ARE YOU AN URBAN REVELER WHO loves the fireworks on New Year's Eve but hates battling the crowds and the cold? If so, a warm hotel room with a stocked minibar and a clear view might be worth the price no matter how high. It may be too late to reserve most well-placed hotels for the coming New Year, but here are some prices that may help you plan for the next year's celebration.
In Sydney, where hundreds of thousands gather each year to see the midnight fireworks explode above the harbor, the Novotel on Darling Harbour (novoteldarlingharbour.com.au, 61-02-9934-0000) is among the best vantage points. Harbor-view standard rooms start at about $600. More stunning, perhaps, is the Sebel Pier One (www.mirvac hotels.com, 61-02-8298-9999) right under the Sydney Harbour Bridge overlooking Walsh Bay and complete with a glass-floored lobby with water below. A standard harbor-view room starts at $425 with a minimum seven-night stay.
THE $100 HAMBURGER
McGraw Hill / $24.95
There are some people in this world you have no choice but to trust, like the people who fly airplanes. So when a bunch of general aviation types give you their advice, as they do in this book subtitled A Guide to Pilots' Favorite Fly-in Restaurants, you feel you ought to at least hear them out. A lot of people must have felt that way because this book is in its third edition, with more than a thousand recommendations in all 50 states. You know it's a really great place to eat when the pilots give it their highest rating: five buns.
TONI SALAMA
LODGING
Find your castle or tepee
If you could, would you stay in a caboose or a windmill on your next vacation? How about a tepee? A new global Web site, HomeAway.com, lists more than 60,000 vacation home properties across 90 countries. In addition to the above mentioned, you'll find a barn, bungalow, cabin, castle, chalet, condo, cottage, house, houseboat, mansion, villa, yacht and yurt. Homeaway.com provides photos, property descriptions, pricing and booking information. Weekly rates range from $200 for a rustic cabin in North Carolina to $45,000 for a lavish estate in Jamaica.
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
GEAR & GADGETS
