It's party time, folks!

CELEBRATIONS: Hotels are ready with the champagne. Do you have the money?

If you're unlucky enough to be travelling this holiday season, for work, family or fun, gird yourself for throng and clamour. Those coming or going by air especially will be on tenterhooks "" Will my plane leave on time, or at all? How late will it land? Will my luggage come out last, or in another city altogether? How much tension can I take?

Relax. You can pay someone to take your tension away. You've worked hard all 2007 long, and will very likely slave through 2008, so for now it's time to play cool.

Pampering or partying, both options can freely be exercised this New Year's Eve at star hotels across the land. They are competing to tempt you in to mark the passing of the old in memorable fashion, with a bunch of people you've never met before in your life. 
 

ON THE CARDS Recipe to bring in a smashing 2008
Hotel and city	Special attractions	Price (Rs)
The Park, Kolkata	Brazilian performers, bikini show	2,000-2,500 couple 2,000-3,000 single
Hindusthan International,	"Hawaiian Hurricane" theme,	4,000 couple
Kolkata	European belly dancers	3,000 single
The Park, Bengaluru	Brazilian belly dancers	5,500 single
ITC Windsor, Bengaluru	Poolside, music by Michael Agars	7,999 couple 4,499 single
Le Meridien, Delhi	Finnish women dancers, Columbian band	10,000 couple
Taj Palace, Delhi	Degustation dinner, jazz vocalist and Dom Perignon champagne	16,000 couple
ITC Maurya, Delhi	Group dinner at My Humble House, contemporary Chinese cuisine	14,000 (four people) 21,000 (six people)
Orchid Ecotel, Mumbai	Rooftop music and dance, item numbers, Filipino band, karaoke session	11,000 couple 4,900 children
J W Marriott, Mumbai	Bipasha Basu, Australian dancers six party zones	11,500 person
Leela Kempinski, Mumbai	Presidential Suite, Balinese massage, $10,000 Cavalli voucher, Louis Vuitton suitcase, first-class airfare and three nights in New York	15 lakh couple

New Year's Eve at the best venues is all about your body. You can feed and water it lavishly, shake it to live music on the dance floor, flex your voicebox at the karaoke mike, soothe your ears with poolside murmurs, or stoke your inner glow on the warmer side of the plate glass windows of rooftop lounges.

You can also see what the human body was meant to look like, because quite a few hotels will feature dance troupes from other lands. Brazil seems to be the flavour of this season at the Park chain, and Brazilians may come economically dressed "" it's summer in the southern hemisphere, after all.

In Bengaluru, for instance, The Park has hired Brazilian belly dancers for its celebration at the I-bar. There will be a DJ for when patrons want to get up and follow the dancers' example. This, plus food and drinks for Rs 5,500 each.

Most hotels, in fact, have several venues, and correspondingly, several events to choose from. There are lobbies, bars, lounges, lawns, poolside terraces, rooftops, restaurants, discos, and various permutations thereof. Normally, however, you pay for entry to one venue alone.

The ITC Windsor Manor in Bengaluru, instead, will combine three venues for one party "" that is, the poolside terrace, and the Raj Pavilion and Royal Afghan restaurants. For Rs 7,999 per couple, or Rs 4,499 single, you get a buffet and drinks, leavened with music by a DJ and by Michael Agars, an Australian who plays a number of instruments.

Another please-all environment is the Orchid Ecotel in Mumbai, which offers as much as it can in one place "" the rooftop terrace "" where you can wash down salsa and jive, hiphop and "be-boing" (an athletic, mainly black American dance form), and item numbers organised by choreographers from the TV shows Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa and Nach Baliye, with drinks, food and wine, at Rs 11,000 per couple. Children can join in for Rs 4,900 each. The Orchid will also have a Filipino band and a karaoke session in the well-regarded Merlin's Bar, where the cover charge (this just gets you through the door) is a more modest Rs 2,000 each.

If you're looking for a theme, and you're in laid-back Kolkata, try the Hindusthan International. With "Hawaiian Hurricane", you get a Pacific island theme, incongruously with European belly dancers, a live "international" band and DJ. This for Rs 4,000 per couple or Rs 3,000 if you're single.

In Delhi, where the weather will clamp its chill hands onto any exposed skin, you can warm up at Le Meridien. This season, a Finnish all-women dance troupe named Hot Gossip is dancing daily up to New Year's Eve. A live band from Columbia is also promised. It's Rs 10,000 a couple at the discotheque.

At the Taj Palace in Delhi, a seven-course "degustation dinner" will include Dom Perignon and a jazz singer, at a pricey Rs 16,000 a couple.

Hotels will welcome you alone, but they expect you as a couple. If you can rustle up friends or family, however, Delhi's ITC Maurya has the setting for you "" My Humble House, its contemporary Chinese restaurant, where New Year's Eve tables can be had for Rs 14,000 for a four-seater and Rs 21,000 for a six-seater. It's a sober locale, however, so not for those with itchy dance feet.

Mumbai has the unfair advantage of Bollywood, and its stars get enormous sums to attend parties and generate the pull factor. So the J W Marriott is offering revellers a "countdown performance" by Bipasha Basu, apart from imported DJs, bands and Australian dancers. The Marriott also sets up different "party zones", this time including one based on the last Matrix flick. At Rs 11,500 per person, it's costly.

But nothing can outdo the Mumbai Leela Kempinski's "Wow" package. You get the Presidential Suite, a "personalised violinist", Balinese masseuses, a $10,000 Cavalliwinter clothing gift voucher, a Louis Vuitton suitcase "" and three nights in New York, first-class airfare included, to watch the ball drop at Times Square. At Rs 15 lakh per couple, it's still paisa-vasool!