Adrift in the Pacific, Hawaii is expensive. It costs more to get there, it costs more to ship goods there. It just costs more. Looking at the websites of the many luxury hotels on the Big Island, you might think you can't afford it. But you can visit the Big Island of Hawaii on a smaller budget. Here are a few tips to help you do it.

Forget the luxury hotels.
At $300, $500, or even more per night, staying in a luxury hotel will add up quickly. Try VRBO or Home Away to score a rental home on the cheap, or Couchsurf and stay with a local for free. For cheap accommodations, try a backpacker's lodge like Arnott's where private double rooms are $70 and dorm bunks are $25. You can even camp at ten locations around the island for a permit fee of $5 per adult per night.

If you still want some degree of luxury without the accompanying price tag, stay at a hotel off the beach. A one bedroom cottage with kitchen at Nancy's Hideaway near Volcanoes National Park will run you just over $100 per night. If you want to be closer to the action, check out the Kona Tiki Hotel, a mile outside of town. It's definitely "no-frills" but costs only $72 per night and is a short taxi ride from the beach. Across the island in Hilo, the Hilo Bay Hostel offers dorm beds for $25 and private doubles for $65, one block away from the ocean.

Happy Tuesday, Gadling fans! Here are a few more travel tidbits to help you through the week.

• Where I've Been offers up five overlooked European cities to visit in 2010. [via Where I've Been]
  
• Stumped on where to go for your next trip? Play one of these travel games to help you decide. [via BootsnAll]
  
• Here is a great resources for travelers with limited mobility. Check out these tips for getting around Chicago if you are disabled. [via Disabled Travelers blog]
  
• Reading Andrew Evans' Pirate Love Letter to Cartagena makes me super excited for my own trip there in March. [via National Geographic Intelligent Travel Blog]

More Gadlinks HERE.

Spitsbergen is the "last stop before the North Pole," a cold, remote landscape of snow, ice, and arctic wildlife. And you can explore it with Hurtigruten, an adventure tour company.

While some of their longer tours may be prohibitively expensive for a lot of travelers (9-day tours cost around $5000 per person). they do offer a much more affordable 6-day Polar Encounters cruise starting at just over $1300 per person, plus airfare.

Passengers on the cruise will go ashore twice per day with an experienced guide, looking for glaciers, fjords, seals, whales, walruses, and polar bears. Stops include the towns of Longyearbyen, Barentsburg and Ny-Alesund, which vary in size for two thousand to less than two dozen residents.

Hurtigruten also offers cruises around Norway, Greenland, Antartica, the Baltics, and Western Europe.

[via Camels and Chocolate]

I'll admit it. I'm what you would call a "girly-girl". I like to dress up, I'm most comfortable in heels, and, ironically, I don't feel quite myself when I'm not wearing at least a little makeup (and yes, I am fully aware of how ridiculous that is). Despite my disdain for getting wet, sweaty, stinky or dirty, I love taking part in adventure activities when I travel. I like to do things like hike, ride horses and zipline. I just like to look good (though I'll usually settle for "not gross") while I do them.

Aside from the obvious vanity issues, this wouldn't be a huge problem, except that I stubbornly refuse to pack more than a carry-on for any trip, and so bulky adventure gear gets left behind to make room for yet another pair of cute high heels. This means I've ended up exploring a cave in Iceland in skinny jeans, knee-high boots and a wool trench coat, and have hiked in the humid Costa Rican rainforest during the muddy rainy season in jeans and running shoes with no traction. But I've finally figured out how I can bring both the clothes that make me feel good, and the ones that I need to survive as an active traveler. I've learned what I absolutely have to bring to enjoy myself on adventures, and how to fit it in my limited space along with my stylish clothes. If you're a "girly-girl" like me but still want to get active with the boys, here's what you need to know.

There's a cheese scandal brewing in Italy, and it involves buffalo mozzarella, one of the country's most famous foods. Served on pizzas and pastas, with antipasti, in salads or just enjoyed by the handful (what? I'm the only person that does that?), the cheese is known for its quality and purity. But it seems that much of the cheese passed off as 100% from buffalo milk actually contains trace amounts of cow's milk. In some cases, it was even as much as 30%.

So what's the big deal? I'm not sure I could discern the taste difference between pure buffalo mozz and one with cow's milk. The problem is that Italy's authentic buffalo mozzarella is produced under the EU's Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) seal, meaning that all products bearing that seal need to be produced using certain ingredients and procedures. According to LeaderPost.com, the concern is not about health issues or taste, but rather " to protect the "Made in Italy" label."

