A Guide to Memphis, Tennessee, Northern Mississippi, and Tunica

The Real Deal: Fly to and from Miami or Fort Lauderdale and spend three nights at The Howard Johnson Dezerland, The Howard Johnson Caribbean, Greenview South Beach, or Ocean Surf for $299 for midweek travel When: Through Nov. 30, 2005 Gateways: New York, Chicago, Providence, Atlantic City, Washington, D.C. Details: Airport and hotel taxes and fees are not included in the package and weekend and holiday travel might cost more, as will travel from other U.S. gateways. Blackout dates may apply. Book By: Nov. 30, 2005 Contact: eLeisurelink.com, eLeisurelink.com You've all heard it: Miami is the "it" city, again, with anybody who's anybody flocking to its beaches, drawn by the ever-so-explosive club scene of South Beach. If you're ready to answer the call of the wild (nightlife, that is) and fun in the sun is on your itinerary, eLeisurelink.com will provide you with discounted airfare and accommodations, so you can spend your hard-earned money elsewhere (think dinners, drinks, parties, shopping and other life's necessities). The Howard Johnson Dezerland is a newly-renovated three-star beachfront hotel will take you straight back to the best of 1950s with its nostalgic memorabilia from the decade of wholesome fun. Blow off some steam in one of the four steam rooms at the hotel's just-opened 15,000 square-foot spa, complete with a beauty salon, private trainers and yoga and pilates classes. A complementary shuttle will take you to South Beach, Bal Harbour shops and Aventura Mall. You can succumb to your guilty pleasures, minus the guilt, knowing that to get to Miami between May and November from New York, Chicago or D.C. you'll be paying at least in the $120-$190 range (Spirit) for airfare alone.

What you'll find in this story: camera advice, camcorder ratings, vacation camera suggestions, photography advice, digital video cameras New recording formats and media types are springing up all over, but the cutting edge has downsides. Microdrive- or SD-based digital video cameras require a laptop or other device to download to once you fill the memory card. DVD camcorders let you record straight to discs that you can pop in a DVD player, but you need the right kind of DVD player, disc drive, and software. And all of the above record MPEG-2 video, which isn't ideal if you want to edit on a home computer. Basically, MiniDV cameras still offer the best combo of quality, price, and versatility. They record in DV format, providing quality and excellent compatibility with editing software. MiniDV cassettes are affordable, widely available, and small enough that you can fit a bunch in your carry-on. Just put an extra battery on your shopping list, along with a FireWire cable for transferring video to a computer if you want to edit once you're home. Panasonic Palmcorder PV-GS15 Street price: $388-$520 Although the PV-GS15's price is close to the bottom of the MiniDV range, Panasonic didn't curse it with the cheap construction and ungainly design of some similarly priced cameras. It's nicely compact and offers a 24X optical zoom. While low-light shooting isn't this camera's forte, its overall image quality is quite good for its class. And as usual, Panasonic provides a range of basic manual controls for those who are feeling creative. Sony Handycam DCR-HC40 Street price: $475-$700 Equipped with a 10X optical zoom and a strong set of automatic features, the DCR-HC40 can capture 1-megapixel stills that are fine for e-mailing (but make disappointing prints). Its low-light modes will let you keep filming when lesser cameras give up. Like most of Sony's recent camcorders, this model has a touch-screen LCD, so changing the settings is somewhat akin to operating a PDA. (Those with larger fingers might find it a bit exasperating.) Best of all, it fits easily in a jacket pocket. Canon Optura 30 Street price: $550-$900 The Optura 30 offers a useful combination of automatic and manual functions, including a manual focus ring. It has an accessory shoe for attaching an external microphone or a video light, and you can take 2-megapixel stills with it, even while recording video. The photos won't be as good as from a dedicated still camera, but if casual snaps are all you're after, an all-in-one device is mighty convenient. The 12X optical zoom gives a decent range; for a 14X zoom and manual audio controls, consider the otherwise identical Optura 40 ($620-$1,000). Aimee Baldridge covers digital video for CNET.

