On day four of Aracari's Amazon itinerary you'll travel the Arequipa-to-Colca road, though we can't guarantee that the alpaca will be there

The flooding in Peru’s Sacred Valley in late January 2010 and earlier this month resulted in the closure (until April 2010) of the country's iconic sites of Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail. Understandably many visitors want to include the UNESCO World Heritage sites in their itineraries, but if you're open to seeing other parts of the country then now is a great time to do so, as prices have come down. Aracari, a Lima-based travel agency that was on our 2009 list of Top Travel Specialists for Peru, naturally, has unveiled a new 11-day itinerary focusing on iconic parts of the country not affected by the flooding. And what’s more, the itinerary comes with a special introductory rate.

When the components of The Amazon Itinerary: From Meek to Magnificent itinerary are put together, they normally price as $4,943 per person, but the rate has been slashed to $3,899 per person—a savings of 21%—to spark interest in Peru. The trip starts in Lima, with guided visits to the colonial part of the city and the Larco Herrera Museum, where ancient gold, silver, and archaeological collections are housed in a beautiful, whitewashed colonial mansion. From Lima, the next stop is the historic southern city of Arequipa, which sits in the shadow of the snowcapped volcano El Misti. The second half of the trip is spent aboard the luxury river barge Delfin II as it winds its way up the Amazon. Highlights include meeting the local villagers of the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, spotting macaws and monkeys in the rainforest while traveling on skiffs, and the chance to swim with river dolphins in their natural habitat. Jump on this offer, and you’ll soon realize there’s more to Peru than its ruins.

How to book: Through Aracari. The full itinerary is shown here, but you’ll have to contact the travel agency to iron out the details and book it. The discounted price is good for travel through May 2010, and is per person, based on double occupancy. The price will return to $4,943 for trips in June and beyond. Included in the rate are all land arrangements—private transfers, bed & breakfast in the cities, full board while sailing on the Amazon, domestic airport taxes, and gratuities to waiters and bellboys. Domestic flights, gratuities to guides, some meals, and alcoholic beverages are not included.

Condé Nast Traveler approved: Aracari, and specifically its agent Marisol Mosquera, appeared on our 2009 Top Travel Specialists list.

New York City's brand-new Distrikt Hotel, part of Choice Hotels' Ascend Collection, is one of 1,500 properties offering a free night as part of the 1+1=Free offer


You may not equate Comfort Suites or Sleep Inns with luxury, perhaps, but the properties that make up its stable are reliable and certainly are easier on the wallet. That's even more true nowadays, when you can take advantage of the parent hotel company, Choice Hotels', new "1+1=Free" promotion to snag a free night's stay at typically pricey international destinations.

Here's how it works: If you aren't already enrolled in the Choice Privileges rewards program,  sign up for a free membership. Then stay at any two of the 5,000 Choice hotels, whose brands include Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Cambria Suites, the Ascend Collection, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay, Econo Lodge, and Rodeway Inn (Ascend Collection's boutiquey properties and Cambria Suites' design-oriented business hotels offer the most upscale options). You'll then receive a free night at one of the 1,500 participating properties in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and Europe.

What this means: Let's say your credit card is itching for a workout and wants to hit The Crossings outlets in Pennsylvania. A stay at the Quality Inn in Stroudsburg would run you $80 in early April, including breakfast, Wi-Fi access, and a heated pool. Two trips like this, and you've earned a free night. Use it at one of the participating destinations worldwide -- there's the charmingly British Quality Hotel Coventry in the UK ($105 per night), or the business-focused Comfort Hotel Tokyo Kanda in Japan ($157 per night), or the stylish and modern Quality Hotel King Philip in Stockholm, near the world's largest IKEA ($162 per night). All prices are for early May and include taxes and fees.
 
Dates: Complete your two qualifying stays (and earn the the qualifying points) by April 30, 2010. The free night must be redeemed by December 31 two years after the year in which one's qualifying points were deposited into the account.

How to book: Sign up for free membership at Choice Privileges. Book each of your qualifying stays online, or by calling 800-424-6423. Once you've racked up enough points (6,000-8,000), choose your free night from this list of redeemable hotels. Redeem the free night by calling 800-424-6423 or by booking online.

