Philly: Frida Kahlo extravaganza

Like a scene out of a sci-fi movie, Heathrow airport in London is requiring some connecting passengers to undergo iris scans and get a thumbprint scan taken. Currently, you'll only be required to do this if you land at Heathrow's Terminal 1 and try to connect to a domestic British flight there. The info is in addition to the photo ID and boarding pass normally required at the boarding gate, according to the Associated Press. British Airways may make this standard security practice for passengers when it opens Terminal Five in March. Here's how it works, according to news reports: You enter a booth and a laser quickly scans your eye's iris, as if it were a bar code on a product. As you move about the airport terminal, you can pass back into a secure area, having your eyes rescanned to prove you're the person you say you are. The information is stored for about 24 hours and not filed away, officials say. UPDATE 1/6/08 at 3:33 ET Fingerprint scans are being introduced in Scandinavia. Specifically, SAS (Scandinavian Airlines Sweden) now allows travelers with luggage to board domestic flights by providing a scan of their index fingerprint, according to Spiegel Online, via Vagablogging.net. EARLIER Continental Airlines may allow cell phones to replace paper boarding passes. PHOTO courtesy of ArtLung via Flickr

The Five Gables Inn & Spa in St. Michaels, one of many charming towns by the Chesapeake Bay, is offering a special package for readers like you (as if reading Budget Travel weren’t reward enough!). If you and a companion stay two nights in one of the inn’s stylish, pastel-colored rooms and book two spa treatments, you’ll receive a 15 percent discount on Aveda products and a $50 credit for dinner at a local restaurant. Bistro St. Michaels and 208 Talbot are among the choices. Rates start at $300 per room for the two-night stay. When Mid-week stays (Sun.-Thurs.) through Mar. 31, 2008. Details Be sure to refer to the Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel Mid-Week Retreat package when booking. Taxes are an additional 10 percent. Based on double occupancy only. Spa treatments start at $110. Contact 877/466-0100, fivegables.com. St. Michaels, Md., is 40 minutes from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and less than two hours from Baltimore. For inspiration and tips on what to do in the area, read Crabby in a Good Way, a story about road-tripping on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. RELATED Real Deals, posted online every weekday.

Jenny Beorkrem is a 24-year old Chicago designer who launched typographic neighborhood "maps," Ork Posters, in November of last year, and quickly sold out. Here's a look at her San Francisco map: [The image is slightly pixelated here, but a real life print has sharp, clean edges to it.] Jenny's Boston, New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco maps cost $27 each as screen prints, a little less as posters. For cool maps from other sources, see this blog post by Prêt à Voyager. EARLIER Vintage Hawaii postcards: A slide show. Cool travel posters from the 50s and 60s.

Ithaca has come up with a clever idea that other cities should copy. The town of about 30,000 residents in central New York state is throwing a party for teachers Feb. 16-24—which is when hundreds of thousands of teachers are on break for "Winter Recess." A teacher can receive discounts on dining (such as 15 percent off a meal at the famous Moosewood restaurant) and lodging (such as an $89 a night rate at the downtown Holiday Inn, which is 40 percent off the standard rate). "Bring your school ID, your union membership, or a note from your principal, and you're in," says IthacaLovesTeachers.com. Here's a photo of Newfield, N.Y., teacher Lisa Miller riding a mechanical bull at last year's Winter Recess teachers fest. The ID tag she's wearing is the V.I.T. (Very Important Teacher) pass that can be used to get discounts around the city. This year, concerts include Taj Mahal and Lyle Lovett. (Teachers can get free beer and wine at the concession stand. It could get crazy!) There are educational events, too, such as a reading by novelist Denis Johnson, winner of the 2007 National Book Award. Food will be a big theme at the party. Ithaca has more restaurants per capita than New York City... The town's emphasis is on organic and gourmet food. I recommend that you grab a latte at one of the Gimme Coffee shops, or try a dish of shrimp and grits at Maxie's Supper Club (which offers surprisingly good Southern comfort food for a Yankee restaurant). During "Winter Recess" week, both of these places have buy-one-get-one free offers for teachers. When Ithaca first launched this promotion a year ago, officials claimed that it was the first citywide festival for state public school teachers. Here's hoping that other cities copy the concept—especially some cities in warm weather destinations. More details at IthacaLovesTeachers.com [Of course, you don't have to be a teacher to enjoy many of the events. For example, many parents may want to take advantage of winter recess to scout higher education options for their kids, such as at Ithaca's Cornell University and and Ithaca College. Each school has well-regarded programs in hospitality and culinary training, in case any of you have children interested in joining those parts of the travel industry.]