BOSTON

Go for Old-world ambience, New England coziness, Beacon Hill’s cobblestone streets dusted with snow, roasted lobster instead of Christmas turkey.

Where to Stay: A gas fireplace warms every bedroom at the XV Beacon Hotel (15 Beacon Street; doubles from $295), which combines classic details like an antique cage elevator with 21st-century amenities: CD players, high-speed data ports, a private phone number for each guest.

Holiday Dinner: The dining room at Locke-Ober (3 Winter Place; dinner for two $200), a blue-blooded institution since 1875, still feels like a gentlemen’s club. Lobster bisque, Dover sole, calf’s liver, and baked Alaska continue to draw the Brahmin faithful—and the food is actually delicious.

CHARLESTON

Go for Pecans roasting on the fire instead of chestnuts, eggnog laced with bourbon, choirs singing spirituals at Drayton Hall plantation.

Where to Stay: The 21-room Wentworth Mansion (149 Wentworth Street; doubles from $385) dresses in subdued Victorian finery for the holidays with magnolia wreaths, old-world Santas, and two grand Christmas trees in the foyer. Every room has its own fireplace. On your pillow at turndown: chocolate truffles.

Holiday Dinner: At Peninsula Grill (112 N. Market Street; dinner for two $110), chef Robert Carter puts a radical spin on such low-country favorites as black-eyed pea, country ham and mushroom soup, and rack of New Zealand lamb with coconut-mint pesto.

MONTREAL

Go for a quiet celebration in the Canadian city that Harriet Beecher Stowe described as “a mountain of churches”, a triwl in one of the many outdoor ice-skating centers.

Where to Stay: After a day of shopping in the frosty air, check into a hotel with a heated outdoor pool: the Hilton Montreal Bonaventure (1 Place Bonaventure; doubles from $95) or the Omni Mont-Royal (1050 Sherbrooke Street West; doubles from $145).

Pre-Holiday Dinner: The majority of restaurants in predominantly French-Catholic Montreal are closed December 24 and 25, so it’s best to have a fabulous meal before Christmas day. At the loungey, elegant Restaurant Globe (3455 Rue St.-Laurent; dinner for two $170), chef Alex Rolland’s duck breast with Japanese eggplant and black cherry sauce is a perfect stand-in for goose.

PUERTO RICO

Go for “Jingle Bells” with a salsa beat, palms and exotic flora instead of pine trees, evening strolls through a 500-year-old Spanish colonial city on the Atlantic.

Where to Stay: Hotel El Convento (100 Calle de Cristo, Old San Juan; doubles from $325), a converted 354-year-old Carmelite convent, has 72 rooms with handcrafted colonial furniture. The Water Club (2 Calle Tartak, Isla Verde; doubles from $199), billed as Puerto Rico’s only beachfront boutique hotel, has 78 rooms overlooking the ocean through floor-to-ceiling windows.

Holiday Dinner: The 160-year-old La Mallorquina (207 Calle San Justo, Old San Juan; dinner for two $50) is known for its family-style cocina criolla, or traditional Puerto Rican feasts: seasonal favorites include lechón (suckling pig), arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas), and pasteles (yucca and meat wrapped in a banana leaf).

Infrequent travelers unfamiliar with security regulations new and old will probably add to long check-in and screening lines and additional hassles. TSA installation of more than six times as many full-body scanners since last holiday season is likely to result in additional slowdowns when passengers who decline the scan are checked by physical pat-downs instead. The number of scanners in use will increase by another 66% (to five hundred by New Year’s Eve.

As more savvy passengers trying to avoid checked bag fees on most big airlines of up to $25 per bag each way jockey for overhead bin space, passenger and crew frustrations will probably escalate and delays at gates will be more common while excess luggage is stowed in the hold.

And then there’s the cost of this year’s holiday trip. Domestic holiday fares are up 7.4% from 2009. International tickets are 14% higher than a year ago. There’s a glimmer of holiday cheer though; 2010 prices are less than those of 2008.

Even with all those negatives, on average 90% of aircraft seats will be filled on the busiest Thanksgiving flights on November 19, 24, 28 and 29. The percentage of seats filled this year will finish at its highest since 1944, when loads reached 88% percent.

Airlines made the deepest seating cuts since 1942 during the recession. The reduced capacity caused the largest companies to raise fares. As a result, they have experienced two consecutive quarterly profits for the first time since 2007.

Travelers can expect to pay up to $60 more per round-trip ticket from now through January 31, the 24 days of peak holiday demand, which, of course, have an extra charge. Seats may be cheaper for travelers willing to travel several days before Thanksgiving or on Christmas Eve or on the holiday itself.

The airline industry trade organization Air Transport Association supports the rules. The International Air Transport Association, however, is critical of Secure Flight, citing inefficiencies in the process. It feels that the Department of Homeland Security is asking too much information on passengers too often.

