If you’re going to be in New York this weekend and you love travel, consider checking out the New York Times Travel Show, a veritable smorgasbord of travel information from resorts, hotels, spas, cruise lines, tour operators, tourist agencies and adventure travel companies from around the world. Along with vendor booths and live entertainment performances representing a vast array of cultures, the show features a Taste of the World Pavilion filled with international cuisine and cooking demonstrations, a Spa Pavilion offering sample treatments and discounted packages at spa resorts, travel author appearances and special travel deals offered to folks brave enough to book their next vacation on the spot. And with travel experts Rick Steves, Arthur Frommer, Ian Wright and Stephanie Abrams - among many others - leading seminars, the show offers a rare chance for face-to-face learning from leading peeps in the industry. Cost: $15.

Since opening during the spring of 2005, 9 Beaches resort in Sandys, Bermuda has been making a name for itself with it’s eco-friendly practices and flip-flop-friendly attitude. And being one of the closest resorts to the United States that boasts over-the-water cottages with viewing windows in the floor, it’s a no-brainer for romantic getaways, weddings and anniversaries.

Just how eco-positive is the resort? The staff tools around the property on battery-operated vehicles. Lighting and hot water are powered by the sun, and rainwater is caught and recycled for hotel use. Local produce is used in the kitchen, and bicycles are available for guest use around the property. There’s even a “waterless” garden (known to enviro-geeks as a xeriscape).

We caught up with 9 Beaches General Manager Robin Gilbert, a native Bermudan and fount of local knowledge. Here, he gives us his picks for what to see and do during a visit to his island home.

9 Beaches has made a commitment to environmental stewardship. What unique environmental challenges does Bermuda face?

We get the majority of our water on the island by roof catch systems. There are centralized reverse osmosis facilities on the island, and we’ve all grown up knowing that water is very precious.

Things that other parts of the world are just coming around to, we’ve grown up with that thought process.

With transport, we’re limited to one car per household, and we’ve only had cars since 1968. From the get-go there was only one car per household. Most people have mopeds.

Tell us about the resort’s “waterless” garden.

Everything we have growing on the property is basically from Bermuda originally and doesn’t require a human being to be watering it. We have cedar trees, palm trees, cacti, succulents, aloe. Because nobody lives more than a half-mile from the sea, everything is covered in salt spray. We have to remember that when it comes to what we plant.

Your resort describes its dress code as “flip-flops required.” How many days a year do you wear ‘em?

Only on my day off.

On your ideal day off, where on the island would we find you?

Either on the beach or on the boat.

Most of the beaches are on the south coast. Horseshoe Bay is the largest beach on the island, and there are small coves on the east of Horseshoe Bay where it’s very quiet and there’s room for plenty of people.

Where would you send us to score postcard-worthy views?

For picture taking right on the property, there’s the sunset and the views of the Bay.

There’s the lighthouse, one of the high points on the island. It’s 15 minutes away.

The Dockyards is an amazing visitor attraction. It was built back in the 1800’s, and it’s been brought back to life. There’s a museum, restaurants, a small movie houses.

We want to watch the perfect sunset. Where would you send us?

The sunsets off the edge of the property are just absolutely spectacular. The sky lights up, and it’s just fantastic.

One morning, we’re feeling especially lazy. But we still want to see something of the island. What activity would you recommend?

If you want a lazy day, find yourself a beach. We have two 70-yard ones and also little ones.

For about $10-$15, one can rent a kayak and paddle around the point. There’s a shipwreck in a protected area, and we’re lucky it’s 100 yards off our property.

The next morning, we’re full of energy and ready to exert ourselves. What can’t-miss excursion would you recommend for active, outdoorsy travelers?

One option is to go to the Dockyards. It’s the most popular sightseeing attraction on the island. Get the Fast Ferry to St. George’s. It’s a great trip. You see the north side of the island. Look around St. George’s. There’s Fort St. Catherine, where the first settlers were shipwrecked. In folklore, this is what Shakespeare based his play The Tempest on.

The public transportation on the island is very good. For $4, you can get a bus all the way back to 9 Beaches. You can get back here in time for Happy Hour, or as we call it, Attitude Adjustment Hour.

As a blogger, staying connected is important (okay, an obsession), even when I’m on vacation. How wired is the resort?

