Perhaps you’ve watched a few too many episodes of Survivor or fell in love with the idea of an island utopia after reading Alex Garland’s The Beach (never mind the man-eating sharks and pot-growing gangsters with machine guns). Or maybe you just fancy the notion of an experiment in sustainable community building coupled with a few weeks in Fiji each year (is that too much to ask?). In any case, you’ll probably be interested in the island project Vorovoro, where a 120 GBP buys a one-year membership and the rights to visit a rustic island near Fiji for one week.

Conceived by two British travelers who are working in conjunction with the native tribe that inhabits the surrounding islands, the project seeks to attract 5,000 members who will collaborate on all leadership, building and infrastructural decisions. The idea is to build an eco-friendly sustainable community on the 200-acre island using all the members’ skills, though no more than 100 members will be allowed to visit the island at one time. In turn, the tribal people who actually own the land will benefit from the community’s environmentally friendly buildings and the jobs the project generates. And if everything falls apart, the project will refund 100 percent of your money. Right now, there are just over 1,000 members, several of home recently celebrated Christmas and New Year’s on the island.

Learn all about Vorovoro on Tribewanted.com.

Happy New Year! While recovering from the Auld Lang Syne events of last night, I’ve been thinking about travel resolutions for the coming year. These aren’t lofty I promise to visit Mongolia or Greenland or (insert faraway place here) resolutions. These are more of the practical sort of resolutions, because that’s our focus over here at the TravelPost.com Insider. Without further ado, here are the TravelPost.com Insider’s 2007 Travel Resolutions:

1. Organize frequent flyer miles and loyalty points. Now that I’ve been collecting miles and points at an aggressive pace over the last year or two, it’s time to get a grip on account balances. I’ll start with Points.com and report back on my experience.

2. Take more photographs. I always return from trips thinking, now why didn’t I take more photographs? Really, it’s a matter of habit more than anything else. So I’m going to turn over a new photographic leaf this year. As of Dec. 25, 2006, I became the proud new owner of Canon’s Powershot SD40 in hot pink. This 7.1 megapixel digital camera has an 1.8 inch LCD monitor and is about the size of your average cell phone. Just the thing to kickstart this resolution.

3.Look for Y-Up or Q-Up fares when booking airline tickets. I never pay attention to the fare codes when I buy plane tickets. I am usually in too much of a hurry to care. But tickets with these codes can land you in first class seats for the same price as a full fare coach ticket. For a quick tutorial on snagging these special fares, start with FareCompare’s How to Book YUp QUp.

4.Keep baggage claim stickers until the bitter end. With airlines still struggling to handle the increase in checked baggage spurred by the liquid ban, lost luggage incidents are more common than ever. Keeping those stickers until your bags are in your hot little hands at baggage claim is your best bet for getting lost luggage returned quickly and safely.

5. Figure out what that air puffer machine is doing to me when I walk through it. As much as I enjoy an unexpected, seemingly pointless blast of air in my face every now and again, going through that thing makes me feel like I’m a hapless extras in an episode of the X-Files just before Scully and Molder figure out that aliens are really controlling the universe. And stealing our brains. Or something.

Check back with me at the end of ‘07 to see how these rezzies pan out.

Happy New Year to you and yours from the TravelPost.com Insider!

Okay, so maybe Tucson, AZ isn’t quite as exciting as a trip to Hawaii or Greece…. but at least you know that you can save the most by visiting in July (when, incidentally, it happens to be hotter than that log you just threw on the fire). Cheaptickets.com has released its annual Cheapometer, which shows destinations, the cheapest months to visit them and predicts how much travelers will save by visiting in the off-season. For some destinations, the bargain season is already pretty obvious - heading to the tropical climes during hurricane season, for instance, is clearly not the most popular option for a stress-free getaway. But it’s definitely cool to know that rates are cheapest in Lake Tahoe, Calif. in November - long after summer fun has fizzled and right before the ski season gets into full swing.

You can find information about more destinations by checking out the complete Cheaptickets.com Cheapometer list.

In the world of snowboarding, your best friend could be an air dog, your board could unexpectedly start chattering, but probably not if you’re riding on corduroy. Riding goofy is no laughing matter, and a hot dog promises way cooler things than lunch. Bombing is actually a good thing. And amongst snowboarders, don’t expect a swiffer to clean.

Yah. Betcha didn’t understand all of that. It’s that time of year to brush up on the sno’ lingo. But be warned, you’re better off using your newfound knowledge merely for translation purposes. Boarders can smell poser hoedads and herbs a mile away.

Snowboarding Dictionary

Apparently Tunisia is taking off as the next hot destination for cosmetic surgery vacations, if you’re into that kinda thing. Now repeat after me, I’m good enough, I’m smart enough and - doggone it - people like me….

Tunisia Invites Nip/Tuck Tourism

Yup, weak dollar folks. For you Brits out there, seems USA shopping is a’ callin’.

‘Weak Dollar’ Tourists Snap Up Festive Bargains

Two questions. What’s your dream job? And why aren’t you doing it? Whatever your excuse, Vocation Vacations makes it moot. Even if you can’t suddenly throw in the office towel and become a cattle rancher for the rest of your days, you can spend your next vacation pretending (and learning). Among the many sorts of vocations you could explore on your vacation are:

Alpaca farmer

Animator

Baseball team general manager

Comedy club owner

Costume designer

Dog kennel owner

Event planner

Food critic

Handbag designer

Horse trainer

Model

Perfumer

Private investigator

Schooner captain

Spa owner

Voice-over artist

Wine maker

Yoga studio owner

While the vacations aren’t exactly cheap (most run anywhere from $699/person on up and don’t necessarily include lodging), you can choose from cities around the country. Participants end up with two or more days of one-on-one mentoring from an expert in the field.

The company also sells gift certificates.

Might be the perfect New Year’s resolution gift.

Budget Travel’s Can Hotel ConXions Beat a Low-Price Guarantee? is a really cool look at one company’s claim to be able to offer lower room rates than travelers would find booking through hotels directly. You see a lot of offers and promotions out there when you’re deal hunting, and often, there’s just no way to know if they’re true.

The deal? Through the end of the year, Hotel ConXions (pronounced “connections”) is offering travelers who book by phone (800-522-9991) room rates up to 20 percent less than those published by the hotel. When Budget Travel investigated, it found that the site was only able to offer lower rates about 50 percent of the time.

Check out the story for yerselves. Great travel junkie cocktail conversation material.

I don’t know what bothers me more about the story BWI Passengers Not Following New Liquids Ban, Security Officials Say - the fact that people (including me last weekend when I got a lecture at the security gate for accidental contraband mascara) can’t seem to grasp the whole quart-sized plastic baggie protocol, or the fact that it reminded me of how much I hate the liquids ban. The problem is, the rules are too detailed. We have a specific type of bag we must present, a specific size for this bag, a specific number of ounces we are not to exceed and specific instructions to pull this bag out of any carry-on luggage and let it go down the belt alone. That’s after we’ve removed belts, shoes, laptops, sweatshirts and random crap from our pockets. I’ll be the one to say it. I just don’t think we as a traveling public can handle it. We’ll keep on trying because we’re cool like that, but we’re too busy traveling on red-eyes, after long business days, hungover the Sunday or Monday after weddings, with three crying kids in tow and delayed beyond belief.