Mile-high luxury

Denver is the most recent city to get a Ritz-Carlton, which was to have opened Friday. The downtown Ritz, carved from a former Embassy Suites hotel that was gutted at a cost of $75 million, offers more than 200 rooms, a restaurant named after NFL great John Elway, 400-thread-count Frette linens and Bulgari bath items. There’s no gym (guests use a fitness club next door), but a spa is scheduled to open this spring. Introductory rates, good through March, start at $249 weekends and $349 weekdays; the top-tier suite goes for $3,000 per night. Did we mention that the Ritz maintains a Rolls-Royce Phantom to ferry guests around downtown free of charge (subject to availability)? We would expect no less.

-- Jane Engle

Shadow catcher

More than 60 of the most famous faces in the world will hang out at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York this winter. Pablo Picasso (right), Truman Capote, Janis Joplin and dozens of others populate “Close Encounters: Irving Penn’s Portraits of Artists and Writers,” a retrospective of the photographer’s career that opens Friday. Penn, 90, whose work has appeared in Vogue magazine and elsewhere, is known for his incisive, spare portraits. In Picasso’s (1957), the master artist peers at the camera out of one eye. The show, which spans six decades, runs though April 13. (212) 685-0008, www.themorgan.org.

-- J.E.

No hangovers

Ever since the Transportation Security Administration banned big containers of liquids and gels in carry-ons, traveling with a bottle of wine or other liquor has been more hassle than pleasure, what with worries about stashing it in your checked luggage and turning your clothes a nauseating shade of red. I recently tucked a bottle of California red into my checked bag and headed for a holiday feast back East. The vino arrived intact, thanks to the BottleWise Duo Plus wine bag. The well-padded wine bag holds two bottles in two zipper plastic bags, which are coddled in two removable padded fabric purses and another padded fabric sleeve. It’s bulky, so it takes up a lot of room in your luggage and can be heavy after you add the wine. But now you can take the wine -- or other liquids -- wherever you roam. BottleWise, priced at $48.95 for the BottleWise Duo and $58.95 for the Duo Plus, which has more padding, comes in black, Bordeaux and cork; (800) 673-9770, www.bottlewise.com.

-- Vani Rangachar

Florida’s finest

A Florida trip can be as tangled as the state’s ubiquitous mangrove trees. To help make sense of the state’s many offerings, the tourism and marketing group has updated its website with features that are more ambitious than most state tourism sites. The site is especially interactive, with postings of users’ photos (above) and video. Perhaps best of all, though, are the 10 experts enlisted to share their perspective on a variety of Florida experiences. Each expert specializes in a different area, including arts, fishing, beaches and golf. The experts, who live in Florida, host videos and write specialty blogs. www.visitflorida.com.

-- Chris Erskine