As the cool weather approaches, and visions of tropical islands dance in our heads, a great many Americans are finally aware that the cheapest way to achieve those dreams is on a cruise. For as little as $1,400 to $1600 per person (if you're paying the standard catalogue price), and sometimes averaging out to cost less than $75 a day (if you're lucky enough to find a discount), the cruise lines will fly you to Miami or San Juan, place you in a modest but thoroughly comfortable cabin (you'll scarcely spend any time there), and then sail you from island to island for seven days as they ply you with constant food and entertainment. Even more affordable are the drive-cruise vacations, which have seen considerable growth in the post-9/11 world. For at least the short term (the trend will likely end in spring 2003), many cruise lines upped the number of cruises departing from ports that are easy for huge populations to drive to: New York, Boston, Charleston, Baltimore, Galveston, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, New Orleans, and the like. This way, people who prefer not to fly can still take a cruise, often for less than the price of the traditional fly-cruise vacation. No matter whether you fly or drive before beginning your cruise, often what you'll find is a remarkable, rub-your-eyes value, available at that level nowhere else in travel. Put aside the possibility that these low prices are the product of substandard wages paid to the Emerging World sailors who staff the ships (see "Slave labor on the loveboats?" in the "Testy Opinions" area of this Web site or that massive government subsidies to European shipbuilders permit the vessels to be built for costs no U.S. shipyard can currently match. However they do it, more than 100 large cruiseships are not only offering low and moderate rates (even in the luxury class,) but a broad variety of bargain rates for every purse, and an even broader array of new, low-cost travel itineraries or themes, both colorful and complex. Consider ten separate cruise developments: 1. The continued erratic appearance of secret discounts As if we were a broken record, we've been pointing out for a dozen years that it's exceedingly unwise (polite understatement) to pay the published price for a cruise. There has been a major "sea change", so to speak in this regard, thanks to a crackdown by the cruiselines on cruise discounters. Norwegian Cruise Lines, Celebrity, and Carnival all announced in the fall of 2004 that they would no longer be allowing travel agents to rebate their commissions; or to buy group cabins at a discount and then resell them to the public. This has led to a severe diminuition of discounts, especially on these lines. But many discounters are still doing what they've always done for sailings on the other lines, and there are still major price breaks to be had. Where do you get the discounted rates? From retail travel agents specializing or heavily into cruises or from so-called cruise-brokers; they all offer unpublished rates. As well, an online site called Cruise Compete serves as a reverse auction site for many of these agencies, allowing users to put in which dates they wish to cruise and various travel agents to bid for their business. The system works quite well actually. Why do the cruiselines, unlike the airlines, handle their discounting in that clandestine manner? Beats me. But if you'd like examples of the savings available from favored outlets, call such travel agents as the ones listed in our Top Cruise Consolidators section of this chapter. 2. A growing variety of ships Hard on the heels of several mega-monster cruiseships carrying as many as 2,600 passengers apiece, comes a newer wave of small ships limited to between 100 and 250 passengers, "exploration" cruiseships (capable of entering small coves) of such as the Seaquest company, the sleek vessels of Windstar Cruises, and a number of others. (Some say the trend is a backlash against the oversized ships, with their atrium lobbies more resembling a hotel at sea than a boat.) Though the small new ships aren't rock-bottom in price, they're generally less expensive than the larger luxury ships whose standards they emulate. Even on an ultra-deluxe, one-week cruise, suites sell for as little as $350 and $450 a night per person (published) and occasionally for as little as $250 to $350 a night per person (through discounters). Thus, in just about any reasonable price range, you now have a choice of tiny, small, medium-sized, large, and monstrous vessels. 