Few things can ruin a trip faster than having something precious get lost or stolen. Although the best policy is to leave valuables at home while traveling (do you really need to bring those diamond earrings?), sometimes you just can't do without. When that's the case here's how to protect your irreplaceables while traveling:

• Document your valuables before you leave for insurance purposes, in case the worst happens. Take a copy with you and leave one with someone at home.
• Make a point to be (and look) alert Pickpockets and theives often target those who look preoccupied and innattentive.
• Never pack valuables in checked luggage. Keep them with you in your carry-on instead.
• Use see-through bags when packing your carry-on so the TSA inspectors can easily see what's inside without needing to directly handle the contents and potentially spill, drop, or pocket anything.
  
• Don't put items loose into the TSA bin Anything small (like watches, cell phones, etc) should be put into a coat pocket, handbag, or ziplock bag to keep them together before going through security.
• Always keep your carry-on as close to you as possible Make a point to stash it in the compartment either directly above or in front of your seat, if possible keep your most precious cargo in the bag that goes under the seat in front of you, and don't leave your carry-on behind when to go to the baggage carousel to pick up your luggage.
• Have locks on everything You can't lock your carry-ons while they're going through security, or your checked luggage while it's on the plane, but having them locked at all other times (i.e. while your carry-on is stowed in the overhead compartment or your luggage is in the trunk of a taxi) can still help prevent theft.
• Use the hotel room safe Locking items in your hotel room is all but worthless, and locking locked luggage in a hotel room isn't much better. Stash valuables in the room safe, hotel safe (even better), or if neither of those is an option you can always bring your own (check out Pacsafe).
• Don't leave your luggage on a tour bus Just because everyone else is doing it, and the tour guide says it's okay, is no guarantee. Lock up any luggage you must leave behind and take all irreplaceable items with you.

The Water/Bodies exhibit kicks off on December 21, 2009 at the Eden Rock Gallery. Located at the Eden Rock Hotel on St Barths, the gallery has hosted shows from the top artists in the world and those who will be in the next few years. The new show, curated by David Kratz, President of the New York Academy of Art, will no doubt be consistent with the gallery's fantastic reputation. This year, Eric Fischl and Jenny Saville, both Senior Critics at the Academy, will be among the Academy-affiliated artists showcasing their work at Eden Rock.

Each of the pieces at Eden Rock this winter will be related to the theme of nature, water and the body. Only small works will be displayed at this event, though a variety of media will be present, including oil, watercolor, drawing and sculpture.

Water/Bodies is the latest in an ongoing relationship between the Eden Rock Gallery and New York Academy of Art. The program includes an artist-in-residence program, in which up to 10 students or graduates of the Academy can visit St Barths and participate. Some of the proceeds from the sales at Water/Bodies will be used to support this program and others at the Academy. Past participants include Richard Prince, whose early 2008 show sold out before the opening.

While we're unlikely to see a replay of Prince's sales at Eden Rock this year, the art market is certainly better than what we saw late last year. Maybe collectors will go back to voting with their wallets.

I sometimes think that the ideas we all have about the "romance" of leisure travel date back to the days when travel wasn't quite so widespread, when it was the exclusive province of the elite. Say, the late 19th or early 20th century. When we're suffused with this nostalgia, we don't think very often of the fact that we would most likely not be elites ourselves, and even if we were, we'd have far less time lord it over everyone since life expectancy was just shy of 50 -- because in all romantic fantasies, the heroes are always wealthy, beautiful and very lucky.

While I'm not sure it's worth trading a few decades of life expectancy for it, it still seems a real shame that it's no longer possible to book first class passage on those amazing ocean vessels that could take you almost anywhere worth going. The era, the experience and the lifestyle is vividly described in a lavishly illustrated new book, First Class: Legendary Ocean Liner Voyages Around the World, published by Vendome Press. It's a book that makes a terrific holiday gift for anyone who loves boats, cruises, history, and it comes in a slipcase meant to resemble a steamer trunk.

