New Moon has such a hold on the world right now that even Martha Stewart admitted to having dreams about Robert Pattinson. The movie's cast hasn't been helping matters either with a media blitz that has taken them around the world, but let's not forget where it all started, in Vancouver.

The "New Moon" movie was filmed in Vancity last spring and its stars seemed to make the most of their time there. Check out a few of their favorite spots and find out how you can see them all for yourself:

Have you been watching the Olympic countdown on Vancouver2010.com? With less than three months to go before the Winter Olympics, we've already seen promos for the "Today" show's trip to Vancouver in February, but Tourism Vancouver wants to make sure that Matt, Meredith and Al aren't the only ones in town for the games.

Tourism Vancouver's Olympic Sweepstakes is offering up three prizes for people who sign up for their monthly newsletter. The gold prize—relating to Olympics medals, of course—is a deluxe Olympic package including tickets to alpine skiing and the closing ceremony, plus plane tickets and a hotel room. Not that Silver and Bronze are too shabby either, with hockey qualifying tickets and a Wii up for grabs.

While you plan your trip to Vancouver, you can follow along on the torch's journey with an interactive map. It's in Prince Edward Island now but may be coming to your town soon, if you're lucky enough to be in Canada.

Related Stories:
· Sign up for the Tourism Vancouver monthly newsletter here. [TourismVancouver.com]
· Is It Time To Start Booking Rooms For the Vancouver Olympics? (YES.) [HC]
· LGet Thee To The Jetty: A Perfect Plane Spotting In Vancouver [Jaunted]

[Photo of the Olympic Village under construction: roland]

It's official; filming of Eclipse in Vancouver is coming to a close. On Tuesday, the movie's director, David Slade tweeted, "Just one week and a few days to go to complete principle photography, the finish line seems still so far." It probably can't come soon enough for Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart who get stalked daily by fans and paparazzi. A higher up at Summit (the film's production company) told E!, "Civilians are flying in all over the world to hunt down whoever they can find. It's bad. Literally [Rob and Kristen] have no choice but to stay inside."

It's gotten so bad, the couple has reportedly holed up together at the Sheraton Wall Centre and spends most of their time watching movies or listening to music when they aren't filming. It sounds like they have a pretty sweet set up though so we don't feel too bad for them. Apparently, they have two separate hotels rooms joined by a door plus a third suite on the same floor where they can watch TV on a huge flat screen.

Will Twilight mania ever end? Based on the number of Twi-hards traveling to Vancouver to see the cast filming Eclipse, it won't end anytime soon. Just this past weekend, fans waited for hours outside of Bella's house on 28 Ave in Surrey while the movie's stars, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson filmed inside.

But for some fans, standing on the street in a Vancouver suburb isn't how they imagined their first encounter with Robert Pattinson. Maybe they'd prefer a luxury spa date instead? Apparently, the world's sexiest vampire enjoys getting pampered too. Pattinson has been spotted several times at the the posh Vida Wellness Spa at Sutton Place Hotel.

Young women (and a few men) are still flocking to Vancouver with hopes of getting a glimpse of theTwilight cast who are there filming the third installment of the series, Eclipse. But, finding exactly where they're filming has proven to be more difficult than most would have imagined.

On Tuesday, the Vancouver Sun did confirm they were filming at Capilano Regional Park but they also reported there were no signs of Kristen Stewart or Robert Pattinson. We also know they filmed the movie's big graduation scene on August 28th at David Thompson Secondary School which stands in as Forks High in both New Moon and Eclipse.

With all the recent talk of Virgin America possibly setting up some routes to both Vancouver and Toronto, we thought it'd be nice to take a look at what people are seeing from ground now at Vancouver International Airport (YVR).

Sea, mountains, and a neverending stream of international jumbo jets and itty-bitty island-hoppers make Vancouver Airport truly interesting to both amateur and serious plane spotters. The best place to set up shop, or even just go for a leisurely stroll underneath landing planes, is on the Iona Jetty at Iona Beach Park. It is actually a sewage outflow pipe, but don't let that stop you from enjoying the experience.

Do you hear that? Perhaps it's too high-pitched for human ears; It's the excited squee of Twi-Hards around the world as the third movie in The Twilight Saga, Eclipse, begins filming in Vancouver today.

Even though they just arrived last week, the cast has already gotten in some quality time together. First, at Miko Sushi, 1335 Robson St, where Robert Pattinson, Kristin Stewart and the rest of the cast had a pre-production dinner party Friday night. Miko's is one of Vancouver's most popular Japanese restaurants, so its always crowded but the service is fast and the portions are large. Most entrees, like their Tuna Nigiri, run between $10 and $15.

The Vancouver Pride Parade might only happen on August 2, but the Opus Hotel in Vancouver has Pride-related deals happening for much longer — how festive!

The Pride 2009 Package runs from July 18 through to August 10 and includes a Superior Queen room (yes, they made it a queen room intentionally) and a "special welcome indulgence", plus a $50 credit to use in the Opus Bar or, if you need a bit more privacy, on your room's minibar.

And the final bonus: while you're out enjoying some Pride festivities, room service will be visiting you to add an "extra special pride downturn" to be there waiting for you. We don't know what these special additions are

And here we thought cancellation due to regular thunderstorms was already a nightmare, but it turns out that being unable to fly through crowds of volcanic ash tops our list of freaky flight delays reasons.

This is exactly what is happening in Vancouver, as Russia's Sarychev Peak on the remote Kuril Islands started spewing massive clouds of ash and smoke on June 12, and Asia-bound airplanes aren't risking flying through the grit.

Currently affected by the explosive fun of Mother Nature are flights between Vancouver and Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Flights were canceled all the way up until yesterday, and now flights are attempting to adjust routes to avoid the 30-mile large cloud of leftover ash.

If this little rural earth-shaking affects major transpacific travel so much, we can only fear for any major belching from Mount Rainier, seeing as how it's some several hundred years overdue for a cataclysmic explosion. Perhaps airports need to practice for volcano drills?

Related Stories:
· Vancouver To Asia flights cancelled because of volcanic eruption [CBC Canada]
· Volcano delaying Asia flights [Shanghaiist]
· Volcano Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Gary DeLong]

Vancouver has already sold-out its hotels rooms for the 2010 Winter Olympics next February but there is a way to create some extra inventory without having to build a new hotel---use a cruise ship! From the Seattle PI:

A company is bringing in a Norwegian Cruise Line luxury ship for February's Winter Games to help accommodate visitors. Dennis Laliberte, Newwest Special Projects LP president, said the Norwegian Star can fit almost 9,000 people.

Much like a regular hotel, the cruise ship has different room sizes ranging from simple staterooms to bigger suites. But it's also got 13 restaurants, eight lounges, a spa, a fitness center and "sensational nightly entertainment." There will also be live satellite coverage