Sizzling sand in the exotic tropics
Dreaming of a steamy, languid tropical escape but looking for someplace a bit more exotic than Hawaii or the Caribbean? Venture further afield in Southeast Asia, which has a dazzling array of sandy options. You can easily find luxury, a hint of adventure and even a few spots where the U.S. dollar still holds its value.

Thailand may sound far but consider that the British seem to think nothing of hopping over to that tropical kingdom. It’s worth it once you get there: warm hospitality, deliciously spiced food, gentle water, sandy beaches and islands galore. Ko Phi Phi, or Phi Phi island is still one of the most idyllic. Located just 30 minutes by speedboat from either Phuket or Krabi, people question whether these pretty little roadless isles, immortalized in the film The Beach, are overexposed. Meanwhile, cleaned-up and considerably less congested since the tragedy of the December 2004 tsunami, Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Ley (a marine preserve) continue to be a unique hot spot, mixing nubile backpackers with wealthy jet-setters. There's no debate about Ko Phi Phi's enduring natural beauty: sugar sand set off by turquoise waters and limestone cliffs, healthy coral reefs and multiplying populations of tropical fish.

See our slideshow of Sexiest Southeast Asian Beaches.

The emerging country of Vietnam is alive with the electric energy of youth. Half the country is under the age of 25, and willing to forgive and forget the country's troubled past. And with 2,000 miles of coastline, Vietnam's many beaches beckon. China Beach is still among the best. Once a surf spot and escape for American GIs, this generously wide, seemingly endless, historic stretch between DaNang and Hoi An has now been reborn as a tony civilian destination (it's also home of the priciest resort in all of Vietnam, the gilded Nam Hai). The combination of South China Sea swell, two UNESCO World Heritage sites and two thriving cities nearby, has made China Beach the R&R capital of Vietnam, but best of all, the U.S. dollar is still strong here.

Indonesia's reputation as an exotic beach destination remains unmarred and sexy Aussies flock here. Coeds prefer the more obvious Kuta Beach, but sexy grown-ups consider Dreamland Beach—an up-and-coming spot on the Bukit Peninsula—the most beautiful beach in the entire country. About 30 minutes' drive from Kuta (and now with impending development, nicknamed "New Kuta Beach"), Dreamland has traditionally been accessed through Tommy Suharto, son of former President Suharto's, abandoned property. Previously, your only options while watching the spectacular sunset were basic pretty basic cafes and local shops, but with the junior Suharto now building a tony new resort, if the beach isn't dreamy enough for you, new gourmet and pampering options will likely to impress.

See our slideshow of Sexiest Southeast Asian Beaches.

If you're looking to get off the mainland and totally off the beaten track in Indonesia, Trawangan Gili, the largest of the three Gili islands, is just 25 minutes by ferry off the coast of Lombok. What makes this island sexy is its unplugged, "Age of Aquarius" vibe. Magic mushrooms are legal for sale, raves on the beach under the moonlight are not uncommon, and you can circumnavigate this undeveloped sandy islet in under two hours and be sure to find a private nook. The natural highs include spectacular snorkeling and dive sights, including the Trawangan Slope off the Southeast coast, Sunset Reef and Shark Point off the West coast, and the appropriately named Jammin' Reef off the south coast.

White Beach, a three mile long expanse, located 20 minutes northwest by ferry on Boracay Island from neighboring Penay Island, has exceptionally white, talcum powder-soft sand that's so fine, somehow it never gets too hot for bare feet. Ringed by hip cafes, hotels and shops, this is the see-and-be-seen beach for locals, so its best avoided during Philippine holidays. Also, with heavy gusts year-round, it's the most popular spot for windsurfing and kiteboarding. This small bow-shaped isle is only one of 7,000 that make up this island nation, but after dark, the clubs and discos here are legendary.

Who says the temples of Siem Reap is the only reason to visit Cambodia? Follow up that intense cultural high with some down time at Serendipity Beach in Cambodia's version of Phuket—Sihanoukville. A 25-minute flight from Siem Reap or two hours' drive from Phenom Penh, Cambodia's main resort town is a collection of very social beaches and little islands, but the crowds are centered along the aptly named Serendipity. Cheap eats, drinks, accommodations, jet skis, and other noisy, boisterous potential high-jinks are the main draw here, though for a nominal taxi ride, you can head a little further on to commune with nature at Ream National Park. And if you're more "flashpacker" than backpacker, check out the scene at the top-rated Sohka Beach Resort.

In a country not known for beaches as much as shopping malls and other manmade wonders, Sentosa Island's three beaches are a very pleasant surprise. Palawan is for families, and Siloso is an intense beach volleyball haven. But Tanjong Beach is where the most fashionable urbanites head to lay out on wooden sunbeds (under umbrellas, of course, as is the tradition here), sip cocktails and catch-up on their reading. Couples also gather here at night to stroll along the beach and watch the twinkling lights in the harbour. Food, bars and of course, shopping options are plentiful, and you might even venture to Underwater World, a magnificent oceanarium with a moving walkway through a clear acrylic viewing tunnel.

Proximity to the city—it's a mere 10-minute drive from Muara—makes Serasa Beach the retreat of choice in the business-minded kingdom of Brunei. One of the wealthiest countries in Asia thanks to its natural oil and gas resources, the high standard of living in the country is reflected here in the landscaped beach park, its modern facilities, and a devotion to recreation. Here urbanites take to the water, jet-skiing, kayaking, windsurfing, regatta sailing, power boat racing, aqua sports training and water skiing. The nearby Serasa Watersports Complex has comprehensive instruction and equipment rentals, and even hosts international competitions, which are very popular with the amped-up crowds, who don't seem much impressed just with the golden sand and crystal clear water.

See our slideshow of Sexiest Southeast Asian Beaches.

Cathay Che
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Sexy Beaches Down Under
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Where the sand sizzles in Australia and
New Zealand

It's 85 million years ago, and the Earth's tectonic plates are slowly shifting, giving form to the islands and continents we recognize today. On the other side of the world, on the other side of the equator, New Zealand gradually separates from Australia, creating the Tasman Sea between the two landmasses.

Today, Australia is the world's largest island—and our only island-continent—and features 16,000 miles of coastline with nearly 11,000 beaches. That's the most in the world. New Zealand didn't do badly, either—the island-nation boasts more than 9,000 miles of coastal edging and more than 2,000 beaches.

See our slideshow of Sexy Beaches Down Under.

But with great shorelines come great threats. Australia's waters are home to some of the world's most mystifying, and sometimes dangerous, creatures. "I don't encourage visitors to use unpatrolled beaches," says Dr. Andrew Short, a professor at the School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, where he directs the Coastal Studies Unit. He's also authored a seven-book series, "Beaches of the Australian Coast."

Compiling a list of Australia's sexiest beaches was a tall order. But it was a mission accomplished, thanks in large part to Dr. Short. He chooses several superbly sexy beaches, such as the Gold Coast's Rainbow Bay in Queensland and Bondi near Sydney in New South Wales. At Bondi, you can even swim in a seaside pool before dining at the iconic Icebergs. Cottesloe and Cable Beach get the sexy nod in Western Australia, while Mindil Beach in Northern Territory gets high marks for its Sunset Markets, which features 260 stalls. Other in-the-know Aussie sexy-beach-goers insisted that St. Kilda Beach in Melbourne, Victoria, be included.

The guys who write for Australia's Surfing Life magazine know a sexy beach when they see one. Editor Tim Fisher seconds Dr. Short's choices, and says Rainbow Bay is "right down the road from our office." There, famous Snapper Rocks lures sexy surfers with "the best wave in the world." Avid people-watchers are mesmerized by "chaos in the water, with Brazilians, champion surfers and learners all together. It can be ridiculously crowded and hilarious: eight on a wave."

See our slideshow of Sexy Beaches Down Under.

Cottesloe, says Fisher, teems with "beautiful young people (BYPs) looking to meet other beautiful young people, plus you get those romantic ocean sunsets not seen on the East Coast." Mindil is just so NT, or Northern Territory, where sexy means tough, and Aussies who grow up in that region go for a swim and "just acknowledge sharks, jellies (jellyfish) and crocs as part of life on the beach: very Crocodile Dundee."