Author Gérard Piouffre provides the historical context needed to understand the era of the ocean liner, which stretches from the time steam ships took over from boats that travel under sail and ends in the late 1950s, when air travel surpassed travel by water. The construction of these ships would take a workforce of 10,000 to 15,000, in order to create settings that were almost embarrassingly ostentatious, meant to resemble floating palaces or châteaus. That, of course, was in first class, but second class wasn't too terrible -- less luxurious, but still including "immense drawing rooms, libraries, smoking rooms," write Piouffre. It was meant to resemble an "impressively appointed country house." (Of third class, he says, the look was more dormitory.)

Beyond interior décor, First Class paints a picture of life aboard ship, reproducing menus, activities schedules and impromptu amusements. (On the long and boring trip from San Francisco to Hawaii, a game was organized in which two passengers were blindfolded and armed with rubber truncheons. Liability laws sure have changed.)

The book is organized into the old sea routes -- there's the transatlantic and transpacific crossings, the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal, the South Atlantic and the Caribbean, Routes of Ice and Gold (Alaska, and Iceland/Norway) for instance. Between the photos, drawings, ephemera and quotes from everyone from ordinary passengers to luminaries like Mark Twain, you feel like you're following right along in a great ship's wake. The most hypnotic chapter to me was the one that dealt with the route that went through the Suez Canal to the Far East, starting perhaps in Marseille, and calling on Alexandria, Mumbai, Calcutta, Rangoon, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Shanghai and ultimately Yokohama, Japan. Really, I can't think of a voyage, in any time, that sounds more romantic than that.

Italy is one of those countries that seems to get a grip on the imagination and just doesn't let go. Kathy McCabe, publisher of the well-regarded travel newsletter Dream of Italy, says that 40% of her subscribers have been to Italy six or more times -- and they keep finding reasons to return.

Now, McCabe and her contributors have so much information to share that the monthly newsletter is overflowing. Starting in 2010, the site is launching a daily newsletter, "Italian Day Dreams", which will cover Italian food, wine, travel and lifestyle. "Italian Day Dreams" will be free, while an annual subscription to the monthly newsletter costs $99 if you receive it on paper, and $79 if you receive it online.

Sign up for the daily email and you'll also get a sumptuous gift: Christmas in Italy, a 35 page ebook filled with all you need to know about spending the holiday in a country that really knows how to celebrate, and I mean for an entire month -- the festivities start December 6th, with La festa di San Nicola (the feast of St. Nicholas) and continue through January 6th, L'Epifania, or Epiphany, which marks the arrival of the the three wise men to visit the baby Jesus.

We've seen an inn in Vermont offer getaways for the unemployed. Now a different inn is offering a free getaway for the uninsured. Tim and Amy Brady, the owners of Forty Putney Road Bed and Breakfast in Brattleboro, Vermont know firsthand the challenges of being without health insurance. In 2007, when they left their corporate jobs to start the bed and breakfast they struggled to find a healthcare coverage option that would be affordable and not exclude existing conditions. Now they hope to provide a healthy getaway to those who may be facing the same struggle with their own health care coverage by giving away one healthy getaway each month, complete with an apple a day , to an uninsured couple in need of some stress relief. Each month until a National Health Care Reform Bill is passed Forty Putney Road Bed and Breakfast will award one deserving couple with a two-night stay that includes a healthy breakfast. Visit the Forty Putney Road Bed and Breakfast website for more details.

In spite of their occasional dynamic faults, vintage sports cars had a number of things going for them: namely, they were dripping with beauty and they had a way of attracting beauty of the opposite sex -- of either sex. They could also be faulted for not having any seriously considered luggage space, but then again micro miniskirts and bikini brief swim trunks didn't take up that much space.

Austrian luggage couturier JOCHEN70 can help you put more junk in your trunk -- certainly one of the few times you'd be interested in that kind of help -- and do so gorgeously. There are eight bags in the company's J70 collection, each one featuring a hard back and ample capacity finished with synthetics, stitched leather, and a racing stripe in any color you choose. The bags are also "protected against battery acid, lubricants, petrol, gasoline, exhaust fumes and other hazards," because, you know, you're a dangerous man. Try the limited edition 1000Miglia if you want something even more period, or the custom line that was designed to fit in cars such as the Alfa Spider Duetto, Jaguar E-Type Coupé and Roadster, and Porsche 356.