The St. Regis Monarch Beach, a Tuscan-inspired, oceanfront resort in Southern California, is one of the Starwood properties offering up to 25% savings

Back in October, we told you about the Better Tomorrows offer that Starwood Hotels was rolling out on some Maui properties whereby guests could get 50% off every second night stayed. The offer had some restrictions: The non-discounted nights cost the full, unrestricted rate, and guests had to book a four-night minimum (in which case nights two and four were 50% off), and travel had to be completed by December 23, 2009. Starwood has now given the Better Tomorrows deal a new lease, extending it through the end of 2010, adding scores of properties throughout North and South America, and reducing the minimum stay to as few as two nights. To take advantage of this deal, travelers must check in on specific days of the week—this varies from property to property, but is usually on weekends at hotels, and during the week at resorts. There is no single list of the hotels that are taking part in the promotion, though destinations include Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico, the United States, and some islands in the Caribbean.

We test-booked a two-night stay in mid-March in a King room at the W New York—Union Square, in New York City. When checking in on a Monday, one of the days excluded from the promotion, the two nights cost $830, including taxes. For the same room, staying Friday and Saturday nights (when the Better Tomorrows deal kicks), the room cost $639, a saving of 23%. At the Sheraton Lima Hotel & Convention Center, in Lima, Peru, two weekday nights in a King room on a Club Floor in early November came in at $539, but under the promotion, for the following weekend, the same accommodations cost $404, or 25% less. The Better Tomorrows deal is already looking better today.

Dates: Rooms can be booked through December 31, 2010 for stays up to the end of the year. Some blackout dates apply.

How to book: Go to Starwood's Better Tomorrows promotion Web site, or call 1-866-924-8703 and mentioning the code ZBT. Rooms must be fully prepaid at the time of booking and are non-refundable.

Condé Nast Traveler approved: A number of participating properties have appeared on our Gold List. These include the Westin Resort & Spa, Whistler; the St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point, California, and the Park Tower, Buenos Aires.

Though only a 45-minute drive from New York City, the Bedford Post Inn feels like a world away.

Yesterday's deal featured a great quick getaway for Californians; today, we have one for East Coasters. The Bedford Post Inn in tony Westchester, New York is owned in part by actor Richard Gere and his wife, Carey Lowell, and opened just a year ago, attracting well-heeled New Yorkers and locals (including Martha Stewart and Glenn Close) for its popular Farmhouse restaurant, vast yoga studio (more on that below), and eight luxurious suites. The Inn is currently offering 30% off room rates to guests who book a three-night stay Sunday through Wednesday from now through March 31, 2010.

During this time, you can book three nights in a Petite Queen room for $916 instead of $1,308. If you feel like springing for more space—including a terrace, fireplace, and soaking tub—you can book a Deluxe King room for $1,275 instead of $1,821 (all prices include taxes).

Overnight guests of the Bedford Post Inn get complimentary use of its airy, light-filled yoga loft, including classes. If asanas aren't your thing, there's plenty else to do here in the Hudson Valley: antiquing, horseback riding, hiking, or even cross-country skiing at nearby Ward Pound Ridge Reservation. Or just curl up with a glass of wine and toast to nothing at the Inn's Farmhouse restaurant, where chef Brian Lewis serves up handmade pastas (I'm salivating over the looks of the soft farm egg ravioli with spinach, sheep’s milk ricotta, and rosemary crumbs) and the best in local ingredients (garlic-roasted Chatham Bay cod with smoked potato purée, beluga lentils, and mangalica ham, for example).

Dates: Book and travel from now until March 31, 2010.

How to book: Call the Inn directly at (914) 205-3773.

Stay at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay this spring for almost 40% less

When we Dealers caught word of this third night free deal from fifteen hotels—ranging from B&Bs to a luxury resort—in Half Moon Bay, a series of emails erupted over what a lovely town it is. Seaside horseback rides! Charming inns! Smack in the middle of the California coast, the sleepy hamlet is a great weekend getaway for both San Franciscans and Santa Cruzers. Here's how the deal breaks down:

At the cheery San Benito House, for example, you'll pay $278, including all taxes and fees, for three nights in one of its twelve rooms. (Note: This is the rate for a room with a bathroom; if you'd like to save even more, you can choose one of the accommodations with a shared bath.) Normally, you'd pay $417, so you're saving 33%. If you're feeling more, well, Ritz-y, you can get three nights at the Ritz-Carlton for the price of two. In fact, the savings were even better when we tested the deal: You pay $945 for three nights in a courtyard-view room, and that includes breakfast, valet parking, and Ritz Kids children's programs every day, and all taxes and resort fees. That's 39% off the normal price, which, for both the room stay and all those extras would be $1,553. So go take a surf lesson!

Participating properties: Beach House Hotel, Cameron’s Inn, Comfort Inn, Goose & Turrets, Half Moon Bay Inn, Half Moon Bay Lodge, Holiday Inn, Landis Shores Oceanfront Inn, Mill Rose Inn, Oceano Hotel & Spa, Old Thyme Inn, Pescadero Creek Inn Bed & Breakfast, San Benito House, The Inn at Mavericks, and The Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay. For more information about all of these hotels, go to visithalfmoonbay.org and click on the "Stay Three, Get The Third Free" link.

Dates: Book and travel from now through April 15, 2010. Note that the offer is subject to availability.

How to book: You must call the hotels directly. Just be sure to mention the "Stay Three, Get the Third Night Free" promotion.

Condé Nast Traveler approved: The Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay has been a Gold LIst property for five years.

The all-inclusive Royal Hideaway Playacar is offering significant savings.

With the winter snow engulfing much of the northeast (and some of the south, and northwest), the announcement from Mexico's plush Royal Hideaway Playacar that its white-sand beach is now 200 feet larger (not to mention 50 degrees warmer than where we are) feels like a hot cup of tea to our frozen hides.

Even better is the news that this ultra-luxurious, adults-only, all-inclusive resort on the Riviera Maya is offering big savings on rates from now through the early spring. Travel before April 30 and you'll see savings of as much as 49%, plus some amazing added values. We were able to book a six-night stay April 16-22 for $3,326, that's just $277 per person per night for an all-inclusive property that consistently ranks among the top Mexican resorts in Conde Nast Traveler's Readers' Choice Survey. Included in this special rate is a free round of golf at the Playacar Spa & Golf Club (a $380 value), plus transportation to and from the course, a shared golf cart, and snacks. Splurge for a seven-night stay at the resort and each person gets two rounds of golf. Not a golfer? No problem—a 45-minute massage can be substituted for the free round.

Dates: For stays now through April 30, 2010.

How to Book: The new rates are already built in to the resort's online reservations system.

Indulge in a massage at Allegria spa at the Park Hyatt in Beaver Creek, Colorado, for a fraction of the usual cost.

The best full-body, exfoliating, oily (in a good way), relaxing spa treatments can come at a hefty price. (Only when I'm stressed to the point of craziness do I cave, throwing $300 at a fix for my neck tension.) Come this March, though, there will be no need for such excess: SpaFinder will run a week of $50 deals at spas all over the country from March 8-14.

The full roster of participating spas isn't available yet, but we got a sneak peak at the working list, which includes both day spas and resort spas from San Francisco to Atlanta to New York. Two properties our editors love, The Emerson Resort & Spa in the Catskills and Allegria at the Park Hyatt in Beaver Creek, are on board. Treatments on offer will vary from spa to spa, but options will range from mini versions of the high-end therapies to full 50-minute treatments such as facials, massages, and pedicures. (Note: $50 does not include taxes or gratuity.)

To get a sense of how much you'll be saving, consider that at the Allegria Spa in Beaver Creek, a 50-minute massage typically costs between $150 and $160, while at the Emerson Resort & Spa a 50-minute facial typically ranges from $95 to $105.    

How to book: Go to spafinder.com/dealdays to sign up for your email notification of these deals. Registration (which just means entering your e-mail and zip code) is free.

Dates: The completed list will be published on March 1, at which point you can start booking treatments for March 8-14. If you sign before February 22, though, you get early access to the list and to booking.

This Water Villa at the Shangri-La Villingili in the Maldives is 70% off—if you book through Condé Nast Traveler's Maldives travel specialist.

