Bermunda turns 400 years old this year and is hoping you'll help celebrate her birthday with a vacation.  Visit the island this winter and you can get up to $400 in credit (typically in the form of companion air credit from the airline with which you book the package). The credit amount is calculated on a sliding scale, based on the number of nights you stay. Folks booking a two-night stay will get $200 in credits; book a three-night stay and get $300 back; come for four nights or more, and you'll get $400 in credit. As a bonus, you'll also receive a booklet containing coupons worth $1,000.

This air + hotel package gives you a choice of 10 hotels and is available through various airlines and travel operators from major East coast hubs (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Miami, as well as multiple airports in Canada). Though the deal is the same, the airline depends on your departure city. A family departing from New York City, for example, could purchase the package through JetBlue and receive up to $400 in companion air credits.

Book by March 27 and travel by March 31.

What are our top three reasons for loving Southwest Airlines? No hidden fees, no hidden fees, and no hidden fees. We also like how airfares just got lower with the "Wanna Get Away?" sale. Fly on Tuesday or Wednesday and you can snag fares for $49 to $99 one-way on select routes nationwide. Fly Thursday to Monday, and sale prices range from $59 to $159 one-way.

Book by January 19 and fly between January 15 and April 30 with a 14-day advance purchase.

Grab your kids, your mittens, and your video camera. Smugglers' Notch, the ski resort perenially voted no. 1 for family programs by Ski magazine readers (see our review), is running a video contest on YouTube, and one lucky family will win a five-night/five-day winter vacation. To enter, create a homemade family fun video that explains what you think are the key ingredients to a fantastic winter family vacation, then share your masterpiece on YouTube. Click on the box for details.

Devotees of our recession travel rules know how much we love holding on to our vacation greenbacks with the Entertainment Book (see no. 19). There are 154 editions, including Orlando, Washington DC, Vermont, Denver, Hawaii, San Diego, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Vancouver, and New York City. Each book is jam-packed with freebies, two-for-one admissions, and discounts to exactly the sort of places your family is likely to visit: local restaurants, amusement parks, golf courses, museums, movie cinemas, local theaters, kids’ attractions, zoos, ski resorts, drug stores, and much more.

If you've got a getaway planned for 2009, heads up: The mother of all coupon books is on sale now at a 25% discount, plus you get free shipping. Most Entertainment Book titles normally cost between $25 and $30, which an average family could quite conceivably recoup in just a day. Buy now and those same 2009 titles cost between $18.75 and $22.50.

Tip: They make great Christmas gifts for friends and family with vacations on the horizon. 

The flakes may not be flying yet where you live, but now's the time to save on a ski getaway with Expedia’s Pre-Season Ski Sale. You can save up to 25% on hotels at 32 ski towns across the US and Canada when you book by November 10 and travel between January 2 and March 7, 2009.

Wild about the West? You've got a choice of 29 destinations. Check out  the Teton Mountain Lodge and Spa in Jackson Hole. This slopeside (read: no schlepping gear) hotel boasts indoor and outdoor pools for plenty of après-ski kid fun, a stunning setting just steps from the entrance to Grand Teton National Park, and complimentary snowshoe tours. Stay five nights or more to snag the 25% savings. Rates start at $216 a night.  If your family wants to set up on the East Coast, try Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa in Stowe, VT, perched in the middle of all things winter and blessed with alpine and nordic skiing, skating, snowshoeing, sleigh rides and more. Rates begin at $194 a night.  All the marquee Western ski towns are on sale, from Whistler and Aspen to Telluride and Lake Tahoe. The trio of Eastern resorts also includes Killington and Mont Tremblant.   

Think you're a savvy traveler? Well, here's a pop quiz. Which is the best hotel deal: One that delivers (A) 50% off your second night, (B) your fourth night free, or (C) 30% off your nightly rate? Go ahead and get a pen and paper. Or a calculator. Or a fifth grader. We'll wait.

For travelers in this dismal economy, there's been a silver lining: Super hotel deals, and lots of 'em. But those deals are dreamed up by hotel marketing teams who crunch numbers and write catchy headlines for a living. And that's exactly why you need to do the math before reaching for your credit card. Sometimes you won't save quite as much as you'd think.

Take the "Better Tomorrow" promotion that's on the table until March 31, 2009, at  Starwood Resorts (which includes W, Westin, St. Regis and Sheraton hotels). For every night you book, you get 50% off the next night's rate. Wow, 50% off! That sounds unbeatable, right? You can put your calculator away now. Michelle Deal-Zimmerman, the very wise travel editor at the Baltimore Sun, has done the due diligence for us.

"But here's a problem that I did find when I eagerly began plotting my holiday stay at Starwood's new Resort at Singer Island in Palm Beach. (Yes, as usual, I'm headed to Florida for Christmas. Why? Because I have a mother who knows how to use a cell phone and guilt.) I found three different rates for three different specials for four nights during the same week.

Starwood's "Better Tomorrows" special would cost me $867. Their "Winter Sale" offers a 30% discount and would cost $688. They also have a "4th Night Free" special - the word "free" is so enticing - which would cost $1,067. The last two specials I checked for the very same dates. So you would have two guests staying the same nights, with one paying $400 more and both thinking they got a deal."

So the correct answer is C.  A 30% discount trumps "fourth night free" (which is essentially a 25% discount) and it also beats "second night at 50% off." And in both cases, the difference can be substantial. That's not to say that the "Better Tomorrow" promo isn't a great deal. It's just that you can probably do better—maybe even with a different deal at the same hotel.

If you've grown accustomed to saving big money with the Entertainment Book in your own hometown, then you know how quickly the mother of all coupon books pays for itself. So why not get the same great savings when you hit the road? There are 154 editions, including Orlando, Washington DC, Vermont, Denver, Hawaii, San Diego, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Vancouver, and New York City. Each book is jam-packed with freebies, two-or-one admissions, and discounts to exactly the sort of places your family is likely to visit: local restaurants, amusement parks, golf courses, museums, movie cinemas, local theaters, kids’ attractions, zoos, ski resorts, drug stores, and much more.

Most Entertainment Book titles cost between $25 and $30, which an average family could quite conceivably recoup in just a day. At press time, you can get free shipping when you order any 2009 book.

On your way out of town, leave the book behind in lieu of a tip for the hotel’s housekeeping staff. The remaining coupons will surely be worth hundreds of dollars in savings at local businesses.

During this economic downturn, it more sense than ever to plan your vacations months in advance. All the big hotel chains have fantastic deals on the table for this winter and even into next spring, making it possible to stay in a very nice hotel for very little money. Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is in the midst of a "Winter Spectacular 7-day Sale," offering a 20% price cut plus one free night at select properties in Canada, Hawaii, California, Arizona, and Florida. The best deal of the bunch is at the Fairmont Algonquin, in beautiful St. Andrews-by-the-Sea, New Brunswick (rooftop terrace, pictured), which can be snagged for $129CAD a night (that's just $101 in greenbacks). Your third night is free, effectively bringing your nightly rate down to just $67 a night. Wow.

Tick tock. You need to book by midnight EST on Monday, October 27, and travel between November 3 and April 15, 2009.