If you have trouble figuring out what to pack for a trip then have I got a hotel for you…

Check In at Germany’s First Naked Hotel

Clothes will be strictly forbidden on the premises of Germany’s first hotel for nudists, which will open shortly in the southwestern Black Forest region. Guests will be required to remove their clothes at the entrance and must be naked at all times while on the premises, according to the strict house rules that have already been posted on the Internet.

If you have a fear of flying after flight 332 got hit by birds and ended up landing in the Hudson, then one airport you might not want to fly out of is Sacramento.

Jet returns to Calif. airport after bird strike

A United Airlines flight bound for Chicago had to return to the Sacramento airport after hitting a bird during takeoff.

The Sacramento airport is in the Pacific flyway for migratory birds and reports more bird strikes annually than any other airport in the western United States.

If you got off a plane that filled with smoke because of a mechanical issue, would you get right on another one. The passengers on this plane did.

United jet with engine trouble lands in Maine

A United Airlines jet carrying 178 passengers and 11 crew members from London to Washington, D.C., has made an emergency landing in Maine because of mechanical problems.

More and more tourists are canceling trips or retirement plans to Mexico (my family included). If you are still going there are some good safety tips in this article.

Violence in Mexico: A Cause of Concern for Retirees Looking to Travel or Relocate

Mexico is the favorite travel destination for Americans and it’s also the most favored place outside the U.S. for retirees to relocate. The country’s warm climate, familiar culture, and low costs naturally attract retirees. Now, however, drug-related violence and–to a lesser extent–Mexico’s own recessionary pressures have made parts of Mexico dangerous. The U.S. State Department renewed its Mexico travel alert last month. Requests are escalating for more protection by U.S. border troops. Visits to major travel sites, such as Fodor’s, reveal rising traveler concerns and travel cancellations.

The U.S. has named a number of new Historic Landmarks including President Lincoln’s Cottage and San Francisco’s Bay, Angel Island Immigration Station. Read more:

New U.S. Historical Landmarks

Other articles that caught my eye:

• Free or Cheap Things to Do in Las Vegas, Nevada
• Great American bike trails
• Landmark Fail

The recent cold snap in the east changed the itinerary for cruise ship passengers who were literally left out in the cold.

No worries on board ice-bound cruise ship

A cruise ship carrying nearly 400 people has been stuck in thick ice in the St. Lawrence River in Eastern Canada for over a day, but passengers are nonetheless having a “festive” time, the company that owns the vessel said Tuesday.

The ship, CTMA-Vacancier, chartered by a group traveling from Montreal to the Gaspe Peninsula for a cross-country skiing trip to celebrate the 475th anniversary of the region’s settlement, is now inching through the heavy ice, said Leonard Arsenault, a spokesman for MTMA Group.

He said the 300 passengers, along with a crew of nearly 100, were in no danger and that there was plenty of food on board.

But the cruise ship passengers were not the only ones stuck in the ice. The cold also trapped airline passengers in one of those stories that leaves you wondering if it is about time for those often talked about passenger’s rights.

Stunned by the day’s travel news — no really, stunned

Passengers on an AirTran flight from Columbus, Ohio, to Orlando were stuck in transit for 12 hours yesterday — many of them on a grounded plane. Flight 373 to Orlando had been scheduled to take off from Columbus, Ohio, at 8 a.m. But an overnight snow storm reportedly turned the parked plane into a popsicle. Ground crews used three truckloads of deicing fluid in a futile attempt to thaw the frozen plane. “We had no water, no air, they couldn’t turn the engine on,” one traveler said. The passengers were let off the aircraft for lunch, and AirTran offered them free roundtrip tickets for the trouble.

Speaking of dirty tricks, research has picked out one New York hotel as the dirtiest in the country. By the way, if you think bed bugs are bad… don’t look under the bed.

Behold The Nastiest, Foulest Hotel In America

Is this the dirtiest, foulest hotel in America? The voters on TripAdvisor.com think so, and the rating doesn’t seem to have come as a shock to the management of the hotel — the manager told NY1, “because they are a one star hotel, they have one star standards of cleanliness.” Well, ew.