The other day I was driving around with our techie on the golf cart, and he was picking up a signal on his laptop in most places - I would say about 70 percent of the resort.

What should every Bermuda visitor take home (i.e. special local product, souvenir, etc.)?

Bermuda Honey. We also have fantastic rum cakes. Down at the Dockyards, there’s a glass foundry. You can take home sand in a little jar. We’ve got enough to spare.

A day at 9 Beaches wouldn’t be complete without _______.

A Dark ‘n Stormy or a Swizzle. A Dark & Stormy is the most popular local drink. It’s made of black rum and ginger beer. Have it very cold.

Yeah, last minute travel can be cool. But it can also leave you cash poor, especially when you’re talking high-season travel in major vacation destinations. But as with most things in life, a just little edumuhcation can go a long way. Case in point: Kayak.com’s Fare Alerts.

Create a Fare Alert (or 12) on Kayak.com or SideStep.com for the summer getaway(s) currently sequestered in your noggin by clicking on the “Get fare alerts for this trip” link on the top right-hand corner of the flight results page. You can track fares for specific dates, a flexible span of time (e.g. summer weekends or, say, the month of June) or an entire region (e.g. Europe). When your daily or weekly Fare Alert (you choose how often it arrives) touches down in your email inbox, you’ll be able to make informed travel decisions.

Depending on what you ask it to track (specific dates, flexible span of time or even top cities in a region), each Fare Alert can show you:

- How much the fare for specific dates has increased or decreased in dollars since the last alert

- The airfare history for your trip dates based on searches made by Kayakers over the past 90 days

- A snapshot of prices in Kayak.com’s matrix view, so you can quickly compare prices by carrier and number of stops

- The lowest fare available during a specific span of time (e.g. the next four weekends)

- The best fares available for popular destination cities in a region you want to visit (e.g. Africa)

Who knows, maybe you’ll still pay craptons to travel to the most expensive resort on the hottest island right in the middle of the high season. After all, it’s high season for a reason. But at least you’ll be pimping it out with full knowledge of your unbridled American excess. Just remember the wisdom of G.I. Joe.

(**Editor’s note: Yeah, Kayak.com owns us. You wanna make something of it? I’ll have you know I was surreptitiously using Fare Alerts to aid in making my personal travel plans long before Kayak.com bought our parent company SideStep.com in December. Nepotism, bias, blah, blah, blah. Fare Alerts just make good travel sense.)

Yup. You read that right. Spirit Airlines sent out a promotional email touting its new M.I.L.F. sale. Although the airline claims it wasn’t aware of the acronym’s notorious connotations and that - as far as its sale is concerned - M.I.L.F. stands for Many Islands, Low Fares, the rumor is that the marketing arm knew full-well what it was doing by launching a sale with that title. And wouldn’t ya know? It worked. The blogosphere is awhirl with commentary on the subject.

P.S. The $9 fares offered in the promo have all been snapped up.

We recently learned that Temptation Resort & Spa will open on Dec. 21, 2007 in Cancun, Mexico, but when we went to learn more about the tropical getaway spot, we were accosted by the image of a middle-aged couple of sub-par attractiveness about to swap spit right before our very impressionable eyes. Suddenly, in the middle of our otherwise ordinary day, we felt like we were spying against our will on our former high school math teacher about to make out with the super lame, balding coach of the JV basketball squad. Our only relief from this shocking pictorial? Cheesy dudes with budding man-boobs and a woman sporting an obvious lady wedgie. Needless to say, at first glance, temptation was the last thing on our minds.

But being the curious Georges that we are, we delved deeper. And guess what? On the Accommodations Page, we met up with the math teacher and JV coach again, and this time, things seemed to be getting seriously steamy. Then we started to feel ashamed and decided to check out the Nightly Entertainment page, only to learn that “sensual fitness” is just one of the many fun activities in which guests may partake (preferably, it seems, while wearing ill-fitting pleather outfits and g-strings bedecked in fake feathers).

We will say that the Restaurants & Bars page looked okay. Until a photograph of the women from the “sensual fitness” experience popped up, and we once again became uncomfortable.

Is this an adults-only Caribbean oasis where fantasy and reality compete for equal space on the dance floor and people successfully pull off impersonations of Pam Anderson and Kid Rock? Or merely a swingers resort in sheep’s clothing? Ponder as you click through the pages.

