Itching to go someplace warm this summer? Want to fly there cheaply so you can use your money to have fun once you get there? Why not try Mobissimo's awesome activity search. You can find it on the normal search, just click the "activity search" radio button or click here. From the activity search page, you enter your origin airport then select from dozens of cool activities like skiing, wine tasting, or scuba diving. In the case of a beach destination, you'd choose Beach. Presto, a list of beach destinations and the price of airfare found by other Mobissimo users in the last two weeks appears. It seriously rocks as a planning tool, test it, let us know what you think.

If you've ever been to Tel Aviv, you know it's vibrant, cosmopolitan city. From Bahaus architecture to falafel, it's got a little of bit of everything no matter your tastes. It's a wonderful city to just walk around and discover on your own, but if you don't have time or want some tips, Cool Hunting has a couple of recommendations for places to visit when you're there. Some of their picks include

• Rothschild 12
• Har Sinai
• Joz & Loz
• Sommer Gallery
• Design Museum Holon

We love lists here at Mobissimo. Especially silly lists. None sillier than "Best Places To Live" because honestly, you can live almost anywhere in the world and be happy as long as 1) you have easy access to strong alcohol and 2) the internet. Which probably rules out places like Saudi Arabia, so we stand corrected perhaps. Regardless, with both these things, no matter how ugly, politically repressive, or cold it is where you live, you can drink and surf, um, the interwebs.  That being said, it stands to reason, that the 5 best places to live in the world should also be 5 places you might like to visit on a vacation. Are we right? You know we are. So without further ado, drum roll please, the 5 best places to live in the world courtesy of some random guy getting paid $.10 a word at the UK Guardian.

1. Portland, Oregon
2. St Pauli, Hamburg
3. Northern coast, Maui, Hawaii
4. Cihangir, Istanbul
5. Santa Cruz, Tenerife

Weekly Deals:

• $1,198 & up -- Fly to New Zealand
• $710* & up -- Nonstop to Europe in Spring (R/T incl. Tax)
• $7 & up -- North Carolina's Coast in Summer: Save up to 40%
• $679 & up -- Caribbean 'Dreams' Vacation w/Air, Save $240
• $142 & up -- Waikiki 1-Bedroom Suite, 30% Off
• $97 & up -- Sale at 9 Maui Hotels, up to 30% Off
• $399 & up -- Bahamas All-Inclusive Vacation w/Air, 50% Off
• $732* & up -- Fly to Scandinavia in Summer (R/T incl. Tax)
• $39 & up -- Summer in Scandinavia: Deals up to 50% Off
• $1129 & up -- Ixtapa 7-Night Vacations w/Air and Transfers
• $799 & up -- All-Inclusive Cancun Vacations incl. Air
• $869 -- Dominican Republic All-Incl. 6-Nt. Trip from LA
• $118* & up -- Canada Sale Fares from NYC (one way)
• $549 & up -- 7-Night Western Mediterranean Cruise
• $2099 -- Cuba: 4-Night Vacation in Havana w/Roundtrip Air
• $499 & up -- Puerto Rico 4-Star Vacation w/Air, 45% Off
• $695 & up -- Hawaii 3-Nt. Trips w/Air: All Islands on Sale
• $669 -- Ireland in Spring w/Air & Car from NYC

If you're a beer aficionado and want to head for the best beer spots wherever you travel, RateBeer should definitely be one of the websites you should consult before leaving. 

RateBeer was founded in May 2000 by Bill Buchanan as a forum for beer lovers to come together and share their opinions of beer and breweries. Established and maintained by dedicated volunteers, RateBeer has become the premier resource for consumer-driven beer ratings, features on beer culture and industry events, weekly beer-related editorials, and an internationally recognized, semi-annual RateBeer Best competition. The community now has thousands of members from more than 60 countries who have rated tens of thousands of beers from around the world. Our mission is to provide independent, unbiased, consumer-driven information about beer and breweries and to enhance the image and worldwide appreciation of beer.

We tested the site out for San Francisco, and though it returned some of the establishments that have been around for a while, it missed the new locations like Southern Pacific and smaller bars with good beer selections like Shotwells. But it's definitely a good website to add to the ones you already currently use to research your trips.

Interesting technology that could prove indispensable for people (e.g. aid workers) traveling in parts of the world where creature comforts are hard to come by. While getting the propane canisters to your destination might be a problem, airlines prohibit them on checked baggage. But if you could figure out how to get them to your destination and just pick them up there, seems like the Heatstick could come in really useful. From GetOutdoors:

• The Heatstick uses a flameless exothermal process for heating the water
• The complete system includes
• Fuelstick - essentially a customized propane canister which provides the fuel to power the Heatstick. Seem to cost about $8 a unit, but you have to buy 10. The extreme Fuelstick (there are 2 other types) weighs 93 g, will heat 6-9 liters of water, and will work in temperatures ranging from -30C - 0C
• Heatstick - this is the actual technology that heats the water, lets call it a "stove" though it doesn't use a flame to heat the water, rather works on an exothermal process. Probably like those bhutane hand warmers. It's not cheap, looks like it costs about $400 and weighs 380 grams for the 1L version. Not the lightest for sure.
• Water bottle - the heatstick screws into the bottle and is submerged in the water. Not sure if other generic bottles like Nalgenes work, seems like it should have been designed to work with Nalgenes and other wide-mouth water bottles.
• Batteries - used to "ignite" the full source and start the exothermal process

Daily Deals:

