If you’ve ever wondered where the inspiration for dark green, tree-shaped air fresheners came from, a summer visit to Big Sky, Montana is in order. Step out of your ride at The Summit resort on the slopes of Lone Mountain and you’ll want to toss the tree hanging from your rearview. The ethereal smell of fresh pine will flood your nostrils as you fill your lungs with fresh alpine air and ponder how US Highway 191 got you so close to heaven.

Even in heaven, however, package deals are not always the best route to take. Yup, you guessed it: this week’s dissected package—The Summit’s Base Camp to Yellowstone Adventure Package—will probably not save you any green.

With a two-night stay, the deal lets you choose two complimentary activities, from golf, whitewater rafting, horseback riding, treatments at the Solace Spa or a day at nearby Yellowstone National Park. They kindly throw in breakfast and a scenic lift ride, and are asking $358 per night for a studio in late June—$837.72 total for two nights. Sans package, the total cost for the room would be $573.30, so you’d need over $265 worth of activities to make this “adventure” worth your while.

So, let’s pick two activities from the list to see what we’d spend on our own: Geyser Whitewater offers half-day trips for $51 per person, and Jake’s Horses has rides starting at $37 per person. Scenic lift ride tickets go for $18, which makes our running total $212 and means breakfast would have to be worth $53 for us to save any cash. Granted, some other combination of activities might make the savings cut, but as always, the lesson remains: do your homework before you sign up for a package deal, no matter how heavenly it sounds.

Make like a (smart) American in Paris with this très chic travel deal. For just $1,289, you can fly round trip to the City of Lights and spend a whopping six nights at the Mayfair Hotel, located in a prime neighborhood near the Place de la Concorde and the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.

But don’t think the Mayfair is just an average hotel with an above-average location; it’s a luxurious, boutique property with Haussmanian-style décor and a rich history (its 19th-century building was once home to the author of the French national anthem). The hotel’s fabulous daily breakfast is included in your rate, and you’ll feel as glamorous as Brigitte Bardot while sipping a café and nibbling a croissant in the hotel’s elegant courtyard.

If a six-night trip to Paris for less than a French Poodle has you ready to pop open a bottle of (real) champagne, sign up for our weekly travel alert. In it, we tell you about more fantastic travel deals like this one, so you can say “Oui! Oui!” to bargains and a hearty “Non!” to overpriced fares.

Checking In: Electronic Books
Checking Out: Trashy Paperbacks

It’s true, there’s no substitute for reading a good old-fashioned, ink-on-paper book. However, as someone who travels a fair amount, I can tell you that while reading is fundamental, it is not always convenient. As someone who likes light reading while traveling, I can also tell you that most of what I read is disposable, or at least recyclable. There aren’t many keepers in my library, and when Spring-cleaning rolls around, the first thing in the Goodwill pile is last year’s summer reading. There are books out there that are best left to the page, but let’s face it, most of what we read isn’t Hemingway. I mean, how many copies did The Da Vinci Code sell again?

Never mind that; what’s important here is that Amazon and Sony have both recently released products that make enjoying our less-than-literature reading materials a whole lot less conspicuous, and a lot more convenient. Now no one has to know that you’re reading Fear of Flying—while flying—for the fourth time this year. Oh yeah, and think of all the space you’ll save in your carry-on.

Skeptics will note that the electronic book market has struggled for most of the 21st Century, but have those skeptics tried lugging around enough celebrity autobiographies to fill a two-week family vacation? Sure, digital books have been a big topic of discussion for the past ten years or so, but it wasn’t until late last year that they really became a viable product.

The Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader are the first electronic book devices to garner much critical acclaim, and for good reason. They look more like real books. I’ll stick to the merits of the Kindle here, because it far surpasses its competitor in everything except price. First, it’s one of the premiere digital devices to use electronic-paper technology, which looks and reads like real paper. Unlike a computer screen, the Kindle’s does not use back lighting, eliminating that ugly green glow. Second, the device is wireless and allows users to connect directly to the Kindle Store. Now your favorite novel can be delivered digitally in less than a minute. Take that Amazon! Oh, wait. Anyway, the final, and most important feature of the Kindle is the selection. The Kindle store already offers 120,000 titles, up from 90,000 since its launch in November. Also available for Kindle? Time magazine, Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, The Wallstreet Journal and blogs like BoingBoing and the Huffington Post.

I did a little window shopping in the Kindle store to see how much space I could have saved on my last long trip, and while they failed to deliver on one title (Valley of the Dolls? Really?), they were fully stocked on titles by my favorite author, Dickinson–Janice that is. Looks like this summer I’ll be traveling with significantly less weight.

With the world’s second largest barrier reef just off shore, hotels that are set on their own cays and increasing air service to Central America from around the U.S., Belize’s corner of the Caribbean is becoming more and more attractive to the luxury traveler. Here are three beach options in Belize for those in the know.

If Money is No Object: Cayo Espanto
Starting Price: $995 per night
It’s only three miles from San Pedro and Ambergris Caye, but what a difference that makes. The sandy caye, aka tiny island, of Cayo Espanto is less resort—the maximum number of guests is just 16—than small, secluded, palm tree covered private island paradise. Here, five oceanfront villas with private plunge pools and one over water bungalow (the cheapest room) are hidden from one another, have huge windows you can open for the maximum breeze, little extras like Yves De Lormes sheets and showers alfresco. Rates include your own personal butler, three meals per day served in your room or in spots around the island, snacks, all drinks (minus champagne and wine) and non-motorized water sports. For more seclusion, opt for renting the entire island. It’s only $12,000 a night.

Smart Luxury: Turtle Inn
Starting Price: $210
One of three Central American eco lodges owned by winemaker and Hollywood director Francis Ford Coppola, Turtle Inn was built, as the man himself put it, “as rustic as I love, and as luxurious as I could.” Here, a dozen cottages and villas plus the Coppola family Pavillion (starting at $1600 per night) are a cross between a local thathced village and Eleanor Coppola’s own flair for Indonesian art and design. All have their own private gardens, outdoor showers and Balinese handcarved doors and décor. If the mood is right, try the Chinese Matrimonial Suite (starting at $400 per night), featuring a 200-year-old, hand carved Chinese Fertility Bed. The lodge sits on the southern end of the Placencia peninsula beside both a wildlife flooded lagoon and the Caribbean Sea. So in the morning you can dive with whale sharks, and after lunch kayak up Monkey River (the actual name).

Smart Family: Jaguar Reef Lodge
Starting Price: $180 per night
If your kids don’t know where Belize is before they come to Jaguar Reef Lodge, they will when they get back. Fronting seven miles of Caribbean sands and hundreds of acres of rainforest, there’s enough to do here to keep kids and teens on the verge of over stimulation, giving parents the option of kicking back with cocktails in coconuts at the Butterflies Spa or doing some adventuring of their own. Their Family Suites have multiple bedrooms and kitchenettes, but with a family package, the resort will add free use of sports equipment (wind surf boards, kayaks and snorkels), free meals for kids and three of their adventure tours which range from hikes in the Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Preserve, fishing and wildlife watching on the Sittee River, River Cave Tubing, Zip line Canopy Tours, visits to Mayan Ruins and snorkel and diving trips.