Many of the top destinations on Concierge.com's 2009 "It" list may surprise you, starting with their number one pick: Tel Aviv. At they pitch it, however, Israel's second largest city and economic hub sounds glorious:

"...this newly hip city has plenty to celebrate, with a spate of new hotels and redevelopment, a happening contemporary art scene, and vibrant nightlife. Unlike more religious and conservative Jerusalem, Tel Aviv hasn't seen a serious terrorist incident in years, and is the poster child for a more modern Israel"

Sound like it's worth taking a visit? If you're in the neighborhood, you might as well stop by number 10 on the list: Beirut, Lebanon. That's right, the city still recovering from the 2006 Lebanon War has rebounded well enough to be included on this year's It list as well.

Other top contenders?

1. Tel Aviv, Israel
2. Bolivia
3. Utah
4. Acapulco, Mexico
5. Vilnius, Lithuania
6. Central Philippines
7. New York City
8. Rajasthan, India
9. Toronto, Canada
10. Beirut, Lebanon

Stop by Concierge.com to check out explanations of each destination.

How useful are those U.S. State Department travel warnings? If you read too many, you might become scared off of travel all together.

As Carol Pucci points out in a recent Seattle Times article, politics and economics might play into U.S. State Department travel warnings and recommendations. This doesn't mean that, if there is a travel warning for a particular country, you should poo poo it as nonsense, and not proceed with caution when making plans. Perhaps, though, the travel warning isn't totally warranted. Pucci suggests checking other government's travel warning venues, such as Canada's, Australia's and the United Kingdom's.

Sometimes, even when a warning might be a good idea, the country does not make the travel warning list. Pucci cited India as an example. Consider this:

The perspective here is alluring. This is not a bridge to nowhere, but a dock that leads out to the Dead Sea in Israel. I love how the distant shore looks like a painting, and the dock looks as if it is part of another photograph that was cut out and placed on a separate photo of the water. Very cool. Very artsy.

Ben640 added this photo two days ago. If you have shots to share, send them our way at Gadling's Flickr Photo Pool. That's how we get our Photo of the Day,

When the famed American dance company Alvin Ailey arrived in Israel, one of the troupe was singled out by airport security because of his Muslim name. That's nothing new in a place where security concerns trump political correctness.

But this particular situation didn't stop with the usual searches and passport verification. The dancer, Abdur-Rahim Jackson, was asked to perform a dance in order to prove his identity. After being held in a holding room for a few minutes, a different security official asked him to dance again. Jackson claimed that another security official told him it might be wise if he changed his name.

Jackson received his name when his father converted to Islam. He is not religious and is engaged to a Jewish woman whose family he intended to visit while in Israel. Despite being taken aback by the treatment, Jackson said that he did not plan to pursue any sort of official complaint. However, the story has been picked up by the Israeli press and commentators have complained about the negative image the story has caused for their country. Source.

Right after I posted about the Jesus Trail in Israel that meanders for 40 miles through the land where Jesus walked, I received my daily missive from Intelligent Travel. There was the post "What would Jesus eat?" Now, that's a pairing combo--eating and walking.

Travel writer, Andrew Evans just returned from Israel armed with details on food that have a biblical basis. While you're walking along the path that Jesus might have wandered, pop into the eateries he suggests and you'll have some mighty fine meals.

Evans tells which restaurants serve what and gives a bit of a background history of some of the foods, many that date back to the time of Jesus or earlier.

Eucalyptus is in Jerusalem and Muscat Restaunt and The Organic Kitchen are at the Mizpe Hayamim Health Resort overlooking the Sea of Galilee.

Here are some of the foods Evans mentions eating, although some of them are from markets he visited along the way:

• yellow lentil soup with hyssop
• lamb braised with pomegranate
• tilapia with lemon butter sauce and baked vegetables
• sage tea (thought to cure jet lag)
• pumpkin-filled Bukharian pastry
• pickled green almonds,
• black Persian lemons
• Yemeni yogurt balls
• bread sprinkled with olive oil and herbs

Here is a bit of low impact tourism that can provide you with some exercise, a history lesson--and a walk similar to one that Jesus might have made.

Instead of hopping on a bus to be taken to certain holy sites to see places where Jesus did his ministry, there is a walking option.