St. Kilda is the Melbourne equivalent of Bondi, but a bit "grubbier," explains Fisher, who says "sexy" has almost nothing to do with the beach itself, rather, that it's the closest beach from Australia's most cultured, cosmopolitan city. "Everyone goes, and it has backpackers, bars, clubs, and that fantastic, iconic pub, The Esplanade, a.k.a. 'The Espy.'" Like California's Venice Beach, St. Kilda has a promenade, good for skating and staring from behind your shades.

But Australia, clearly, is a big place. So we sought out more insider input for the second tier of beaches. They include Bells Beach and Ninety Mile Beach in Victoria; Byron Bay, Palm Beach, Manly Beach and Hyams Beach—with the world's whitest sand—in New South Wales; Four Mile Beach, Port Douglas and Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Island in Queensland and Margaret River in Western Australia.

It makes perfect sense that Australia is the home to both Rip Curl and Billabong, two brands that are synonymous with beach culture—nearly 80 percent of Aussies live within 31 miles of the shore. They flock like gulls to sun and surf and to read, play games, fish and fly kites, sip a latté at hip cafes or to just hang out. Sexy beach-bound Australians are likely making up for lost time. According to Surf Life Saving Australia, public "bathing" in Sydney was once restricted between the hours of 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. until some time between 1902 and 1905. That's when the city's seaside councils lifted their bans, clearing the way for sexy beaches to come into their own—even if it took a century.

The country's shores are lapped by the Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans. There are no privately owned beaches here, but there are plenty of nude beaches, if going au natural is your thing.

See our slideshow of Sexy Beaches Down Under.

New Zealand

In "100% Pure New Zealand," sexy beaches are not about babes in bikinis or guys in Speedos; it's more about spectacularly gorgeous and pristine landscape. For Kiwis, sex appeal is one of pure and basic unadulterated aesthetics, not of skimpy togs or a "froo-frooey" cocktail topped by a miniature paper umbrella. And besides, a locally made sauvignon blanc—or "savvy," in local dialect—is the typical tipple.

For much of the year, swimmers and surfers here tend to wear wetsuits, but that's a small sacrifice when the beach can be theirs—and theirs alone—for the entire day. Among the country's A-list beaches are the iron-ore-infused black sand at rugged Piha near Auckland and Hot Water Beach, where sand-soakers plop down together in a kind of thermally inspired "people soup." Nearby, New Chums Beach is another winner.

As an American living in New Zealand, I advise everyone who visits Auckland to cross the Hauraki Gulf to Waiheke Island. There, Onetangi is picture-perfect, complete with traditional beach cottages, called baches (originally shortened from "bachelor pads"). March is a great time to go for the Beach Races, which feature horses, tractors and waiters stirring up the crystal sands. The South Island's Abel Tasman Park National Park offers numerous perfect crescent shapes of golden grains. See them first in a water taxi from Marahau, with Torrent Bay, Bark Bay, Tonga, Awaroa Bay, Totaranui and finally, Separation Point.

Because New Zealanders are known for their ruggedness, it may be impossible to simply sit on these sexy beaches. The surf, it seems, is always up. Greg Pope, an American surfer and 25-year New Zealand resident, rides his long board at the South Island's Dunedin, where he favors St. Clair Beach. But, he says, "I keep on finding more and more new beaches in New Zealand. There's always another one."

Say g'day to our list of Australia and New Zealand's sexiest beaches.

See our slideshow of Sexy Beaches Down Under.

Stephanie Stephens

These 8 unique sites join prestigious protected list
Native Australian David Sheppard summons the oft-quoted backpacker’s mantra, “take only photographs, leave only footprints,” as he reflects on the fragility — and relatively newfound fame — of the eight natural wonders recently added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. “Natural World Heritage sites represent the best of what nature has to offer,” says Sheppard, Head of the Protected Areas Program for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the organization which recommended the sites.
Being added to the World Heritage List of 174 natural sites is, in a sense, a Catch-22: Global recognition will inevitably draw curious visitors just as it has to Yellowstone, Kilimanjaro, the Galapagos, and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. And yet ultimately, it is the encroaching world of human development that the UNESCO designation is meant to guard against.
In Pictures: The New Natural Wonders
For example, of the newly added Joggins Fossil Cliffs in Canada, Paul Maille from Connecticut tour operator Tauck World Discovery, says that “the UNESCO designation definitely increases Joggins’ profile, and we’ll now be considering the site for our itineraries in 2010 and beyond.” Frequently called “the Coal Age Galapagos,” the series of rocks and cliffs in Eastern Canada bear fossils of reptiles and preserved upright fossil trees from the Coal Age 300 million years ago. In preparation for increased tourism, the Joggins Fossil Centre opened in May.
Chosen by a committee of the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Heritage sites denote natural and cultural areas recognized for their universal value to humanity. The selection process involves extensive field work by conservation experts who have, in most cases, dedicated their lives to studying the natural world. Therefore, says Sheppard, “It is important to travel in a respectful and low impact manner. We would like tourists to tread lightly when visiting these important natural phenomena.”
Though it is popular with local Chinese, Mount Sanqingshan National Park in the Jiangxi Province of Eastern China is currently virtually unknown to foreigners. But the park boasts suspended walking trails from which hikers can gaze upon the incredibly unique formations of granite rock and highly diverse tree populations in its forest, thereby preventing a high impact from foot traffic and keeping travelers in safe, designated areas.
Michael Brombacher, Project Coordinator for the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity in Kazakhstan, says, “The nomination of Saryarka was meant to protect the site. Nobody in the country thought of tourism [as an outcome].” In northern Kazakhstan, Saryarka comprises over 500,000 acres of wetlands that as many as 16 million threatened birds use as a resting point in their migration cycle. The open savannah and lakes offer a protected nursery for thousands of waterfowl that nest here en route from Africa, Europe and southern Asia to Siberia. The endangered saiga antelope also lives in Saryarka.
Regardless of the nomination's intent, tourism will certainly come and when it does, the IUCN will be actively monitoring it. Keeping watch over future numbers at the UNESCO sites is part of IUCN’s role, notes Sheppard, who says revealing the sites responsibly to inquisitive, educated travelers is one of the best ways to preserve them. Ultimately, he says, the relationship between the UNESCO natural wonders and those who visit them is a symbiotic one. “We ask that people do their homework before visiting,” says Sheppard. “This way, they can truly appreciate the beauty of these eight wonders.”
Speaking of beauty, the Lagoons of New Caledonia could easily figure in the final scene of a James Bond movie. Imagine 007 luxuriating in the arms of an exotic diva with the turquoise waters and powdery sands of the lagoons in the background. First impressions aside, it is the highly diverse coral reef ecosystems of these lagoons — an overseas territory of France located in the Pacific Ocean east of Australia — that helped them achieve the recognition and protection of UNESCO status. Some scientists believe that the coral reefs and fish life here actually surpass numbers found in the much larger Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
The island of Surtsey was formed by volcanic eruptions in the 1960s and is part of a cluster of islands known as the Westmen Isles, scattered off the southern coast of Iceland. Surtsey is cherished by scientists who are fascinated by the colonization patterns of new varieties of plants and animals that have settled there. While the entire island is a preserve and no human contact with any part of it is allowed, people can see Surtsey from neighboring isles.
Perhaps the most remote of the eight new wonders is Socotra Archipelago in Yemen, known to some as the “Galapagos of the Indian Ocean.” Currently, 75 percent of the region in and around Socotra is part of a natural sanctuary on account of the diverse species that have made the area home. Ninety percent of the reptiles in Socotra can be found nowhere else in the world, while about 40 percent of its plant species are unique to the region. Yemeni ecotourism outfits as well as environmental organizations have been organizing sustainable tourism in Socotra for the past few years. Its inclusion on UNESCO's list brings with it a higher profile, but its remote location all but guarantees that it will remain pristine for a long time to come.
In Pictures: The New Natural Wonders

Kristan Schiller
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First the ancient seven, then the “new” seven… and now ours
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If you think we love lists here at Forbes Traveler, consider the Ancients. We don’t know for sure who spawned the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, but we’re certain it helped sell papyri. As long ago as the 3rd century B.C., historian Herodotus made reference to Ancient Wonders, but maddeningly, his choices—and manuscripts—have not survived. Later in the 2nd century A.D., Callimachus of Cyrene, apparently ensconced in the reserved book room of the Library of Alexandria (which unaccountably did not make the final list), also referred to his roster of Wonders without naming them.

