Does being on a strict diet hold you back from truly experiencing another culture? It’s a good question, and--as a vegetarian--it’s one that’s been dogging me on my travels as of late.    On his Travel Channel show No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain’s philosophy maintains that digging fork or fingers first into the local cuisine is the best way to understand what a place is all about.

Look, we all know about the state of the economy right now, right? I mean, unless you've been living in a cardboard box under a bridge for two years---a cardboard box under a bridge that doesn't get CNN, mind you---you're probably fairly aware that we're waist-deep in a recession.

You know what, though? It's still an amazingly good time to travel. Right now, you can find all sorts of deals you'd never have been able to find this time last year---or even this time six months ago. There are hotels from $22 a night in Las Vegas, for crying out loud!

And one hotel is San Francisco is taking it even further. Would you believe me if I told you that you could stay in the City by the Bay---in rather fancy surroundings, even---for a buck a night? Because it's true.

Please don't use the "S" word in my presence. You know the one. Starts with "S" and ends with "taycation." It positively chills me to think about would-be travelers staying home. Like, in their houses. Watching TV and eating chips or something. When they don't have to! People, I don't know if you've heard, but a close friend of yours (me!) coined 2009 the "year of the travel deal." You see, I have insider information, so I'm allowed to make such statements.

photo courtesy of IgoUgo member RobAA

Last Wednesday, as California's inland temperatures crawled toward the 100-degree mark, I joined some colleagues on a jaunt to the Napa Valley. Despite dry, smoke-hazed air from all of the state's wildfires, and despite a sun so big and bright it’d scared away all the clouds, I was not going to let anything like a little heatstroke deter me from doing the number-one thing people come to the Napa Valley to do: savor that exalted wine.

The day turned out to be a total treat and the heat barely registered, thanks to the following tips:

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member Sierra.

Last Thursday, May 15, a jolt of the non-earthquake variety struck California. In a four-to-three decision, the state Supreme Court struck down its ban on same-sex marriage, essentially upholding San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s controversial decision to allow gay marriages in February 2004.

A second jolt came this Tuesday, when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a longtime opponent of gay marriage, remarked, “I hope that California's economy is booming because everyone is going to come here and get married.” Arnold is completely behind the decision.

If you're still looking for Mr. Right or Ms. Walks-on-Air this February 14th, you might wonder if your chances would be improved by a visit to Valentine, Texas or Valentine, Nebraska. Recently a single friend suggested I write a travel blog called: You Don't Have to Go to Alaska to Meet the Man of Your Dreams. She wanted me to figure out where the most single men live so that she could vacation accordingly.

As a seasoned San Franciscan, I can tell you a lot about the Golden Gate Bridge. I can also talk your ears off on the subjects of crooked Lombard Street, funky Haight-Ashbury, our fleet of highly polished retro-chic cable cars, or even eccentric local legends Emperor Norton and Frank Chu.

I grew up in a place no one visits. To be fair to the people who never go there, there’s not a lot of draw in Fargo, North Dakota. While a growing number of quality of life studies underscore plenty of things about Fargo that lure folks to live there, there’s not much average tourists (excluding Roger Maris fans) would go out of their way to see, as they might for, say, the Great Wall of China, or Machu Picchu. (Although, have you seen the Hjemkomst Center? Okay, so maybe it’s technically in Minnesota – but you can see it from Fargo if you stand in the right spot…I know, I’m grasping.)