This go-at-you-own-pace trip is along a 40-mile path that brings you to sites like: Nazareth where Jesus grew up as a boy; the Arab village of Kana--where Jesus turned water into wine; the sea of Galilee, Mount of Beatitudes where it is thought Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount; and to the location where it's said that Jesus turned two fish and five loaves of bread into enough food for the multitudes.

There are sites important to Islam as well.

According to Laurie Copans who took the trip, it has appeal, partly because of the interactive quality. Listening to birds, feeling the breeze, and experiencing the topography adds meditative and reflective elements to the travle experience.

As one of the people interviewed for the article said, "The more intimate you become with the land, the more intimate the land becomes to you--the smells, the feel, the hills."

The tricky aspect of this trail is that it's not marked. Here are your options for doing the trip without getting lost.

• Hire a tour guide
• Download a Global Positioning System that coordinates with Jesustrail.com, or
• Pick up a Map--but with the trail not marked, I say hire a tour guide.

For more details and contact information about how to follow the Jesus Trail, read Copan's article. The photo is of Galilee from Mount Beatitudes by hoysameg on Flickr.

Over at ProTraveler, there is a read worth noting about eight abandoned hotels in various parts of the world. They once had glory days, but didn't hold onto it for financial woes or pestilence.

These are the places that chronicle shifts of time. Hot destinations that don't stay hot or where the owners made bad decisions. You've probably come across examples of these types of places in your own travels.

"What was this place?" you might say to your traveling companions. You wonder if anyone important stayed here or what the building looked like when it was brand spanking new.

One example is this picture of the Palace Hotel in Jerusalem. I love this shot. The hotel reminds me of John Everett Millais's painting of Ophelia still clutching flowers, dead, floating face-up in a pond.

The photos are haunting, I think. Chairs with no one sitting in them, debris scattered across the floor, and an old sign that once flashed its neon. These are reminders that nothing gold can stay, but if lucky, can be resurrected into a new life.

For example, the Palace Hotel is to be reopened as a Waldorf-Astoria luxury hotel in a few years. The Diplomat Hotel in the Philippines may be turned into a museum. The folks who are going to do the project better hurry while there is still a building worth saving. It's thought to be haunted, so hopefully, the ghosts will be happy with the change.

There's been a lot of talk about the poor dollar to euro exchange rate, but it might not be the European currency that travelers should be concerned about. In fact, in terms of economic gains against global currencies, it looks like the Israeli shekel is currently the world's strongest currency.

Since the beginning of 2008, the shekel has made significant gains against most of the world's major currencies; 15% against the U.S. dollar, as well as just a little more against the British pound and the Canadian dollar, 8% against the Swedish kroner and 24% against the South African rand. And against the euro? The shekel has strengthened by 9% against the European currency. But even with a strong currency, Israel still hopes to attracts flocks of tourists, 2.8 million this year alone.

This week, Big in Japan is on vacation in the Middle East, and will be bringing you travel news and happenings from around this often misunderstood region.

Few places in the world can rest on their laurels quite like Jerusalem, the Holy City of the Promised Land that is home to some of the most sacred sites in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Not unlike that really, really hot girl you bump into at the club, everyone seems to be fighting for a piece.

So how holy is Jerusalem you say? Well, let me assure you that it's certainly holier than thou. While it's difficult to fully appreciate the historical and religious significance of Jerusalem without ever actually setting foot there, today's posting will hopefully shed some light on some of the old city's most storied buildings and monuments.

Disclaimer: This is a travel blog, not political commentary. I certainly don't have a solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, though I can certainly understand, on all sides, why Jerusalem is worth fighting for.

This week, Big in Japan is on vacation in the Middle East, and will be bringing you travel news and happenings from around this often misunderstood region.

Today's post will give you some tips on traveling in the West Bank, that swath of land sitting between Israel and Jordan that one day might compose the vast bulk of an independent Palestine. Please keep in mind that the security situation in Israel and the Palestinian Territories changes daily (sometimes hourly), so please use this guide as a general reference, and always seek local advice before doing something that your mother certainly wouldn't approve of!

The once and future spark to the great powder keg that is the Middle East is Palestine, a historic geographical region located on the southern east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The name itself actually dates to 135 AD when the Romans changed Judea to Palestine in order to incite tensions between Jews and the Philistines. Needless to say, not much has changed in the subsequent two-thousand years...

Today, Palestine refers to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. You would need to have a serious malfunction to even consider stepping foot in Gaza, though traveling in the West Bank is a lot safer than the media would have you believe.