3. The growth of "drive market" cruises As spelled out above, many cruise lines post-9/11 have adjusted their itineraries allowing more ships to depart from drive-friendly ports such as New York, Boston, Mobile, New Orleans, and Galveston, to accommodate travelers preferring not to fly. It make take longer to get the more popular cruise destinations, but the cruise lines have tapped into an eager market who'd rather drive over fly before hopping aboard a ship. 4. The rebirth of the passenger-carrying freighter There's yet another cruise alternative. Having all but disappeared about a decade ago, freighter sailings have made a remarkable comeback and are now available on no fewer than forty vessels going to all inhabited areas of the world. The reason: Increasing computerization of freighter operation has lessened the need for crew and made their cabins available for passengers, at rates that can run as low as $80 a day per person, but more usually hover around $100 to $110. For a totally comprehensive list of all such ships, their dates of departure, prices, and destinations, contact Freighter World Cruises, Inc., (180 South Lake Avenue, Suite 335, Pasadena, CA 91101, 626/449-3106 or 800/531-7774, Web: freighterworld.com). 5. The "explosion" of itineraries Time was (and not that many years ago) when nearly all cruise ships went to Bermuda and the Bahamas in winter, and to the Caribbean in summer. Then came the discovery--probably by a junior cruiseline employee--that it costs no more to operate ships in other seas of the world; only the airfare for getting there rises by a relatively insignificant amount. And thus it came about that cruiselines today, in their fierce competitive struggle, vie with one another in offering exotic cruise destinations for not much more than they charge for the standard one-weeker to St. Thomas/St. Croix/St. Kitts. Southeast Asia is coming on strong (four lines now cruise there), as are cruises to the lengthy coastlines of Africa and India, the Antarctic, South America and the South Seas. Europe's Mediterranean has returned to popularity, but this time supplemented by cruises of the North and Baltic Seas, especially to port cities of Eastern Europe. If you've "had it" with steel bands, straw hat souvenirs, and tours of the "Governor's Mansion"--the staple of Caribbean cruising--you now have countless cruise alternatives to areas far less heavily touristed. 6. The boom in "theme cruises" Along with this expansion in itineraries has come a vastly greater schedule of activities at sea, almost always at no extra charge to the basic tariff. Movies have been joined by full-scale stage shows; ocean skeet shooting now takes a rear seat to spa-style aerobics and yoga meditation; and "theme" cruises--extra heavy attention to styles of music, historical periods, food specialties, murder-mystery, square dancing, lectures by athletes, chefs, poets, and inspirational psychologists--are numbered in the dozens. Another popular theme cruise in recent times, even though it carries an extra fee? Sailings for spouses of either sex who really don't enjoy cruises, and therefore spend their time on board learning computer software programs. 7. The bonanza of wind-driven cruises Low-cost cruising (a current average of $110 to $150 a day per person) with 80-or-so other passengers in a sail-powered "tall ship" was the breakthrough idea of Windjammer Barefoot Cruises in the early 1960s; it presently operates seven 200-to-230-foot ships. When competition arrived in the late 1980s, it took the form of high-priced and extremely elegant ships (upwards of $350 and $400 a day per person). Wonder of wonders, a mid-priced line ($200 to $225 a day, on average) operating the Star Clipper and Star Flyer has recently emerged on the scene for unpretentious people who nevertheless crave the creature comforts that Windjammer doesn't always provide. Here's the beginning of what may become a major segment of the cruiseship industry, best analyzed by phoning "Star Clippers" at 800/442-0551 or go online to starclippers.com for literature. 8. The "slightly longer" cruise The length of the voyage is also undergoing change. After years of almost exclusively operating 3-night, 4-night and 7-night cruises some lines are clearly moving toward a 10-night and 11-night pattern, at prices that capitalize on the obvious economies involved in such a step (for one thing, air fare to the embarkation point is amortized over more days). The now defunct Fantasy Cruises was among the first to experiment in 10- and 11-nighters followed by its sister company Celebrity Cruises whose Mercury, Galaxy and Zenith periodically traverse the Panama Canal and surrounding areas on 14- and 15-night stints (the line's Horizon also takes 10- and 11-night sails through the Caribbean in Spring). For that matter, the number of four- and