NEED TO KNOW

For visitors to Pearl Harbor

The USS Arizona Memorial, the final resting place for many of the battleship’s 1,177 crew members who died Dec. 7, 1941, in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, is the most popular tourist attraction in Hawaii. Now a $52-million visitor center is planned, with construction to begin in September, as a replacement for the shore-side Pearl Harbor facility that has deteriorated and is sinking into the mud, according to the National Park Service, which oversees the memorial.

The new visitor center (shown above in a rendering) will be built in phases to prevent the closure of the existing museum and center. It will house comprehensive galleries, open-air exhibits and interpretive displays, an outdoor amphitheater and two movie theaters, which will be used for education and visitor orientation.

The estimated date for completion of the center is Dec. 7, 2010. Info: www.arizonamemorial.org

-- Rosemary McClure

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The fast lane

With the high price of gasoline today, who can afford to idle in traffic? The newest car navigation device from TomTom, the GO 930, uses data that calculate the average speed of traffic on your route to give you a more accurate estimate of your travel time. Where does that info come from? Other users whose devices are anonymously sending the information to TomTom central. (This occurs when you hook your TomTom to the Internet for downloads etc.) Another cool upgrade: The device points you to which lane you should drive in for merging, exiting etc.

The suggested retail price is $500, and the GO 930 is available at Best Buy, Fry’s Electronics, Office Depot and other retailers, call (866) 486-6866, TomTom.com.

-- Hugo MartIn

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Landmark arrival

She was an heiress who collected art, interesting people and lovers.

Peggy Guggenheim (at right, in New York in 1942) arrived in Venice in 1948 with a passel of paintings to show -- Picassos, Miros, Chagalls, Dalis and Klees -- that ultimately found a home at the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal, or what’s now known as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

This year, the museum is celebrating the 60th anniversary of Guggenheim’s arrival in the Lagoon City. It will be marked with a film series and a landmark exhibition of early modern American art called “Coming of Age: American Art, 1850s to 1950s.”

Info: www.guggenheim-venice.it.

-- Susan Spano

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Sinfully cheap

Room rates have declined so much that visiting Las Vegas is becoming less of a gamble -- especially if you stay away from the tables.

LasVegasAdvisor.com, which tracks Sin City room prices and discounts, found that half of the 84 casino hotels surveyed offer July rates of $49 or less per night; 30 casinos have rates of less than $40 per night. There’s even a super cheap rate, $19.99 per night, offered by Palace Station.

Luxury hotels are slashing their prices too. Among the low nightly rates found (similar rates may no longer be available): Monte Carlo, $60; Hard Rock, $69; Treasure Island, $76; Mirage, $81; Rio, $99; Loews Lake Las Vegas, $103; Caesars Palace, $110; Bellagio, $159; Palazzo, $159; Trump, $196; Venetian, $199; Wynn, $199; and Four Seasons, $275.

So how does the smart consumer find the best deals?

“Go to the websites and see what they’re offering on their Internet specials,” said Anthony Curtis, publisher of LasVegasAdvisor.com.

Info: www.lasvegasadvisor.com

-- Rosemary McClure

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For more deals and tips, go to latimes.com/travelblog.