Many years ago, on a cross-country driving trip with our children, we ended a hot, long day in Amarillo, in the land-of-extremes Texas panhandle.
We cruised down Highway 237, looking expectantly at each motel with a patch of grass and swimming pool in front. One after another had posted "No Vacancy" signs in glaring red neon. least it seemed glaring after we had just driven 500 miles in a station wagon with a broken air conditioner and three kids, restless as caged tigers, in the back.
We finally stopped at a pay phone, and I thumbed through the American Automobile Association guide for Texas and started calling motels in towns down the road. I finally located one in Clarendon, about an hour away. We logged another 60 miles and pulled in.
My husband never signed a register so happily and I never plopped into an air-conditioned room with such relief. The kids got a quick swim before dinner in the motel's mom-and-pop restaurant. Everyone's mood was considerably soothed.
That dog-eared guide was a godsend.
The AAA guides are among one of many free travel resources. While AAA guides are not strictly free, in that you have to be a member, they are available for the asking, along with maps and trip-planning services, once you have paid your dues.
Some oil companies have similar arrangements for travel club members.
The sources for free travel information are endless. Much of it is simply a phone call away. If you are online, the amount of travel information, advice and booking opportunities soars into the stratospheric cyberspace.
But you must have a little of the buyer-beware attitude. Often listings, either in printed guides or electronic, come from those who pay to be included, partly because the free material has to be paid for in some way. So while the number of rooms or amenities may be accurate, the adjectives may embellish the real thing.
Here are some resources for free travel material.
* State tourist offices: Every state in the union publishes a glossy, magazine-size guide to entice visitors to its mountains, lakes and cities. These books are also filled with information that covers historic sites, places of natural beauty, accommodations and sometimes restaurants. Other sections have a rundown on museums and theaters. Some of the states are putting out guides for the seasons or active travelers. A bonus of most of the state guides is that they have excellent pull-out road maps that can be used for driving trips through the state.
And these free travel aids are available simply by calling. Phone directory assistance (area code plus 555-1212), ask for the state capital and then for the state tourist office. If your request is simple, you can often leave your name and address for the brochures to be mailed to you. But most offices give you an option to speak to someone.
Even if a travel agent is helping you plan a trip, the guides are helpful. When we planned a trip to Alaska, I used that state's excellent vacation planner to book back-country lodges at Denali and Katmai national parks, when we departed from the standard cruise-land itinerary.
If you call the state tourist office number, you can also be referred to regional tourism offices. Large states, such as California, have a lot of these agencies for a specific area. One of them, the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association, has put out a stunning guide that is presented as a travel journal. Its poetic photographs and writing will certainly lure you to the lake. But it also contains lists of recreation facilities, resorts and dining possibilities in easy-to-read table format.
* Foreign government tourist offices: Almost every country in the world has a tourist office in the United States, usually in one or more of the largest cities. A call will bring in a flood of brochures, guides and maps in the mail. Some of them also have extensive information on the regions of the country. A gorgeous guide to Provence from the French Government Tourist Office made me want to run to the Luberon and pick lavender.
* Cities: If your trip takes you only to a specific city, you can phone its chamber of commerce or convention and visitors bureau. Call directory assistance and ask for the chamber of commerce or the convention and visitor bureau number.
* Library: You will find virtually every travel guide that is published in many library systems: for example, Fodor, Frommer, Fielding, Lonely Planet, Let's Go, Access and Michelin guides. I have frequently consulted them before I decided what book to buy. Sometimes I have used them to find a more updated version of a guide that I already owned.
* Last word: That night in Clarendon must have impressed everyone in my family. About 20 years after it happened, my oldest son drove through that Texas town on a cross-country trip.
"I found the motel, Mom," he said. "I remembered the green doors."
In brief
Budget
Picking up a hotel phone can be an expensive proposition. Hampton Inn Hotels has several suggestions for keeping the cost down.
Although many travelers use calling cards, some hotels even charge for a toll-free call to a long-distance carrier.
To minimize those charges, try to group your calls. Many long-distance carriers will let you make a series of calls without having to disconnect. You usually can do this by pressing the pound key after your first call ends, allowing you to place another call.
