Paris: Love and shelter for less than 100 euros

It looks like we're not the only fans of TripIt.com. LinkedIn.com, a networking site for professionals, has just launched a partnership with the free online travel organizer. As of this morning, LinkedIn members will be able to add a TripIt application to their profiles; anytime they want to share information about a trip they're taking, they can just add the info to the TripIt app. The advantage? Assuming a good chunk of your LinkedIn network adds the TripIt application, too, you'll be in tune with where and when everyone you're connected to is traveling. That way if you're planning a trip to, say, San Francisco, and you find that a few of your LinkedIn connections will be there at the same time, you can arrange to meet. Both TripIt and LinkedIn appeal to business professionals, so the companies see this primarily as a way to stay connected within your professional peers. But we think the application is just as valuable for leisure travel. Sure, your LinkedIn network might consist of people within your field, but chances are, a lot of those people are also your friends. As has always been the case with TripIt, when you upload a trip, you can choose whether or not to make it available to the public. In other words, if you don't want your colleagues knowing about your trip to Vegas this weekend, you can choose to keep that one under wraps. EARLIER Our earlier TripIt review

Now open at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, N.H.: Andy Warhol: Pop Politics. The exhibit showcases more than 60 of the Pop Art phenom's political works—some highlights are images of the Kennedys (including Jackie), Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Queen Elizabeth II, Mao Zedong, and Richard Nixon, in Warhol's signature cartoon-y color palette. To add some context to the artist's pop culture references, there are archival materials from Warhol's "time capsules". Turns out he was quite a packrat—by the time of his death, he had collected more than 600 boxes of papers, photos, records, and correspondence. The significant materials have been displayed in relation to the exhibit—for example, there's a letter from President-Elect Nixon for administration recommendations. As we approach Election Day (finally), this exhibit presents a timely, relevant way to look back on how we got here. What would Warhol make of politics today? Who knows. But if you get a chance to stroll through his political works, it might be fun to imagine the possibilities. The Currier also has European and American paintings, decorative arts, photographs, and sculpture, including works by Picasso, Monet, O'Keeffe, Wyeth, and LeWitt. Manchester is about an hour's drive north of Boston. 150 Ash Street, Manchester, N.H., 603-669-6144, ext. 108, currier.org. Closed Tuesdays, adults $10, kids 18 and under free, admission is free for all ages between 10 a.m. and noon on Saturdays. Exhibition through Jan. 4, 2009. Read about Andy Warhol on pbs.org. MORE TO DO IN MANCHESTER Take a walking tour of downtown. And here's a handy map. MORE TRAVEL BLOGS Visit travel.alltop.com

The first peak-to-peak gondola in North America opens at Whistler Blackcomb Resort in British Columbia, Canada, on December 12. Its 28-person cabins will zip 2.73 miles from Whistler Mountain to Blackcomb Mountain in 11 minutes—saving skiers valuable time that they can use to tackle over 8,000 acres on both mountain faces. The aptly named Peak 2 Peak gondola operates at a record breaking white-knuckle height; it's suspended 1,427 feet above the valley floor. Daily lift tickets, which include rides on the gondola, start at $66 (U.S. dollars), depending on the time of year. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort has also been thinking big and will unveil a faster, spiffier aerial tram (the TramFormation, nicknamed the "Big Red Box") on December 20. It will transport 100 people from Teton Village to the summit of Rendezvous Mountain in nine minutes. That's 50 people and one-and-a-half minutes better than the original tram, which closed for renovations in 2006. From the top, a staggering 10,450 feet above sea level, thrill-seekers can ski one of the largest vertical drops in the United States: 4,139 feet down snaking black-diamond trails. The tram is imprinted with Wyoming's iconic silhouette of a bucking bronco, and it has large glass walls on all sides that offer dramatic views of neighboring Grand Teton National Park. An $82 lift ticket gives skiers unlimited access to the new tram, all the slopes and lifts for the day, while a $20 sightseeing tram ticket lets non-skiers scope out the magnificent views. —Helen I. Hwang

The more staggering a number, the more it can lose resonance. Where to begin getting your head around the fact that a billion people are jammed into the world’s slums? With Norwegian photojournalist Jonas Bendiksen, who zeroes in on a few families in Caracas, Jakarta, Mumbai, and Nairobi. Get to know them through engrossing 360-degree photos and audio clips posted at his site, The Places We Live. Bendiksen makes the world seem not only crowded, but smaller. I found out about The Places We Live through the VSL: Web newsletter, and I've had the topic of overcrowding on my mind lately. I blogged about how cities are grappling with its environmental challenges, and I’ve been caught up in the sweeping, largely autobiographical novel Shantaram, in which the narrator—an escaped Australian convict with a tendency to philosophize—winds up living in an illegal yet thriving Mumbai slum. Are Bendiksen’s photos a close enough look at slum life, or would you consider taking a “poverty tour” on your next trip? We wrote about the trend here and whether it helps or exploits poor communities.