Interestingly, the inspiration for Jochen's bags is derived from a source that long predates vintage cars: horses. Or, more specifically, saddlebags. By "crossing the travel bag with the suitcase," the hard back of a JOCHEN70 helps keep contents protected, while two bags attached to one handle (they flip out, like wings) makes for easier carrying and more efficient storage.

And even though JOCHEN70 can't match the finest thing to grace a vintage car -- that would be probably be Grace Kelly -- if you really want to get your weekend gear and her twelve changes of clothes to the Hamptons, it is certainly worth a look.

With last week's publication of Sarah Palin's new book, Going Rogue, Alaska is once again in the headlines, so it's easy to forget that there's far more to our 49th state than its red-suited former governor. I've been working on a book project in the Bering Strait of Alaska sporadically for the past few years -- above is a photo from Shishmaref, Alaska. These are places where you really can see Russia. And while these locales aren't much for luxury in the traditional sense, they are the places where simply astonishing Alaska Native art is produced -- where artists utilize the landscape to create everything from delicately carved bracelets to bold mobiles, traditional masks to photographs, amber-jewel like kayaks to paintings.

Alaska's natural resources aren't just used for art, of course -- many Native Alaskans still live at least partially off the land and sea. In part, this is to preserve a traditional way of life, but it's also because the price of basic necessities is so high: a dozen eggs can cost as much as $22. In addition to the challenges of preserving tradition that are faced by native communities everywhere, the raw materials of life are in jeopardy because of global warming. This is the part of the United States that is the most dramatically affected by climate change: The state's wintertime climate has warmed by 40 degrees since 1950, sea ice has thinned by 60 percent since the 1960s.

Nine Native Alaskan artists have produced works in response to this fraught landscape, which opens at the Alaska House New York gallery in Soho on December 10th. Working in a variety of media, ranging from mask-making, to skin sewing, to photography, Brian Adams, Susie Bevins, Perry Eaton, Nicholas Galanin, Anna Hoover, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Erica Lord, Da-ka-xeen Mehner, and Larry McNeil create works that capture this particularly delicate moment for Alaska -- and works that are certainly highly collectible. Check out the preview below to get just a sample of this extraordinary art.

If Dry Ice inspires you to travel to the places where these works are created, Alaska House New York (which is as much of an "embassy" for Alaska as it is an art gallery) has many resources to guide you through the parts of the state that you're unlikely to see on your own. And if you're more of an armchair traveler, check out this thoughtfully curated selection of books about Alaska -- a good place to start is 50 Miles from Tomorrow, by William L. Iggiagruk Hensley. You'll also find a list of online resources, including the very entertaining online newspaper, Alaska Dispatch.

The five star Gleneagles resort in Perthshire (above) and Rocco Forte's The Balmoral in Edinburgh are teaming up to offer an incredible "Taste of Scotland" package this season, providing guests with a true Scottish gourmet experience in two legendary, luxurious and multi award-winning locations. At the historic Balmoral in Edinburgh, travelers will be welcomed into a complimentary upgraded Executive Room, complete with a bottle of Bollinger champagne on ice, and will enjoy dinner in the Michelin-starred number one restaurant. While at Gleneagles, set on 850 acres of Perthshire countryside, guests will relax in a sprawling Estate Room before sampling a Scotch whisky tasting for two in the bar and then dining at the Michelin-starred Andrew Fairlie restaurant. Gleneagles is also home to three of the top Scottish Championship golf courses, a wide range of exhilarating outdoor leisure activities and a spacious spa. The Taste of Scotland package costs £1,200, or about $1,985, for two people with two nights at each hotel.

[via JustLuxe]

The "AIG effect" is still affecting the luxury resort industry.

Indeed, businesses started toning down lavish corporate events after American International Group, the insurance giant, was widely criticized for holding a conference at a luxury resort days after it received a cash infusion from Congress in 2008.