Other tips include going to a pay phone to use a long-distance calling card or a prepaid calling card, or using a cellular phone. Although cellular-phone rates can be high, they're sometimes cheaper than a hotel's surcharge.
Finally, Hampton Inn Hotels suggests checking into one of their 700 properties, where local calls are free and there's no surcharge for using a calling card.
Business
Marriott International is putting self-service business centers, jointly operated by Mail Boxes Etc. and USA Technologies, into 13 of its U.S. hotels. The centers, which are activated by credit card and available 24 hours a day, provide access to a personal computer with Internet and e-mail, a laser printer, fax and photocopier. Centers are currently located in the lobbies of full-service Marriott hotels in cities like Atlanta, Baltimore and Scottsdale, Ariz. The company expects to open another 20 by the end of the year.
Fast solutions
Heathrow Airport is not far from central London, but getting there and back has always been a traveler's nightmare. Faced with the miserable prospect of a traffic-choked and expensive taxi ride into town, many tourists choose instead to travel more cheaply on the London Underground, only to find that it quickly becomes uncomfortably crowded, has little space for luggage, makes dozens of irritating stops and, as subways do, suffers the occasional slowdown, evacuation or full-scale breakdown.
But the British Airport Authority has found a near-perfect solution. This summer, it opened the London-Heathrow Express, 100-mile-an-hour train service that operates every 15 minutes from 5:10 a.m. until 11:40 p.m. between Heathrow and Paddington Station in the center of London. The trips cost $17 each way in economy class and $34 first class (half price for children 5 to 15, and free for those under 5).
Best of all, the trips take just 15 minutes each way between Paddington and Terminals 1, 2 and 3 (about five minutes longer to and from Terminal 4). That compares with taxi rides, usually costing between $59 and $68 that take 45 minutes to an hour; with the Underground, just $5.50 but well over an hour, and with bus trips, $10 and between an hour and 75 minutes.
Tickets for the Heathrow Express can be bought at London Underground stations, train stations, Bureaux de Change counters at Heathrow, and on the train itself. They are also available at, among other places, travel agents and some newsstands.
For information, call (44-845) 600-1515, or visit the service's Web site: www.heathrowexpress.co.uk.
Kids
Little princesses (and princes) as young as 10 can get a manicure and minifacial at Disney World's Grand Floridian Spa & Health Club in Orlando, Fla. Teen-agers - with their parents' OK - can also get a Swedish massage. Along with My First Facial ($59 including tax and tip), kids get training in such things as cleansing, toning, moisturizing, products, spa techniques and treatments "that enhance one's look," a Disney spokesman said.
Offbeat
New Yorker magazine will send its staff to sea next year on the Crystal Symphony cruise ship. A lecture series includes magazine writers, critics, cartoonists, editors and columnists.
It's offered during a 99-day around-the-world cruise. Passengers can purchase all or part of the itinerary, which travels westward from Los Angeles beginning in January.
Also appearing during the cruise will be a slate of actors, authors, journalists, chefs and historians. Fares for the shortest itineraries begin at $4,095.
Brochures: 800-820-6663. The cruise line sells exclusively through travel agents.
Online
Looking for an American B&B;? Try the Internet, where the Bed & Breakfast Channel site at http://www.bbchannel.com lists about 20,000 inns.
The listings vary in their completeness, but many include photos and maps in addition to general descriptions, phone numbers and rates. In some cases, you can book online. You can search by city, price, ambience and other qualities, and even get daily weather updates for many cities. The site is run by Inns & Outs, an association for innkeepers. A caveat: About 7,000 of the listings are paid for by innkeepers, and the descriptions are not independently reviewed.
Safety
Caribbean-bound travelers can minimize the risk of getting caught in a hurricane by heading for Aruba, Curacao, Trinidad/Tobago or other islands close to South America.
Farther north, some tourism promoters are taking steps to make sure potential visitors aren't scared away. The Bahamas Hotel Association recommends that member hotels refund deposits paid by those who have difficulty reaching the Bahamas due to a hurricane and allow visitors caught there to use their lodging payment for a future stay. Other islands don't have protection policies, but some resorts - including Jamaica-based SuperClubs and Sandals - offer them.
Pub Date: 9/27/98