Why don't travel sites offer more options? There are two main reasons. First, they choose not to list certain properties. Big sites may not work with lodgings outside the mainstream -- a converted medieval castle, for example, or a harborside boat that rents cabins. Expedia believes travelers aren't coming to its site if they're looking for a hostel or one-star hotel, so Expedia doesn't list any of them. The fact that it's easier to make money on upscale hotels -- there's a higher profit margin -- certainly influences the decision.

Second, you can't assume that a property will want to be featured on a site. Hotels pass on a booking engine if they believe it attracts the wrong clientele, if it takes too big a cut of the cash, or if they simply think it's unnecessary. Searches at Expedia and Hotels.com occasionally turn up totally different properties, even though the sites are owned by the same parent company, because some luxury hotels, for example, don't want to be listed at the latter, which is perceived largely as a hotel clearinghouse.

If you're planning a visit to a popular tourist area and you're interested in a moderate to upscale hotel (a chain in particular), the major sites will absolutely do the job. But for out-of-the-ordinary places to stay -- which are often the most memorable, for better and for worse -- take a look at these out-of-the-ordinary Web sites.

Inns and B&Bs

BedandBreakfast.com A database of 28,000 B&Bs worldwide, including nearly 6,000 that can be booked through the site -- with photos and expanded descriptions.

English-Inns.co.uk More than 500 historic hotels and country inns.

OZBedandBreakfast.com About 1,400 B&Bs throughout New Zealand and Australia.

Rustic

DudeRanch.org A round-up of more than 100 places for cowpokes in western North America.

EstanciasArgentinas.com Hundreds of Argentinian ranches open to day and overnight visitors.

Gites-de-France.fr France's resource for 55,000 B&Bs, apartments, and chalets, most in rural areas.

NZHomestay.co.nz Dozens of homes and farms in New Zealand that rent rooms; the same company also operates AustralianHomestay.com.

Agriturismo.com Italy's association of 1,200 farmstays and countryside villas.

One of a kind

HistoricHotelsofEurope.com A collection of 16 associations with about 1,000 extraordinary properties in total, including Irish manor houses, Austrian castles and hotels in the Swedish countryside.

TravelIntelligence.com Some 3,000 hotels handpicked by 120 travel writers; you're able to search by category, such as Urban Hideaways, Barefoot Luxury, Budget Chic, and Off the Beaten Track.

Uhotw.com Unusual Hotels of the World lists 127 lighthouses, prisons, caves, and other unique places to spend the night.

Inexpensive

Venere.com Italian booking site for more than 12,000 European properties, including one- and two-star hotels, as well as B&Bs, apartments, pensions and hostels.

CheapAccommodation.com Thousands of properties, most skewing to the low end. Like sister site Cheapflights, it doesn't search availability.

ViaggiaeDormi.it Hundreds of moderate Italian hotels and more: pensions, B&Bs, apartment rentals and agritourism stays.

Condos and apartments

VacationSpot.com A partner of Hotels.com, it focuses on private homes, condos, villas and resort suites.

Vrbo.com Basically, classified ads for 52,000 condos and vacation homes, booked directly through the owners.

ResortQuest.com Management company handling about 17,000 rentals in popular North American destinations.

ApartmentService.com Catering primarily to business travelers since 1981, it rents 2,000 apartments, the vast majority of which are in Europe.

Beyoglu is on the European side of the Bosporus, across the Golden Horn inlet from Topkapi Palace and the Aya Sofya. Istiklal Caddesi, its main artery, runs along the ridge of a huge hill, so that turning down any side street means getting an amazing view of the city. The area's art nouveau buildings, once home to apartments and embassies, now house upscale boutiques, galleries and restaurants.

It wasn't always this way. Beyoglu, much like Turkey as a whole, has undergone a radical transition in the last decade.

"When I opened NuTeras in 2001, the neighborhood was filthy," says chef Mehmet Gürs, referring to the first of his restaurants in his NuPera complex -- now several clubs and restaurants stacked in a 200-year-old building. "Men pulled knives on me when I was on my motorcycle. People were afraid to come in groups of two, so they came in groups of four."

As its name implies, NuTeras is on the roof, overlooking the Golden Horn and Süleymaniye Camii, one of Istanbul's most beautiful mosques. After dinner, well-dressed throngs arrive for drinks, DJs and views.

NuTeras now has a lot of company. Inspired by Gürs's success, other entrepreneurs have launched a slew of bars in the vicinity. Gürs himself owns two more restaurants nearby, including Mikla, which opened last winter on the roof of the trendy Marmara Pera hotel. Sleek cafés line the crooked alleyways off Istiklal; in summer, tables are set up right on the street.

Weekends are scenes of sophisticated chaos -- the jumble of cultures only makes things more interesting.

"Istanbul is a mix of Asian, European, and Ottoman influences," says Seyhan Özdemir, architect of the design firm Autoban. "There are no real Turkish people here. We all come from different places and together make a new culture."

Autoban has done the interiors of several Istanbul restaurants, including the Beyoglu branch of The House Café. It's filled with mismatched furniture that mixes styles and scale, like an Ottoman-inspired divan with a frame of Finnish plywood.

Autoban's aesthetic permeates all the new businesses in the neighborhood. Around the corner, a tiny Italian restaurant named Otto becomes a rock and electro dance scene late at night, where the DJ looks like Che Guevara and mojitos are the house specialty.

