Mobil Travel Guide has announced its picks for the best North American spas of 2007. Only two establishments won Mobil’s coveted five-star rating: Spa Montage at Montage Resort in Laguna Beach, CA and The Spa at Mandarin Oriental New York. But there were plenty of four-star winners:

Mobil Four-Star Award Winners

Willow Stream, The Spa at The Fairmont, Banff Springs, Banff, AB

The Sanctuary Spa at Sanctuary, Camelback Mountain, Paradise Valley, AZ

Alvadora Spa at Royal Palms, Royal Palms Resort & Casitas, Phoenix, AZ

The Spa at Four Seasons Resort, Scottsdale at Troon North, Scottsdale, AZ

The Centre for Well-Being at The Phoenician, Scottsdale, AZ

Willow Stream, The Spa at The Fairmont, Scottsdale Princess, Scottsdale, AZ

The Spa at Omni Tucson National, Tucson, AZ

Ancient Cedars Spa, Wickaninnish Inn, Tofino, BC

The Spa at Four Seasons Resort, Whistler, BC

The Peninsula Spa, Beverly Hills, The Peninsula Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills, CA

The Beverly Hills Hotel Spa by La Prairie, Beverly Hills, CA

The Spa at Beverly Wilshire, Beverly Hills, CA

Post Ranch Spa, Post Ranch Inn, Big Sur, CA

The Bathhouse, Calistoga Ranch, Calistoga, CA

The Spa at Four Seasons Resort Aviara, Carlsbad, CA

The Spa at Bernardus Lodge, Carmel Valley, CA

Spa Gaucin, St Regis Monarch Beach, Dana Point, CA

The Ritz-Carlton Spa, Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, CA

The Ritz-Carlton Spa, Half Moon Bay, Half Moon Bay, CA

The Spa at Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, CA

The Spa at Torrey Pines, Lodge at Torrey Pines, La Jolla, CA

The Spa at The Carneros Inn, Napa, CA

The Spa at the Island Hotel, Newport Beach, CA

Spa du Sureau, Chateau du Sureau, Oakhurst, CA

Spa Ojai, Ojai Valley Inn and Spa, Ojai, CA

The Spa at Pebble Beach, Pebble Beach Resorts, Pebble Beach, CA

Spa du Soleil, Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford, CA

Remede Spa, St. Regis San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

The Spa at CordeValle, The Lodge at CordeValle, San Martin, CA

Bacara Spa, Bacara Resort and Spa, Santa Barbara, CA

The Spa at Four Seasons Resort, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA

The Ritz-Carlton Spa, Bachelor Gulch, Avon, CO

The Spa at the Broadmoor, Colorado Springs, CO

The Spa at the Brown Palace, Denver, CO

The Mayflower Spa, The Mayflower Inn, Washington, CT

The Spa at Mandarin Oriental Washington DC

Willow Stream, The Spa at The Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort, Aventura, FL

Spa Palazzo at The Boca Raton Resort & Club, Boca Raton, FL

The Ritz-Carlton Spa, Key Biscayne, Key Biscayne, FL

Canyon Ranch SpaClub at Gaylord Palms Resort, Kissimmee, FL

SpaTerre at Little Palm Island, Little Torch Key, FL

The Spa at Mandarin Oriental Miami

The Spa at The Setai, Miami Beach, FL

The Ritz Carlton Spa, Naples, Naples, FL

The Ritz-Carlton Spa, Orlando, Grande Lakes, Orlando, FL

The Spa at The Breakers, Palm Beach, FL

The Ritz-Carlton Members Spa Club, Ritz-Carlton Sarasota, Sarasota, FL

The Ritz Carlton Spa, South Beach, South Beach, FL

The Ritz-Carlton Lodge Spa, Reynolds Plantation, Greensboro, GA

Spa at Sea Island, The Cloister, Sea Island, GA

Spa Halekulani, Halekulani, Honolulu, HI

Spa Suites at The Kahala Hotel and Resort, Honolulu, HI

Hualalai Sports Club and Spa, Four Seasons, Resort Hualalai, Ka’upulehu-Kona, HI

The Spa at Manele Bay, Four Seasons Resort Lanai, Lanai, HI

Spa Grande at The Grand Wailea Resort, Wailea, Maui, HI

The Spa at Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea, Wailea, Maui, HI