It took Antipater of Sidon, writing in 140 A.D., to nail them down by name: the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausolem of Maussolos at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. (The latter wasn’t mentioned by Antiper, who preferred the Gate of Ishtar in Babylon—making it two Babylonians—but was swapped for the Alexandria Lighthouse in the 6th century, presumably for geographical diversity.)

See our slideshow of The Seven Modern Wonders of the World.

Flash forward to the 20th and 21st centuries: Countless lists of modern wonders were compiled throughout the centuries, but it took the American Society of Civil Engineers—of all the unlikely groups—to come up with a list that’s been widely accepted. Until now. Their list, which they claimed they arrived at with help from “experts,” included the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Panama Canal, all built by Americans, and to our mind a little U.S.-centric.

Then in 1999, a Swiss non-profit company launched a worldwide contest to name the Seven New Wonders from what became a pool of over 200 nominees. The rules were: a structure that was man-made, was built before 2000, and still standing. Claiming that 100 million votes were cast (a number that dwarfs even American Idol’s electorate), the final list was announced eight years later, in July, 2007. Among the winners were such musty artifacts as the Great Wall of China (started in the 6th century), the ancient rock city of Petra, and the Coliseum (80 A.D.). New? In fact, the voters only picked one less than 100 years old, and most dated back 500 years or more. (See their full list on our slideshow.) So we had the idea to put together a list of truly Modern Wonders that more truly reflects our era.

See our slideshow of The Seven Modern Wonders of the World.

We polled a number of smart people, including some architect friends, to come up with a truly modern list, i.e., structures built in the 20th and 21st centuries. Then we gave it a special twist: to create a relationship, a common theme, between an Ancient Wonder, a so-called New Wonder, and our own Modern Wonder. For instance, we made a “pyramid” connection between 1) the Ancient Pyramid of Giza, 2) the “New” Chichen Itza and 3) our own 20th century Modern choice, I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid at the Louvre. Similarly, taking the idea of “colossal,” we’ve linked 1) the Colossus of Rhodes to 2) the Coliseum in Rome (another oldie-but-newie ) and 3) Forbes Traveler’s modern choice of a “colossal” structure, the Three Gorges Dam in China.

If there’s a more sweepingly subjective list on Earth, we can’t guess what it is. And our insistence that the three lists thematically connect to each other—shall we admit now that some are a stretch?—results in an even more personalized roster. We have divided our list into seven appropriately exalted categories: Great Pyramid, Most Beautiful, Colossal Structure, Lofty Monument, Carved In Stone, Solemn Memorial, and Visible From Afar.

See our slideshow of The Seven Modern Wonders of the World.

Forbes

FROM the mime in white makeup to the Chanel-clad grande dame walking her poodle, Paris practically sags under the tonnage of its stereotypes. The Marais is the welcome exception. Far from central casting, Paris’s most swinging district brims with a vivid mix of characters. Stroll its medieval lanes and you’ll rub shoulders with muscle-shirted gays and feather-boa transvestites; long-bearded rabbis and scruffy rock musicians; West African restaurateurs and Eastern European bakers. And if you turn down the tiny rue de Montmorency, you’ll even be treading in the footsteps of the famous alchemist Nicolas Flamel. His former residence at No. 51 is said to be the oldest house in the Marais — and all of Paris.

Friday

5 p.m.
1) HIP-HOP GALLERIES

You can hardly swing a baguette in the Marais these days without smashing a hot-shot art dealer or upstart gallery owner. To discover the neighborhood’s sizzling creative culture, first seek out the eponymous gallery of 40-year-old Emmanuel Perrotin (76, rue de Turenne; 33-1-42-16-79-79; www.galerieperrotin.com). This 17th-century mansion turned expo space is showing, until Jan. 10, the first-ever exhibition by the hip-hop impresario and furniture designer Pharrell Williams. Nearby rue St.-Claude is rapidly filling with contemporary art spaces, notably Galerie Frank Elbaz (7, rue St.-Claude; 33-1-48-87-50-04; www.galeriefrankelbaz.com) and Galerie LHK (6, rue St.-Claude; 33-1-42-74-13-55; www.galerielh.com).

8 p.m.
2) CLASSICAL FRENCH

Founded in 1780, Chez Julien (1, rue Pont-Louis-Philippe; 33-01-42-78-31-64) couldn’t feel more French if the servers sang “Frère Jacques” while serving crème brûlée. But this is no dainty tourist trap. Bought and renovated last year by one of the Costes family, best known for the luxurious Hôtel Costes, the restaurant has exquisite retro-chic décor like plush banquettes and tall mirrors. A stylish crowd of all ages dines on French classics — foie gras, frogs’ legs, rack of lamb and a massive Chateaubriand steak with good crispy fries — but the view is the marquee attraction. From the tree-fringed outdoor seats you can see the Seine, Notre Dame and, just footsteps away, the old St.-Gervais-St.-Protais Church. A three-course meal for two people, without wine, runs about 100 euros ($139 at $1.39 to the euro).

10 p.m.
3) A LOT TO DIGEST

For a digestif, join the assorted intellectuals crowding the classic zinc bar at La Belle Hortense (31, rue Vieille-du-Temple; 33-1-48-04-71-60; www.cafeine.com), a cozy Old World-style wine bar. Straight and gay, leather-bound and tweed-wrapped, the crowd swirls wines by the glass and chats animatedly about highfalutin topics. Even if you don’t know your Derrida from your derrière, no worries: The place is also a bookstore, stacked high with centuries of French and international literature. The back lounge, which has rotating art exhibitions, is the perfect spot to sip some hearty red Guigal Côte du Rhone (4.50 euros) and bone up on everything from Anouilh to Zola.

Saturday

10:30 a.m.
4) ROYAL TUTELAGE

How do you teach your adolescent son about the birds and the bees? If you’re Anne of Austria, mother of Louis XIV, you hire a one-eyed 40-ish noblewoman named Catherine de Beauvais to initiate him into, ahem, adulthood. Her tale is just one of the colorful anecdotes you’ll hear during the Marais tour offered by Paris Walks (33-1-48-09-21-40; www.paris-walks.com). The two-hour excursion (10 euros) includes architecturally splendid old town houses, the memorial to the Shoah and the 17th-century St.-Paul-St.-Louis Church.

1 p.m.
5) A LUNCHTIME ODYSSEY

The oldest covered market in Paris, the Marché des Enfants Rouges (enter on rue Charlot) was established in the early 1600s and remains a center of Marais life. A new structure has replaced the original, but it still houses cheesemongers, vintners and grocers. Better, there’s a bounty of small restaurants that resembles a Benetton ad: Italian, Japanese, French, Afro-Caribbean, Middle Eastern. Traiteur Marocain (33-01-42-77-55-05) ladles out Moroccan fare like fresh grilled sardines (7.50 euros) and lamb-prune-sesame tajine (8.85 euros).

2:30 p.m.
6) POST-STARCK DESIGNS

The nearby streets are home to Paris’s most inventive young creators. Inside the futuristic funhouse called Lieu Commun (5, rue des Filles du Calvaire; 33-1-44-54-08-30; www.lieucommun.fr), you’ll find housewares from Matali Crasset, a protégée of Philippe Starck, as well as electronic music CDs and street wear. At the homey shop OneNineSixOne (135, rue Vieille-du-Temple; 33-1-42-72-50-84; www.oneninesixone.com), Gaëtane Raguet transposes vintage photos of Paris and America onto canvas wall hangings and lampshades. When Christophe Lemaire is not embroidering alligators as artistic director of Lacoste, he sells 1950s-style V-neck sweaters and 1970s-inspired suede jackets at Lemaire (28, rue de Poitou; 33-1-44-78-00-09; www.christophelemaire.com), his personal Marais boutique.