Many resorts that have a heavy dependence on group business are still struggling. The latest victim is Amelia Island Plantation. Last week, the 1,350-acre luxury enclave overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in northeast Florida filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The resort is very dependent on its group business, which has dropped precipitously over the past year, according to Richard Goldman, its chief marketing officer. "More than half of our business is from corporate groups that hold conferences here," says Goldman. "The AIG effect has basically scared off folks -- even businesses that could afford to have meetings -- who are afraid to hold conferences at resorts."

The company will operate as "business as usual" during the reorganization and an investor group, comprised of Amelia Island Plantation residents and club members, has already collected to aid the resort.

Amelia Island Plantation isn't the only hospitality company struggling during the recession. In Scottsdale, Ariz., the W Hotel recently staved off foreclosure and the InterContinental Montelucia Resort, also in Scottsdale, faced possible foreclosure earlier in the year. The Tropicana Las Vegas casino and the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas emerged from bankruptcy this year.

And this week, Citigroup reached a tentative agreement to sell the very same resort that started the whole mess in the first place. The St. Regis Monarch Beach resort in Dana Point, Ca., made headlines last year when it hosted a group of AIG executives at a retreat just days after the government bailout of the company. Citigroup seized the St. Regis from its owners last summer, after they failed to make payments on the bank's $70 million loan on the property.

On my recent visit to Holland, sponsored by the Netherlands Board of Tourism, we ventured up to The Hague (Den Haag) for the Dutch Fashion Awards and some museums. Though it wasn't originally on the itinerary, everyone on the trip was dying to see the Escher Museum (Escher in het Paleis).

The museum is located in the royal Lange Voorhout Palace, and features well kept original fixtures as well as several rooms dedicated to showing what the winter palace of Queen Mother Emma used to look like. Since then, the legendary Dutch graphic artist who's still blowing our minds almost 40 years after his death has been moved in, and the juxtaposition of decadence and mind-bending art is surprisingly harmonious.

If you're taking a trip to Amsterdam, a 45-minute trek up to The Hague is worth it just to see the museum, which not only has a far more extensive Escher collection than any of us believed was possible, but which also features a stunning array of crystal chandeliers in almost every room.

The chandeliers, like the enormous "Rain Cloud" in the foyer (above), are all works by Hans van Bentem (1965), a ceramics and glass artist from Rotterdam who happens to have a penchant for designing elaborate and unusual chandeliers. How unusual are they? Check out the gallery for a crystallized firefly, shark, trophy, umbrella, seahorse and more. The Hans van Bentem chandeliers are an exhibit all their own, and have appeared in the museum's formerly royal rooms since 2003. This is the full collection:

This trip was paid for by the Netherlands Board of Tourism, but the ideas and opinions expressed in the article above are 100% my own.

Planning your group stay in Las Vegas just got a little more streamlined if you are staying at one of the Harrah's Entertainment properties. The brand has launched Total Experiences, a new service that offers complimentary trip planning and insider access for friend and family travel, including milestone birthdays, bachelor parties, girlfriend getaways, reunions and golf trips.

Each group is connected with their own Total Experiences Specialist (one of the friendly faces shown above) who handles all details of the group's itinerary both before and during their stay, booking all reservations, offering insider recommendations, and arranging VIP privileges. It is available to groups of six or more who book at any U.S.-based Harrah's Entertainment resorts in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and beyond, including Caesars Palace, Paris Las Vegas, Caesars Atlantic City and Harrah's Resort Atlantic City. Guests pay for only what they book and can include upgrades like VIP check-in, access to private lounges, VIP club entry, celebrity meet-and-greets, private gaming lessons and behind-the-scenes tours. Trip planning includes on- and off-resort activities like unique insider experiences such as the exclusive chef's table at Guy Savoy or a private gaming table in the Pussycat Doll pit.

These properties spare no luxury while also keeping you mindful of your location which is smack in the middle of wild African nature -- you're asked to never go to your room at night without a watchman, and staff will keep a watchful eye out to to make sure mischievous vervet monkeys don't snatch away your mid-day snack. (When I stayed at Singita Sweni a couple of years ago, on a visit arranged through Premier Tours, I received my most favorite answer to a question I posed to a bell man, ever: "oh yes, just last week, two lions killed an impala near the pool.")