The Peninsula Spa, Peninsula Chicago, Chicago, IL

The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, Chicago, IL

The White Barn Inn Spa, White Barn Inn, Kennebunkport, ME

The Spa at Pinehurst, The Carolina at Pinehurst, Pinehurst, NC

The Ritz-Carlton Spa, Lake Las Vegas, Henderson, NV

Canyon Ranch SpaClub at The Venetian Resort Hotel, Las Vegas, NV

Spa Bellagio at Bellagio, Las Vegas, NV

The Spa at Four Seasons, Hotel Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV

The Spa at Wynn Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV

The Spa at Emerson Place, Mount Tremper, NY

The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel New York, New York, NY

The Peninsula Spa, New York, The Peninsula New York, New York, NY

Stillwater Spa, Park Hyatt Toronto, Toronto, ON

Woodlands Spa at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, Farmington, PA

Spa at the Sanctuary at Kiawah Island, Kiawah, SC

The Spa and Salon at Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas, Irving, TX

Trellis, The Spa at The Houstonian, Houston, TX

The Watermark Spa, Watermark Hotel & Spa, San Antonio, TX

The Spa at Stein Eriksen Lodge, Park City, UT

The Greenbrier Spa, White Sulpher Springs, WV

The Spa at Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole, Teton Village, WY

Clearly, finding a top-rated spa is easier when you’re in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Florida or somewhere involving snow.

Mobil Travel Guide’s Best of the Best Spas 2007

In the celebrity travel world, we’ve got some really big, important news to share with you today. Kirsten Dunst of Spiderman I, II and III fame reportedly attended the London premiere for the final Spidey film, got wasted and then went back to London’s Covent Garden Hotel. Shocking, scandalous and very, very important news.

If you were to visit the Covent Garden Hotel, you’d find a boutique property in the heart of the city that offers a fitness room, beauty treatment room and private, 53-seat screening room.

Kirsten Dunst Gets Crazy Drunk in London

Say you and three friends want to spend a weekend in New York sometime soon. You want solid accommodations, but you don’t care if your hotel is the trendiest thing in the Meatpacking District. For you, price is more important than swankitude. But you still want enough room for the four of you and amenities like free high-speed Internet access, flat screen TVs and iPod hook-ups.

Get thee to the Park 79 Hotel at 79th and Columbus. For $269/night, you can stay the weekend. There’s a bedroom with a queen bed and a double pullout sleeper sofa. Divide it by four - $67.25 per person, per night. NOT BAD for an NYC stay. While you’re in that neighborhood, it would be a crime to miss breakfast at EJ’s on Amsterdam.

The Chicago Tribune’s Cost of Canceling is in the Fine Print highlights cancellation policies at Expedia and other sites. The story reminded me of some basics hotel travelers should keep in mind when making and canceling hotel reservations.

- Know the cancellation policy before you book. When you make your reservation, whether by phone or online, make sure to hunt down the hotel or web site’s cancellation policy. And remember that cancellation policies may vary depending on the rate you choose. For example, super-cheap Internet rates can have no-cancellation rules written right into the fine print. Paying slightly more for the same room might give you more flexibility.

- Call the vendor first. If you have to cancel your reservation, your first point of contact should be the company through which you made your reservation. If you made a reservation through Travelocity and you discover you have to cancel it at the last minute (say, because your flight got delayed or canceled), call Travelocity’s customer service before contacting the hotel directly.

- Keep important customer service numbers on hand. When traveling, it can be a big help to have customer service phone numbers for airlines, hotels and online travel agents. If you get stranded at the airport, you can get help with your contingent travel plans and reservations as efficiently as possible.

- Cancel the whole reservation. When you cancel a hotel reservation for multiple days or with multiple rooms, make sure to confirm with the company that you’ve actually canceled everything associated with the reservation and not just part of the trip.