Although the new rule imposes demands on the travel industry, travel agencies – online and brick-and-mortar – and computer reservations systems are on board. Expedia, Orbitz, and other major travel sites provide online updates. The National Business Travel Association also provides resources to support the program.

Some airlines had already adopted these new provisions. Since mid-September, American Airlines has required all passengers to comply and provide the data for all tickets purchased. American also requires a “redress number” for passengers who have been assigned a TSA-issued code for those whose names have erroneously appeared on the watch list. United Airlines also had been requiring passenger compliance.

So when you book air travel you need to be certain of all personal information you provide for you and for others you are booking for. your traveling companions. In particular, make sure that names and dates provided match other I.D. – especially passports – and that changing information related to marriages, divorces, adoptions, and any other relevant circumstances. Typing in a wrong letter or number could mean denied boarding and a ruined trip.

You may need to build extra travel time into your plans for the holiday season. The rules and processes will still be new and may cause check-in and boarding delays.

On the TSA site the agency has a guide to Secure Flight with a complete set of Frequently Asked Questions about the program.

Flight cancellations held steady for the month at just 1.0 percent over the year before, a marked improvement over May, June and July at 1.2%, 1.5% and 1.4%, respectively. All three monthly percentages were for 2010 than the previous year.

DOT considers the proportion of cancellations to delays acceptable: “Although the rule has been in effect only a short time, we’ve seen no tangible increase in flight cancellations,” said spokeswoman Olivia Alair, “which means airlines are taking action to prevent delays without canceling flights.”

Some air industry reporters had predicted that the anti-delay regulation would produce an additional 5,200 cancellations per year (both directly and indirectly). The relationship between cancellations and delays is still difficult to determine.

In July 2010, 557 planes sat on the ground for two to three hours after boarding, as compared to 795 in July 2009. 121 of those flights returned to the gate but subsequently completed their flights, while only 75 were ultimately canceled. Both numbers represent an increase over July 2009, indicating that tarmac-delay-related cancellations increased even though airlines did better at getting passengers to their destinations.

The impact of the tarmac-delay rule remains unclear, even as delays of over three hours have all but disappeared. However, the number has been dropping since late 2009, before the new regulation went into effect. Keep in mind, too, that 2010 saw few delays due to summer storms.

Some industry analysts counter that long delays began their disappearing act when airlines were told they would incur great financial cost for such behavior. They adjusted their schedules to avoid the penalties and don’t seem to have suffered any harm thereby.

Dave Pelter, a former airline executive who now operates InsideTrip.com, a flight-rating website, says: “The rule puts the onus on the airlines to perform the best they possibly can. The threat of fines has every airline looking at their policies and procedures to make sure there are no unforced errors on their side.”

“It’s going to be a year before anybody really knows what the level of cancellations attributable to the three-hour rule is,” said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, “but it’s fair to say that the sky hasn’t fallen.”

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will seek a formal resolution from the general assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) later this month to build on five regional security declarations obtained by the United States. Napolitano emphasized that world nations have a vested interest in adopting enhanced security standards to protect their citizens.

ICAO assisted the Obama administration in coordinating regional deals in Europe, the Western Hemisphere, the Asia/Pacific region, and the Middle East to bolster aviation security globally in summits that included elected leaders, security ministers, and airline officials. Each security declaration focuses on vulnerabilities in the international aviation system in four key areas: developing and deploying new security technology, strengthening aviation security measures and standards, enhancing information collection and sharing, and coordinating international technical assistance.

With regard to deploying new security technology, twelve nations have joined the United States in deploying advanced imaging technology (AIT). AIT devices are objectively better at detecting threatening items concealed on air passengers than traditional technologies like magnetometers. The DHS Secretary asserts that AITs are safe, fast, and efficient, and that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) enforces strict privacy safeguards in their use.

Presently, the United States has deployed more than 180 AIT devices at 45 airports nationwide. DHS plans to use funding from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act to purchase more of the devices and to deploy them in the coming months. The department also will use Recovery Act funds to buy 1,500 more next-generation explosive trade detection machines to screen for explosives at passenger checkpoints and checked luggage stations.

TSA recently assumed the process of vetting airline passenger manifests against terrorist watchlists for all domestic and international flights operated by US domestic carriers. The agency also plans to extend that capability to international carriers by the end of the year under its Secure Flight program.

In April, TSA initiated new risk-based protocols to apply real-time intelligence-based targeting to identify potentially threatening individuals before they board an aircraft. These measures are tailored to reflect the most current threat information available to the US intelligence community.

TSA also achieved 100 percent scanning of air cargo originating in the United States traveling onboard domestic passenger flights this summer. Napolitano thanked the Air Line Pilots Association for its assistance in shaping and informing the cargo scanning requirements under that program.