Online check-ins for hotels

Airlines have it. Now hotels do too. Radisson has begun allowing guests to check in online, before they leave home. Hilton will start rolling it out this service in December.

Any traveler staying at a Radisson property in North or South America or the Caribbean can use online check-in. At Hilton, only elite-level members of the HHonors frequent-guest program will be eligible.

Seven days before their stay, Radisson guests will receive an e-mail reminder to check in at its website, www.radisson.com. This can be done up to two hours before arrival, but it must be done before 6 p.m. Once online, guests can also change their preferences for each stay.

At the hotel, pre-made key packets will await them at a dedicated front desk area.

Eligible guests of any Hilton hotel or brand, including Hampton Inns, Doubletree Hotels and Embassy Suites, will be able to check in electronically up to 24 hours before arrival at www.hilton.com. They’ll also be asked to print a receipt (a “boarding pass” of sorts) from their personal computers, PDAs or Internet-enabled devices, which is then exchanged at the front desk for a room key and welcome packet.

-- Laurie Berger

Communing with bears in Canada

At last, travelers on Canada’s Polar Bear Express train can see polar bears -- but only if they get off the train.

A Polar Bear Conservation and Educational Habitat has opened behind the train station in Cochrane in Ontario province, the starting point for the 186-mile scenic rail trip north to Moosonee on James Bay.

The first permanent residents of the Cochrane facility are Nanook, a 23-year-old male bear, and 3-year-old orphan twins, Aurora and Nakita, said Else Poulsen, general manager and head zookeeper.

Visitors can watch the bears’ activities, and children can “swim with the bears,” so to speak, by splashing in a pool next to their glass-front tank.

Admission is about $15 adults, $9 children ages 4 to 14, free for those younger than 4. (800) 354-9948; www.polarbearhabitat.ca.

Although the Polar Bear Express stops running for the season today, the polar bear center expects to be open year-round. Cochrane can be reached by the Northlander passenger train, an eight-hour trip from Toronto. For train information, call (800) 461-8558 or visit www.northlander.ca.

Maine ski resort snuffs out smoking

The Black Mountain of Maine Ski Resort in Rumford announced a ban on smoking both indoors and outdoors, and other ski areas owned by the same nonprofit will look into such bans.

The Partnership for a Tobacco-free Maine office said Black Mountain was the first ski area in the nation to completely ban tobacco products.

In Colorado, the nation’s top ski state, several communities have banned or partially banned smoking in restaurants and bars.

-- Associated Press

Roads closed, park open in Death Valley

Most of the paved and unpaved roads in the southeastern part of Death Valley National Park, including a 20-mile stretch of California Highway 190, remained closed as of the Travel section’s deadline Tuesday as a result of damage last month caused by flash floods. The heaviest damage occurred in the areas around Furnace Creek and Zabriskie Point, but the park’s facilities, including campgrounds and the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, have reopened.

For updates, call (760) 786-3200, or see www.nps.gov/deva.