Top Budget Travel Destinations for 2009

Major events and anniversaries should keep Berlin and Vancouver in the spotlight for much of the year. Plan ahead to be a part of the action, and take advantage of the favorable economic climate, too.

BERLIN

PEER INTO OUR CRYSTAL BALL… …and you'll see 10 spots that travelers will be buzzing about this year. • Launch the slide show 10 TO WATCH • Austin • Berlin • Budapest • Cambodia • Hawaii • Mexico • Panama • Reykjavík • Vancouver • Washington, D.C.

Why in 2009: It's the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Plus, the city's been on a long construction spree: Berlin now has one of the world's most dynamic skylines, thanks to innovative buildings such as the swoopy O2 World stadium and the city's vast, sleekly modern main train station. Despite all the moving and shaking, Berlin remains a bargain. Even in the financially flush year of 2007, four- and five-star rooms averaged €130 a night; comparable rooms in Paris and London priced out at more than twice as much. Splurge by opting for a fancier hotel than usual. Swissôtel Berlin, our pick for best value hotel in Europe, has rooms from $188 (011-49/30-220-100, swissotel.com/berlin).

Main events: Throughout the year, Berlin will commemorate the fall of the Wall with concerts, memorials, and an open-air-exhibition in Alexanderplatz. On November 9, at the Brandenburg Gate, a symbolic wall of hundreds of five-foot-tall stones decorated by children will fall like dominos, launching a fireworks display (mauerfall09.com). Also in autumn, the rebuilt Neues Museum will open on Berlin's central Museum Island, displaying masterworks that include the world-famous bust of ancient Egypt's Queen Nefertiti.

Memorable moment: Take the official, self-guided Berlin Wall tour using the GPS-integrated WallGuide (mauerguide.com, $13). Among the sights is Potsdamer Platz, the city's central plaza, surrounded by showstopping buildings that include Renzo Piano's gorgeous, glass-and-terra-cotta shopping arcade (visitberlin.de, free).

Price check: Rooms in many of Berlin's three-star hotels will go for about $90 this year. Pension ABC, for example, is a squeaky-clean, family-run inn near Potsdamer Platz with doubles from $89 (011-49/30-2694-9903).

VANCOUVER, B.C.

Why in 2009: Americans heading to Canada finally have the U.S. dollar back on their side. Exchange rates have rebounded to 2005 levels. And fares into Vancouver for the first three months of 2009 are down 24 percent from a year earlier, says Farecast. Meanwhile, the city has been busy glamming itself up to prepare for February 2010, when it hosts the Winter Olympics. It's spent lots of money to retool infrastructure and unveil cool new venues. The Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, for instance, is now topped with a six-acre rooftop garden of 400,000 native plants and wild grasses that are partly irrigated by a sophisticated rainwater collection system.

Main events: Olympic host cities love to premiere cutting-edge architecture in advance of the Games, and Vancouver is no exception. Visit in 2009 to get a sneak peek (vancouver2010.com). A case in point is the Richmond Oval, a new 8,000-seat arena with a speed-skating track and a glass façade that yields clear, expansive views of the rugged North Shore Mountains (richmondoval.ca). Vancouver will also be trading on all the Olympian attention to tout its local arts and entertainment scene. The Cultural Olympiad's 400-plus events include ice sculptures, circus acts, and a concert by the band Arcade Fire (vancouver2010.com/culturalolympiad, Feb. 1–Mar. 21). Among the city's other events, Grammy-Award-winning saxophonist Sonny Rollins returns to the TD Canada Trust Vancouver International Jazz Festival on June 29 (admission from $67, coastaljazz.ca).

Memorable moment: Cap off a visit to 1,000-acre Stanley Park with afternoon tea or dinner at The Fish House, a cozy clapboard 1930s building, complete with a fireplace, two patios, and live jazz on Thursday nights. It overlooks the park's gardens and forests of cedar, hemlock, and firs. Try the prawns, sautéed with garlic, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, basil, and feta cheese, then flambéed tableside with ouzo. (8901 Stanley Park Drive, 604/681-7275, fishhousestanleypark.com, flaming prawns $15).

Price check: The Listel Hotel, a highly rated, artfully decorated boutique in the city's West End, recently put its rooms on sale via Orbitz starting at $65 a night—75 percent off the hotel's average price.

BEAT THE CROWDS