- Ask for a cancellation confirmation. When you do cancel a hotel reservation, print out the cancellation confirmation you receive online or ask the customer service representative to send you a copy via email or regular mail. This will be helpful if charges still end up on your credit card.

Lastly, my advice when canceling a reservation is to do it over the phone. I find that making reservations is easiest online, but I have less confidence in canceling them that way. I’d rather speak to a person who can tell me what, if any, cancellation penalty charges I am responsible for and when they will appear on my credit card.

Hotel Interactive’s Glenn Haussman test drove a room at the first Cambria Suites property, located in Boise, ID, during last week’s grand-opening event. Haussman gave the Cambria Suites Boise’s design, amenities and overall atmosphere a thumbs up:

While banging out my latest hotel industry treatise I was able to also keep my eyes on “World’s Deadliest Catch” while enjoying complimentary bottled water. After I while I took advantage of the wireless internet connection to work from the couch, something I never do at home but was thrilled to do it here. Oh yeah, I was able to download the last episode of ‘Lost’ at rates of up to 100k, nearly three times faster than many four star hotels I’ve been at lately.

Before the grand opening hoopla took place I grabbed a shower and enjoyed fabulous water pressure and sundry products from Bath and Bodyworks. I loved the natural scented soap and cherished the fact there was separate shampoo and conditioner. What the heck is conditioning shampoo all about anyway? The spa style sink was a pretty neat idea too and real glassware made for a satisfying experience too.

Downstairs, the lobby featured plenty of sitting room, a fireplace and a sweeping two story atrium which helped make the lobby feel more like an organic meeting place. In too many select service hotels, the lobby just seems likes a place meant to pass through or have bite of a poorly executed continental breakfast.

Cambria is a Suite Deal

Citysearch has just posted its editorial round-up of the Best Hotels Nationwide 2007. You’ll find winners for major cities around the U.S. in the following categories:

* Best Airport Hotel

* Best Bed and Breakfast Hotel

* Best Boutique Hotel

* Best Budget Hotel

* Best Business Hotel

* Best Family-Friendly Hotel

* Best Dining Hotel

* Best Luxury Hotel

* Best Pet-Friendly Hotel

* Best Romantic Hotel

* Best Tourist Hotel

* Best Weekend Getaway Hotel

A lot of web site come up with top ten lists, but Citysearch bases its winners on votes from its site visitors - and over here at TravelPost.com, we love travel advice generated by real people. Check ‘em out before you check in…

For many of today’s frequent travelers, the no-tech vacation is something of a conundrum (Wait, no television? Then how am I supposed to watch The Inferno III?). In fact, the last time most of us were anywhere near being “off the grid” involved an unsolicited power outage followed by disbelief, then sheer panic. Don’t try to deny it.

But as much as we love (and we mean love love, not like love) technology, destinations without plasma televisions, resort-wide wireless Internet access, in-room telephones and the latest gaming consoles give us something that’s often impossible to pin down on the grid: ourselves.

Don’t worry. We’re not talking about destinations where you’ll end up twisted into a yoga pretzel drinking green tea before a mandatory colonic treatment in the “spa.” We’re talking about 10 places you can visit where the sound of the surf is louder than the television in the next room, where news of Anna Nicole’s paternity test doesn’t cause a mad rush to the business center’s Internet kiosks and, finally, where wake-up calls are more likely to come from birds outside than bedside phones.

Check out our list of 10 No-Tech Escapes here.

Via the Travel Gear Blog, I was reminded of Aqua Bells Travel Weights. Pack ‘em, fill ‘em, lift and lower. How’s that for an easy on-the-go workout?

Extra, extra, read all about it. Orbitz said it was going green and now it has. Volunteer vacations, carbon offsets. Yes and yes.

Orbitz Goes Green from the Inside Out

On June 1, Deltawill become the first major U.S. airline to offer carbon offsets when travelers buy tickets online. The airline will donate 100 percent of the money to the Conservation Fund, which will plant trees and support other programs to reduce carbon emissions.

Delta’s Force for Global Good