Room rates at this all-inclusive resort range from $139 to $206, based on double occupancy. The resort is now taking reservations for stays after Dec. 21, 2007. How tempted are you?

US Airways is rolling out new coach class meal options that it says are healthier and made with higher quality ingredients. Of course, along with the “premium” edibles come matching prices. Up until now, US Airways has charged $5 for its in-flight dining options and snack boxes. Now the price will be $7. For your extra $2, here are examples of the new options you’ll find onboard your next flight (I say examples because the choices will change every few months):

Breakfast: a deli plate with mini bagels, slices of peppered turkey, provolone and cheddar cheese served with red grapes and cream cheese or cinnamon-flavored French toast with a honey-nut cream cheese spread and sliced deli ham served with a side of red grapes.

Lunch: a marinated, grilled chicken salad served on a bed of romaine lettuce and garnished with roasted pecans and mandarin oranges or sliced turkey on molasses bread with green leaf lettuce and a jellied cranberry sauce, served with Kettle Classic natural potato chips.

Snack: The new snack box includes chicken salad, garlic and rosemary crackers, a fruit bar, fruit and nut mix and chocolate mint chip cookies.

Note that in-flight meals are available on select domestic, Caribbean and Latin America flights over 3.5 hours between 5am and 8pm (hence the lack of dinner options).

It’s too bad we can’t just change the U.S. passport rules, like, every six weeks. Because I’m sure going to miss all the excitement once when we get back to having hard and fast passport rules for traveling abroad. This is just way too much fun.

Starting Monday, U.S. citizens traveling by air to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean or Bermuda must present a valid passport. That rule first went into effect in January, but was temporarily relaxed over the summer due to the passport backlog. Now it’s back. So put your little blue folio in your carry-on before you head out to the airport.

Confused about U.S. passport rules or how to apply for your passport? Check out TravelPost.com’s How to Get a Passport.

Starting Monday, New Passport Requirements Kick In

Where better to recover from a drug binge than St. Lucia’s Jade Mountain Resort? Amy Winehouse and her husband Blake Fielder-Civil have just left the Caribbean resort in a $1,000-a-night suite, which the hotel staff has admitted checking daily for evidence of drug use after a neighboring hotel guest complained of “strange smells” coming from the British singer’s suite. According to reports from various news sources (Winehouse in Hotel Drug Search, Daily Drug Hunt at Amy’s Hotel, Troubled Singer Amy Back in Britain, etc.), Winehouse and her husband took the week-long vacation to relax after leaving rehab earlier in August and being caught by photographers bloodied and scratched in the middle of the night outside their London hotel. The pair has returned to the UK for the time being.

If you were to visit the Jade Mountain Resort, you’d find “sanctuaries,” instead of rooms. Each offers an infinity-edge pool overlooking the Caribbean, tropical hardwood furnishings, bathrooms with water views and whirlpool tubs. And dining in the Treehouse restaurant at the resort is an experience not to be missed. The dining room is level with the tops of the trees outside - quite a view. Right now the resort is offering a 5th night free to guests who stay four nights in a Star or Moon category suite. Book by Sept. 15th.

With Air Canada’s Flight Pass program, travelers can purchase credits for one-way flights to be used during the next calendar year. Travelers buy tickets at a fixed cost (which Air Canada says is about 30 percent less than it would cost to buy the tickets a la carte) and use them when they want to visit the destinations covered under their specific Flight Pass package.

So that’s the short tutorial. Here’s the news: Air Canada has beefed up the program with Sun Passes to U.S., Mexico and Caribbean destinations. Costs vary depending on the number of credits you purchase, number of travelers using the credits and the part of Canada you’ll be traveling to/from using your passes.

But for the sake of an example, you could purchase a six credit Central Canada Sun Pass for $2,394 (Canadian) that covers travel from cities in Ontario and Quebec to Florida, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Dominican Republic.

Purchase a ticket on US Airways to one of 22 beach in Mexico and the Caribbean by Sept. 30, 2007, pay with your Mastercard and travel between Sept. 1 and Nov. 14, 2007 and you’ll save 5 percent and get 5,000 bonus Dividend Miles. To get the savings, you have to book tickets directly through US Airways, enter eCertificate code MCBEACH5 at checkout and then register online to receive your bonus miles.

5 Percent Off Mexico, Caribbean Beaches