Cheap Flight Sites

Ultimate Fares: http://www.ultimatefares.com/

Cheap Flights: http://www.cheapflights.com/

Booking Buddy: http://www.bookingbuddy.com/

Kayak: www.kayak.com

Farecast: http://farecast.live.com/


FlightStats: http://www.flightstats.com/
You can track your flights using flightstats.com—not just immediately before you take your flight, but before you even make your reservation. FlightStats offers a great historical picture of the yearly on-time performance of every scheduled flight. Obviously, a flight that is late 96 percent of the time—and unfortunately there are a lot of them—is one you don't want to book in the first place.

FareCompare: http://www.farecompare.com/
FareCompare is a great website that analyzes airfares (and changes in those fares).

Taprobane Island - Sri Lanka

A private villa that sits on its own little island. The island is only about 200 yards off Sri Lanka's southern coast, so to reach it you just wade through the Indian Ocean. Or take an elephant.



The villa is big and colonial, with five large bedrooms, and every bedroom has its own terrace. Five people look after your every need, and there's a private chef who cooks these amazing meals—Sri Lankan cuisine like fish curry and spicy grilled eggplant, or fusion dishes like salt and pepper calamari, crispy roasted potatoes and coconut flan.

There's not a whole lot to do at the villa, but that's what's great about it. You sit and relax, drink wine, sunbathe, read. There's an infinity pool to cool off in. You look out at the Indian Ocean, and there's nothing between you and the South Pole…


Taprobane Island / Weligama Bay, Sri Lanka, +94 91 4380275 / www.taprobaneisland.com

Hotell Fabriken Furillen

A midcentury abandoned limestone quarry turned into one of Sweden's most fascinating hotels.
In the 18-room main building, austere meets upscale—minimalist décor, Bang & Olufsen DVD players. But beyond the guestrooms, Furillen goes to both extremes. Austere? Spend the night out on the crushed-rock landscape in a tiny "hermit cabin," made from recycled barn wood, with no electricity or running water. Upscale? Right in the factory, Gotland's finest restaurant features destination-worthy meals sourced from local produce. And arriving later this year, comes the piece de resistance: a floating sauna.

Gotland is an extraordinarily beautiful island in the middle of the Baltic Sea. It is one of the sunniest places in Sweden and a holiday paradise. The ever-shifting light, sandy beaches and fields of wild flowers made photographer Johan Hellström with family decide they wanted to live here permanently. In 1999 they left the west coast city of Gothenburg for Gotland and their recently purchased limestone quarry on the four square kilometer island of Furillen off the north-eastern coast. The Hellströms bought the property from cement company Cementa AB. They decided to build a guest house and ended up creating an 18-room hotel with a restaurant. Johan Hellström is the main designer and he has combined industrial shades of gray with Scandinavian design. The result is austere and luxurious and unique. - http://livinginandyland.blogspot.com/2007/07/fabriken-furillen.html

Hotell Fabriken Furillen / 624 58 Lärbro, Gotland, Sweden, +46 498 22 30 40 / www.furillen.nu