The word is out, Tony Parker and Eva Longoria are reportedly staying at the posh Park Hyatt Paris Vendome Hotel before their nuptials tomorrow.

Not a bad place to stay in the days leading up to one’s wedding. Le spa, available only to guests of the hotel, offers limestone steam rooms, salon services, fitness coaching and body treatments like the mineral-rich body contouring wrap with mud from the Dead Sea.

That’s Showbuzz! Highlights of US Celebrity Magazines

This month, Lonely Planet launches its new Encounter guidebook series with eight new titles aimed at travelers on short breaks and weekend jaunts to major cities like London, Dublin, Hong Kong and New York. At 6 x 4 inches, the guides are a good size for lugging around the city and include pull out maps and itineraries designed for two- to five-day trips. And along with the regular tourist information, this guide series offers tips, favorite destinations and other morsels from local celebrities (e.g. Craig Newmark in San Francisco).

Introducing Lonely Planet Encounter

Got a little European travel news for you today. Starting June 10, travelers will be able to take a train from Paris to Suttgart, Germany in half the time it now takes to travel that route - and for less money. The new high-speed TGV train will depart Paris Est station (not hard to reach from the Paris Nord station’s Eurostar terminal, which means travelers from London can easily use this new service, too) and reach its destination in 3 hours, 39 minutes (now it takes about 6 hours, 15 minutes and involves multiple transfers). The one-way ticket price for the new high-speed train will run 95 GBP, while it now costs about 102 GBP for the longer route.

High-speed Trains to Link Paris with Two Key Business Cities in Germany

Over here at TravelPost.com, we love travel advice generated for travelers by travelers. While we’re all about hotel reviews, our pals at VirtualTourist are flush with travel guides, advice, tips and deals posted by real travelers. The site’s community of 850,000+ members from around the globe have posted 1.5 million reviews of shops, lodging options, restaurants and attractions in both popular and off-the-beaten path destinations. The reviews are well written and often include photographs taken during members’ travels. It’s a great resource to bookmark, whether you’re looking for the a city’s hot clubs or laid-back coffee shops.

To get to know the site, check out these VirtualTourist Travel Guides to popular destinations in Europe and the United States:

Paris Travel Guide

London Travel Guide

New York Travel Guide

San Francisco Travel Guide

Las Vegas Travel Guide

Orlando Travel Guide

Los Angeles Travel Guide

Prague Travel Guide

Rome Travel Guide

If you’ve ever thought about going the home rental route instead of shelling out for a hotel on a vacation to Europe, you’ve probably wondered how to find accommodations. It can be daunting to rent a home in another country, especially site unseen. Daily Candy has some suggestions for renting beach homes, as well as private dwellings in France, Italy, Greece and Morocco. Check check check it out.

Daily Candy’s In Your House

Travelers can find lots of meaty “best of” picks in Conde Nast Traveler’s 2007 Gold List, its definitive guide to the best hotels and cruise accommodations the world has to offer. Search by location or categories like rooms, service, design, food and activities. If, for example, you wanted to know which hotels have the most impressive rooms on each continent, you’d find these results:

United States

Four Seasons Resort Hualalai (Hawaii)

Inn at Palmetto Bluff (Bluffton, SC)

Rancho Valencia Resort (Rancho Santa Fe, CA)

Africa

Bateleur Camp (Kenya)

Chobe Chilwero (Botswana)

Singita Private Game Reserve (South Africa)

Asia

Amandari (Indonesia)

Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan (Indonesia)

JW Marriott Seoul (South Korea)

Australia and Pacific Nations

Rialto Hotel on Collins (Melbourne, Australia)

Park Hyatt Sydney (Australia)

Huka Lodge (Taupo, New Zealand)

Canada

Auberge du Vieux-Port (Montreal)

Pan Pacific WHistler Mountainside (Whistler)

Auberge Saint-Antoine (Quebec)

Caribbean and Atlantic Islands

Hotel St. Barth Isle de France (Guadeloupe)

Sandy Lane (St. James, Barbados)

Malliouhana Hotel & Spa (Anguilla)

Central America and South America

Four Seasons Peninsula Papagayo (Costa Rica)

