Table of Contents: November 2006

New prize: A Disney cruise for four! The best response we get before November 30 wins a four-night cruise aboard the Disney Wonder for up to four people, to Nassau, Bahamas, and Castaway Cay. A Disney Cruise Line vacation offers activities that appeal to every member of the family. The prize includes a deluxe ocean-view stateroom for four, onboard meals, most gratuities, airport transfers, port taxes and fees, and round-trip airfare. Shore excursions, spa treatments, alcohol, and other amenities are the winner's responsibility. The trip must be booked at least 45 days prior to intended travel dates, and taken prior to January 31, 2008. Blackout dates and other restrictions apply. Subject to availability, nontransferable, nonnegotiable. Cannot be redeemed for cash value. For more info on Disney Cruise Line: 888/325-2500, disneycruise.com. How to enter E-mail TrueStories@ BudgetTravelOnline.com or mail to True Stories, Budget Travel, 530 Seventh Ave., 2nd Fl., New York, NY 10018. Sorry, but we can't return photos. Read the full guidelines. Winner! This month's winners are Bill and Linnea Boaz, of Tucson, Ariz. Their prize: four nights at The Lodge & Spa at Cordillera, Colo., courtesy of RockResorts. When my husband and I saw the cover of your November 2005 issue, we knew just where in Kauai it was photographed--we were married on a beach just a couple of miles away. In an effort to re-create your photo, we investigated every last grain of sand on Kee Beach. It was a fun morning, and I believe we accomplished our task. Of course, due to differences in season, lighting, and quality of camera, your photo came out much better than ours--not to mention that the model on your cover is slim and athletic, while Bill appears more closely linked to the island's migrating whales. He's just bitter he never evolved I was at a raja's palace in India when my friend Howard suggested that I take a photograph of him with one of the many wild monkeys that roam freely on the palace's grounds. After handing me his camera, he inched closer to a monkey sitting calmly on a wall. I snapped the first picture, of Howard and the monkey peacefully making eye contact--and by sheer luck, I also captured the moment that followed. Fortunately, the monkey didn't pursue further. Dean Divis, Greenfield Center, N.Y. Still, no tip On our first night in Venice, my husband suggested we take a gondola ride as the sun set. I'm the planner in the family, but it turned out that my husband had been doing some planning of his own. He reproposed and gave me a beautiful new diamond ring! It was one of the most romantic moments of my life. We were kissing in a quiet side canal, water lapping gently against the boat, when we heard: "I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world, life in plastic, it's fantastic." Instead of killing the moment, our gondolier's cell-phone ring tone made it even more memorable! Lori Hlucky, Brunswick, Ohio The Mafia did it My wife and I were awestruck by the beauty of Trastevere in Rome. But as we set out to explore the neighborhood on foot, we were petrified at having to share the narrow, cobblestoned streets with darting cars and buzzing mopeds. Our guide, Adriano, told us we had nothing to worry about. He assured us that we'd find only good drivers in Rome. "The bad drivers are all dead," he said without skipping a beat. John Landers, Arlington, Va. If the pilot has to make an error, please let it be this one The day following the thwarted terror attack in London, my mom, my uncle, and I were flying home from Heathrow. Security was tight, and carry-on items were restricted to a passport, boarding pass, and money in a clear bag. Even cell phones were forbidden. Finally aboard, we heard the pilot make an announcement over the loudspeaker: "We are unable to take off due to a cell phone. Will the passenger with the phone please hand it over to be placed in the checked luggage? Thank you." We wondered how anyone could've gotten a phone through the intense security. The pilot then said, "If the phone is not turned in, we'll have to exit the plane and search all passengers." A minute passed, and the pilot spoke again. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry for the inconvenience," he said. "I'm the one with the phone. We'll be taking off soon." Hillary Starner, Zanesville, Ohio And if it told you to jump? My family and I were visiting some Mayan ruins in Guatemala when my son and I decided to climb to the top of a structure in Tikal. Imagine our surprise when, after we reached the top, we came upon a fellow traveler wearing a T-shirt that read GET USED TO THE VIEW. With that directive it sure didn't take us long! Todd Johns, Silver Spring, Md. You can find more True Stories in the November 2006 issue of Budget Travel magazine.