4:30 p.m.
7) F-STOP PIT STOP

Has any city lit up under more flashbulbs than Paris? November brings Le Mois de la Photo à Paris — Paris Photo Month — with scores of exhibitions citywide led by the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (5-7, rue de Fourcy; 33-1-44-78-75-00; www.mep-fr.org). Notable shows include “An Experience of Amusing Chemistry” by the contemporary photographers David McDermott and Peter McGough, which recalls the American Gilded Age using 19th-century techniques. Also being held is a retrospective of the fearless Turkish photojournalist Goksin Sipahioglu, founder of the international photo agency SIPA, who captured landmark events and personalities of the 20th century from the Suez-Sinai War to the 1968 Paris riots. Shows run Nov. 5 to Jan. 25; 6 euros.

9 p.m.
SUSHI OR TARTARE?

The wild wall mural at Usagi (58, rue de Saintonge; 33-1-48-87-28-85; www.usagi.fr), with its mix of Japanese manga-inspired figures and French Baroque motifs, is an apt metaphor for the cooking. The brainchild of the artist and fashion designer Shinsuke Kawahara, this new minimalist-cool restaurant has generated a cult following for its clever French-Japanese hybrid cuisine. A tender filet of Salers beef is paired with a sweet miso broth and crispy lotus-root chips. Oven-roasted cubes of chicken are served with a chutney-like mix of sake, ginger and scallions. Desserts are equally inventive. Dinner for two without drinks, about 90 euros.

11 p.m.
9) FAIRE LA FêTE

That’s the French term for partying, and you have ample opportunity to use it in the Marais. The newest hot spot for gay par-ee is NYX (30, rue du Roi-de-Sicile; www.nyxclub.fr). Hidden behind a bakery façade, the small but lively club draws gays and lesbians alike for draft beer (3.80 euros) and D.J.-spun electro, rock and disco. The hot spot for straight revelers is Andy Wahloo (69, rue des Gravilliers; 33-1-42-71-20-3 , a vaulted orange-lit room decorated with kitschy Arabic film posters, soda bottles and detergent boxes. It draws a well-dressed crowd who order the house cocktail (rum, banana liqueur, lime, ginger, cinnamon; 9 euros) and dance on North African-style banquettes.

Sunday

11 a.m.
10) TURN THE MEAT AROUND

As you enter the narrow, cobblestone rue des Rosiers, the smell of fresh-baked challah drifts from bakeries, and school kids in yarmulkes pop out of doorways adorned with the Star of David. This is the heart of Jewish Paris. Many Parisians say that the nation’s best shwarma and falafel are served at L’As du Fallafel. Alas, every tourist from every continent seems to be in on the news, resulting in lines more common to Madonna concerts. Instead, cross the street to Mi-Va-Mi (23, rue des Rosiers; 33-1-42-71-53-72), where the lines are shorter, the service is friendlier, and the falafel (5 euros) and spit-grilled shwarma (7 euros) are almost equally good. Ask for some zesty red salade Turque on top and finish with excellent fig strudel (3.20 euros) at nearby Florence Finkelstein (24, rue des Ecouffes; 33-1-48-87-92-85).

1 p.m.
11) VILLAGE PEOPLE

Need some Art Deco lamps, Baroque picture frames, vintage dresses or other French collectibles to bring back to your pied-à-terre? The Village St.-Paul (south of rue de Rivoli on rue St.-Paul; www.village-saint-paul.com) holds scores of boutiques that burst with retro finds. For those hard-to-find antique dolls of apes sporting fezes, try Lima Select (15-17, rue St.-Paul, 33-1-42-77-98-02), an emporium of unusual dolls and figurines. If dressing like a 1910 chorus girl is your thing, snap up some old lace, garters and frilly dresses at Francine (2, rue Ave Maria; 33-1-42-72-44-50). Amid all the colorful personalities of the Marais, you should fit right in.

THE BASICS

Numerous airlines, includingAir France, Continental and Delta, fly direct between New York and Paris. According to a recent online search, flights for travel next month start at about $700.

Celluloid titans live eternally at the Hôtel du 7eme Art (20, rue St.-Paul; 33-1-44-54-85-00; www.paris-hotel-7art.com), which is packed with movie memorabilia, some for sale. It’s a tad worn, but the location and price are prime. Doubles from 90 euros.

You half expect to see mad monks at the Hôtel Saint Merry (78, rue de la Verrerie; 33-1-42-78-14-15; www.hotel-saintmerry.com). Housed in a 17th-century building by a church, it has 12 rooms done in medieval décor: dark wood, exposed beams, raw stone, even the occasional flying buttress. From 160 euros.

For chic, in-the-know elegance, try the three-apartment complex at 5, rue de Moussy, known by its street address (33-1-44-78-92-00; ask for Patrice). Created by the fashion mogul Azzedine Alaïa, the large, airy apartments contain furniture from iconic designers like Mark Newsom and Jean Prouvé. The rate for two is 450 euros per night.

SETH SHERWOOD

Hurricane Omar fell apart out at sea Thursday after delivering a glancing blow to the U.S. Virgin Islands and lashing the most-populated island of St. Croix with rain.

The storm's powerful core passed overnight between St. Martin and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, said Lixion Avila, a hurricane specialist with the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

"It could have been worse," Avila said. "They were very, very lucky."

Omar knocked down trees, caused some flooding and minor mudslides in the U.S. Virgin Islands, but there were no immediate reports of deaths or major damage, said Mark Walters, director of the disaster management agency for the Caribbean territory.

A last-minute shift to the east spared St. Croix, the most populated of the islands.

The nearby British Virgin Islands also emerged largely unscathed, said Deputy Gov. Inez Archibald, noting there was little damage beyond some mudslides and scattered debris.

"We did reasonably well actually," Inez told The Associated Press. "We did not get what we expected."

The island's international airport reopened Thursday afternoon, but the Virgin Gorda airport remained closed because of flooding.

At least 30 people were evacuated in Antigua, where emergency officials in boats rescued people stranded on their roofs as floodwaters rose. An estimated 75 people remained in shelters.

Omar began weakening as it headed over the ocean. By Thursday afternoon, it was centered about 350 miles (560 kilometers) northeast of the northern Leeward Islands and moving north-northeast near 26 mph (43 kph). It had maximum winds of 75 mph (120 kph).

Omar was taking an unusual southwest-to-northeast track toward the central North Atlantic, well away from the U.S. mainland. It was expected to become a tropical storm by Friday, according to the hurricane center.

On Thursday, cleanup crews fanned out across several flooded Caribbean islands, where power and water were slowly being restored.

Ports in Puerto Rico reopened, but remained closed in St. Croix.

In St. Maarten, roads were flooded and littered with tree branches and other debris, but authorities lifted a curfew Thursday afternoon and planned to reopen the main airport on Friday.

Two hotels — Divi Little Bay Beach Resort and Royal Islander Club — might close temporarily after heavy water and wind damage, said Robert Dubourcq, executive product manager for St. Maarten's Hospitality and Trade Association.

A disco and restaurant at the Caravanserai Resort were destroyed, and construction of 260 new rooms might be temporarily halted, he said.

"Luckily, unlike hurricanes that we had in the past, Omar didn't affect our fauna," Dubourcq said. "The island is still green."

Officials in St. Kitts said the storm had caused minimal damage, although some low-lying areas are still flooded and beach erosion was reported on the island's western coast.

One death was reported on Puerto Rico's tiny island of Culebra. Authorities say a 55-year-old man collapsed from cardiac arrest while trying to install storm shutters on his house.

The island's Hovensa oil refinery, one of the 10 largest in the world, shut down operations for the storm.

STEVE BULLOCK

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Hurricane Omar Veers Toward Ocean

He came, he saw, he fizzled?

Hurricane Omar, a powerful storm capable of inflicting yet more damage near the tail-end of a hurricane season that has already produced sweeping devastation, sliced through the southern Caribbean on Thursday, stirring up panic and widespread hurricane warnings. But instead of heading northwest on a course toward the Gulf of Mexico — a region still reeling from the impact of two previous hurricanes — Omar appeared to weaken as it veered off on a less perilous path into the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean, the National Hurricane Center said.