Swisshotel Quito (Ecuador)

Ritz Carlton Santiago (Chile)

Europe

Buckland Manor (Gloucestershire, UK)

Chateau Les Crayeres (Reims, Frances)

Four Seasons Gresham Palace (Budapest, Hungary)

Mexico

Las Casa Que Canta (Zihuatanejo)

Four Seasons Resort (Punta Mita)

JW Marriott Mexico City

Middle East

Four Seasons Cairo Nile Plaza (Cairo, Egypt)

Four Seasons Cairo at the First Residence (Cairo, Egypt)

Burj Al Arab (Dubai)

The complete guide is too exhaustive to publish here, but this is definitely a good resource to browse if you’re planning a luxury getaway, honeymoon or world adventure for the coming year.

Anyone even remotely interested in photography, famous faces or photojournalism should take note of the Annie Leibovitz retrospective A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005 that’s hitting museums in the U.S. and abroad over the next year. At the Brooklyn Museum until Jan. 21, 2007, the collection includes 100+ photographs from both the iconic photographer’s private life and the very public lives she has so famously covered for magazines like Rolling Stone, Vogue and Vanity Fair. After leaving Brooklyn, the show will head to the following venues:

San Diego Museum of Art

High Museum of Art (Atlanta)

Corcoran Gallery (Washington, DC)

de Young Museum (San Francisco)

Maison Europeenne de la Photograpie (Paris)

National Portrait Gallery (London)

Brooklyn Museum - A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005

(Above photo credit: Annie Leibovitz (American, b. 1949). Nicole Kidman, 2003. Photograph © Annie Leibovitz. Courtesy of Vogue for Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005)

Air France is running a two-day fare sale that ends tomorrow night (Dec. 8) at midnight EDT. While a slew of European destinations are on sale, the real deals are for routes from the U.S. to India, Africa and the Middle East. Most include free stopover privileges in Paris, so travelers can add a few days in the City of Lights on the front or back end of their journey. Here are a few examples (roundtrip fares):

New York to Cairo - $770

Chicago to Bombay - $1100

Chicago to Delhi - $1100

Houston to Dubai - $918

Fares are good for travel between Dec. 25, 2006 and March 31, 2o07. A Saturday night stay is required. For this fare, travelers can only stay a max of one month, so this isn’t a good option for a long RTW trip.

Air France Winter Fare Sale

For the deal-mongers among us, keep your peepers peeled for Cold Stone Creamery $1 off coupons on USAir flights between Nov. 13 and Nov. 21, 2006. The airline will be giving out a reported 250,000 of the coupons on flights departing from USAir hubs Charlotte, Phoenix and Philadelphia.

US Air, Cold Stone Creamery Team Up

November’s issue of Conde Nast Traveler features the results of its annual Readers Choice Awards. The issue goes on sale Oct. 24th. In the mean time, you can check out the top three winners in each category. Real travel junkies can compare this list to last year’s Readers Choice Awards:

Top Cities - United States:

1. San Francisco, CA

2. Santa Fe, NM

3. New York, NY

Top Cities - Asia:

1. Bangkok, Thailand

2. Hong Kong

3. Chiang Mai, Thailand

Top Cities - Europe:

1. Florence, Italy

2. Rome, Italy

3. Venice, Italy

Top Cities - Africa/Middle East:

1. Cape Town, South Africa

2. Marrakech, Morocco

Top Cities - Pacific Rim:

1. Sydney, Australia

2. Melbourne, Australia

3. Queenstown, New Zealand

Top Cities - The Americas:

1. Vancouver, British Columbia

2. Buenos Aires, Argentina

3. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Top Islands - Europe:

1. Mykonos & the Cyclades, Greece

2. Madeira, Portugal

3. Capri, Italy

Top Islands - Pacific Rim:

1. Maui, Hawaii

2. Kauai, Hawaii

3. Moorea, French Polynesia

Top Islands - Caribbean/Atlantic:

1. Bermuda

2. St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands

3. British Virgin Islands

Top Islands - North America:

1. Vancouver Island, Canada

2. Kiawah, South Carolina

3. Nantucket, Massachusetts

Top Islands - Asia:

