Harmonious blend

BY JEREMY SCHWARTZ COX NEWS SERVICE

BELIZE CITY, Belize — I knew Belize was going to be something different as soon as we got to the remote border crossing in southern Mexico. As we got off our bus to get our passports stamped by a sweating, chain-smoking Mexican customs official, a family of blond Mennonites waited to board. Wearing overalls and bonnets, they added their Low German to the cacophony of languages already on the bus. - Sunday, January 4, 2009

2009 will be year of travel deal

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — The value of the U.S. dollar is surging, gasoline prices are at their lowest levels in four years and hotel rates are softening. If you can afford a vacation, 2009 will be "the year of travel deals," predicts Genevieve Shaw Brown, senior editor of Travelocity. "As long as the economic slowdown continues, deals will abound for people who do have discretionary income to travel." Pauline Frommer, the guidebook writer, agreed. "Because of the sharp drop-off in bookings, we're seeing some pretty deep discounts to just about everywhere," she said, citing as an example Walt Disney World's offer of seven nights for the price of four. "It's definitely going to be a buyers' market [this year]." But even though travel is becoming less expensive, more people are expected to stay home due to the recession. The Travel Industry Association predicts a 1.3 percent drop in 2009 leisure travel. - Sunday, January 4, 2009

Renovated Strand Hotel a regal nod to old Burma

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RANGOON, Burma — In the colonial heyday of this elegant Victorian-era hotel, gentlemen in white dinner jackets and ladies in flowing gowns sipped cocktails on the shaded veranda as the sun went down, enjoying a welcome respite from the tropical heat. - Sunday, January 4, 2009

TRAVEL IN EUROPE : Fishing traditions continue in Portuguese beach village

RICK STEVES

NAZARE, Portugal — Nazare, a two-hour drive north of Lisbon on Portugal's Atlantic coast, is famous for its women who wear skirts with seven petticoats (one for each day, for the seven colors of the rainbow, or... make up your own legend). While this tradition helps stoke the town's tourist trade, it's also just the way people live here. - Sunday, January 4, 2009

Pedalers roll out vast bicycle route

BY CALVIN WOODWARD THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — At first glance, everything seems out of place on the map of a new interstate road system taking shape across the nation. - Sunday, January 4, 2009

Tours of Versace mansion pricey, but awe-inspiring

BY MATT SEDENSKY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — For years, the iconic South Beach mansion best known as the place Gianni Versace lived and died was open only to the privileged few. - Sunday, January 4, 2009

Is Michelin right about Tokyo food?

BY ERIC TALMADGE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TOKYO — Paris might still be good if you've got a big wad of cash and want the best of the best. But Tokyo is really where it's at food-wise, at least according to the French people who keep track of these things. - Sunday, January 4, 2009

CONSUMER TRAVEL : California sentencing underlines danger of travel firm default

ED PERKINS

You could easily have missed the brief story on page B3 of the San Francisco Chronicle, even if you lived in San Francisco: Two former local travel agents were sentenced to prison for bilking more than a million dollars from hundreds of customers from around the country. It reminds us that one of the travel industry's lingering headaches is still with us. And, in today's economic crunch, it means you may see more rather than fewer agency defaults in the coming few years. - Sunday, January 4, 2009

A literary salon in Faulkner's hometown

BY STEVEN KURUTZ THE NEW YORK TIMES

OXFORD, Miss. — It sounds boastful to say that the most interesting people within a 75-mile radius were gathered at the home of Richard and Lisa Howorth here on a recent Thursday evening, until one reviews the guest list. - Sunday, January 4, 2009

BEST-SELLERS

Fiction 1. THE CHRISTMAS SWEATER, by Glenn Beck with Kevin Balfe and Jason Wright. A boy learns from his disappointment with his mother's gift. 2. SCARPETTA, by Patricia Cornwell. The forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta takes an assignment in New York. 3. CROSS COUNTRY, by James Patterson. Alex Cross chases the leader of a lethal teenage gang. 4. THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE, by David Wroblewski. A mute takes refuge with three dogs in the Wisconsin woods after his father's death. 5. THE HOST, by Stephenie Meyer. Aliens have taken control of the minds and bodies of most humans but one woman won't surender. 6. JUST AFTER SUNSET, by Stephen King. Short stories blending fantasy and psychological realism. 7. THE LUCKY ONE, by Nicholas Sparks. A Marine returning home sets out to track down the woman whose photo he found in Iraq. 8. ARCTIC DRIFT, by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler. In his 20th adventure, Dirk Pitt searches for a crucial element that will help reverse global warming. 9. A MERCY, by Toni Morrison. In 17t - Sunday, January 4, 2009

Could a democracy survive honest leaders?

BY CARLIN ROMANO THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Political Hypocrisy:The Mask of Power From Hobbes to Orwell and Beyond, by David Runciman, Princeton University Press, $29.95 Barack Obama mocked Hillary Clinton's foreign policy expertise until he didn't. - Sunday, January 4, 2009

Will turning the pages of a book one day fail to turn a profit?

BY DAVID STREITFELD THE NEW YORK TIMES

Book publishers and booksellers are full of foreboding — even more than usual for an industry that's been anticipating its demise since the advent of television. The Christmas season that just ended is likely to have been one of the worst in decades. Publishers have been cutting back and laying off. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that it wouldn't be acquiring any new manuscripts, a move akin to a butcher shop proclaiming it had stopped ordering fresh meat. - Sunday, January 4, 2009

Getting to know Oscar Hammerstein's lyrics a joy

BY JOHN STEELE GORDON THE NEW YORK TIMES

About the last thing you would expect from Rodgers and Hammerstein is a song so brazenly sexually suggestive and politically incorrect that The New York Times would not print the lyric. But just such a song, written for the private enjoyment of fellow members of the Dutch Treat Club of New York, is in The Complete Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II, the latest addition to an altogether admirable series by Knopf of the collected works of great lyricists. - Sunday, January 4, 2009

Nautical cottages at Nick's Cove are cozy and quirky

BY RUSS PARSONS LOS ANGELES TIMES

MARSHALL, Calif. — Hotel rooms often are boring places you have to put up with just to explore someplace exciting. At Nick's Cove, a new complex on Tomales Bay an hour or so north of San Francisco, you could be perfectly happy spending most of your time just exploring the hotel rooms. - Sunday, January 4, 2009