Southwest and American test inflight WiFi

Russian literature got its start in St. Petersburg, and Elaine Blair's new pocket-size book, Literary St. Petersburg, pays tribute to 15 writers—from Alexander Pushkin to Joseph Brodsky—whose lives and stories are indelibly linked to the city. We've reprinted a chapter on Fyodor Dostoevsky that includes the spectacular blue-domed cathedral where he married, the site of his mock execution, and the garret apartment that housed Raskolnikov, the protagonist of Crime and Punishment. Click here for the book excerpt and city map. IMAGE: The book cover depicts a view of the Neva and the Admiralteyskaya Embankment by Moonlight, 1882, by Aleksandr Karlovich Beggrov (cover designed by Louise Fili Ltd; image courtesy of Stage Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia/The Bridgeman Art Library). MORE LITERARY TRAVEL: Basilica: A Walking Tour of Papal Rome, Golden Boy: Growing Up in 1950s Hong Kong, and A Late Dinner: Culinary Travels in Catalonia.

In December, Celebrity Cruises launches the 2,850-passenger Celebrity Solstice. In what is being called an industry first, the top deck of the Solstice will be covered in real grass. The half-acre Lawn Club will include places for playing golf, bocce ball, and croquet. It will also have picnic spots. Here's an artistic rendering of what the Lawn Club will probably look like: The Solstice sets sail December 14 from Fort Lauderdale on a seven-night cruise to Puerto Rico, St. Kitts, and St. Maarten. An interior cabin room starts at about $800 per person, based on double occupancy (celebritycruises.com). If you’re looking to cruise, there are two other major ships to keep an eye out for this year: Royal Caribbean’s 3,600-passenger Independence of the Seas (set to debut in May) and Princess Cruises’ 3,100-passenger Ruby Princess (slated to launch in November). —Amy Chen CRUISE ADVICE Virgin cruiser Josh Dean took readers' tips on a trip to Alaska, to see just how helpful they were—and came back with some advice of his own. Read his story here. MORE BY AMY CHEN Report from the Balloon Festival.

Budget Travel's February issue includes our list of TripAdvisor's Top 100 Best Value hotels around the world, with quotes from travelers who have actually stayed in them. It's the first major collaboration between a national travel magazine and TripAdvisor, the leading resource for hotel reviews. But what about the rejects, the dregs? What about the hotels at the very bottom of TripAdvisor's proprietary lists? In New York City, the most poorly-rated hotel (according to TripAdvisor's ranking system) would be the Hotel Carter. The 700-room hotel, on West 43rd St. in Times Square. Customer reviews include stories of bedbugs, prostitutes, and disgusting bathrooms. Hotel Carter overcame a second-worst hotel finish last year to plummet to dead last this year. It seems that Hotel Carter earned its "worst-place finish" on the strength of a story of a housekeeper who found the body of a woman under a bed in August, as reported on HotelChatter. You can read the reviews from customers of the Carter at TripAdvisor. Meanwhile in Britain, the worst performer was the Nanford Guest House, in Oxford. Following closely on its heels were four properties belonging to the same company (Britannia Group), which were voted by travelers as among the dirtiest places to stay in Britain. [via the London Telegraph. A local paper has the hotel's dismissive response to the bad reviews.] RELATED 100 Best Hotel Values for 2008: Budget Travel Powered by TripAdvisor New York at a Price That's Right What 99 Pounds Buys in London