As of noon Eastern time on Thursday, the storm was deteriorating rapidly, having already been downgraded from category 3 (with sustained winds of up to 125 miles an hour) to category 1 (up to 85 miles an hour) in the span of just a few hours. It was about 180 miles northeast of the Leeward Islands at midday and was expected to weaken even further as it spins east.

The forecast was welcome news for Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba, island nations that took a severe beating from hurricanes Ike and Gustav, two ferocious storms that struck consecutively in September. Altogether, the pair of hurricanes claimed more than 300 lives in the Caribbean — a majority of them in Haiti, a nation prone to flooding and mudslides — and dozens of lives across the Gulf of Mexico.

The two storms struck at the height of a particularly destructive hurricane season, one that caused tens of billions of dollars worth of property damage and left entire towns and neighborhoods — in Texas and the Caribbean — under water.

Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean typically peaks around Sept. 10 each year, but storms can continue to flare up long after that, sometimes as late as November.

For a while, Omar, the fifteenth named storm of the season, appeared to be following in the earlier hurricanes’ footsteps. It roared to life on Tuesday off the coast of Venezuela, and seemed to have a chance of veering into the Dominican Republic. But instead it blew past the northern Leeward islands, including the Virgin Islands, at Category 3 speeds.

As Omar approached, the Coast Guard shut down Christiansted harbor on St. Croix, where an oil refinery is located. The storm knocked down trees htere, sparked some flooding, and caused several cruise ships to be diverted to other ports, but left no serious damage, the Associated Press reported.

The storm may also have contributed to one death, at least indirectly. Authorities on the island of Culebra, off the coast of Puerto Rico, said that a 55-year-old man collapsed and died from a heart attack while installing storm shutters on his house, according to the Associated Press. No other deaths have been reported thus far.

Omar may yet cause more problems. The hurricane center said that even as its center slackens and heads away, the trailing side of the storm could dump several inches of rain on Puerto Rico and portions of the Lesser Antilles from Antigua to Martinique.

But as of now, forecasters say, the storm mostly appears headed for the near-miss column. >>>>

By ANAHAD O’CONNOR

There are still places you can get to relatively easily where civilization's din fades away

Spend a day walking the downtown streets of almost any city, and odds are, you’ve just gone over the government’s safety recommendations for exposure to noise. Everywhere, we're blasted by sound — traffic, construction, passing radios, TVs blaring and the constant ring of cell phones. And none of it is quite enough to drown out the sound of airplanes passing overhead.

 

The simple truth is, that ringing noise in your ears shouldn’t be there.

 

In Pictures: The World's Quietest Places

 

We’re not talking about complete silence; that can actually drive you insane. "I heard two sounds,” wrote composer John Cage of his time in an anechoic chamber, a room completely free of reverberations and outside noise, “one high and one low.” When he asked the engineer in charge what was going on, the man said, “The high one was your nervous system in operation. The low one was your blood in circulation.”

 

Who wants to hear that?

 

What we need is not a complete absence of sound, but to be in places that sound the way the world did before iPods and leaf blowers were invented. But quiet is still out there, ready to be found. Around the world remain places—quite accessible places—where the constant din of civilization simply drops away.

 

“Quiet used to be as common as clean air and pure water," says Gordon Hempton, a Grammy-winning natural sounds recording artist. "And it was part of the everyday environment of our ancestors, and today it’s extremely scarce.”

 

Noise isn't good for you, pure and simple. In excess, it raises stress levels, can potentially cause heart and immune system problems and even raise blood pressure. Some studies show noise can alter brain chemistry in less than fun ways. According to Dr. Cheryl Fraser, registered psychologist and Buddhist meditation teacher, "Our psychology and physiology are not designed to keep up with the hyper pace and sound of our 24/7, multitasking, multiple input modern world."

 

Go far enough in the middle of nowhere, of course, and things get pretty quiet. Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, or Africa’s Kalahari Desert are both almost entirely free of human-created sound (as well as being startlingly beautiful). These places whisper like the last words of a bedtime story.

 

To find real quiet without launching a major expedition to the boonies is a little more challenging. Washington State’s Hoh Valley is just a few hours from Seattle, but as soon as you walk over the ridge it’s like having the world to yourself. Anza-Borrego State Park is an easy drive from Los Angeles, San Diego or Phoenix, but as one of the largest protected areas in the continental United States, peace and quiet lie in every fold of the ancient mountains that look like dinosaur skin.

 

It can be a bit harder to find genuine quiet near a city. But that doesn’t mean city dwellers are forever stuck, fingers in their ears, trying to block out the roar. Even a short walk into Central Park shows how quickly noise can be absorbed by forest and space. Cape Cod is an oasis of silence in the Eastern Corridor; and Muir Woods is only a few miles outside San Francisco.

 

Sometimes, even noisy can be quiet in its own way. Victoria Falls — or, as the locals call it, Mosi-oa-Tunya — are louder than a jet taking off. As Patricia Schultz, author of "1000 Places to See Before You Die" says, the falls are a “raw, massive, pounding curtain of water — but it is the sound that is profoundly exhilarating. One is immersed in spray and the pure power of nature in the extreme.” The sound of the falls simply leaves no room to hear anything else.

 

Not too long ago, quiet was as much a part of the landscape as concrete is now. But the quiet places are still essential. Dr. Fraser points out, “Placing ourselves somewhere quiet feels… right. Natural. As the manmade cacophony subsides, we find ourselves in nature, attending to the gentle vocalizations of the numinous. We clear the channels and can dial in to the broadcasts of our soul.”

 

Who knows what you might think when you’re somewhere quiet enough to think? Who knows what you might actually hear?

 

In Pictures: The World's Quietest Places

E. Readicker-Henderson

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• The "Lost" Guide to Hawaii
• 10 Uncrowded National Park Gems

Tips on avoiding them--and some good news

You don't need me to tell you that the summer of 2008 was a tough time for air travel. Higher airfares, crowded planes and let's not forget delayed and canceled flights. It was also the summer that air travel in America became the Land of the Fee: checked bag fees, talk-to-a human-being fee, eat-airline-food fee... How long before pay toilets are installed?

And just when you thought it couldn't get worse, fasten your seatbelts—it's going to be a very bumpy flight. That is, if you can find one. (Or worse, afford one.)

See our slideshow of Air Travel Fees, Bumps & Hassles.

Consider this:

Within the next few weeks, airlines in the U.S. will be cutting their domestic capacity by up to 16 percent across the board. Southwest Airlines will cut 200 flights from its winter schedule this fall. In September, Jet Blue ended on the following routes: Boston to San Francisco, Boston to San José, New York to Ontario, Washington to Burbank, Washington to Las Vegas, and Washington to San Diego.

This means that major airlines will be parking (i.e., taking out of service) planes. Continental will park nearly 70 planes, American will retire more than 80 and United could park more than 120. Midwest is cutting one third of its fleet, and Frontier—currently operating under bankruptcy—is removing 17 percent of its capacity.

The U.S. has 524 airports offering commercial air service, and most city officials at these airports are worried about losing service. They should be. Airports in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, Honolulu, San Juan, Las Vegas, Oakland and Columbus are just a few that are expected to lose more than 10 percent of their scheduled service. And in some states, the cuts will be radical: In Michigan, Toledo, Lansing, Flint and Grand Rapids are seeing double-digit reductions in seat capacity and fares are up 15 to 30 percent over the same time period.

The cuts in service are indeed dramatic. In the last 12 months, flight departures in Orlando have dropped nearly 18 percent. There's been a 25 percent drop in Hawaii, and a 16 percent drop in Las Vegas. Smaller markets are getting hit even harder—Milwaukee lost nearly 25 percent of its departures; Kansas City more than 26 percent. Even the Bahamas is getting hit—Nassau is losing more than 28 percent of its departing flights.

See our slideshow of Air Travel Fees, Bumps & Hassles.

