Paris: Free art galleries worth visiting

With a new royal status, re-furbished museums, new transport links, and premier concert venues, this southeastern district is going from strength to strength. Greenwich is now much more than merely the longitude-zero prime meridian, which splits the world timewise into East and West. With its Queen's House and Naval College by Christopher Wren (the architect of St Paul's Cathedral), Greenwich has long been a favorite outer-city excursion for visiting Americans. Yet until recently the neighborhood was little more than a place to admire noble architecture. In the past decade, the neighborhood has undergone a mini-renaissance. (In 2012, the Queen will elevate its status to join one of the city's rare Royal Boroughs.) Here's what's worth seeing: World Heritage It all began in 1997 when Greenwich's cluster of famous buildings was nominated as Britain's 17th UNESCO World Heritage Site and was chosen as the spot to build an exhibition space covered by an 1,180-foot dome. The project involved the reclamation of the entire Greenwich Peninsula on previously derelict, polluted land, and the construction of a new subway station. The dome is now a marquee concert arena, easily reached from the city's heart. Concerts In 2007, the dome reopened as the O2, and is now the city's most popular concert arena, hosting acts like Bon Jovi and Madonna. The Black Eyed Peas will play four nights there in May. Museums The last few years have seen a full refurbishment of the London Planetarium, which lies on a hill overlooking the neighborhood, right on the Meridian—making it the official starting point for each new day. The observatory is part of the National Maritime Museum which won the gold award for best museum at the Visit London awards last year. The current show, Secrets of the Sun, has garnered rave reviews in the London press. It continues until May 9. Also worth checking out: The Cutty Sark—once the world's fastest sailing clipper—is due to re-open in late 2010 after a full rebuild. Eating Out & Nightlife It was deadly quiet up until the new millennium, but Greenwich now has a burgeoning number of restaurants and nightlife venues. The Buenos Aires Café serves great South American steaks and is run by an Argentinean ex-paparazzo whose photographs adorn the walls, INC bar has live music most nights while Up the Creek was voted the best comedy club in the U.K. by the Guardian newspaper. Getting to Greenwich Greenwich is easy to reach. The new subway has made the neighborhood reachable in just 20 minutes from Central London, and there are trains and a light railway. But the most enchanting way of getting to the neighborhood is by river boat along the Thames, following the route of the famous James Bond river chase from the film The World is Not Enough. It is even possible to rent a power boat and driver to replicate the feel of the chase.

World-famous icons like the Eiffel Tower and Rio's Christ the Redeemer statue pose a true challenge for travelers, who often come home with the same images taken countless times over. But that wasn't the case for myBT member awc007, who shot this spectacular photo of Easter Island from a different perspective—the moai's-eye view. Kudos to all the readers whose fresh takes made it into our slide show; their 19 images will inspire you to rethink classic landmarks and try out new photo techniques. See our slide show. MORE READER SLIDE SHOWS Doorways | Mexico | Reflections NOW IN SEARCH OF... We're now collecting your photos of Spain and your compelling portraits of people around the globe. Upload them through myBudgetTravel, tag them, and check back in the coming weeks for a slide show of the best submissions. PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS How to Take Picture-perfect Photos

