As of today, skiers in Taos, New Mexico will know the joy of sharing the mountain with one-planking snowboarders. After years of deprivation, skiers at this southwestern ski resort area will, like their two-plank brethren around the nation, spend their days dodging snowboarders huddling in groups in the middle of groomed runs, avoiding sad sack beginners as they bounce tail bone-over-wrist down the mountain and envying the cool snowboard graphics lacking on their own skinny rides.

After years of being a ski-only mountain, Taos has finally decided to allow snowboarders to share the slopes. It’s a smart move, regardless of what the opposition (and there is one, a vocal one) says, for a resort as isolated as this one. The few remaining ski-only resorts in the country (Alta, Mad River Glen, Deer Valley) are located near competing mountains that allow both sports. That gives families and groups with both skiers and snowboarders choices. But instead of the ban at Taos attracting more visitors with its exclusive policy, it had the effect of sending more and more people, skiers included, out of state for fun in the snow.

The resort is kicking off the new policy with a celebratory weekend of events sponsored by Red Bull.

Want a good value on your next vacation? Sure, we all do. Phoenix, shown here from atop Camelback Mountain, was recently rated one of the top places for good travel deals. According to the Hotwire Travel Value Index released yesterday, these are top U.S. cities for travelers to hit up when they’re looking to stretch their vacay dollars:

1. Phoenix

2. Dallas-Fort Worth

3. Orlando

4. Denver

5. Atlanta

6. Los Angeles

7. Washington, DC

8. Kansas City

9. Miami

10. Milwaukee

Frankly, I’m surprised to see L.A. and Miami on the list, as I was just last week hunting for decent deals on hotels in both cities and came up surprisingly short. I mean, yeah, you can stay somewhere cheap, but it often means staying somewhere really bland, really out of the way or really sketch. And that’s not what I call a “value.” In my mind, a good value is something a traveler can get excited about. Not just an inexpensive place to bunk in.

That said, the HTVI rates cities on more than just existing hotel rates. The range of activities in a city and availability of affordable entertainment also figure in. And both Miami and L.A. have plenty of affordable entertainment options (beaches, museums, landmarks). Then again, both cities also happen to have some of the country’s most expensive and exclusive restaurants, bars, retail shops and clubs. Really, in the end, whether or not you’ll get a good value in in any of the cities on the list depends heavily on what you enjoy doing when you travel.

SmarterTravel.com’s list of 10 Amazing Adventures Under $1,000 is a round-up that’s worth reading. They’ve hunted down some cool ideas for adventurous vacations that hit the inexpensive end of the spectrum. And six of the suggested trips (hiking, rafting, camping, sailing, biking) are outside the good ‘ole US of A (Peru, Canada, Croatia, Tanzania, Laos, New Zealand). Trips range in length from four to 10 days. Most are packages offered by tour operators, and none include airfare in the price.

Needless to say, this is not a headline any traveler wants to see:

Southwest Airlines Flew ‘Unsafe’ Planes

Not surprisingly, Southwest Airlines has refused to comment. Oh the irony that an airline could be so uptight about passenger conduct and yet so lax with its own.

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.

And while we’re talking travel mags….Fancy yourself a travel writer, photographer or magazine editor? Budget Travel’s 10th anniversary issue will be written and photographed by readers. They’re in the home stretch, but are still looking for:

- Foodies in the Southwestern United States who can recommend great spots to refuel

- Pet travel photographs (you know you’re hoarding some cute ones)

- Someone traveling abroad in the next two weeks who’ll pick up some items from a foreign supermarket

- Your best family travel tips (e.g. how to usher get ankle-biters through airport security)

- Feedback on any trips you’ve taken after reading about them in the magazine’s 40 Best Deals section

Last Chance! Our All-Reader 10th Anniversary Issue Needs Your Help!

Yup, you heard right. A mere three weeks remain before the deadline for Burton’s Poach for Freedom Contest, which will award $5,000 for the best video of snowboarders riding terrain at each of the four remaining North American ski resorts where snowboarding is not allowed:

Mad River Glen, VT

Alta, UT

Deer Valley, UT

Taos, NM*

Video entries have started to come in. I’m personally a fan of the vid featuring a nerdy, Napoleon Dynamite-esque duo - fanny packs and all - who get their calisthenics on before taking Vermont’s Mad River Glen by storm early one morning.

* Taos has announced that it will begin allowing snowboarders for the first time beginning on March 19, 2008.

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.)

In a recent press release, Southwest Airlines poses the question, “Have you ever wondered what happens to the books left in seat-back pockets, the jackets found in the gate area, or the children’s toys left onboard the plane?”

Um, people steal them? Frankly, I assumed the policy of the friendly skies towards lost property was a strictly finders, keepers, losers, weepers sorta thang. But apparently, Southwest strives to return lost items (even, as the press release states) searching through electronic devices to find personal information to, um, reunite wayward items with their owners (….identity theft, anyone?…).

But when items are not claimed or returned, the official procedure was, until very recently, as follows:

Prior to The Salvation Army relationship, Southwest “salvaged” the unclaimed baggage and lost items to a warehouse facility. The new process provides a charitable way for the Airline to donate the items back to the community.

I should emphasize that the quotation marks around the word salvage were actually in the press release. How very mysterious. Was that “warehouse” by chance a landfill? Or perhaps an underground Southwest employee secondhand boutique? Will we ever know? The suspense.

Now, in what is, admittedly, an altruistic method for dispensing of lost items, the airline has partnered with the Dallas-Fort Worth area Salvation Army. Unclaimed items are donated to the evangelical organization, which uses the proceeds to fund its myriad religious and social service programs.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this announcement is that it came without any mention of a lost items phone number travelers may call to inquire about lost items. Yeah, maybe they can garner contact information our PDAs, but what about my stuffed bunny? He tends to be especially tight-lipped with strangers.

What does this mean for travelers besides an aw shucks feeling toward Southwest? Well, the next time you lose something valuable on a Southwest plane, you’ll be able to concentrate your seek and recover mission on a mere 11 Salvation Army thrift stores in the Dallas Fort Worth area.

Southwest Airlines Finds Salvation for Lost Items

In its ongoing efforts to go green, Fairmont announced this week that its properties in California and Arizona will begin offering free parking to overnight hotel guests who drive hybrid vehicles. That includes:

Fairmont San Jose

Fairmont San Francisco

Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa Resort

Fairmont Miramar Santa Monica

Fairmont Newport Beach

Fairmont Scottsdale Princess

We assume this applies even if you’ve rented a hybrid during your trip (not a bad way to offset the additional cost that comes with renting a premium vehicle). For hybrid drivers, this deal can amount to quite a savings - in San Francisco, for example, downtown hotel parking rates often climb higher than $30/night.