New York: Avid travelers, meet Idlewild Books (with a sale this Sunday)

Seth Kugel at the New York Times has pulled together a handy tour that covers Manhattan from top (the Cloisters) to bottom (Bowling Green). The trip, which takes 3-1/2 hours, relies mainly on using the city's public buses, with a bit of subway and some walking added to the mix. If the idea works for you, check out our similar approach in A DIY Tour of Berlin. Along with a slide show, there's a clickable map showing vids of places you can reach on the M29's bus route. And if it's Paris you're headed for, check out Gridskipper's rundown of the best sightseeing routes there.

News flash: Yahoo! recently conducted a travel survey and found that people cited economic conditions as the No. 1 reason for cutting back on holiday travel this year. What to do? Pablo O'Brien, who oversees day-to-day activities at Yahoo! Travel, has offered his tips to save a little dough (and maybe sanity?) this holiday season. Q: We all know that holiday travel is hard. What are your tips for making things just a little easier? If you haven't booked yet, look for fares now and book right away—industry consensus is that prices are not expected to go down from here. Also look at fares in and out of smaller airports. During the booking process, I can't stress enough how easy comparison engines like Yahoo! FareChase make finding the best airfare, hotel or car options. They help find the best price for your budget, but without sacrificing the other realities that come into play when booking travel—flight times, preferred airports, etc. Q: We've been hearing a lot about this Staycation trend. What's your take? Being a passionate traveler isn't always about distance—if this trend helps people discover more of what's around them, I think it's great. We have added a couple of tools to help consumers enhance their local staycation vacations, such as a destination finder tool to help them find places to go that are within a specified amount of time away from home. Travelers can simply select a few ways to customize their trip that would be a good fit for a family or individual (e.g., family trip, on a budget, 2-hour drive, etc.). In addition, our Upcoming.org events site has recently been revamped, helping consumers find a broader array of local events and activities in their area. MORE How to Survive Holiday Travel Flying on Thanksgiving: Who Got All the Cheap Seats? Fare Sales Arrive! But Where Can You Find Them?

This week's Airline Quality Rating survey gives budget travelers some pleasant reassurance, with low-cost carriers such as JetBlue, AirTran, and Southwest topping the service lists. Here's the list of the mid-year winners and losers: The Best Airlines Most On-Time Arrivals: Hawaiian Airlines Fewest Denied Boardings: JetBlue Fewest Mishandled Bags: AirTran Fewest Customer Complaints: Southwest Airlines The Worst Airlines Fewest On-Time Arrivals: American Airlines Most Denied Boardings: Atlantic Southeast Airlines Most Mishandled Bags: American Eagle Most Costumer Complaints: United Airlines The results above are from the first six months of 2008, the most recent data available in 15 categories from the U.S. Transportation Department. Researchers found that overall airline performance continued on a five-year downward trend in passenger care. But year over year, the nation's major airlines improved in on-time arrivals, as well as the rates of denied boardings and customer complaints.

Upgrade: Travel Better reprints a stinging letter from an angry frequent customer of Midwest Airlines. He wrote the CEO, "Your new seating arrangements mean that Midwest is now essentially offering AirTran comfort at Singapore Airlines prices." Read the rest so that you too can savor an instant classic in the world of tough love: "Mr. Hoeksema, you have chunks in your beer. Please fix it before it’s too late." In fairness to Midwest, the angry customer failed to paint a full picture. First, the fee isn't all that new. The airline was already charging the fee for seating choice on its MD 80 fleet that it operated until recently retiring them. What's more, Midwest Miles Executives and certain fares classes are exempt from the seat upgrade fee. (The letter writer misleading makes it sound like everyone--even the most loyal customers and all full-fare paying passengers--have to pay extra if they want a seat with more legroom. The nominal upgrade fee, by the way, ranges between $25 and $75, depending on the flight--not a flat $50 like the complaining frequent flier says.) The upgrade fee makes it possible for travelers to skip paying an extra $25 to $75 if a less comfortable seat is acceptable to them. Likewise, it gives business travelers who find it productive to work on a flight the option to pay for a better seat. While many companies will not pay for first class, business travelers can probably afford to splurge about $25 to $75. True, by offering an instant, flat-fee way to get a seat upgrade, Midwest is following the model of AirTran. Yet a flat fee upgrade is a lot more straightforward than, say, United's system of deciding who will an upgrade (are you a loyalty reward member? what class is your ticket? when did you check-in? are you a member of our annual seat-upgrade program? etc.) Midwest has also been fighting to avoid bankruptcy, downsizing to operating 21 aircraft, down from 37 a short while ago. And because it's cheaper to fly more passengers per plane, they're cramming more seats onto their planes. Here's how: Midwest has replaced its two-by-two seat configuration with a three-by-two configuration on its nine Boeing 717s that now have 59 Saver seats and 40 Signature seats. Saver seats have 33 inches of legroom. Signature seats have have 34-36 inches of legroom. Midwest also now operates a dozen Embraer 170s under the name Midwest Connect. These planes have 76 seats in a two-by-two configuration and have 31 inches of legroom. Another dozen Canadair regional jets are operated by Skywest as Midwest Connect, too. These planes have 50 seats each in a similar configuration. Which brings us back to the letter of complaint. Midwest is abandoning the very core of its product that earned the loyalty of so many travelers. It’s sad that the extra legroom in all seats for free that made Midwest famous is disappearing—the famous chocolate cookies and champagne are already gone. But the airline is fighting for its life, so maybe the move is understandable. We hope they’re not going to ruin their product the way Schlitz did, but we're not very optimistic. —Sean O'Neill and John Rambow [via Consumerist]