• $142 & up -- Waikiki 1-Bedroom Suite, 30% Off
• $97 & up -- Sale at 9 Maui Hotels, up to 30% Off
• $94 – Jamaica All-Inclusive Resort w/Waterpark, 55% Off
• $7 & up -- North Carolina's Coast in Summer: Save up to 40%
• $679 & up -- Caribbean 'Dreams' Vacation w/Air, Save $240
• $1514 & up -- All-Inclusive Weeklong Costa Rica Trips w/Air
• $754* & up -- Scotland Fare Sale (R/T w/Tax)
• $399 & up -- Bahamas All-Inclusive Vacation w/Air, 50% Off
• $732* & up -- Fly to Scandinavia in Summer (R/T incl. Tax)
• $39 & up -- Summer in Scandinavia: Deals up to 50% Off
• $1129 & up -- Ixtapa 7-Night Vacations w/Air and Transfers
• $680* & up -- Nonstop to Europe in Spring (R/T incl. Tax)
• $799 & up -- All-Inclusive Cancun Vacations incl. Air
• $799 & up -- 7-Night Alaska Cruise
• $126* & up -- Canada Sale Fares from NYC (one way)
• $549 & up -- 7-Night Western Mediterranean Cruise
• $499 - 7-Night Southern Caribbean Cruise, incl. Credit

That's really the only thing we can think of when we look at this site which features a tagline prominently that says, "Who Needs Money, Beautiful People Travel Free - Travel Dating For Generous And Attractive People." Sounds suspiciously like a high priced escort service to us, disguised as a "new" type of travel site. We'd love to test it out but we're probably too ugly to make the cut. If you're not and want to test it out, head on over to Miss Travel. Wonder if the Secret Service in Cartagena was using this site. Watch the video below to see how it works, thought is seems pretty simple to us. World's oldest profession gets a new twist.

Travel and Leisure readers voted on the worst airports in America, we pasted the winners below. But this post isn't really about who won or lost. It's more of a rant about silly polls like this. Because, what's the point, really? It's not like a worst hotel poll, where when you read it, you make a mental note to not visit the winners. Take a look at the worst airports below. Boston? Atlanta? All three New York airports? What exactly is one supposed to do with the information in this kind of poll? Not fly into one of the airports? Write a strongly worded letter of disapproval to the airport authority? Com'on, we get the need to write puffy, space filling article to increase your rankings in Google, but this poll is just silly. But at least it gave us an opportunity for a little rant. For that we're thankful.

1. New York (LGA)
2. Los Angeles (LAX)
3. Philadelphia (PHL)
4. New York (JFK)
5. Newark (EWR)
6. Chicago O’Hare (ORD)
7. Washington Dulles (IAD)
8. Boston (BOS)
9. Houston (IAH)
10. Atlanta (ATL)

Oh, la la. Look who's getting a bit of couture? The Denver Art Museum snagged an exclusive exhibit of Yves Saint Lauren fashion. The exhibit "explores Yves Saint Laurent’s 40 years of creativity, from his first days at Dior to his final runway collection. Through 200 haute couture outfits, photographs, drawings, and films, you will experience the creative development of one of the world’s most iconic designers." Fun in unexpected places indeed. An exhibit you'd expect in New York, but Denver? Good on them. Book your trip to Denver to take in the exhibit. 

Go out and enjoy some nature for free this weekend. For the next week, National Parks are free that usually charge.

Free Entrance Days in the National Parks

America's Best Idea - the national parks - gets even better with several fee-free days at more than 100 national parks that usually charge entrance fees.*

Mark your calendar for these fee-free dates in 2012:

• January 14-16
  Martin Luther King Jr. weekend
  
• April 21-29
  National Park Week
  
• June 9
  Get Outdoors Day
• September 29
  National Public Lands Day
  
• November 10-12
  Veterans Day weekend

To make the fun even more affordable, check out these discounts and special offers from park partners and neighboring businesses:

• National Park Hospitality Association
• National Parks Promotions Council

Here's a tip - many of your 397 national parks NEVER charge an entrance fee. So start Planning Your Visit!

 Via GetOutdoors.com

Imagine you're a pilot, waking up from a little nap, a little drowsy, look out the window and see a plane flying straight at you. What do you do? Send the plane into a nosedive of course, to avoid the the oncoming plane. Unless of course you're just hallucinating a bit and that plane is really just Venus and you haven't quite woken up yet. Then you should probably keep flying straight. That's what happened to the pilot of an Air Canada flight a couple of years ago.

A sleepy Air Canada pilot first mistook the planet Venus for an aircraft, and then sent his airliner diving toward the Atlantic to prevent an imaginary collision with another plane, an official report said on Monday.

Sixteen passengers and crew were hurt in the January 2011 incident, when the first officer rammed the control stick forward to avoid a U.S. plane he wrongly thought was heading straight toward him.

"Under the effects of significant sleep inertia (when performance and situational awareness are degraded immediately after waking up), the first officer perceived the oncoming aircraft as being on a collision course and began a descent to avoid it," Canada's Transportation Safety Board said.

Via Reuters.

Trip Advisor just released a list of their choices for Best Hotels for families. Not a very comprehensive list, the hotels seem concentrated in a few specific countries or states, but it's a start at least if you're looking for interesting, family friendly hotels.

Top 10 World Large Hotels and Resorts

NY Times has a good article providing an overview on best practices when booking tickets. It also discusses whether booking in advance does indeed save you money. The quick answer, is yes. Not only does booking in advance save you money, but the lead time has been getting longer, at least compared to last year. Some examples:

• Europe in Summer: LAST YEAR’S SWEET SPOT: 21 TO 22 WEEKS IN ADVANCE
• Caribbean in Winter: LAST YEAR’S SWEET SPOT: 11 OR 12 WEEKS
• Business or First Class to Asia or Europe: LAST YEAR’S SWEET SPOT: 23 TO 24 WEEKS

This infographic the seems to say so.