What sort of crimes against hygeine are we talking about here? Well, according to the comments on TripAdviser, prepare yourself for “mice, roaches, Bed Bugs and crack heads all living at this Hell Hole! The hotel itself smells and is filthy from the disgusting bedspread to the filthy bathroom.” And there are also “outlets that hang out of walls” and “Built up hair clogged shower drains.” All this for only $122 a night.

Other stories I found interesting:

• 2009 Worldnomads.com Travel Podcast Scholarship
• How Well Do You Know the Middle East?
• London Pedestrian Routemap
• How to Move to Paris with No Money
• Win $50,000 Towards Your Dream Photography Assignment!
• Across the ocean in a pedal-powered submarine
• Win the best job in the world

$99 a night for a hotel with the bathroom down the hall might sound a bit expensive, but in New York City any hotel for less than $100 a night is a bargain. The newly opened Jane Hotel is in a historic space in a “red lighthouse of a building in Greenwich Village”. The building was built in 1907 and has housed sailors and titanic survivors. Now the target audience is young people who might otherwise be looking at a hostel. All rooms will have free wi-fi and flat screen TVs but cannot be described as spacious as 150 of the 200 rooms are only 50 square feet in size.

Here is a travel nightmare for you. You are on vacation and your travel company goes out of business. What could be worse news? How about 40,000 passengers stranded around the world.

Anger at airport as XL rescue turns into a fiasco

Stranded victims of the XL holiday firm collapse threatened to riot and scuffles broke out after 400 travellers were effectively imprisoned in a departure lounge for 24 hours.

The incident highlighted the chaos surrounding some 40,000 British tourists marooned around the globe by the collapse of Britain’s third biggest holiday operator - despite a huge Civil Aviation Authority mission to bring most of them back.

Why is the USA a less attractive destination for Japanese tourists? We don’t know but they are studying the issue.

The vanishing Japanese tourist

OTTI statistics reveal that 3.7 million Japanese tourists visited the US in 2006. They represent the fourth-largest tourism market for the US behind Canada, Mexico and the UK. In 2006, Japan�s visitors spent approximately $16.03 billion in the US, but in 2006 the US experienced a 5 percent decline in the Japanese market following years of impressive growth.

United Airlines and Air Canada are heading in opposite directions with regard to the fees for that extra bag you want to bring along.

United Airlines increases fee to check a second bag

United is increasing the service fee to check a second bag on a domestic flight from $25 to $50 one way. These changes apply to customers who purchase a ticket on or after September 16, 2008 for travel within the US and to/from Canada, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands on or after November 10, 2008.

Air Canada eliminates second bag fee

Air Canada announced today that in response to decreasing fuel prices, the airline is eliminating all second checked-bag charges implemented this spring and will be incorporating fuel surcharges into its advertised base fares on North American flights.

I am curious what our former Turkish exchange student would make of this story? Remember this is not a story about a crime just a management issue.

Turkish hotel fires philandering male staff

A small hotel on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast has fired all its male employees for repeatedly having affairs with foreign female guests, the manager said on Wednesday.

Pelin Yucel, manager of Image Hotel in Marmaris, said her 27-room hotel now only employs female staff. Most of the guests are British and Russian tourists, she said.

“We had been facing the same problem every year but after the last incident we decided to run the hotel by only female staff,” she said.

Remember to vote for the Amateur Traveler podcast at the year’s Podcast Awards.

And lastly the answer to the question that started this post. There are worst things than getting stranded.

Tanzanian lodge in court over leopard attack to French tourist�s son

A civil suit, first of its kind in Tanzania�s tourism history, took place in northern tourist city of Arusha this week against luxury Tarangire Safari Lodge over negligence that led to a leopard attack of a 7-year-old French boy.

There is a new player in the hotel review space which is TVTrip.com. TVTrip hosts video reviews of hotels. At this time they have “115 destinations, 5530 hotels, 494008 reviews, 4937 videos”. That is a very small percentage of the world’s hotels but the value of actually being able to see the hotel (if they have a review for it) seems of greater value to me than a textual review.