five-night cruises has also increased over the past two years, so overall there is more of a variety out there in terms of cruise length than in the past. 9. A rush to the Antarctica In a spurt of new activity, a handful of cruise lines (including Holland America, Orient, and Society Expeditions) now take hardy adventurers to that frigid continent during its relatively "warm" time of late December, January and February; and for the first time, they include larger vessels normally carrying from 400 to 800 passengers apiece. Use of so large a ship drops the cost to starting at around $5,500-plus-airfare per person for a two-week Antarctic expedition. Note, though, that environmentalists have decried the introduction of that many people to a largely untouched and undisturbed terrain. 10. All (not) inclusive cruises In the past, cruisers could be reasonably sure that nearly everything onboard (except drinks) was included in a "one-time" price. Not so anymore. Some cruisers now pay one price for their cruise and port fees, which includes accommodations and standard dining, and then they are charged extra for other optionals onboard. Eating in certain upscale restaurants onboard costs extra on some cruises. Also, many of the trendy new activities on cruises, such as the rock-climbing wall or miniature golf, often incur a fee. So, before booking, ask questions about what is, and what isn't, included in the "one-time" price. What makes cruising so popular? No daily packing and unpacking, one price for everything, multiple destinations, remarkable value. But there can be too much of a good thing. That's why cruiselines have taken a once-simple activity and added a multitude of complex options, alternatives, and formats. In the process, they've now created a custom-cruise for everyone, and I find that good news.

The Real Deal: Roundtrip airfare from Miami to San Jose plus a four-night stay at the Best Western Irazu Hotel When: Through Nov. 30, 2005 Gateways: Miami; other gateways available for an add-on charge. Details:Package includes round-trip airport & hotel transfers, breakfast daily, all hotel taxes & service charges. Book By: Nov. 25, 2005 Contact: Jet-a-Way Holidays, jetawayholidays.com The name does not lie. Costa Rica, Spanish for the rich coastline, really is what its name claims--at least in terms of natural wonders. Praised by our government as Central America's success story for maintaining a peaceful existence for almost an entire century in the midst of a not so peaceful world, Costa Rica seems to have it all. Home to some of the most diverse wildlife on the planet, with its jungles, mountainous terrain and four volcanoes (two of them active), this oldest democracy in the region is made for adventure. But it's also just as ideal for lounging on the beach and basking in the tropical sun--and with its two coastlines, you can choose between swimming in the Caribbean Sea or the North Pacific Ocean. Here's a way how you might enjoy all that for fairly cheap. Jet-a-Way Holidays is offering a five-day Costa Rican sampler that for $379 takes you from Miami to San Jose and back and it includes a four-night stay at the Best Western Irazu Hotel, (which bears the name of one of the volcanoes whose eruption in the 1960's was quite destructive). Housing the largest 24-hour casino in the country and equipped with an outdoor pool, tennis courts and spa facilities and, of course, a bar, the hotel--10 minutes from downtown San Jose and the airport--seems to be a leisurely adventure of its own. Hotel-to-airport transfers, daily breakfast and all hotel and service charges are part of Jet-a-Way's deal, which is good for travel through November 30. Here's a sampler of add-on charges apply for other US gateways:   Washington, D.C. - $10   Orlando - $40   Atlanta/Los Angeles - $70   Philadelphia - $80   Boston/Chicago/Denver/New York/San Francisco/Seattle - $110   Dallas - $160   Houston - $250 Since we try to find you trips that won't dig a hole in your pocket, we suggest you keep an eye on that extra change by looking out for pickpockets and purse slashers in San Jose's crowded public quarters. But isn't that the case anywhere you travel, even in places as tame as Western Europe (Rome, anyone?). Just follow the common sense precautions by not carrying too many valuables with you. Oh, and look out for mustard ("accidentally" spilling condiments on tourists and then "helping you clean up" seems to be a popular trick.) If you decide to go to Costa Rica, forgoing the Jet-a-Way deal, be prepared to pay anywhere from $210 (American Airlines) and up for a roundtrip from Miami to San Jose and at least $70 a night for a double room at a low-priced hotel.