Hotel Woodpecker The brainchild of local artist Mikael Genberg, the Hotel Woodpecker is a tiny treehouse in a public park in the town of Västerås, Sweden, about 62 miles from Stockholm. Over 40 feet up in the air, the little cabin (complete with wee kitchen and toilet) is designed for one guest, but it can hold two if you don't mind serious intimacy. Staying at the Hotel Woodpecker also involves serious commitment, as once you get up, as you must get hoisted up using the block-and-tackle technique, and remain stranded until a set appointment time to descend. Meals arrive via a rope basket. 011-46/70 775 53 93, mikaelgenberg.com, deluxe about $135, includes breakfast and dinner, closed in winter. Also, the Tourist Office of Västerås can book reservations (011-46/21 39 01 00). Black Tulip Hotel The Black Tulip is billed as "Europe's Most Luxurious Gay Leather & Art Hotel," but it's not the luxury, the art, the gay, nor even the leather that makes Amsterdam's Black Tulip scary. It's the pain. "Leather" rooms are kitted out in more than just cowhide, sporting all kinds of equipment for the cheerful bondage enthusiast. You'll never look at a "puppy cage" the same way again. On the plus side, there's a minibar/fridge in every room, perfect for storing cold compresses. 011-31(0)20 4270933, blacktulip.nl, from $160, includes breakfast buffet. Karosta Prison At Karosta Prison, the Latvian city of Liepaja , the rooms are indeed jail cells, largely unchanged since the last real prisoners left in 1997. The KGB ran the place in the 1970s, and the tradition of hospitality lives on: Should you choose the "extreme overnight" stay, you will undergo questioning, an inspection by the prison doctor, confiscation of your belongings, and a sleepless night on a pillowless, blanketless bunk. The occasional warning shot fired in the air may further disturb your slumber. Did we mention the delightful prison toilets? 011-(371) 6369470, karostascietums.lv, $10. Propeller Island City Lodge Berlin's Propeller Island City Lodge takes the art-hotel concept to the lunatic fringe. Some rooms are merely whimsical, like the pink "Chicken Curry" room or the one featuring a bed shaped like a castle. Others are only mildly irritating, featuring inclined floors, monochromatic colors, or hanging beds. Still others are downright fiendish, such as a blindingly bright room covered with faceted mirrors or a simple pair of coffins meant to invite "rest." Rates vary widely depending on room size and your tolerance for the zany. 011-49/(0)30 891 90 16, 011-49/(0)163 256 59 09, propeller-island.com, from $95.

Elissa Stein's glossy new book, Stewardess: Come Fly With Me! pays tribute to the glory days of air travel, when jumbo jets came with piano lounges and chinaware, and caviar and lamb rib roast were on the menu. Stein traces trends in stewardess uniforms and lifestyles through vintage photos, ads, training manuals, and anecdotes. In the early years of the profession, stewardesses were required to be nurses, and each major airline developed a training program with classes in food service, emergency protocol, airplane construction, the physics of flying, grooming, and deportment. Air travel was chic, and stewardesses were glamorous symbols of the jet-set era. Launch the slide show for a look at the book. For more information, visit chroniclebooks.com.

