The New York Times Travel Show, probably the most prestigious of all these events, is less than two weeks away. On the weekend of March 2 to 4 (Friday March 2 is confined to persons in the travel industry, Saturday and Sunday March 3 and 4 are for the public at large), my daughter Pauline and I will be speaking at 11am (about "Major New Developments in Travel") and again on Saturday March 3 at 3pm (about our "Top Spots in 2012"). Following each hourlong presentation, we'll then be signing books at a nearby booth, and we hope to meet a great many of the readers of Frommers.com at that time

The situation of a cut-rate airline called Iceland Express gets curioser and curioser. Back in the fall of 2011, it was announced that the company that hired Iceland Express to fly trans-Atlantic between New York and Europe (via Reykjavik) had ceased operations, and it was widely assumed that Iceland Express would stop doing business, too. Yet lo and behold, Iceland Express is flying again from April through October, but this time only between Reykjavik and various European cities, and not between Reykjavik and the United States. To take advantage of its low rates (and they are quite low indeed), you'll have to book a flight on long-established Icelandair or Delta Airlines between the U.S. and Reykjavik, and then book a separate flight on Iceland Express to the European city of your choice. This will involve quite a juggling act, but if you'll look up the fares of Iceland Express (www.icelandexpress.com), you may find that juggling those two bookings will save you some money. Lots of luck.
 
The ranks of companies operating shore excursions for cruiseship passengers has just been expanded by one (and now consists of four separate companies). A new firm called Shore Excursions Group (tel. 866/999-6590; www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com), headed by a former executive vice president of luxury-minded Abercrombie & Kent, has recently gone live on the web, offering shore excursions even for as few as four people traveling together, in every major port city visited by the cruiselines other than those in Asia. Booking your next cruise, you might want to compare its prices and features with those of ShoreTrips (www.shoretrips.com), PortCompass (www.portcompass.com), and PortPromotions.com (www.portpromotions.com), operators of tours making use of 12-passenger vans in most instances. All four of these companies will now offer an advantage in both quality and price, in my view, over the shore excursions offered by the cruiselines, which are usually operated in 45-passenger motorcoaches

The big travel event of the month was the opening last week of the Mob Museum in a former federal courthouse of Las Vegas, Nevada. It will henceforth join the list of must sees in Vegas (for an $18 adult entrance fee), introducing its visitors to the history of organized crime (Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Frank Costello, John Gotti, et al) in cities all over the country. Though many residents of Las Vegas were outraged at this initiative by former Las Vegas mayor, Oscar Goodman (i.e., the founding of such a museum in a city that largely denies its criminal past), and felt that the new museum would tarnish the reputation of Sin City (ahem!), the inclusion of exhibits making a nationwide phenomenon out of organized crime has apparently removed the local sting. According to my daughter Pauline, who visited the museum last week and interviewed former Mayor Goodman (himself a former mob attorney), its exhibits are well worth a visit, although young children should be kept away from its blood-spattered depictions of past violence (and they should also be kept away from Vegas, in my view).
 
Though bookings on Carnival Cruises and Royal Caribbean Cruises fell sharply in the days immediately following the sinking of the Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy, the cruiseship business has apparently recovered, according to two, Miami-based cruiseship experts whom I interviewed yesterday over the phone. According to them, neither the warm winter weather of the northeast, nor the well-publicized outbreak of the norovirus on several ships of Princess Cruises, have had any lasting impact, and much to the amazement of the cruiseship officials themselves, bookings snapped back following a short-lived drop in the ten-days-or-so immediately following the Costa Concordia tragedy

Most difficult question to answer on last week's Sunday radio program presented by my daughter, Pauline, and myself? It was from a woman inquiring how she could arrange to view the mountain gorillas of Rwanda. I gave her the name of World Primate Safaris (www.worldprimatesafaris.com), of Kigali, Rwanda, which arranges the experience, but caused great sadness by pointing out that the government of Rwanda a.) limits the viewing experience to one hour, and b.) charges a fee of $500 for the privilege of creeping up to the apes. Hopefully the proceeds of those accumulated fees will be used to help preserve the lives of these stately animals.