NYC weighs an outdoor smoking ban. What's your take?

In the past, Orbitz has earned our kudos in the past for its customer-friendly attitude. The company's Price Assurance program sends an automatic refund if another Orbitz customer books the same hotel room for the same night for less. And with the Enhanced Low Price Guarantee (which we blogged about last fall) travelers who find their hotel room for a lower price on another site can get a refund for the difference and a $50 discount on a future Orbitz booking. Plus, Orbitz also shows up-front prices with taxes and fees included—a particularly nice feature for us budget travelers. Orbitz was founded as an airline-booking site 10 years ago and has lost a little ground to other huge OTAs who have focused on hotel bookings, like Expedia and Priceline. Orbitz CEO Barney Harford was quoted in the Chicago Tribune recently, saying his focus for the past year has been: "hotel, hotel, hotel." So, it's no wonder Orbitz is working to improve its hotel search. Now, let's get to the good stuff! What's new: Orbitz now displays its hotel search results in a pleasing, easy-to-navigate template. Each hotel has "tabs" that you can click on to get photos, a list of amenities, and a map. You can "save" hotels to go back to later, and of course you can sort all results by lowest price, star rating, or location. Here's what's exciting, at least for a quick decision-maker like me: You can compare hotels side-by-side on the same web page, without having to navigate away. For instance, I decided to check out hotels in Paris. In the "photos" tab, I found a photo of a guestroom in each hotel. By scrolling down, I could quickly look at what my room would look like in each hotel, without having to click elsewhere (or line up different web browsers, which I have admittedly done before). This gets even cooler when you use Google Street View. Within the same framework of the search-results page, you can click on the "map" tab and then click on "street view." Spin it around and see what the hotel environs are. I was completely in love with a hotel on the outskirts of Paris (an all-suites property that started at just $133!) until I realized, via street view, that this place was right by the airport. Like, depressingly close—I could see the airport in street view. Naturally, Orbitz's new look and feel isn't perfect; I wish there was an "under $200" search option, which would be great for budget travelers. Also, comparing hotels side-by-side is certainly nice, but there's no way to move the hotels around within the search results, so there's still a lot of scrolling. And I couldn't figure out how to get into my saved hotels and compare those side-by-side—the saved hotels appear as just a list. But, overall, it's great to see a huge OTA like Orbitz freshen up its look. The question is, what do you think? What else would you like to see from Orbitz in the future?

For centuries, the battle between man and beast has played out in Spanish arenas, with about 13,500 bulls killed yearly. But like Britain's ban of the traditional fox hunt since 2002, bullfighting may soon become extinct. On July 29 28*, a vote from local parliament has blocked the sport from taking place in Barcelona and the rest of northeast Catalonia. (The law goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2012.) Similar bans may be voted into place elsewhere in the country. What animal activists are considering a victory—it was an international petition signed by 140,000 campaigners, including Pamela Anderson and Ricky Gervais, that was the catalyst for championed the ban—two-thirds of Spaniards are calling a blow to their national identity and what they believe to be an art form. But many Catalonians don't agree with the rest of the country, and are trying to shrug off some of Spain's traditions, especially since more than a million locals marched in Barcelona two weeks ago in support of calling their autonomous region a nation, making the timing of the bullfight vote appear more political than humane. Although there are only two arenas located in Barcelona (one holds 15 fights per year, and the other is being converted into a shopping mall), an estimated $390 million in revenue may be lost from the regional ban. There's already a 50,000-signature petition circulating to extend the ban to Madrid, but there's little threat that the sport will ever completely leave the nation. With a regional government that's declared bullfighting to be a part of its "protected cultural patrimony," the battle will continue to go strong in the capital city, as well as abroad in Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela. *Update: We published the wrong date. Sorry! So what's your take: Is bullfighting a cultural treasure, or a cruel bloodsport?

We just finished sending the last few pages of Budget Travel's September issue out the door. While I hope the final product appears effortless, you might be surprised to learn just what happens behind the scenes—all in the service of providing you with the best affordable vacation ideas your $4.50 can buy. Here's a taste of the highs and lows at our offices (and outposts) this month: Number of images considered for the September cover: 88 Number of images considered for the first Table of Contents page: 30 Number of editors who got married in the middle of producing the issue: 1 Earliest morning by an editor: 7 a.m., working on a piece about Ely, Minnesota Latest night by an editor: 8:45 p.m., working on a piece about how to reduce your data rates abroad Number of hotels considered for the Essentials section on Europe's Best Values: dozens Number of hotels that made the final cut: 5 Number of minutes spent trying to assess whether a person pictured in an image (page 20) was actually wearing clothes: 3 Number of people involved in assessment: 4 Final answer: yes, a bikini Price of parking ticket a photo editor received shooting the image on page 37: $10 Most heated response (from a contributing illustrator): "I'm afraid I've been in this business too long to be fulfilling loopy, trivial requests like this."* Second most heated response (from a contributing writer): "one more question and it's coming out of your salary."** When you'll be able to see the fruits of all said labor: August 24th *the person who comes closest to guessing what the request might have been will win a copy of Budget Travel's newest book, The Smart Family's Passport: 350 Money, Time, and Sanity Saving Tips. ** we think he was kidding, but we're not sure.

It turns out, members of Congress are just as fed up with airline fees as the rest of us. The federal watchdog Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report calling for airlines to disclose more information up front about hidden costs for checked bags and other services. "The fees are not very transparent," said Gerald Dillingham, the GAO report author, during a congressional hearing. "We do not think it would be a tremendous burden on the airlines" to make that information more clear. More interesting still, the GAO seems to suggest that the government should extend its tax on airfares to the additional fees. By the GAO's estimate, the government could have made some $186 million last year alone—just by taxing fees on checked bags. For the airlines' part, a spokesperson says that "airlines fully support price transparency." That may be true, but at least one of them, Spirit Airlines, doesn't seem all that sympathetic to travelers. Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza told Congress that bringing luggage on vacation was "not essential to travel." He went on to defend their $20 carry-on bag fee by saying that unbundling all "services not essential to the transportation of passengers has enabled more passengers to fly at lower cost. Indeed given our low fares, it has allowed many to travel who otherwise simply could not afford to do so." For our part, I'm not sold on Baldanza's theory—but maybe that's just because I like to have at least a change of clothes and toothbrush on hand for a trip. Those, at least, are certainly "essential" in my book. I'm all for traveling light, but that's not possible on every trip. What do you think?