Here’s an interesting hotel package: The InterContinental London Park Lane’s Insider Culture package offers guests private tours with the hotel’s Artist in Residence, currently George Lewis (his work is pictured here). As part of the package, the artist guides hotel guests through London’s Royal Academy of the Arts and then takes them on a city tour. During the tour, the artist gives tips on capturing the city in drawings and paintings. He’ll even continue the art instruction back at the hotel, so guests can have a chance to use the techniques they’ve learned that day. As an added perk, the package includes a signed print of a George Lewis piece commissioned by the hotel. Overnight accommodations and access to Club InterContinental are part of the deal, which starts at $600.

Budget Travel’s latest issue evaluates major cruise lines and ranks them by age group, so you can determine which cruise lines, in Budget Travel’s estimation at least, will be the best for your family:

Best Cruises for Kids

If I were in London right now, I’d be doing a lot of things, but beyond a shadow of a doubt, Panic Attack! Art in the Punk Years would be on my list. The show, which features British and American art from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, runs through September at the London Barbican. Artists include well-knowns like Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, Derek Jarman and Richard Pettibon.

Punk Art at London’s Barbican

Fans of curbside check-in take note: US Airways has begun charging $2 per bag for curbside check-in (previously a free service that travelers tip for) at certain U.S. airports. To see where you’ll have to fork over the extra cash, check out the link below.

US Airways Curbside Check-In

With 12 rooms created by leading Belgian fashion designers, the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand Palace Brussels may just be the most fashionable hotel in town. The 266-room hotel has been adding its Fashion Rooms to the property for the last two years. The last two rooms were completed recently. The one pictured here was designed by Kaat Tilley, a Belgian painter and fashion designer. Yes, that’s the bed!

To attract fashion-forward travelers, the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand Palace Brussels is offering a Fashion Addict package for two. Starting at 299 euro/night, the package includes:

- Overnight accommodations in a Fashion Room

- A guide to Brussels’ most fashionable districts

- A map of the Dansaert District

- Breakfast for two

- Afternoon tea for two

Have you been curious about Manhattan’s new Pod Hotel? The New York Daily News has a nice quick rundown (linked below) on this unusual new hotel, whose rooms start at $89/night and feature high-tech amenities like iHome docking stations for iPods. In exchange for the low rates, travelers will find small rooms - some with bunk beds - and lots of common space that encourages hotel guests to mix and mingle. Sounds like a great option for the 20-30 set.

Seek Inner Peas at Pod Hotel

AirTran has quietly changed its seating policy for travelers purchasing its lowest-fare flights. Until now, AirTran passengers who bought sale or discount fares from the airline couldn’t choose seats until checking in online or at the airport. Now the airline will allow these customers to pay an additional $5 to reserve a regular coach seat in advance or $15 to secure a coveted exit row seat in advance. Passengers must pay the fee for each leg of their trip.

Full-price tickets and corporate business travel tickets already allow customers to choose seats in advance free of charge.

AirTran Adds Fee to Reserve Best Seats

During the busy summer travel season, travelers should think long and hard before booking a trip with short layovers. When you’re buying a ticket, it certainly doesn’t seem appealing to pass over one that includes a 60-minute layover for another that promises a three-hour one. But with flight delays being as common as they are these days, short layovers leave little room for error. And even if you make your flight by running through the airport, your checked bags are likely to end up on the next one.

If you can choose a two-hour layover instead of a 45-minute one, it may seem like a drag at the time of purchase. But you’re giving yourself built-in security should the first leg of your trip experience minor delays. One could argue that travelers simply never know which flights will be delayed - flying is largely a game of chance these days - and that it makes little sense to plan a longer trip just because a delay might screw up your connection. If you really want to plan strategically, check out the U.S. Department of Transportation’s most recent Air Travel Consumer Report to view on-time performance at the airports you’re flying through. If you notice flight delays are common at the airports you’re using - especially during the times you’ll be flying - that longer layover might make more sense.

And you thought your last flight was bad…. Try seven hours surrounded by the smell of poop.

Sewage Spewing Plane Disgusts Passengers

You might want to brace yourself before you next arrive at London Heathrow International Airport, the world’s busiest. According to USA Today’s Kitty Bean Yancy (and travelers around the globe), the airport is nothing short of a nightmare.

Heathrow’s Bad Connections Leave Passengers Fuming