Yet Beyoglu's new nightspots haven't displaced their neighbors, traditional Turkish restaurants and coffeehouses; they've just amplified the variety of the area. The rooftop restaurant and lounge called 360 Istanbul is opposite an alley lined with narghile (water pipe) cafés. To get to the top of the building, one must step into a creaky elevator and zip past a contemporary art gallery.

The old ways are still around -- and in fact, the young, chic crowd digs them now and then. Several meyhanes (serving tapas-like dishes) on nearby Sofyali Sokak are institutions. At Refik, which has been in business for more than 50 years, families and friends gather at tables and drink aniseed liqueur raki. Waiters hold immense trays laden with examples of all the mezes, or appetizers, that are on the menu. Everyone chooses by pointing -- stuffed grape leaves, chickpea salad, roasted eggplant puree.

On another narrow street, a traditional Turkish clarinetist, Hüsnü Senlendirici, plays to a full house at Babylon. Guys wearing Lacoste shirts sway while their girlfriends in designer jeans twirl their wrists belly-dancer style. The club books musicians five nights a week, from Afro-Cuban jazz to alternative rock to electronica. "People come even if they don't know who's playing," says Sarp Dakni of Pozitif Group, the music industry company behind the club.

Another Turkish clarinetist, Selim Sesler, can be found Tuesday nights at the rooftop bar Araf. A multinational crowd jams into the small space, drinking, smoking and dancing like mad in front of large windows overlooking Istanbul's skyline. At 2 A.M. the dance floor is still packed and will be for a while. Locals know how good they have it.

"Istanbul is very young and energetic," says one habitué when asked about the nightlife. "Everything we do is watched."

NEW YORK (AP) -- Even Hezbollah missiles couldn't keep Hilda Goodman and her husband from canceling a trip to Israel they planned 13 years ago -- when their grandson was born.

For his bar mitzvah in October, the couple plan to be in Jerusalem.

Since hostilities in Israel and Lebanon started in July, Americans looking at the Middle East as a travel destination have had to answer a pressing question: to go or not to go.

While tens of thousands of would-be visitors canceled flights, at least as many others are proceeding with travel to Israel -- including tourists, college students, devout Jews and some Christians.

"We're going on the belief that things will work out," said Goodman, of Miami, adding that she knows dozens of other Americans going to Israel for the Jewish holidays of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah this fall.

"People who really want to go to Israel for spiritual reasons don't cancel," said Batia Plotch, an Israeli-raised Manhattan trip organizer whose siblings live in northern Israel.

Hundreds of college-age Americans also are heading to the region, or are already there.

Carolyn Judge, a 28-year-old from the Chicago area who is of Roman Catholic heritage, arrived three weeks ago with 46 other Americans to attend medical school at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

"I'd never been to Israel before. But I have no sense of impending doom here -- I jog every morning and feel completely safe," Judge said by phone.

At Tel Aviv University, about 20 Americans originally planning to attend classes have canceled so far, according to Olivia Blechner, director of academic affairs at Israel's Consulate General in New York.

But more than 500 college-age students who belong to the Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish movement will attend a dozen yeshivas in Israel starting next month.

"If we were not to go, the message we would be sending is one of despair," said rabbinical student Levi Schectman, 22, of Milwaukee, who will study at the Chabad Lubavitch Mayanot Yeshiva in Jerusalem. "The fact that we're going strengthens the people who have to live through this; it boosts their spirits."

Across the border in Lebanon, despite a tense cease-fire this week, travel is practically impossible except using side roads -- until now at the risk of one's life.

The city's airport -- bombed by Israelis trying to cut supply arteries to Hezbollah -- means any trip into the nation amounts to Russian roulette on wheels: A flight to Amman, Jordan, or Damascus, Syria, then a cab or car ride over side roads to Beirut, bypassing highways and other major roads and bridges that were destroyed in aerial attacks.

"It's a total risk. Any moving thing could be a target," said Jack Stepanian, who owns the Panorama travel agency in New York. He said the trip costs "a fortune," with the cab ride from the Syrian border to Beirut alone adding up to as much as $400.

The American University in Beirut, which usually hosts about 250 American students, "is not sure we can expect any at all," said spokeswoman Ada Porter. "The current condition of the infrastructure in Lebanon will make it very difficult for anyone to reach the university."

Of the more than 40,000 monthly U.S. visitors to Israel, as many as 35 percent canceled their trips in the month after the violence started in July, said Ari Sommer, Israel's tourism commissioner for North and South America.

Christian groups that planned Holy Land pilgrimages later this year are holding off -- with promises that they won't have to pay any flight or hotel penalties should they decide to not go, Sommer said. If they do travel, their itineraries will omit a standard tourist stop, the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel, which has been under fire.

To help the decimated tourism industry there, a promotion has been offered to Americans, giving them the chance to reserve nights in hotels and bed-and-breakfasts, which have lost about $2 million a day. The offers can be redeemed until June 2007.

Yitzchak Ariel, a New York City doctor, his wife and two young children finally decided to go to Israel in early October for a Jewish holiday, the harvest feast of Sukkot.

Ariel convinced his wife by telling her that going to Israel "is just as safe as riding the subway in New York, with the possible terrorist threats here."