Hotels and Lodging

Just hours after Asif Ali Zardari was sworn in as the new president of Pakistan on Sept. 20, a truck bomb exploded in front of the Marriott in Islamabad. Hotel security managed to stop the truck in front of the hotel, but the enormous blast killed at least 50 people, injured more than 260 and caused extensive damage and a fire.

Diplomats, foreign travelers and hotel security personnel were among the dead.

British Airways indefinitely suspended all flights to and from Islamabad.

Noel Coward, Charlie Chaplin and Queen Elizabeth II have stayed there, and its Long Bar saw the birth of the cocktail known as the “Singapore Sling.” It’s the Raffles Hotel (1 Beach Road, Singapore 189673; phone +65 6337 1886, http://singapore.raffles.com), and its rich history is showcased in the Raffles Hotel Museum.

Each summer, Europe greets a stampede of sightseers and shoppers with eager cash registers. Before jumping into the peak-season pig pile, consider the advantages of an off-season trip.

The Hassler Roma hotel’s “Roman Skyline Package” includes a helicopter ride in Rome over the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica, the Colosseum and the Pantheon. 

Until Dec. 31, 2008, the package cost of €6,570 (near $9,800) per room, double occupancy, includes three nights in a Classic Suite, airport/hotel private transfer (a charge of €50 applies 9 p.m.-7 a.m.), dinners (excluding beverages), buffet breakfasts, a 30-minute helicopter ride (additional time with supplement), hotel/heliport limo transfer and more.

Two Roman villas and private baths dating from the second to fourth centuries have been restored and opened to the public in Rome, Italy.

Excavated under the 16th-century Palazzo Valentini, the 19,375-square-foot complex, which probably housed a Roman senator and his family, features well-preserved marble floors and a mosaic. Glass catwalks above the villas’ remains are combined with 3-D light-projection reconstructions showing how they originally may have looked.

9-day/8-night tour of the architect’s works in FRANCE and SWITZERLAND, May 8-19, 2008.

Highlights: London to Paris by train; in Paris, Fondation Le Corbusier, Maison Cook/Cubist villa Stein/in Besançon, Cité du Refuge (the Salavation Army hostel), Cité Universitaire hall of residence/Nôtre-Dame-du-Haunt chapel at Ronchamp/Corbusier’s birthplace, La Chaux-de-Fonds, SWITZERLAND/his first commission, Villa Fallet/Corbusier archive/in Lyon, France, La Saline Royale, Lyon opera house/Firminy-Vert l’Arbresale, a town designed by Corbusier/Unité d’Habitation in Marseille.

The website www.TVTrips.com offers video tours of many hotels in Europe. On city maps, visitors to the site can click on a numbered hotel and a video pops up showing the surrounding area, the hotel’s public areas and each class of room. Sample prices are listed.

My mantra being “pack light,” I used to be against packing electronics of any kind. But now I bring my laptop, iPod, digital camera and mobile phone to Europe. With hotels retiring their fax machines in favor of e-mail and with mobile phones getting cheaper and easier to buy and Wi-Fi hotspots popping up everywhere, it’s never been simpler to get connected.

If you want to save money while traveling, consider hosteling. Several thousand hostels provide beds throughout Europe — in cities, towns and the countryside — for $20 to $40 per night.