NEED TO KNOW

You can now brush elbows with the treetops in the Big Bear Lake area on five new zip lines that will get you zooming through forests and over canyons. On guided tours, participants experience “zipping toward the lake, 90 feet in the air,” said Terilynn Bondeson of Flying Bear Zip Lines, a division of Lodestone Adventures. You can see the lake from all of the zip-line routes, and four out of the five, she said, offer really great lake views. One tour, the “Black Bear,” involves three zip trips and runs 1 1/2 to two hours for $65 per person; the other, the “Grizzly Bear,” consists of five zip trips and goes 2 1/2 to three hours for $85 per person. Info: Flying Bear Zip Lines, (909) 866-3260. www.flyingbearziplines.com.

-- Susan Derby

Seventeen years after Hurricane Iniki devastated parts of Kauai, a new resort has opened on the footprint of one of the destroyed hotels. Ko’a Kea Hotel & Resort, the first new hotel to open in Kauai this year, is a beachfront boutique hotel, with 121 rooms as well as a new restaurant and spa. It was designed by Anita Brooks, known for her designs for the Four Seasons Hotel and Red Rock Hotel & Casino, both in Las Vegas. The Koa Kea, built on the grounds of the old Poipu Beach Hotel, is a U-shaped hotel with a retro vibe. It has flat-screen TVs, iPod docking stations, Anichini linens and espresso coffee makers. Introductory rates start at $299 per night. Info: (877) 806-2288 or www.koakea.com.

Zip right past Big Bear Lake

New on Kauai

-- Rosemary McClure

Big Hermitage

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev were on hand last weekend to celebrate the opening of the expanded Hermitage Amsterdam, the western outpost of the great art repository that occupies the former Winter Palace of the czars in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Dutch venue, initially opened in 2004 in much smaller quarters, will host two large-scale special exhibitions each year. It opened with “At the Russian Court,” which examines the lifestyle of the czars in the 19th century. The Hermitage Amsterdam is housed in the 17th century Amstelhof, which has undergone a $50-million restoration, giving it state-of-the-art galleries, a restaurant, 400-seat auditorium and courtyard garden. Info: www.hermitage.nl/en/.

-- Susan Spano

Back in line

A major vendor of the Registered Traveler program, which fast-tracked fliers through airport security for an annual fee of $199, ended operations June 22, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers in the lurch. The website of the vendor, Clear, launched by New York-based Verified Identity Pass Inc. four years ago, said the company “has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations.” Clear claimed to have enrolled more than 260,000 fliers, mostly business and frequent travelers.

-- Jane Engle