Brand name Rule out obvious mismatches right away. The student authors at Let's Go, for example, won't have the time or budget to ferret out boutique hotels. If you're unsure of a brand's slant, scan the guide to your hometown--or a town you know particularly well--and note what kind of restaurants, hotels, and activities receive glowing reviews. But finding a brand you're comfortable with is only the first step. "Individual books within a particular series can vary enormously in quality," warns Gordon McLachlan, author of The Rough Guide to Germany. Edition and copyright Maxine Cass, who has written for Thomas Cook Publishing and The Globe Pequot Press, immediately flips to a guide's copyright info. It's usually facing the title page, though sometimes publishers hide it near the back. Cass says that chances are a book that's just appeared on bookshelves "is already a year out of date," because of the time involved in editing and printing. You don't want a guide staler than that. Check to see if something monumental from recent years, such as a major hurricane or political shift, is mentioned in the text. Authors are typically paid advances that are barely enough to cover travel expenses involved in a first edition. Consequently, opinions are often formed after quick, even perfunctory, visits. As they write subsequent editions, authors have more time to make keener judgments. "It's impossible to research everything fully the first time," admits McLachlan. "A really authoritative guide will have gone through at least a couple of previous editions." You also don't want a 14th edition with material that's changed only slightly over two decades. At first glance, it's difficult to tell if a book's been revised properly. Robert Reid, a Brooklyn-based writer who has updated a dozen books for Lonely Planet, recommends investigating older editions at the library. Reid says that "identical hotel listings for Calgary in four straight editions" indicate that the writer might be lazy. Scope When choosing between a guide that covers an entire country and a title devoted to a single region or city, opt for the more specific one as long as it makes sense with your itinerary. "The greater the area the book tries to cover, the more superficial the information," says Thomas Kohnstamm, who writes about Latin America and the Caribbean for Lonely Planet. For instance, Moon Handbooks' 334-page Acapulco guide obviously has more information about the beach resort than Fodor's Mexico 2006, a guide for the entire country that has 41 pages focused on Acapulco. Author bio Look at the bio and sample passages of text for signs that the writer has knowledge and experience in the destination. Scan for indications that the writer is interested in the stuff that interests you. Kohnstamm says that when going to Montreal to check out nightlife, "the last thing I want is a book written by a middle-aged expert on Quebecois museums. You can also learn a lot by reading section introductions, seeing what they focus on, and comparing them to the detail in reviews." Categories that lack color are probably not the writer's forte. Publishers want readers to have confidence in their writers, so a bio should point out, say, if the writer has a master's degree in French literature or is published regularly in major newspapers and magazines. Read the bio closely, and also think about what's absent. If the bio is all fluff--or worse, nonexistent--that's not a good sign. The back page of Access Philadelphia lists the name of the writer and researcher for the sixth edition, but nowhere in the book is there information about who she is, what qualifies her, or who wrote the previous five editions. While a resident author may seem ideal, Janet Groene, who writes for the Open Road series, often prefers a traveler's perspective. "Locals never stay in hotels," she points out, "and they're often so caught up in local politics and gossip they miss the forest for the trees." On the other hand, residents tend to do a better job of unearthing obscure nooks and hidden gems in big cities. Maps "Maps should be plentiful and labeled with what's relevant, not half another country to fill space," says Cass. The symbols and type should be easy to read--some maps inside Globetrotter's guide to Rome and the Vatican have tiny lettering, and lots of it (see left). Compare similar maps in a few guidebooks to find a level of detail with which you're comfortable. Think about how you'll be using the book: Colorful, out-of-scale maps drawn by artists will be of limited assistance if you're going on a road trip. Instead, you'll be better off with maps that contain major and secondary roads, city close-ups that show which streets are one-ways, and mileages between destinations. Or figure on buying a good road map as a supplement. Index Browse a book's index to get an overall sense of how thorough it is. Look in particular for topics that are important to you. Lonely Planet's Bermuda guide, for instance, has nothing listed in the index under movies, cinema, film, or theater (even though the book itself cites three spots screening movies). Because it's difficult to tell how sensibly a guide is organized until you're actually on your vacation trying to use it, Bethany Ericson, the author of New England Cabins & Cottages, suggests doing a little hypothetical role-playing before you make a selection in the bookstore. "Think about a place you know you want to visit and then go to that chapter," she says. "Now pretend that you're hungry or tired, or want to go to some cultural festival or back to the hotel. How easy is the book to use?" Budget Travel and the Frommer's guides are owned by two different companies (Newsweek Budget Travel and Wiley Publishing, respectively) and have no affiliation.