Gents, just a heads up for those of you located outside of NYC who are considering a trip there this winter. Hotel rooms have hit rock bottom in terms of price.

I'm headed there on business the first week in January. My recent search of Orbitz turned up a 5 star hotel (the Benjamin) for $269 a night. If your standards are lower (as are mine) there are plenty of reasonable, non-flagged, options for under $200 a night.

This time last year, when looking at a similarly timed trip, I couldn't find a room for less than $450.00 a night.

On another note, I have been flying back and forth between Chicago and Denver a good bit lately. The airfare on that route has dropped from around $350-$450 to well under $200 in the last two weeks.

Economic disaster has its positives, I guess.

Might I share three of my favorite travel sites?

The first is an amazing travel search engine, Travelaxe.com .I have used them for several years-since they started up actually. and just love it.

Travelzoo.com is also great for finding bargains.I am on their Top 20 VIP list.Not only do the list hotel specials and flights-they also list shows and special events.I have found many great bargains using this.

The third one is Tripadvisor.com .Now I am kind of lukewarm on this one as many of the review are by priceliners(which I find pretty worthless)but taken with a grain of salt and working through a large survey you can establish a fair review of a property.

happy travels!

kayak (www.kayak.com) is my favorite airfare search site. I find it gives me very good insight into what fares are doing and I can get to the lowest standard fare quickly.