Travel News & Features

• With more hotels and fewer travelers, you can find deals
When the economy was booming, many hotel companies began building new properties. Some of those are opening now, resulting in a 2.5 percent increase in hotel room supply this year, just as demand is dropping by around 1 percent or more, according to Jan Freitag of Smith Travel Research.

• Traditional favorites, new events, mean special holiday times
With apologies to "Trains, Planes and Automobiles," this season let's talk about Boats, Trains and Holiday Reels, because with holiday events on the water and on the rails, Christmas can be a moving experience.

• Region offers lots of holiday activities for just about interest
Alabama

• TRAVELOGUE
Enterprise tops rental car list:

• Arizona - From the Old West to the lap of luxury, with great wonders along the trail.
Hopi Point is considered by many the best spot to view the Grand Canyon. Even those who have different favorite overlook sites generally agree that there's no other place along the far-reaching rim of the Grand Canyon where they'd rather be during sunset.

• Beneath the busy streets, a whole other city awaits
Here, during the earliest centuries of Christianity in Rome, a plain grave under a canopy of open sky on Vatican Hill served as the resting place of Peter the Apostle.

• Island for all seasons - South Padre boasts miles of beaches, food for days
If all you've seen of South Padre Island in Texas is one of those police shows featuring spring break destinations, you may have decided it's not your kind of place.

• Historic election renews interest in travel to Washington, D.C.
Tuesday's presidential election has meant that all eyes are on Washington, D.C. The historic campaign has renewed interest in visiting our nation's capital.

• Alabama Travel Calendar - Cities honor veterans
If there's one thing that Alabama goes all-out for, it's Veterans Day. In big cities and small towns throughout the state, there are parades and speeches and dinners to honor the holiday. Here's a sampling of the events set for this year's celebration:

• Quick Trip - Monroeville holding Fruitcake Festival, performing Truman Capote work
"It's fruitcake weather. Fetch our buggy. Help me find my hat," Truman Capote writes in "A Christmas Memory."

• Paradise regained throughrenovations
"You know, it's probably true that we came from the water," my friend mused lazily. "We have such a primal urge to get back to it." We waxed philosophical as we sat in big, comfy chairs and studied the scene below.

• Grab your flashlight and get in on an Alabama ghost hunt
Standing in a darkened room, wearing a flashlight that clips to my head, I'm frantically writing notes - ambient temperature, electromagnetic field reading - all the time keeping my eye on the K2 meter. From time to time, someone in the room with me calls out "Flash" and clicks the shutter on a camera.

• TRAVELOGUE
Adventure Travel has fall show: