And now for the winner in the strangest vacation souvenir category…. A traveler spooked Munich airport security yesterday when she arrived fresh from her Brazilian vacation en route to Naples with none other than her own brother’s skeletal remains stuffed in her luggage. But this was no sicko crime gone awry. The woman, an Italian, was simply fulfilling her dead brother’s last wish, to be taken from the place of his death, Sao Paulo, and buried in his homeland’s soil. And she had the documentation from the Brazilian government to prove it - a very important point, as authorities are not known for relying solely on verbal explanations where skeletal remains are concerned.

Woman Stopped Over Skeleton in Luggage

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.

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.)

Flying free just got easier. And by free, I mean literally free. Of clothes. German travel agency OssiUrlaub.de has announced plans to launch a trip for nudists that would allow passengers to strip down between takeoff and landing. The crew will apparently remain clothed during the flight. Upon arrival, participants will then be taken to Usedom, a popular resort on the Baltic Sea. There, they will, presumably, have the chance to remove their clothing once again.

A few thoughts on this development:

- Imagine being told your next shift was crewing this flight.

- Will passengers be given seat protectors during the flight or sit directly on the seat fabric?

- If the latter happens, isn’t airplane seat fabric itchy?

- Cold buckle. Seatbelt. No thanks.

- I feel for the people sitting in the rows directly preceding the lavatories, where lines tend to form mid-flight.

- Will clothing fit in the seat back pocket or will it need to be stowed properly in the overhead bin?

- If a peanut misses its target and falls downward, will its owner still feel inclined to fish it out and eat it?

- Pity the poor chap in the middle seat.

- Is it okay to still where your socks?

- Those crazy Europeans.

German Travel Agency to Offer Nudist Flight

Now if you like to drink (and by that we mean draaaannnnk), have we got the travel experience for you: The World’s Biggest Pub Crawl. The 25-day around the world tour led by Thirsty Swagman departs in March 2008 from London and hits 60 watering holes in 12 countries on four continents. Here’s the route:

- London, UK

- Düsseldorf, Germany

- Prague, Czech Republic

- Maria Alm, Austria

- Munich, Germany

- Reykjavik, Iceland

- Phuket, Thailand

- Auckland, New Zealand

- Queenstown, New Zealand

- Honolulu, USA

- Cancun, Mexico

Here’s a detailed itinerary. The tour starts at $9,990 per person and includes crazy Australian guides who’ll ferry you too and from some of the world’s best bars and drinking establishments, as well as all airfare and transfers, land transportation, three-star hotel accommodations and drink discounts. Funny, it seems like a bottle of pain killers and box of condoms should be included in the price.

You can check out the World’s Biggest Pub Crawl YouTube video below:

Proving that, given enough time, pretty much anything can become hip, Berlin’s Ostel hotel is grabbing attention not only for its low nightly rates, but for its collection of communist-era East German ephemera and old school Eastern bloc decor. Whether or not the interior design sounds particularly appetizing, the budget-friendly rates, which start at 9 euro/person for a bunk in a shared room, are sure to please visitors to Berlin who’d rather sink their funds into exploring the city. And while the dizzying wallpaper, framed photographs of political bigwigs and so ugly they’re cool furnishings are straight outta the Cold War, the hostel hotel is quick to point out that its beds and plumbing are completely up to date.

Stylish Budget Hotel Trend in Berlin

On Oct. 29, 2007, United Airlines will send its first airplane outfitted with business class flat bed-seats, upgraded entertainment options and renovated premium economy and economy class cabins into the air. The Boeing 767 plane will fly United’s Washington Dulles to Frankfurt and Washington Dulles to Zurich routes. More planes will be outfitted with the new amenities throughout 2008 and 2009. While the big changes are happening in business class, economy class passengers will get new seat cushions, carpeting and an inflight entertainment system with LCD screens.

Starting this winter, Lufthansa will offer upgraded in-flight entertainment systems in economy class on long-haul flights. The seat-back video screens will be tested starting today on Lufthansa routes between Frankfurt and Detroit, Houston and Toronto.

Lufthansa to test personal inflight entertainment system in Economy Class

As of today, first class travelers and HON circle members traveling through the Munich Airport have access to the ultra-swanky Lufthansa First Class Lounge. We’re talking a bar with 43 vintage Armagnacs, a separate cigar lounge, luxury bathrooms outfitted with Jacuzzi tubs, a sushi bar and limo transport to planes departing from outside the main terminal.

And like many first class lounges around the world, this one offers perks that start before travelers even arrive inside the airport. Services include valet parking, separate check-in facilities and fast lanes at central security checkpoints.

Lufthansa First Class Lounge now also at Munich

We blogged about SMINTair’s plans to become the first international airline for smokers when the news first appeared last summer, but we hadn’t heard much about it since. I ran across Roger Collis’ Frequent Traveler: Lighting up in luxury may soon be latest in niche flying column recently as I was sifting back through the anals of my RSS feeds that I hadn’t gotten to. Seems SMINTair, the brainchild of a German investment banker, is still in the works - though won’t take to the skies until December at best. Still, it is interesting to hear that the airline is on its way to becoming a reality. Collis reports that - when it does eventually begin its initial Dusseldorf International to Japan’s Central International route - it will offer only business and first class seats, a cocktail bar service oysters and champagne and gourmet meals. And of course, a full house of smokers.