1. Maldives

2. Bali, Indonesia

3. Phuket, Thailand

Top International Route Airlines:

1. Singapore Airlines

2. Emirates

3. Cathay Pacific

Top Domestic Route Airlines:

1. JetBlue

2. Midwest

3. Hawaiian

Top Car Rental Agencies:

1. Hertz

2. Renault Eurodrive

3. Avis

Top Large Ship Cruise Lines:

1. Regent Seven Seas

2. Crystal Cruises

3. Disney

Top Small Ship Cruise Lines:

1. SeaDream Yacht Club

2. Grand Circle Cruise Line

3. Regent Seven Seas

Top Resorts - Africa:

1. Singita - Ebony & Boulders Lodges

2. Chief’s Camp, Botswana

3. Chobe Chilwero, Botswana

Top Resorts - Canada:

1. Pan Pacific Mountainside, Whistler

2. Four Seasons, Whistler

3. Westin Resort, Whistler

Top Resorts - Atlantic:

1. One&Only Ocean Club, Bahamas

2. The Reefs, Bermuda

3. Parrot Cay, Turks and Caicos

Top Resorts - Central/South America:

1. Four Seasons Peninsula Papagayo

2. Explora en Patagonia, Chile

3. Llao Llao Hotel & Resort, Argentina

Top Resorts - Asia:

1. Four Seasons Bali at Sayan

2. Four Seasons, Chiang Mai, Thailand

3. Banyan Tree, Phuket, Thailand

Top Resorts - Mexico:

1. La Casa Que Canta, Zihuatanejo

2. Royal Hideaway Playacar, Riviera Maya

3. JW Marriott, Cancun

Top Resorts - Pacific Rim:

1. Four Seasons Lodge at Koele, Lanai

2. Four Seasons Hualalai, Big Island

3. Voyages Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef

Top Resorts - Europe:

1. Gleneagles Hotel, Scotland

2. Westin Turnberry Resort, Scotland

3. Mount Juliet Conrad, Co. Kilkenny

Top Resorts - Caribbean:

1. Malliouhana Hotel, Anguilla

2. Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman

3. Sandy Lane, Barbados

Top Resorts - United States:

1. Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain, AZ

2. Inn at Palmetto Bluff, SC

3. Inn at Spanish Bay, CA

Top Hotels - Asia:

1. Fullerton Hotel, Singapore

2. Amandari, Bali

3. The Peninsula, Bangkok

Top Hotels - Caribbean/Atlantic:

1. Hotel Saint-Barth Isle de France

2. Ladera, St. Lucia

3. Waterloo House, Bermuda

Top Hotels - Pacific Rim:

1. Rialto Hotel on Collins, Melbourne

2. Park Hyatt, Sydney

3. Lilianfels Blue Mountains, Australia

Top Hotels - Africa:

1. Four Seasons Cairo at Nile Plaza

2. Cape Grace, Cape Town

3. Sofitel Palais Jamai, Fez

Top Hotels - Europe:

1. Four Seasons Gresham Palace

2. Chateau Les Crayeres, Reims

3. Four Seasons George V, Paris

Top Hotels - South America:

1. Hotel Monasterio, Cuzco, Peru

2. Four Seasons, Buenos Aires

3. Swissotel, Quito, Ecuador

Top Hotels - United States:

1. The Peninsula, Chicago, IL

2. Watermark Hotel, San Antonio, TX

3. St. Regis, New York, NY

Top Hotels - Canada:

1. Auberge du Vieux-Port, Montreal

2. Hotel Dominion 1912, Quebec City

3. Auberge Saint-Antoine, Quebec City

Top Hotels - British Isles:

1. Buckland Manor, The Cotswolds

2. Gidleigh Park, Devon

3. Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London

Top Hotels - Central America/Mexico:

1. JW Marriott, Mexico City

2. Esperanza, Cabo San Lucas

3. Casa Santo Domingo, Guatemala

Top Hotels - Middle East:

1. Grand Hyatt, Amman

2. King David, Jerusalem

3. David Citadel, Jerusalem

Conde Nast Traveler’s Readers Choice Awards