It seems the scandal even reaches to the highest levels. The president of the consortium of buffalo mozzarella was also found to have watered down his cheese. He was removed from his post by the Italian Minister for Agriculture and replaced with a temporary leadership group.

Until the problem has been solved, visitors to Italy may (unbeknownst to them) wind up eating cheese that isn't 100% buffalo milk. Of course, it will probably be just as delicious anyways.

[via NPR]

The plane that Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger landed safely in the Hudson River just over a year ago is going up for auction. Chartis Aerospace Insurance Services is accepting bids on the plane, which is described as "having severe water damage throughout the airframe and impact damage to its underside" according to USA Today, though March 27.

Unfortunately, as celeb-gossip site TMZ points out, the survivors of the harrowing water landing won't be able to take home a memento from the plane. The plane is being auctioned off in its entirety so those hoping to snag just a small piece cannot do so. Looks like they'll have only their memories. The survivors recently got together on the anniversary of the crash landing and toasted with champagne and Grey Goose vodka (a nod to the flock of birds that downed the plane) at the moment of impact.

Can't get enough travel news? Fear not, here is some more travel talk from around the web.

• Chocolate and red wine are the perfect pair, especially for a romantic Valentine's celebration. Here's a list of chocolate and wine events around the country in February. [via About.com]
  
• Sometimes a place is just so different from what we've known, it can be a little hard to deal. This list of 9 tips for overcoming culture shock has some good ideas for how to cope. [via StudentsinEurope.com]
  
• Need a little laughter in your life? Check out Brave New Traveler's compilation of 30 funny travel quotes. [via Brave New Traveler].
  
• For more Valentine's Day planning, Hotel Chatter put together a list of hotels that are upping the romance ante by going way beyond and champagne and roses. [via Hotel Chatter]

More Gadlinks HERE.

Ski season is in full swing at resorts throughout the US, and now through April 10, you can "ski for free" at Topnotch Resort in Stowe, Vermont. The resort sits at the base of Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak, which reaches nearly 5,000 feet. It offers luxury accommodations on 120 acres, 40 minutes from Burlington Airport. .

This season, included in accommodations rates, you'll also receive two adult lifts tickets to Stowe Mountain delivered by the resort's "Ski Concierge", shuttle service to and from the mountain, and overnight ski storage. Rentals are available from the resort's Nordic Barn. In addition to skiing, the resort offers tennis, a spa, and horseback trail rides.

Rates start at $250 (plus tax) for weekdays and $350 for weekends. Blackout dates include January 28-30, February 7-20, February 25-27, and March 21-23. Rate outside of the promotion start at $300 per night, and lift tickets at Stowe can cost $84 per day per person, so this deal would save you around $200 per day for two skiers....which means more money for apres ski fun and hot toddies by the fire.

It's been a doozy of a winter so far, and there are no signs that the temps are suddenly going to increase. You've got a long few months to go before you get warm again....unless you happen to win the Cayman Island's new contest. The lucky winner will receive a trip for four, including air and hotel, to the tropical Cayman Islands.

The winner and friends will stay at the Grand Cayman Marriott Beach Resort on Seven Mile Beach, and will receive a free boat and snorkel trip to Stingray City, where they'll swim with massive stingrays.

To enter, you'll need to upload your best photo that shows one of your coldest winter moments. Upload it by March 1 and encourage all your friends to vote for you. The ten entries with the most votes will move on to the final judging, and a winner will be announced by March 10. You must be 18 or older and a resident of the US to enter and travel must take place by December 31, 2011.

Of course, for many people, the worst of winter will be over by March 10. So maybe the contest won't help you escape the cold right away, at least not in the most literal sense. But maybe the thought of a Cayman Islands vacation - especially a free one - will warm your heart just a bit.

There are countless ways you can donate money and supplies to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Here's one more way you can help, just by going about your travels. Stay at a Sage Hospitality Group hotel, now through the end of January, and the company will give $10 per room, per night to the Red Cross.

54 Sage hotels throughout the US are participating in the promotion. Guests do need to book the special "Help Haiti" rate, which has limited availability, in order to make the donation.

The Sage group is offering a few other promotions that benefit victims of the disaster. Coco Key Water Resorts, a division of the hotel group, will offer 1% of all food and beverage purchases to the Red Cross, and will offer a $5 pass on January 26, with all proceeds going to the Red Cross.

Sage has a history of offering great rates and promotions to help others. In the past, they've offered free nights to volunteers, service-people, and teachers.