To enjoy air travel, which I still firmly believe is possible, there are a few necessities.

First, it always helps to be elite: traveling in first or business class, second, having some vaunted frequent flier status, lounge access. Second, even with those perks, you need something of a Buddha-like attitude. What will be, will be. Hold your plans lightly. Resolve to be happy wherever you happen to end up.

This last piece of advice is easier when you know about terrific hotels that are close enough to the airport to make them feasible on either an intentional or unintentional layover. These are places that are nice enough that you'll sort of hope to get to stuck there -- places that you might actually plan to come back to for a stay all on their own. Here are my three places that I've spent at least a night at recently while in transit, which I'm adding to my list of my favorite layovers.

1. InterContinental San Juan: You can see the hotel when you're landing at the airport, that's how close it is -- it's less than a ten minute drive from terminal to hotel check-in. The hotel is in the Isla Verde area, and has access to one of the nicest stretches of beach in San Juan, as well as a lively, private pool area available only to hotel guests. Club level rooms have balconies with a view of the pool.
2. Cedarbrook Lodge Seattle: It's really hard to believe this is exactly two minutes from the airport, but you're barely on the free shuttle enjoying your complimentary water before you've arrived at this wooded, quiet property. This hotel used to be a private hotel for Washington Mutual, but those days are long over, and it's now open to the public. It's designed for business travelers in mind, with 24 hour complimentary snacks, complimentary continental breakfast, and a load of other perks.
3. InterContinental Tahiti: Okay, if your work brings you to Tahiti and you get stuck in Papeete, no one is going to have a ton of sympathy for you. A more likely scenario is that you're flying through Tahiti on your way to other islands in French Polynesia, when weather unexpectedly grounds you. Worry not, within five minutes you will be at the InterContinental Tahiti which you really could stay at for an entire vacation. I hope that you're stuck there on one of their Polynesian dancing nights -- their dancers are known for being some of the best in the Society Islands. Bonus points for its brand new fitness center with water views.

If you're looking for a crafty excuse to visit London in the next few months, I've got a good one for you: Quilts 1700 - 2010, a new exhibit opening at the V&A Museum.

The exhibit, which opens March 20th and runs through July 4th, focuses on quilts both historic and contemporary. The quilt pictured above, "At the End of the Day", is a 2007 creation of artist Natasha Kerr; historic quilts include those commemorating the lives of Admiral Lord Nelson, Charles II and the Duke of Wellington, among others.

(Bonus for fans of Tracy Chevalier, who wrote the novel Girl with the Pearl Earring, which became a movie starring Scarlett Johansson -- she's written a story based on the George 111 quilt, which is in the museum's magazine. There's a great video of her research process here.)

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When I heard that Hotel le St.-James in Montreal was the preferred accommodation for celebrities like Madonna and Mick Jagger, I have to admit I pictured something slightly different than this gracious, historic hotel in Old Montreal. Although I knew the building dated back to 1870, and I had seen the photos of the white-gloved doormen, I think I was picturing an interior décor something along the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.

Well, there's no rock n' roll memorabilia on the walls and certainly no Love Jones room service available here. This 60-room hotel started its life as a bank, and in the late 19th century, banks were basically palaces erected to the gods of commerce, with intricate wood paneling, shiny marble floors, elaborate ceilings, creamy paintings in heavy gilt frames -- all of which was impeccably preserved when the building was renovated into a hotel, and echoed in the floors that were added to the original structure.

The feel of Hotel le St.-James is sumptuous masculinity -- the palette is a subdued, tan, deep blues, browns, a faint hunting print pattern on the window treatment, even the curving posts of the four-poster beds seem to thrust towards the ceiling with great confidence. It flirts with severity, but pulls back from it by a few soft and whimsical touches: the pure white linens, the stuffed lion (which is the hotel's mascot) which sits on the mini-bar on each room.

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You go on vacation to let go, but you probably meant to let go of your stress, not your iPod, your camera, your passport...or your false teeth.

British company Airport Parking and Hotels Ltd (APH) joins the group of travel companies that occasionally release a list of the amusing things they've found that their clients have lost, presumably in a hotel, a car, or an airport lounge. Clothing tops the list, accounting for almost half of the items in their lost n' found, and there are a fair number of gadgets as well: 17% of APH's total lost items were mobile phones, games consoles, mp3 players and cameras. APH says that "luckily only" 4% of travelers lost their passport, but honestly, given the hassle of losing a passport, that number seems pretty high to me.