Last month, when my roommate suggested I join him on his work trip to Bermuda, I balked: There's no way, I thought, I can afford a last-minute trip to an island getaway.* Plus, beach vacations generally aren't my bag. If I'm going to splurge on travel, I usually choose to do so by immersing myself into a cool culture—food, drink, art, etc.—not whiling away a whole weekend on the sand. Luckily, I was wrong on both fronts. The more I looked into Bermuda (and the more I had to hear my roommate prattle on about how cool it was), the more I wanted to go: The place has history. Little did I know, it was the first successful English settlement in the Americas. The town of St. George's dates back all the way to 1612. And even today, it has a big expat population from the U.K. (Curries served in pubs is common fare in Bermuda). I've been hankering to get back to England since I studied abroad there in college. Now, maybe, was my chance to get a taste of British culture—with some beautiful beaches thrown in—for a fraction of the cost. Plus, I learned, Michael Douglas was born there. He and Catherine Zeta have a house there. Who doesn't want to spot Gordon Gekko in his native habitat? I was sold. So, less than two weeks before my roommate's departure date, I frantically scrambled to join the party. Lo and behold, I managed to book a nonstop flight from Newark to Bermuda's Hamilton International for $213. My roommate scoured the Web and secured a discounted rate at a newly renovated resort, the Newstead Belmont Hills. We invited two more friends along to siphon the cost (and add to the fun, of course), and that was that. We were off! The flight went seamlessly: I caught an 11:55 a.m. out of Newark—and was in my bikini, relaxing by the Newstead's infinity pool, by 4 p.m. We watched the sun dip down from our room's private balcony! Then we caught a $6 cab ride, around the bay, into the capital town of Hamilton. My roommate's friend from work, a 20-something Australian who live on Bermuda, was nice enough to show us around, so I felt like less of a clueless tourist than I might have otherwise. He took us for British pub fare at the Hog Penny: I tried the steak and kidney pie (flakey crust and delicious cuts of meat), and my friends had fish and chips (they gobbled it up before I could snatch a bite and said it was great). The Australian also insisted we try Bermuda's two signature drinks: the Dark & Stormy, made with rum and ginger beer (too strong for my liking), and the Rum Swizzle, a fruitier concoction that went down a lot smoother. Finally we danced it off at The Pickled Onion down the block. Saturday, we caught a free shuttle from the Newstead across the island to Elbow Beach: a quiet white-sand strip that looks out across some of the clearest, most turquoise water I've ever seen. We spent the morning watching the kiteboarders and swimming, then hoofed it back to our hotel. There's a convenient, well-marked footpath that runs alongside sprawling farms and gardens and cuts across the island, and we were back at the Newstead in twenty minutes. That night, we caught another ride into Hamilton from a friendly cab driver, who claimed the Douglas family as his close friends (sadly, the closest I got to a spotting). He recommended a few restaurants for us to try, and we opted for his Italian suggestion: Little Venice. I ordered gnocchi, with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes: divine. The four of us were scheduled to fly out Sunday afternoon, so we woke up early and made the most of the infinity pool and hot tub all the morning. (Temperatures hovered in the low 70's so a combo of both felt best.) The weekend had gone by too quickly, but I felt like I'd gotten my money's worth. Our suite at the Newstead, with two double beds and its own private balcony overlooking the Atlantic, ran a pricey $544, but split between me and my three friends (the room comfortably fit all of us), we came out sitting pretty and each paid just $68 a night. And with such a short commute, from the beach back to my apartment in New York City, my vacation-state-of-mind lasted well past its typical shelf life. Now that I've been, I wonder if there aren't other weekend escape options that are just as fun, relaxing, and cheap… So, here I hand the microphone off to you: What's your favorite, affordable, last-minute weekend escape? Tell me your best itineraries, in the comment section below, and we can take a travel cue from each other. That said, here's the rundown: FLY: A recent Kayak search found non-stop flights from NYC's airports to Bermuda's Hamilton International on JetBlue, Continental, and American for as little as $222. (Did I mention the flight's less than two hours long?) Flights from Atlanta started at $305, while Chicago options began at $323. SLEEP: The Newstead Belmont Hills Resort & Spa is a 20-minute walk from Elbow Beach and a five-minute, $6 cab ride from Hamilton. EAT: For British-style pub fare, try the Hog Penny Restaurant & Pub, in Hamilton. Also in the capital is Little Venice, a tasty pasta and wine spot. DANCE: The place to go to get down in Hamilton is The Pickled Onion. SWIM: You'll find gorgeous Elbow Beach on the west shore, near the middle of the skinny island of Bermuda. DEALS: For hand-picked hotel discounts and vacation packages, check out Budget Travel's Real Deals for Bermuda. MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL Just Back From…a Mother-Daughter Trip to Rome & Venice *This post was re-published 4/29 to remove the accidental reference to the Caribbean. Sorry.

One of the last remaining pleasures of air travel as we know it is the calming, miniaturized sight of a wrinkled mountain range or a neatly stitched patchwork of farmland, as seen from an airplane window at 35,000 feet. For the price of reserving said window seat on a couple of round-trip flights on Spirit Airlines ($12 each way), the people at Glass Atlas will turn a full-color satellite image of one of your favorite aerial views into a three-and-a-half inch diameter glass-domed souvenir paperweight. It sounds corny, but the photos are pretty cool—many of them even look like works of abstract art. I like Washington, D.C., taken by NASA's Terra satellite, which vaguely resembles a fiery tree, and Texas fields, from NASA's Landsat 7 satellite. (Unsurprisingly, NASA's Landsat 7 ETM+ satellite shot of the Grand Canyon is gorgeous as well.) The paperweight's rim can be customized with a message etched into the glass, and each one comes in a decorative wooden box; they're currently on sale for $40 at glassatlas.com. EARLIER More posts by Valerie Rains