will help boost its economy at a critical time—so fill out this online form! (Please, don't post a comment below on this blog, but instead click on this online form.)

The best books, the best albums, the best movies, and even the Top 10 everything. It's the season for lists, and the only thing more entertaining than making up your own list is compiling a list of the lists of others. If it's shopping ideas you want, a good place to start are our lists on good gifts from both international museums and museums in New York. But if that still leaves you with shopping-list holes to fill, there are lots more options for travel presents. Let us know what other good ones are out there in the comments…. Holiday Travel Gadgets for Geeks for Under $100 [Peter Greenberg] Affordable Travel Gift Guide 2008 [Travel and Leisure] 10 travel gifts I’d like to receive (hint, hint) [Tripso] Travel Tip Tuesday - Travel Gifts $25 and Under [My Melange] Travel Books of the Year [Guardian] Gadling's Gift Guide Travel gifts for $25 or less [Examiner.com] Holiday Travel Gift Guide 2008 [Concierge] Holiday Books: Travel [New York Times] Holiday Gifts for Your Favorite Wanderer [Los Angeles Times] Budget Travel Gift Guide [Time] Holiday gifts for your favorite wanderer [Chicago Tribune] Women’s Travel Gifts [Girlfriendology] Holiday gifts for green travelers [LAT] Travel Books Make Great Holiday Gifts [SmarterTravel.com] Good to go: Travel gifts for tight budgets [MSNBC] 20 more travel gifts under $20 [Less Than a Shoestring]

Spending time at a café is one of the greatest (and cheapest) pleasures of Paris. There are more than 2,000 of them in the city, ranging from utilitarian countertops to fanny-pack meccas like Les Deux Magots. They all offer a space to rest, read, refresh, mingle, and openly stare at strangers. What they do not offer, outside of Starbucks at least, is the freedom to "have it your way." In contrast to their American counterparts, which offer countless ways to customize a beverage, the French café has a short and unyielding list of options. You can ask for decaf by tacking the word déca onto any order, but other appeals will be met with confusion. Half-caf, skinny, soy, and so on just don't play here in Paris. The same holds true for low-maintenance requests like milk, artificial sweetener, and to-go cups. I wondered for years why Paris hadn't "caught up" with the rest of the world—why its residents were content to sip untailored sludge from tiny demitasse cups. Didn't they know how much better it could be to drink an extra-hot latte while walking down the sidewalk? I finally realized that the drink is not the point. Parisians love their cafés, but don't care at all about coffee. The beverage is simply an admission ticket, something that's secondary to the human drama all around you. The cheap seats for this show include un café or un express (a shot of espresso served in a small cup), un double café (two shots of espresso in a slightly larger cup), un café allongé (one shot of espresso with extra hot water). These drinks run less than 3€ ($3.75) if you're sitting at a table. You'll save fifty centimes if you take your drink while standing at the counter, and you'll add a similar amount if you enjoy it on the terrasse. Milk-based beverages are more expensive, often double the price of non-dairy drinks. Popular orders include un café crème (a shot of espresso with hot milk) and un cappuccino (a shot of espresso with abundant foamed milk). On a touristy terrasse these can top a whopping 7€ ($8.75). My favorite drink—the café noisette—is a cheaper compromise. It's a regular espresso topped with a small spoonful of milk, but it costs only twenty centimes more than a basic café. Don't feel like coffee? French cafés also serve alcohol, and during the apéro hour you'll find plenty of beer mugs and wine glasses among the coffee cups. Fruit juice, tea, hot chocolate, and soda are also available, but these are among the most expensive items on the menu. For the same price as a lukewarm Diet Coke, you could pay for two glasses of wine. One for you and one for your friend—the one you brought or the one that you're likely to make. DOWNLOAD OUR PARIS MENU DECODER Try our 2008 one-page cheat-sheet to key French café and restaurant terms. (It opens as a PDF file.) It's written by Clotilde Dusoulier, author of Clotilde’s Edible Adventures in Paris.

Trips to cheer up those winter blues, whether you're looking to flee the cold or embrace it European Ski VillagesWe're spotlighting three storybook ski villages, in Switzerland, Austria, and Italy. Each is authentic to its roots, more affordable than people imagine, and perfect in its own way. Grand Bahama IslandThe choice is yours: sitting in your cubicle watching the clock tick or sipping a bahama mama on the deck at rumrunners Kauai, HawaiiHow do we love Hawaii's greenest slice of paradise? Michael Endelman counts the top 25 ways, in no particular order LondonLearning to love London sounds so easy, right? The city's charms are legendary. But as Dave Herndon found out when he moved there for all the right reasons, the dropping dollar has London playing hard to get MiamiA our seven-page mini-guide to all things Miami, including hotels, restaurants, and attractions New York CityThere are 8 million experts in New York City--and counting. Charlie Suisman, the man behind Manhattan User's Guide website, agreed to cherry-pick a few places you mustn't miss Quebec CityThe soul of New France is now a sophisticated city of one million. Head north of the border to discover its charms for yourself Reno, NevadaThe poor man's Vegas is having a moment. Sleek new bars are mixing with existing kitsch to make Reno an ideal three-day weekend destination The Sea Islands, GeorgiaThe Georgia coastline--yes, Georgia has a coastline--is a many-splendored place. And the vibe changes dramatically from island to island to island St. LuciaFor three men raised on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, growing up meant getting out. But each found his way home--and now runs a small hotel there. Whitney Pastorek finds out what drew them back