Kensington's specially priced deal is based on double occupancy. The offer is good January 15th – May 31st, 2010 and August 1st – December 15th, 2010.

One of the advantages that Park City, Utah has over other Western ski destinations is its convenience -- it lies 35 major highway minutes east of Salt Lake City's airport. So if your desire to ski exceeds the time you have available to devote to the slopes, you don't have to lose an entire day to transportation: wake up at dark-thirty almost anywhere in the United States and catch a flight into Salt Lake and board your chair lift by the afternoon.

To sweeten the deal, you don't even have to buy a lift ticket on your first day. The Quick START Vacation program allows you to convert your boarding pass into a lift ticket at Deer Valley Resort, The Canyons Resort, or Park City Mountain Resort. You need to register in advance online for a voucher, which you present along with your boarding pass, a non-Utah driver's license or other official state identification at the ticket window.

Make sure you read all the rules and regulations on the website, since there's no flexibility in these requirements. Like, if you're a person who shuns printing boarding passes at home and relies on your PDA for check-in, you're going to need to change your ways to get this deal. And if the airline wants to keep your boarding pass, you're going to need to put up a fight.

As you'd expect there are also black out dates: you're not going to get this deal over Christmas week (December 25th, 2009 to January 2nd, 2010) or from Valentine's Day weekend through March 27th, 2010.

There are more Park City deals and promotions to be had, and I'm particularly keen on is a package offered by The Sky Lodge which is throwing in a complimentary breakfast and a 50 minute spa treatment with each night's stay November 26th to April 13th, 2010. The spa treatment deal is especially nice since the Sky Lodge's Amara spa offers all of its massage and body treatment clients a soak in traditional wooden Japanese tubs called Ofuro baths. Per Japanese tradition, you shower before entering the tub, which is filled with piping hot water I'll admit that the soak made me a little nauseous when I visited this past summer (when it was nearing an unusually sultry 85 degrees outside) but it would definitely be just the thing after a day on the slopes. Once again, there are blackout dates during peak periods, so from December 26, 2009 - January 2, 2010, January 21 – 31, 2010 and February 10 – 15, 2010, you'll be paying for your own spa treatment and breakfast.

Marriott has announced a new brand within their global portfolio that will bring distinctive hotels under the Marriott umbrella. The Autograph Collection will be a new brand comprised of upper upscale and luxury independent hotels around the world focusing on major cities and resort destinations. The collection is designed to offer the individuality of an independent hotel with the assurance of the Marriott brand.

The brand plans to add approximately 25 hotels through 2010 with locations throughout the world. Each hotel will go through the same hotel and operator approval processes as other Marriott full-service hotels and the Autograph Collection will be affiliated with the Marriott Rewards guest loyalty program.

USA Today has more details on the collection including the information that Marriott is in talks with 12 to 15 hotels about being part of the Autograph Collection. The brand launches at a time when many great independent hotels are struggling due to the economy so Marriott plans to target higher-end hotels that have opened recently but might be facing hard times. Hotels that become part of the collection will benefit from Marriott's worldwide network.

Way back in 2006 I wrote about the plans for The Resort at Singer Island, a Starwood Hotels project. Now the Florida resort will no longer be a Starwood property. The Resort at Singer Island was sold to Urgo Hotels recently for $7.1 million. A presss release states that condos in this oceanfront tower were sold 78 percent under opening day prices in a bulk sale. The operator of the 239-suite hotel was changed from Starwood to Marriott. The new name is now officially the Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort and Spa. The hotel is on six acres of beachfront with 300-foot frontage on the Atlantic Ocean in Palm Beach County.

WCI Communities, the owner of the property and a luxury homebuilder based in Bonita Springs, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection over a year ago. It announced on September 3, 2009 that it emerged from Chapter 11 as a newly reorganized, private company, eliminating more than $2 billion in debt and liabilities. It spent $210 million to build the oceanfront Resort at Singer Island, a project that comprises 66 condo residences, 239 hotel/condos, a restaurant and a spa. Urgo Hotels paid $4 million for four three-bedroom residence condos, $2.1 million for 14 hotel/condos and $1 million for the hotel operating agreement, the spa, the restaurant and the common areas.