Listen to the ocean from your room in one of these lesser-known coastal inns in the West.

 TWO HARBORS, Catalina Island, California

On the far side of Catalina, away from the main town of Avalon, is Two Harbors, a tiny boaters’ haven that feels like an island on the island.

Check in: For all the isolation, you don’t have to rough it here. In addition to boat-in and walk-in campgrounds, Two Harbors has the Banning House Lodge in the vacation home of Catalina’s onetime owners. All 12 rooms have views of the harbor. From $128

Amid climbing luggage fees and a flurry of surcharges, holiday airline ticket prices are a bright spot for cash-strapped travelers.

 Domestic holiday fares last week were running up to 15 percent lower than last year, according to Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com, a consumer airline ticket research Web site.

"The main reason for that is oil prices," Seaney said. "There’s been a free fall in prices during the recession from November (last year) all the way through June," he said.

According to a report released yesterday by Brookings Institution, the most important business centers have the worst flight delays in the U.S. The study reveals that the metro areas of New York, Philadelphia, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago and San Francisco had higher-than-average delays.

The New York area was the worst at on-time arrivals with only 66.3% of flights landed on schedule from July 2008 through June 2009, USA Today reports.

Many carriers recently reported an improvement in on-time arrivals as a result of weaker demand and sharp cutbacks in the number of flights.

The ban on liquids being allowed on planes when brought on by passengers is to be extended by another three years. The current restrictions stop anyone from bringing anymore than 100ml of fluid in their hand luggage, which include essentials like perfume, drinks and sun tan lotion. The ban was thought to be ending in April, but a problem in testing with the machines that are being brought in to test for explosive liquids has led to the delay. The European Commission is set to vote on whether they will relax the rules so that duty-free liquids can be carried, as before they were confiscated.

Lengthy airline delays are twice as common now as in 1990 and will get worse as the economy recovers, according to a Brookings Institution report released Thursday.

The researchers said much of the problem is due to heavy concentrations of short trips between big cities, but they also cited an "ill-equipped" air traffic control system and other factors.

They suggested increasing high-speed rail service to offer travelers alternatives to short flights. They also recommended letting busy airports charge fees on rush-hour flights to make airlines spread trips more evenly through the day.