At the Marriott Niagara Falls Fallsview and Spa Hotel, they really aren’t joking about the views. One pleasantly surprised TravelPoster recently uploaded this pic after a visit to this hotel.

If you were to visit the Marriott Niagara Falls Fallsview, you’d find a 432-guestrooms, the Serenity Spa by the Falls, a skywalk to the nearby Fallsview Casino, the Fallsview Theatre inside the hotel and the Terrapin Grille restaurant.

Number one: guys who possess a certain amount of swankitude should read Thrillist. It’s kinda like Daily Candy for boys. Number two: Thrillist is a fan of Luxe City Guides, which I haven’t had the pleasure of reading just yet, but I certainly look forward to doing so now that I’ve read about them. Thrillist describes them as:

Slickly designed, pocket-sized intel on the greatest dining, drinking, and money-blowing options available to the discerning man-about-planet. The accordion-style cardstock pamphlets break down 16 Asian locales, 3 Euro cities, and…New York (since apparently some people don’t find Minneapolis “luxe”).

I am sure women-about-planet can also benefit from these. At the very least, we can benefit from better-informed men. ‘Nuff said.

Luxe City Guides

Heading to Montreal this summer? Le Centre Sheraton Hotel is having a last-minute sale on its regular room rates. Use the rate code 2007SALE when making reservations through the hotel web site to save $50 off the regular room rate. That brings the nightly rate to $139. The hotel is only offering 139 rooms at this rate, so you may not be able to get the exact dates you want. Good for stays Aug. 1-2 and 5-31.

What a combo: breast milk and lighters. Normally, the two have very little in common, save their liquid contents. But the two are appearing in headlines together now that the TSA has announced that as of Aug. 4, 2007, both common lighters and quantities of breast milk over 3 oz. will be permitted in carry-on luggage and through U.S. airport security checkpoints. Previously, all lighters were banned and women traveling without children could not bring breast milk through security. Torch lighters (you know, those crazy rocket-fuel lighters that have flames like bunsen burners) are still prohibited, but anyone can bring breast milk aboard. Not gonna even touch that one….except to say this is a double win for breast-feeding smokers.

TSA New Policy for Breast Milk and Lighters

Good news for the tech-obsessed outdoorspeople among us: the number of KOA campgrounds offering free wireless Internet access grew to 324 in 2007, up from 167 in 2006. Also, the number of KOA campgrounds offering wireless Internet access of any kind increased to 379 in 2007, up from 281 last year. Just don’t leave your laptop lying around the camp site while you’re out enjoying the woods. We hear they make tasty bear snacks.

Cozy up to the Camp Fire and Check Your Email

So now we know, and knowing is half the battle. Virgin America tickets officially go on sale tomorrow. The first flights (San Francisco - Los Angeles and San Francisco - New York) take off on Aug. 8, 2007.

Tickets to Go on Sale for Virgin America Flights

Want to see San Francisco on foot guided by a fourth-generation native and ex-Shakespearean actor with a killer radio voice? Hmm. Maybe that never crossed your mind. But yes, with iPod-friendly MP3 audio tours from Stroll San Francisco, anyone visiting the city can explore its neighborhoods and streets this way. The company’s 33 tours (a total of 4.5 hours in length) feature professional actors portraying the city’s colorful historical characters, real San Franciscans telling their own stories and well-known city historians bringing the past to life, as well as great music, sound effects and lively narration. You can buy all 33 tours for $19.95 or the lite version with 11 tours for $14.95. Tours cover topics from the broad to the niche, the expected to the less-expected. Here are a few examples of tour topics:

- Janis Joplin’s House

- North Beach

- Emperor Norton

- Stow Lake

- The Buffalo Soldiers and Black Jack Pershing

- The Golden Dragon Massacre

And as the Stroll San Francisco web site points out, you don’t even have to be walking around the city to get value out of these tours. You could, say, fire ‘em up on the flight and wow your sure-to-be-appreciative travel companions with all your geeky knowledge once you’re here.

I happened to be perusing San Francisco-based men’s retailer On the Fly today and ran across the Mulholland Brothers Collapsible Shave Kit pictured here. I have a soft spot for collapsible travel gear - I just hate it when you come home, unpack and have all this bulky luggage to store until the next trip. This is one of those classy, yet practical travel accessories that (I think) any guy would love to leave home with. At $135-145, it’s not exactly a bargain, but you can pat yourself on the back for buying a leather accessory that’s actually handmade in the U.S.A. - San Francisco to be exact.

FYI: Virgin America will offer mapping powered by Google Maps from its in-seat entertainment consoles when it launches later this summer.

Virgin America to Include Google Maps on Flights

Traveling shoe fetishists have reason to head to the Boston Center for the Arts today for the opening of Canada’s BATA Shoe Museum free exhibit of famous and exotic shoes. On display through July 28th, the exhibit features such vaunted footwear as Marilyn Monroe’s red silk high-heel boudoir slippers (and no, we’re not talking about the ones in the picture!) and unusual offerings like 19th-century shoes worn by the Sioux and Inuit and 18th-century evening shoes. Wish we had a pic of the Marilyn slips, but I suppose you’ll just have to go check out the show if you want to see them.

Exhibition of Toronto’s Bata Shoe Museum