A crash course in a college town

By Christopher Reynolds Los Angeles Times

CAMBRIDGE

Inside Cambridge

WHERE TO STAY

 · Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St.; 617-864-1200, www.charleshotel.com. The rooms at this big, upscale lodging (294 rooms, two restaurants, bar, jazz club) are neo-Shaker style. Standard room rates usually $259 to $399 (may be lower around holidays, higher during graduation week).

Travel Briefs

Attractions offer glimpses of life under communism

If you're interested in the history of Eastern Europe under communism, a number of places around the region offer glimpses of life before the Berlin Wall fell in Germany. Here are a few of them, ranging from somber museums to historic sites to themed attractions that are downright kitschy or bizarre.

Travel Briefs

New York state launches program to market green lodgings

The New York state Department of Environmental Conservation has launched a program to certify hotels as "green" for using environmentally sound and sustainable practices.

Forty-three hotels and inns across the state have signed on.

Boo! Haunted houses rival Hollywood horror flicks

TOLEDO, Ohio - The towering stone walls of the Gothic prison are scary enough in the daytime. Some say it looks like Dracula's castle. Now add a crisp, moonlit evening, and mix in 50 demons and devils breaking out of rusted cells and it becomes the perfect setting for a haunted house.

Travel Briefs

Halloween-themed attractions at amusement parks

Eighty-one percent of amusement parks will hold Halloween or fall-themed events this year, according to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.

On two wheels in Cuba

By Emma Brown and Jacob Fenston The Washington Post

We were coated in a slick of sweat, diesel exhaust and sunscreen when we coasted up to a man wearing just-shined shoes and drinking rum from a plastic cup. He squinted at our crinkled map, nodded, told us we wanted to go south to the beach at San Luis and walked off as we tried to explain that we were headed north.