Fellow Dealer Julia Bainbridge names the Maldives as her dream destination in her Jauntsetter of the week interview. Her dream stay? The Shangri-La Villingili, which opened last summer and is one of the top resorts in the Maldives—quite an honor in a place with no shortage of ultra-luxury resorts. It's on one of the largest islands in the archipelago (great for those looking for more space and activities than most resorts offer), and all accommodations are in individual "villas," the smallest measuring 1,400 square feet.

Lindsey Wallace, the Maldives travel specialist on our annual list of Condé Nast Traveler's top travel specialists, has negotiated some truly amazing special rates at this resort.  A pool villa (the lowest room category) will normally run you $1,336 per night (double occupancy, including taxes and service charges); Wallace can get you the same thing for $515...and a complimentary upgrade to a water villa if available, which he loves for their direct access to the gorgeous lagoon. Those over-water lodgings usually go for $1,776 per night, so his rate saves you over 70%. The best deal, though, is the rate he's negotiated for a "tree house villa"—these ultra-private, 2,350-square-foot hideaways ordinarily cost $3,096 per night, but just $598 through Wallace: a discount of over 80%.

What makes this deal even more impressive is that these special prices are offered during high season: February and March are the best months to visit the Maldives, Wallace says, because there's almost no rain and the seas are calm, making for great diving.  

Do note that to reach the resort you need to take a domestic flight from Malé and then a brief speedboat ride. Roundtrip transfers are $330 per person.

Dates: Good for stays February 1-10, and February 20 through March 26, 2010.

How to book: Contact Lindsey Wallace, the only person who can get you these special discounted rates—and check our our article on last year's dream trip winner for more examples of how Wallace can arrange a true "dream trip."

The Fairmont Newport Beach has plenty of romantic al fresco dining spots

We've said it before and we'll say it again: Travelers should really be on Twitter. In time for Valentine's Day, a handful of upscale hotel brands including Fairmont and RockResorts are offering Twitter-only discounted rooms and packages. Here's a short list:

Fairmont Newport Beach, California

• Save 45% on an amenity-packed weekend in a junior suite; you pay $446 including all taxes and fees for two nights instead of $803. Some of the perks we could do without (Twitter heart cookies?), but we find this one kind of funny: You get two plush bathrobes monogrammed with your own Twitter handles. Other perks include daily breakfast and parking, and a bottle of champagne (or wine or cider, if you'd rather have one of those).
  
• Follow: @FairmontNewport or @FairmontHotels. Send a direct message request for the Twitter-only booking code.
• Dates: Travel February 1 - March 31 and book up to six days before your arrival date, as long as the promotion is still available.

Arrabelle at Vail Square, Colorado

• Over Valentine's Day weekend (which this year also coincides with Presidents Day weekend), package prices are pretty high: You pay $2,295 (including taxes and fees) for a two-night stay in a superior room at this RockResort, one 80-minute couples massage, a tubing session at Adventure Ridge, breakfast daily at Tavern on the Square, and, of course, champagne. Still, you're saving about 30%, because outside of the package you'd pay $3,311 for the room and all these extras. Good thing, though, that you can book the package through March, when you'll pay $1,021 instead of $1,368, a savings of 25%.  
• Follow: Direct message @ArrabelleVail for the booking code.
• Dates: The package is valid through the rest of ski season—through April 17—and it is subject to availability.

Another RockResort is posting Twitter packages, too: The Landings St. Lucia (@LandingsStLucia) gives you six nights for 25% off. And at ONE Bal Harbour Resort & Spa, you can get three nights in an ocean-view room (with champagne chilling in it upon your arrival), a couples spa treatment in a private beach-side cabana, and dinner for two at the resort's restaurant for hundreds less than you would normally pay. This last one is pretty limited—the travel window is just February 12-15—but follow @BalHarbourFL for more information.

Given the unpredictable weather that we've been experiencing throughout the country, we should be forgiven for letting our minds wander to images of warm, sunny shores. Just in time, American Airlines Vacations has teamed up with the Barbados Tourism Authority to launch a Companion Flies Free offer that could make those images more than just wishful thinking. The promotion, which started on January 11, 2010, has recently been extended through February 12, 2010, and offers travelers one free, economy class companion ticket when two travelers fly together and book a minimum of four nights at a hotel in Barbados through AA Vacations from now through May 31, 2010.