Then there's the unusual items: the aforementioned false teeth, a ski boot that contained a tube of hemorrhoid cream, "odd shoes", which I presume means a single shoe rather than shoes of a strange style. I may have a suspicious nature, but some of the objects they've found simply scream "criminal activity" to me: an electric scale, for instance, what legitimate purpose might that have? And then there's an assortment of crutches, walking sticks and wheelchairs, which totally seems like evidence of insurance fraud. I don't even want to speculate on why someone would leave a pram behind.

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This weekend the first of what's planned to be an annual fine arts show will be on display in a historic location in New York City's Harlem: the 369th Regiment Armory.

The building itself is worth a visit all on its own: it dates back to 1933 and is Art Deco in style. It was built for the only, solely African American unit of the New York National Guard at that time. The 369th Regiment had already distinguished itself as the first all-African American unit sent to battle overseas, which it did during World War I, albeit under French command due to segregation policies of the US Army.

The men of the "Harlem Hellfighters", as they became known, were greatly decorated. Members were awarded the Croix de Guerre by France -- Private Henry Johnson of this regiment was the first American to ever be so honored -- as well as the US Congressional Medal of Honor, among many other honors. What's more, the regiment's jazz band included many Harlem musicians, and has been credited with introducing jazz to Europe. (Another musical history note, Rafael Hernandez Marin, the celebrated Puerto Rican composer also served in this regiment.) Read more about the history of the regiment here (PDF).

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There are basic ingredients in a standard hotel room recipe, among these, I would rank "four walls" at or near the top of the list. But upon entering your room -- or, rather your "loft apartment" -- at Hix Island House in Vieques, Puerto Rico, you immediately notice that there's a wall that's simply not there.

This is the work of architect John Hix, who designed this very unique accommodation to blend in with the environment, taking its aesthetic cues from the many gray boulders scattered throughout the island -- and also to be easy on it. There's solar power, solar heat for the showers, and obviously no climate control, save for a fan. (The rooms are positioned to take advantage of the steady trade winds blowing over Vieques, so it's quite comfortable.)

The four buildings contain 13 lofts, and they look like they are made of gray cement -- actually, block and reinforced concrete, surfaced with plaster. The open wall is also a deck area, although in an emergency, like, say a hurricane, you could roll down a metal door to create four walls.

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I hold large cruise ships in a certain amount of disdain -- floating shopping malls, the all-inclusive resorts of the sea, which seem to me to feature at their heart everything I dislike about vacation activities, the forced gaiety fueled by buckets of alcohol, the faux celebrity of being stalked by cruise photographer and videographer, food more about quantity than quality, casinos.

On these pages, I have speculated that I would likely enjoy myself more on a smaller ship and so I put it to the test a few weeks ago, joining a sailing of the m/s Paul Gauguin in French Polynesia. I found ever so much more pleasant, so much so that I would even go out of my way to repeat the experience. The ship has a maximum capacity of 332 passengers, and one crew member for every 1.5 guests. I'll refrain from a joke about the half-guests, and instead more usefully say that while I was thoughtfully catered to, I never felt hassled, as is possible when there's a profusion of help available. I also found an amazing amount of solitude on the ship's public areas, which I think is absolutely necessary for proper contemplation of French Polynesia, for example, the mountains of Moorea, which were once worshiped by the ancient Tahitians, and seem to be worth the worship.

I also had the agreeable sense that the ship was miniaturized from a larger cruise vessel -- there were three restaurants aboard, although smaller, there was a bar with a teeny tiny dance floor and even the embarrass yourself -- karaoke night provided the opportunity -- and even a small, easily-avoided casino for people that require that.

I think this ship is aimed at an older demographic although I am at the precise mid-point of my 30s, I do consider myself prematurely old, and so enjoyed the Elderhostel-esque programming, a top-notch anthropologist provided fascinating lectures and also the opportunity for a hike in Moorea, nightly entertainment to be taken or left as you prefer, a small boutique that had all the essentials, including kamani oil, a local treatment for sunburn which I really needed after a snorkel with the sharks and stingrays excursion that despite the burn ranks among my favorite experiences ever. The only part of the ship that I found dissatisfying was the fitness center, which could use better ventilation -- although I don't really mind getting a good look at the lifeboats while I'm running on the treadmill.