Other airports hard  hit include Fort Lauderdale and San Juan. Even though, like Las Vegas and Orlando, these are very popular destinations, airlines are cutting back service there because these flights primarily carry low-margin leisure travelers. American Airlines, for example, expects to cut daily flights out of San Juan from 93 to 51 this month. That's huge. This will also impact the cruise industry, since it will be harder for passengers to reach the island to board their ships.

What does this mean to you? The law of supply and demand is taking over. That is, airfares are becoming rapidly more expensive.

For example, I just priced a coach seat on American Airlines over Thanksgiving on a flight between Los Angeles and New York. Last year, the same ticket cost $484, an increase over the year before when it was about $375. This year—a whopping $789! I checked with the folks at farecompare.com, a great website that analyzes airfares (and changes in those fares). Their report isn't exactly upbeat. In the last year, Thanksgiving airfares are up about 31 percent; Christmas airfares are up 30 percent. They're even higher in markets like Los Angeles and New York.

What can you do as fares climb and capacity shrinks? And what happens if you book a flight now that disappears in two months? Keep in mind that in those situations, the airlines' only responsibility is to offer you a full refund without penalty or reschedule you on another of their flights. But believe me—their "rescheduled" flight itinerary may include an unorthodox, and long, itinerary. The reality is, fall airline schedules are wreaking havoc with our own travel schedules and wallets, and we need to adjust in anticipation of even more problems.

The best advice is basic common sense: Book as early as possible. And since your odds of getting bumped off a flight have increased, get to the airport early if you really need to get somewhere.

Try to book the very first flight of the morning. Reason being: There's a good chance that the aircraft assigned to your flight—as well as your flight crew—overnighted at your airport the night before. You therefore stand a better chance that the flight won't be delayed, or get stuck waiting for a crew.

Buy travel packages whenever possible. Tour operators often block space on flights that may not show as available on other websites or through the airlines themselves.

Though it sounds counterintuitive, avoid non-stop flights. They will be much more expensive, because the airlines will price them for business travelers who must fly somewhere quickly. Instead, book connecting flights that go through major hubs. Give yourself at least a two-hour connect time. If things go wrong, you have enough time to make arrangements, and you're already in a busy hub that offers a lot of options.

Track your flights using flightstats.com—not just immediately before you take your flight, but before you even make your reservation. Flightstats.com offers a great historical picture of the yearly on-time performance of every scheduled flight. Obviously, a flight that is late 96 percent of the time—and I’m sad to report there are a lot of them—is one you don't want to book in the first place.

See our slideshow of Ways to Avoid the Airline Mess.

And finally, for a nice change of pace: For flights less than 400 miles, consider Amtrak or the bus. Both have become economically viable alternatives to flying. Just recently, I was traveling in upstate New York and needed to get back to Manhattan. I had a choice: a US Airways flight from Albany to La Guardia on an overpriced commuter flight with my knees shoved into my neck, into an airport that almost guaranteed to delay my flight ($460). Or I could go to the Rensaleer station in Albany, hop on Amtrak's Adirondack, a train that takes just over two hours on a beautiful route that hugs the Hudson River to New York's Penn Station. I had a seat bigger than most airlines' first-class seats, I could plug my laptop in and recharge my cellphone. And my fare was just $44. And as it turned out, while the US Airways flight was listed at just over an hour, my train actually beat it to New York by 22 minutes.

(That said, many tickets on Amtrak’s often rickety service between Boston and Washington, D.C. remain overpriced and do not represent the best price-quality ratio.)

Thanksgiving will once again be the most heavily traveled holiday of the year, and planes will be even more crowded—if that's at all possible. Fares are soaring. But the week after Thanksgiving has always been called the "dead" week in the travel industry, and this year will be no different. Fares drop significantly the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. If you can at all delay Thanksgiving by a week, you'll save hundreds of dollars.

Finally, how about some good news? With fewer flights in the air, hotels have more rooms to fill. According to farecast.com, hotel rates in Hawaii and Florida are down by 20 percent from last year. This was the first time since 2003 that occupancy rates have dropped, and similar drops are now happening in Palm Springs and Phoenix.

See our slideshow of Air Travel

Peter Greenberg

Lately it seems like I can’t go anywhere without encountering that awkward tipping moment—a prolonged handshake with a bellhop at a hotel, a lingering stare across the coffee shop counter as the “Tips Please” box looms between me and the barista, or wondering whether the five dollars I tack on to my total at the nail salon is as generous as I intended it to be. (Or too generous?) Throw some less common situations into the mix, like weddings or casinos, and I’ve absolutely no idea whether my tip—or lack thereof—makes me totally rude or ignorantly generous.

So I set out to squash the awkward tipping moment, asking everyone from valets to etiquette experts to talk about what are largely unspoken guidelines. When do we tip? How much? What’s too little, too much, insulting? The good news: they’ve generously provided us with some tangible guidelines. The bad news: now we have no excuse.

Transportation
From the airport shuttle driver to the late-night taxi ride home, my tips to these folks don’t follow any pattern—they usually consist of whatever I can scrounge out of my pockets between balancing my bags, juggling my keys, and searching for my plane tickets. Do you tip more if they help you with bags? Are taxis tipped on percentages, like restaurants? And what about valets? Bryan Silverman, a former valet at Del Mar Racetrack near San Diego, filled me in.

• Valet: $2 minimum, to be increased depending on service and how classy the location is. “I see none of what you pay to valet your car,” says Silverman. “All I see is your tip—whatever you decide to give me.” He calls $2 a bare minimum, and says everything above that will earn you a little something extra, like help with directions.
• Cab: 15 percent, plus an extra $1 to $2 if he or she helped with bags
• Airport Skycaps: $2 for the first bag and another $1 per additional bag
• Long-term parking shuttle driver: $1 to $2 per bag, if the driver assists you with your bags

Salons
You know you have to treat your stylist well. She is, after all, wielding full power of the shape and color of your hair and allows you to leave the salon feeling like those women in the shampoo commercials. But what about the shampooer? Should I be tipping more for things like massages and facials? And am I seriously supposed to tip every person that helps me at one of those fancy spas? The etiquette queen, Emily Post, provides some tips on her Web site:

• Hair stylist: 15 to 20 percent of the bill
• Hair washer: $1 to $2
• Nail technician: 15 to 20 percent of bill
• Spa treatments: 10 to 20 percent per service
• Spa Attendants: At a resort spa, tip the spa attendants about 5 percent of your total at the front desk. If any particular attendant went above and beyond for you, tip that attendant individually. At day spas, it is not customary to tip the attendants. However, if the day spa is one that you frequent regularly and the attendants go the extra mile for you, you may want to tip here, as well.

Hotels
I feel like every step in a hotel brings me to another situation where somebody expects a tip. My money is far from unlimited, so I want to make sure I’m shelling it out where I should be, and saving it for the mini bar wherever I can. Rose gave me some more insight into the workings and expectations of a hotel:

• Doorman: $1 to $2 for hailing a cab, and $1 to $4 for going beyond your expectations
• Bellhop: $2 for first bag carried to your room, $1 per additional bag
• Housekeeper: It’s nice to leave $5 or so at the end of your stay. “Chances are, the same staff has been cleaning up your mess the whole time you’ve been there,” Rose says.
• Concierge: Post specifies that a concierge should be tipped $5 for tickets or reservations ($10 if they’re especially hard to get), but that there’s no need to tip for answering questions.
• Front desk: Nothing
• Room service: 10 to 15 percent of total. Many hotels add the gratuity to your bill automatically, so be sure to check your bill.

Food and Drink
One tipping situation that I am totally confident in is restaurants: I know it’s 15 to 20 percent. But, of course, there are grey areas even when dining out. There are the fancy spots—with extra staff to help you pick out your wine, store your coat, and even wash your hands. Then there are the partial-service spots, where you do most of the work. Michelle James, a former coffee shop and partial-service restaurant employee, chatted with me about it—from takeout to the mysterious tip jar.

