December means lots of articles predicting travel trends for the upcoming year. Unlike other travel writers, however, I guarantee my predictions will come true--they always do.

Almost every bed and breakfast claims to be historic. But to deserve that distinction, an inn needs to be more than just old. It needs to be well known or important. With previous guests that include Abraham Lincoln; Frank James, Jesse’s older but equally brutal brother; and Kentucky Derby winning horses (don’t worry–they slept in the barn back when the property was a horse farm), Bashford Manor Bed & Breakfast in Louisville, Ky., is worthy of the superlative.

Unbuckle your boots and grab a beverage

Rising above the chairlift, from Utah to Austria.

I just spent five opulent days -- all expenses paid -- in China, courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton, Cathay Pacific, and Dragon Air. Because I blog. With traditional media outlets disappearing, luxury brands are retooling their PR strategies to target online writers. While the timing was a coincidence, the connection is real: the Ritz-Carlton's first online-only press trip departed the day after Conde Nast announced it was folding Gourmet. And new media outlets, like, oh, say, Thrillist, are sponsoring junkets of their own, putting more media types in the air but drawing more attention to the practice: a mini-scandal broke last week when it was reported that two freelance writers who attended the e-mail newsletter's recent JetMystery trip were contractually barred by their clients from accepting such freebies. As always, a media scandal begets media introspection.

The China Import and Export Fair (also known as the Canton Fair) runs through Nov. 4 at the Pazhou Exhibition Center in Guangzhou, China.

Louisville's 21C Museum Hotel was named the top hotel in the United States at Conde Nast Traveler's 2009 Readers' Choice awards last night in New York City. The popular local art-museum-cum-hotel also was voted the sixth best hotel in the world by readers of the travel magazine.

A couple of weeks ago it was the sexy; now I'm bringing the funk. And who better to bring it with me than The Jesus?

Become an artist or a work of art yourself at these hotels.

My article on hotels where the art is given the gallery treatment, complete with booklets, podcasts, or even an in-house art historian, leads off the October 2009 issue of enRoute, Air Canada’s in-flight magazine