Paul Gauguin was until recently owned by Regent Seven Seas Cruises and is now owned by Pacific Beachcomber, the largest luxury hotel and cruise operator in the country, and the same group that owns InterContinentals throughout French Polynesia. In fact, I was on the first sail under the new management.

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Okay, so we're into month two of the new year -- how are those resolutions doing? If you find yourself in need something of a jump start, think about booking a visit to Miraval, north of Tuscon, Arizona.

Miraval is a little hard to find -- don't rely on your GPS, mine got confused -- but its location is part of its discretion, no doubt due to its roots as a drug rehab facility. But it's been a destination spa now for some time, and there are 16 new, eco-friendly rooms in which to luxuriate. These free-standing rooms were constructed out of truly local materials -- the walls are from rammed earth, the outdoor shower, from local clay, sand and straw, and the shower floor from river rocks. As you'd expect, the palette of the room echoes the exterior, so that when you're sitting on your patio, it's not jarring to shift your gaze from uninterrupted Sonoran Desert and the Catalina mountains back inside to, say, contemplate a nap on the big, soft bed.

Check out the rooms in the gallery below -- if you're wondering what the chain is near the front door, it's neither a security system nor a newfangled spa treatment, I'm told its for water drainage.

The spa itself is top notch, with the wide array of treatments that you'd expect, including several designed to rehydrate, which is an absolute must in the desert environment. The relaxation room offers a properly contemplative desert view before and after treatment, although I'd say that the changing rooms could use an update.

You can go just to bliss out and get massaged, or you can pump your adrenaline up on Miraval's ropes course, which offers the opportunity to do things like testing your balance 30 feet off the air, or leaping from a 25 foot pool or a 35 foot platform.

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Americans that visit the Alta Badia region and particularly San Cassiano tend to come in the summertime, for hiking and fishing. But in the winter, the area is mostly frequented by Italians, and for good reason: San Cassiano and its environs have all the scenery and the skiing, plus its restaurants are a tightly-knit constellation of Michelin stars -- apparently the highest Michelin star concentration in the Alps.

The place to stay here is Rosa Alpina with 51 rooms, three restaurants (including St. Hubertus, with two Michelin stars) It's owned by the Pizzinini family which fairly dominates hospitality in this area, having been in the hotel business here since the 1930s. The family owns hotels, restaurants and even the local butcher shop. This means that whatever you need is not only within the grasp of the management here, they're probably related to the people who can make it happen.

The clientele they cater to obviously expects nothing less. It was snowing on the day I arrived, and the winding mountain roads with their hairpin turns and minimal guardrails would have been difficult in a car without four wheel drive. One guest had his Porsche Carrera flat-bedded up the mountains so he could drive it during the weekend, having followed behind in a more sensible form of transport -- if you'll allow that sensible is a word that could at all be fairly applied to that entire situation.

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When you visit Bora Bora, in French Polynesia, the thing to do is to book a stay in an over-water bungalow.

Now, no ancient Tahitian lived in an over-water bungalow -- it would have been the height of stupidity, with the problems of the occasional and at that point in history, entirely unpredictable tsunami and cyclones. (Besides, the ocean was considered a God and if you polluted the water you'd be messing with something that might introduce your midsection to a spear, although a person of status could likely get away with it. This I learned from anthropologist Mark Eddowes, aboard the m/s Paul Gauguin, but that's a story for a different day.)

Interim conclusion: Ancient Tahitians preferred to live on higher ground.

Historically accurate in location they may not be -- in fact, over-water bungalows were an import from Southeast Asia some years ago -- but the style of house, called a fare, with its distinctive thatched roof, is definitely traditional. In any event, it's definitely what you want to book, and the InterContinental Bora Bora & Thalasso Spa has rooms of this sort that are so lovely that it's wrenching to leave.

The bungalows are arrayed in two horseshoes, to maintain some privacy while affording a view of the steep greenly mysterious Mount Otemanu, which defines Bora Bora's geography.

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