• Barista: “As a barista you don’t expect much,” she says. “It’s definitely not considered cheap to toss your change into the tip jar.” But, if you’re a regular who the barista takes special care of, James says you’ve gotta show the love sometimes. “You don’t have to every time, but a little something every once in a while is definitely noticed and appreciated.”
• Restaurant host: Nothing, unless they’ve done you a special favor, like saved you that awesome table by the window, in which case the tip should reflect the trouble they took to perform the favor.
• Busser: Nothing. In most places, waiters are expected to pool their tips with the bussers. Anything you leave on the table will be assumed to be for the waiter, who will then (hopefully) share the wealth at the end of the night.
• Sommelier: 15 to 20 percent of wine expenditure
• Bartender: If we’re talking a few drinks, $1 to $2 per drink will work. If you’ve racked up a whole tab, go with 15 to 20 percent of that pre-tax total.
• Coat check: $1 per coat
• Washroom attendant: $0.50 to $3, depending on service
• Partial service restaurant: “Don’t leave 10 to 15 percent,” says James. “It just goes into a pool, split by everyone working there. Just leave whatever the service is worth to you—anything from a few bucks to 10 percent is good.”
• Home food delivery: 10 to 15 percent, at your discretion
• Take-out: Emily Post says there’s no obligation, unless the person who prepared your meal went above normal service expectations. If so, anywhere up to 10 percent is appropriate.

Wedding Industry
If I’m already paying a caterer thousands to wow my guests with salmon and garlic mashed potatoes, should I also tip her a percentage of what I’m paying? What about wedding planners and officiators? Amber Rose, a senior hospitality and tourism major with an emphasis in event planning at San Diego State University, helped enlighten me. “Even though people planning big events, like weddings, are always thinking of that huge total cost, you have to remember that each vendor is providing special service,” she says. “This means they usually expect, and hopefully deserve, a tip.”

• Caterer and wedding planner: “It’s optional, but I’d recommend it,” says Rose. Unless they’re the owner of an event planning firm or hotel, they’re not seeing much, or any, of the fee you’re paying. So 15 to 20 percent is a way to thank him or her for making your day so special.”
• Night-of-the-event service (makeup artist, bartender, DJ, waiters, bartenders): Again, if a service charge isn’t included in the contract—it’s sometimes included with the venue charges—10 to 20 percent of the service provided is appropriate.
• Florist: No tip is expected, but if the employees delivering and setting up your arrangements do a particularly nice job, a few bucks each is appreciated. Same goes for your cake baker.
• Officiator: Depends on the type. “Don’t tip a priest,” laughs Rose. “That would be a situation where tipping is a no-no.” A judge, on the other hand, usually accepts a tip in place of a fee, and a Justice of the Peace is only legally allowed to accept tips after court hours. (So if it’s before five on a Friday, you’re in luck.)

Rare Encounters
These are the strange situations we sometimes wind up in on vacation (who knew you were supposed to tip your black jack dealer?), at a tattoo shop, or even after getting flowers delivered to your house. Hint: You are supposed to tip in all of these situations. Sarah Gwerder, a former flower delivery girl, says she regularly received tips based on the size of the arrangement: “I think people felt bad for me when I trekked all the way up their stairs with a huge bouquet of flowers for them,” she says. “And it was hard work, so the tips were nice.” As for those other situations:

• Casino drink server: $1 to $2 per drink (c’mon they’re free anyway)
• Dealer: $5 chip per gambling session, and if you win big, tip a little extra
• Flower delivery person: $1 to $10, depending on the size of the arrangement
• Furniture delivery: $5 per item per delivery person
• Dog groomer: $5 to $15, depending on the size of your dog (larger dogs require more work)
• Car wash attendant: $2 per car for a standard wash, $3 to $5 for an SUV, 15 percent for detailing
• Tattoo Artist: 10 to 20 percent, depending on the complexity of the work and whether the artist helped you design it
• Piercing Technician: 10 percent

What it boils down to is that a tip is a way of showing your appreciation for a service—so if you love what you got, show the love with a little extra; and, if not, use a smaller tip as a way to give some constructive feedback. Whenever I’m in doubt, I’ve found that using the 15 to 20 percent rule is usually a safe bet. But if you get an eye roll or an open mouth, you might want to double-check your references before you tip again.

Allie Firestone

Take a taxi anywhere in South America, and rounding the fare up to the next dollar amount is sufficient as a tip. If you're in an African city such as Cape Town or Nairobi, however, you need to tip 10% for a cab ride.

Going to India? Taking a taxi here means there is no need for gratuity at all.

While even the savviest globetrotter might be in the know about the best places to dine and the hippest hotels to stay at, knowing what to tip and when can be downright confounding.

"Gratuity etiquette perplexes even the most experienced travelers," says Misty Ewing, director of public relations at Virtuoso, a luxury travel network that has travel consultants and ground operators in more than 70 countries. "Everyone has a different interpretation of what's expected and acceptable when showing your gratitude; too much or too little can offend."

At a luxury hotel in Japan, for example, if you try to tip anyone from the wait staff at a top restaurant to the hotel concierge, your gesture will be perceived as a rude and flagrant show of wealth. On the other hand, if you skimp on tipping at any restaurant in the United States or to a concierge who has helped fulfill multiple requests, you probably won't be welcome again.

Top Tips
While these conventions can leave travelers scratching their heads, experts say that there are a few basic rules of thumb to following about tipping.

"In most places around the world, it's better to give something than nothing--so if you're ever in doubt, tip," says Erica Duecy, editor of restaurants and hotels at Fodor's travel publications. "And in many cases, tipping customs can be broken down by area of the world, so what you're supposed to tip isn't going to vary too much from country to country in that region."

In most countries in Europe, for instance, the service charge is included in the meal; it's customary to add another 5% to 10% for gratuity, especially in high-end restaurants. If no service charge is included, add 15% to the total bill. For taxis, 10% is the right amount to tip, and for hotel porters, give the equivalent of $2 per bag.

Experts agree that when it comes to the concierge at your hotel anywhere in the world, you don't need to tip for advice such as what sights to see; but you should always acknowledge service. In Europe, $2 is enough for each simple request the concierge fulfills, such as arranging airport pickup or making restaurant reservations. If your concierge is performing special tasks, such as arranging an after-hours tour of the Louvre, it's appropriate to tip $30 or more, depending on the difficulty of your request.

Accepted in Asia
Asia is one part of the world that has slightly different tipping customs for each country.

In Japan, tipping is an insult in any situation; but in China, giving 3% is expected at restaurants, while in Hong Kong, 10% to 15% is the norm if the gratuity isn't included in the bill. For taxis, you don't need to tip in China, but in Hong Kong, you should round the fare up to the next dollar amount.

In both China and Hong Kong, you should give hotel porters $2 to $3 per bag, especially at luxury properties, while $3 to $5 is a good amount for basic requests you ask of the concierge. You should incrementally increase this amount based on the complexity of your request.

What to Do Stateside
It's not always obvious what you need to tip in the U.S. While it's standard to tip 15% at restaurants, if you're enjoying a meal at an upscale spot such as the French Laundry in Napa Valley, it's expected that you'll tip at least 20%.

For taxis in cities such as New York City or Chicago, you should tip 15%, but in smaller cities or towns, you simply need to round up the fare to the next dollar amount. When you check into a hotel, you should give the porter $1 for each of your bags, but if you're staying at an upscale property such as the Four Seasons or the Ritz-Carlton, $2 to $5 per bag is more appropriate. Give on the higher end for especially heavy bags.

When it comes to the hotel concierge, give $3 to $5 for a basic service, such as arranging airport transportation. If the concierge fulfills a more difficult request, like getting you a last-minute 8 p.m. table at a restaurant that is typically booked weeks in advance, it's not uncommon to shell out $20 and up.

Follow these rules, and chances are you'll be less likely to be tripped up while traipsing around. >>>>

These one-of-a-kind places offer experiences you won't find elsewhere

The Alps are gorgeous. So are the Rockies and the Himalayas. But if shown a picture of one of them, could you tell which it was? That’s not a problem when it comes to Venezuela’s Tepui mountains, giant tables of stone that rise thousands of feet out of the jungle, teeming with prehistoric plants and animals found nowhere else in the world.

 

How about beaches? Maui’s nice. So is Sydney. But Namibia’s Skeleton Coast is littered with shipwrecks from the thousands of captains that got lost in its ever-present fog. Its ochre dunes climb high into the distance, interrupted only by the footprints of hardy antelopes that can survive with less than half an inch of rain a year. You may not want to suntan there, but there’s no chance of mistaking it for somewhere else.

 

In Images: The World's Most Astonishing Landscapes

 

There are beautiful landscapes, and then there are unique landscapes — instantly recognizable views that are found nowhere else in the world. This planet has more than 57 million square miles of land, shaped by geological forces and the weather. The terraforming tools are the standard set: uplift, faulting, folding, wind, water, rain, ice. The truly unique situations come about, however, from geological outliers — like the drying up of the giant prehistoric Lake Minchin to form the world’s largest salt flat in Uyuni, Bolivia, at 12,000 feet. Unique landscapes can be some of the most compelling reasons to take a trip; by their very nature, they provide views and experiences you can’t find anywhere else.

 

Although vast and formed by stone, wood and water, unique landscapes, like many landscapes around the world, are vulnerable. The main issue, according to Dr. Mechtild Rössler, chief of Europe and North America for the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, is the sheer scope of space to be protected. “If you deal with a single monument then you write to the site manager of the single monument,” says Dr. Rössler. “If you deal with a cultural landscape, you have many, many more stakeholders and that is evidently more difficult.”

 

The traditional conservationist’s nightmare is a single company with a few chainsaws and sticks of dynamite undoing works it took nature hundreds or millions of years to create. But with a growing world population and a changing climate, the challenges these days come from many directions.

 

In 1850, old-growth redwood trees covered around 3,000 miles of the California coast. Today, less than 10 percent of those remain at heights of nearly 400 feet and 2,000 years of age, but they are enough to make visitors feel dwarfed in ways they could only otherwise be by mountains or skyscrapers. But global warming threatens to change climates all over the world, including the regular clouds of fog that coastal redwoods rely upon for their growth and continuance. Scientists are just beginning to study the potential effects.

 

Even alternative energy activists with their solar and wind farms are proving to be dangerous to the integrity of unique landscapes. The highlands of Scotland are low by mountain standards, but relatively treeless, making them as craggy and dramatic as many much taller ranges. But the United Kingdom, like the rest of the world, is feeling the energy crunch, and Scotland, with its vast open spaces, is positioning itself as a green energy capital of Europe. Unfortunately, that means wind farms —lots of them — populating the landscape with giant windmills where once mythical giant warriors roamed. The struggle is pitting landscape conservationists against greentenergy activists — groups both interested in environmental preservation but divided on what that means.

 

In general, Dr. Rossler says, UNESCO encourages the greening of their World Heritage sites. The key is to be careful in the placement. “You need to avoid the obstruction of important views which may be not only important for local communities but which may be iconic views for people all around the world,” she says.

 

Still, it is useful to keep in mind that the Earth formed these beautiful places, and in time through its own processes it will take them away. One prime force of both creation and destruction of unique landscapes is erosion. Rocks with differing resistance to water often combine to form some of nature’s most fantastic works, like the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia, Turkey. There, basalt capstones protect spires of powdery tuff, creating a moonscape of beige rock towers with dwellings carved into them. But once the basalt capstones fall off, the towers erode quickly. The unique views that tourists can experience today are only snapshots of larger processes outside our control.

 

“The Earth has been changing in very large ways for 4.5 billion years. It will continue to change, no matter what we do and what we think is good or bad,” said Robert L. Reuss, a professor of geology at Tufts University. He points out that while we worry about rising sea levels, the Gulf of Mexico once came as far north as Illinois. “In the long view, the Earth will recover just fine.”

In Images: The World's Most Astonishing Landscapes

Ethan Todras-Whitehill

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Someone had fun tinkering with the airline board at the old, disused terminal at Baghdad International Airport. It advertises a "special flight" on Japan Airlines from Basra to Sydney, Australia, while a flight from Baghdad to Mexico City is "delayed."

In reality, Iraq has been a no-go zone for most civilian aircraft for almost two decades. First, there were U.N. sanctions after Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Then U.S.-led forces toppled the dictator in 2003, and violence engulfed the country.

Yet, now that insurgent attacks and sectarian bloodshed have ebbed over the past year, Iraq's government is beginning to promote tourism. It will be a tough sell — and even if officials can grab the attention of the adventuresome, Iraq's tourism facilities are shabby.

The opening of a new airport Sunday in the southern city of Najaf is expected to help boost the number of religious pilgrims, mostly Iranians, visiting Shiite shrines to 1 million this year, double the number that came in 2007.

Pilgrims are admittedly a special kind of visitor. "They do not consider any kind of danger or harassment. They have a religious ideology that considers any difficulty they face as a merit and mercy for their piety," said Abdul Zahra al-Talaqani, spokesman for Iraq's tourism ministry.

Iraq is thinking about more than pilgrims, though. Last week, officials displayed tourism posters and said they are intent on attracting visitors to Iraq's fabled archaeological sites, many of them looted and damaged in fighting. But they offered few specifics about how they would do that.

And the venue of the forum? The heavily guarded Mansour Melia Hotel, where a suicide bomber blew himself up in the lobby a year ago, killing a dozen people, including Sunni Arab leaders who had turned against al-Qaida in Iraq.

"Safety is still the biggest concern," Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Grover, a Navy officer working with Iraq's tourism board on behalf of the U.S. government, wrote in an e-mail. "It will take a few risk-takers to invest in Iraq, but when that happens others should follow."

One risk-taker is Robert Kelley, an American businessman who stood at the edge of a field in Baghdad's Green Zone on Saturday and said a luxury, $100 million hotel would be built there. The zone houses Iraqi government offices and American diplomatic and military facilities.

Officials from Iraq's National Investment Commission joined Kelley in the shade of a tent, where they slathered wet concrete onto bricks in a "cornerstone-laying" ceremony. Some Iraqi observers joked that the structure looked like a gravestone.

"We think the Iraqi people want to get along with each other," said Kelley, head of Summit Global Group, a U.S.-based investment company. He did not identify the investors, but said construction could begin soon after city officials do a survey in 30 to 45 days.

Despite his expression of confidence, many hotels in the capital are virtually empty, and the National Museum, full of relics from thousands of years of history, remains closed to the public.

"We're worried about reopening the museum, in case a suicide bomber with an explosive vest infiltrates," a government expert on archaeology said, insisting on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. "We should wait until the spread of peace and security in the country."

Hundreds of hotels in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala are usually packed, but tourism officials say the buildings badly need upgrading.

War has reduced places like Babylon, where the Hanging Gardens were located, to decrepit, virtually inaccessible outposts of ancient culture.

The northern city of Mosul is near the remnants of Ninevah and Nimrud, cities of the Assyrian empire. But Mosul is one of the more violent places in Iraq these days.

Ur, capital of the Sumerian civilization and the Biblical home of the prophet Abraham, lies in the south, where Shiite militias have been active.

"Its turbulent and extreme domestic situation makes Iraq one of the least desirable places in the world to be," reads the online edition of the Lonely Planet travel guide. Many countries warn their citizens against going to Iraq.

Years ago, the few foreign tourists who came during Saddam's brutal rule generally felt safe in the streets. Saddam's image was everywhere. So were informers, and Iraqis did not speak freely to visitors.

Baghdad is much calmer than it was just a year ago, but anybody, Iraqi or foreigner, who goes into the streets recognizes the potential for danger.

The loud boom of a roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol was audible along the Tigris river Sunday morning. One civilian was killed.

An Iraqi resident, who didn't want to be quoted by name because of concerns for his safety, said he had personally witnessed attacks on military or government convoys in 2004, in 2007 and then last week. In each case, he did a U-turn along with other frantic drivers and sped away from the fray; collisions were common in the traffic mayhem.

Besides the threat to safety, tourists would face other problems, including a lack of infrastructure such as the rundown hotels and overstretched medical facilities.

Iraq, in short, is not a place for most tourists.

"I'm suffering," said Fadhil Abbas, a vendor who barely does any business near the ancient ruins of Babylon. "My only income was depending on what tourists gave me for historical accessories or postcards, and handmade copper goods."

CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA