1. $449 for five nights in the Orlando/Disney area, including airfare from New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. or Atlanta
In addition to receiving round-trip air on this remarkable package, you’ll also be lodged for five nights at a three-star Disney area resort, receiving continental breakfast each morning. You’ll be given an Orlando-area coupon booklet for dining and attraction discounts. And to top things off, you’ll receive a compact car for five days with unlimited mileage (but not including car rental tax, fuel and optional insurance). Price is per person based on two people traveling together, and amounts, as earlier indicated, to $449 from New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. or Atlanta (that’s for airfare, hotel and car!); to $75 more from Chicago or Phoenix; to $99 more from Los Angeles. Air and hotel taxes: $49 per person. Validity: until Dec. 15, at two-year-old TravelThemesAndDreams.com (phone 877-870-7447), created by a veteran travel figure, Laurence Fishkin, who pioneered the discounting of cruises some 20 years ago.

2. $50/$60 a room in Las Vegas, at top first class hotels
The recent opening of 6,000 deluxe rooms in Vegas’ new “City Center” project on The Strip — all in a city whose tourism is shrinking — has brought intense downward pressure on the hotels just below deluxe status. In “City Center,” weekday rooms (“weekday” being Sunday through Thursday night) now go for a sharply reduced $129 and $149 a night in January through March at the elegant Aria and Vdara Hotels. So everything else in Las Vegas costs much less. Go to MGMMirage.com, the owner of a dozen major Vegas hotels, click on booking calendars of the first-class Luxor, Monte Carlo and MGM Grand hotels, and you’ll find numerous weekday dates when rooms are offered for $50/$60 a night per room in January, February and March. (Go to the deluxe Mirage Hotel, and youfind rooms for $85 to $119).

3. $75-a-night B-and-Bs, $125 apartments, in New York’s Manhattan, in sophisticated neighborhoods, year-around  
The key to inexpensive, high-quality lodgings in New York City is the use of centrally located, alternative accommodations (B-and-B rooms in occupied apartments, or whole apartments), rented out to transient visitors by New Yorkers augmenting their incomes. Such rental agencies as AffordableNewYorkCity.com (phone 212-533-4001) offer carefully vetted B-and-B rooms in occupied apartments at $75 a night for one person, $100 for two people and entire one-bedroom apartments capable of housing two to four people for as little as $125 a night per apartment. Other such reliable rental agencies are carefully described in the accommodations chapter of Pauline Frommer’s New York, on sale in all bookstores or from Amazon.com,
Barnes andNoble.com or Borders.com. 

4. $616 for seven nights in Hawaii, including round-trip air from San Francisco
From the largest single tour operator to America’s tropical paradise, Pleasant Holidays (www.pleasantholidays.com), you’ll get unbeatable rates and a broad selection of Hawaiian hotels in all four of the major islands (Oahu, Maui, Kauai, The Big Island). A top value January-through March is the Castle Ocean Resort Hotel just steps from Waikiki Beach in Oahu (Honolulu), to which you’ll be flown round-trip from San Francisco, transferred to and from the hotel and put up for seven nights. Included in the $616 price are all government taxes and fees relating to both your flight and your hotel stay; keeping that in mind, you’ll find that you’re really spending less than $300 for your roundtrip air fare (the rest for your accommodations), a remarkable value. (The same package costs $1,003 from New York City, and intermediate prices from cities between the two coasts.) You can upgrade to other hotels, and you also can find similar air-and-hotel packages on the other islands. Departures are daily.

5. $20 per carload of visitors to a U.S. National Park
In the last analysis, the great U.S. National Parks are not simply essential visits for all Americans but are the stellar travel bargains available to them.  Traveling with one senior in the car (a grandparent, perhaps, possessing a Golden Age passport), you pay only $20 per entire carload to enter most national parks (and some are entirely free). Once inside, you’ll find that such important parks as Yosemite, Yellowstone or Great Smoky Mountains, have numerous
budget-priced lodgings either within the park or just outside it, in addition to low-cost dining facilities. You enjoy a memorable vacation within all the national parks, at the lowest costs in travel. 

6. $59 to $124 to fly anywhere within the U.S. on the frequent airfare sales of Southwest Airlines
Our premier budget-priced airline, Southwest, runs so many airfare sales throughout the year that they are nearly continuous. If you book your tickets within the period of such sales, you find that you are able to pick up seats costing as little as $59, as much as $114 or $124, to virtually anywhere in the country, one-way. Moreover, Southwest charges no fee for checked luggage, and no fee for making your reservation over the phone.  Go to www.southwest.com, or phone 800-435-9792.

Caribbean and Mexico

7. $601 for 5 nights in Cancun (Maya Riviera), including airfare from Miami and all three meals daily
From Vacation Travel Mart in Miami Beach (www.vacmart.com, phone 800/288-1435), a specialist in air-and-land vacations to all-inclusive tropical hotels, especially in popular Cancun, here’s a five-night package to the white sand beaches of the Maya Riviera directly south of Cancun, at the Allegro Playacar Resort Hotel, including all three meals daily, unlimited drinks and beverages, unlimited sports and entertainment, (and extra nights are available for only slightly more); the value is unprecedented. That for now through April 4, except for the President’s Week period, and including roundtrip air to Cancun from Miami. The same package from New York City is only $685, and other U.S. cities enjoy similar prices. Vacation Travel Mart is headed by Jacques Abitan, who has been frequently interviewed on Arthur and Pauline’s radio program, The Travel Show. 

8. $499 per person for five all-inclusive nights in the Dominican Republic, including round-trip air from Miami
Rapidly making a name for itself as a prolific source of ultra-cheap accommodations in the Dominican Republic and other islands of the tropics, Cheap Caribbean charges only $499 per person for a high-season stay of five nights (from now until April 30) at a resort property — the Coral Costa Caribe — on the beach of Juan Dolio, less than 20 minutes from Santo Domingo Airport.  Three meals daily and unlimited drinks are included in the price! Add-ons from New York: $110, from Chicago $140; and similar prices will be quoted from dozens of other U.S. cities.  Keep in mind that Cheap Caribbean (www.cheapcaribbean.com, phone 800-915-2322) offers more than 20 other alternative properties and packages in the Dominican Republic, all at the industry’s lowest prices, so all should be scanned when you access its Web site.  Prices in the D.R. are the lowest in all the Caribbean.  

9. $369 to $399 per person for a seven-night cruise of the Caribbean, leaving from Miami
Cruises are among the most obvious travel bargains in recent years, primarily because of an oversupply of cruise ships. Leaving from Miami, ships of Carnival Cruises — the Liberty, the Valor, and the Glory — are remarkably low-priced, but acceptable in quality and amenities. In March, April and May, on seven-night itineraries sailing from Miami to Nassau, St. Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk; or from Miami to Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios; or from Miami to San Juan, St. Thomas and St. Maarten, the ships listed above charge as little as $369 to $399 per person in inside cabins for sailings from September through November, and as little as $499 to $549 per person in inside cabins for sailings in all other months (except during weeks that overlap major holidays). These rates are quite easily found at www.vacationstogo.com (a major discounter), which lists virtually all cruise-ship sailings to everywhere. This deal can be found on the Web sites of numerous other cruise discounters, such as cruisesonly.com, whitetravel.com, onlinevacationcenter.com, travelthemesanddreams.com, cruisebrothers.com and many others. 

10. $329 to $369 per person for a 7-night cruise of the Pacific Coast of Mexico, leaving from Long Beach, Calif.
The equivalent bargain cruises from America’s West Coast are the sailings originating in Long Beach, Calif., of the Carnival Splendor, and charging as little as $329 to $369 per person for inside cabins, from September through November, for seven-night cruises going to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. The same cruises sell for as little as $429 to $559 per person in March, April and May. Those prices represent an 80 percent discount off published rates, and are available from Vacationstogo.com and the other discounters listed in the immediately preceding bargain, above.

Central and South America

11. $449 for five escorted days in Guatemala, including round-trip airfare
Gate 1’s air-and-land package to Guatemala is valid for no fewer than 23 dates and in every month of year other than March and July. For $449 per person, Gate 1 will: Fly you round-trip to Guatemala City from New York City (and other U.S. departure cities are available), with fuel surcharge; provide you with all airport-to-hotel transfers; put you up in a decent hotel for three nights in Guatemala City and for one night in Chichicastenango, with breakfast daily; provide you with escorted motorcoach sightseeing of Guatemala, accompanied by an English-speaking guide; and pick up the entrance fees at several attractions. Customary airport and airline fees are, of course, extra. Go to www. gate1travel.com or phone 800-682-3333.

12. $549 for six nights in Costa Rica, including air, hotels in three cities and weeklong car
Some bargain tours simply fly you to Costa Rica and supply you with a car.  Others fly you to Costa Rica and then place you in one of the country’s several attractive areas. This wholly independent trip from Gate 1 Travel (www.gate1travel.com, phone 800-682-3333) brings you to no fewer than three of Costa Rica’s most popular areas, at an extraordinary, air-included price, with no need to travel as part of a group and with twice-weekly departures from April through October. For $549 per person, you receive round-trip air between New York City and San Jose, Costa Rica (many other departure cities are available at slightly different rates), including fuel surcharges and six nights’ accommodations in: San Jose (two nights), near the Arenal Volcano (two nights) and in the Monteverde Cloud Forest (two nights), with breakfast daily. And you’ll get an SUV mini rental for seven days with unlimited mileage. Airline, airport and car rental taxes are extra. 

13. $995 for 10 days in Costa Rica with an escort, totally all-inclusive except for airfare
This is the program that transformed Caravan (www.caravan.com, phone 312-321-9800), a long-established operator of escorted motorcoach tours in Europe, into the world’s most heavily used operator of tours to Costa Rica. On it, you arrange your own airfare to Costa Rica. But once there, you join a fully escorted motorcoach tour for 10 days of comprehensive, all-inclusive (daily escorted sightseeing, three meals daily, all entrance charges and hotel accommodations, of course) group travel to every one of the major attractions of this remarkably popular Central American nation. Turn to the company’s Web site for a detailed description of the 10-day itinerary. The price is for near-daily departures throughout the year. 

14. $1,081 for six high-season nights in Buenos Aires, including round-trip airfare from Miami
With reverse seasons to ours, Buenos Aires enjoys its warmest weather — and experiences its highest airfares — during our winter, December through April, when a one-week package from LatinEscapes.com (phone 800-878-9986) consisting of round-trip air, round-trip airport-to-hotel transfers, and six nights with breakfast daily at the Regis Hotel will cost $1,081. Fly at a later time — say, May through September — and you’ll pay only $890 for the same package. (Add the recently instituted cost of $131 for a visa to enter Argentina. Once there, exchanging your U.S. dollars at the excellent rate of nearly 4 Argentinian pesos for $1, and you’ll encounter some of the lowest meal and sightseeing costs in South America.  Latin Escapes is a specialist to South America, and can offer every type of trip and vacation there.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa 

15. $885 for six nights in Ireland, including round-trip air and all government fees and taxes
Currently the lowest-cost air-and-land package for a full week in Europe, this offer includes not only a realistic, total, tax-included price for your air transportation, and not simply a car for a week with unlimited mileage, but B-and-B accommodations in friendly Irish guesthouses for the entire week.   Those features are all available from either Aer Lingus Vacations (www. aerlingusvacationstore.com), Brian Moore Tours (www.bmit.com) or Sceptre Tours (www.sceptretours.com), at a price that other companies would charge for far more limited arrangements. Here, in addition to air and car, you receive lodgings at local B-and-B’s across the country (travelers are given vouchers good at several hundred lodgings) and yet the price is as little as $885 per person (based on double occupancy). From Chicago, expect to pay $50 more; from Washington and Atlanta, another $80, from L.A. or San Francisco an additional $150. 

16. $939 for five nights in Cairo, Egypt, including round-trip airfare from New York
The only air-and-land package to Egypt selling for under $1,000, this “7-Day Cairo Vacation” flies you round-trip to Cairo (including fuel surcharge), and places you in a Cairo hotel for five nights, where you also will receive breakfast daily prior to heading out to view the Pyramids and the Sphinx, the Archaeological Museum (King Tut), the Khan al-Khalili Bazaar and numerous other world-famous attractions of the Egyptian capital. Gate 1 Travel is the tour operator (www.gate1travel.com, phone 800-682-3333) and also offers additional-charge and more-elaborate tours combining a shorter stay (three days in Cairo) with a three-day cruise of the Nile to Upper Egypt (Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel). Airline and airport fees and taxes are not included in the price. 

17. $1,534 for 12 days in Turkey, including round-trip airfare to Istanbul, and virtually all else
Europe’s least-expensive escorted motorcoach tour, and the single most popular of all the tours operated by the long-established Pacha Tours (www.pachatours.com, phone 800-722-4288), it’s known as “Turkish Delight”.  It leaves daily except Friday from January through March; includes round-trip air between New York ($1,534), Chicago ($1,684) or Los Angeles ($1,968) and Istanbul; and includes everything except dinner on the first two nights in Istanbul (when you’re free to seek out that city’s most famous-but-inexpensive restaurants on your own). Otherwise, you enjoy accommodations, three meals daily, transportation and escorted guiding as you travel for almost two weeks from Istanbul to Cappadocia, Konya, Antalya, Perge, Aphrodisias, Pamukkale, Ephesus, Troy, Canakkale, Gallipoli and more.

18. $935 for six nights in Madrid and Rome (three nights in each city), including round-trip airfare between New York and both Madrid and Rome
Because the price includes all government fees and taxes, the $935 price for this trans-Atlantic trip to two European capitals is an exceptional value. In March and April, you’ll fly from New York to Madrid, then to Rome, and then from Rome back to New York, receiving hotel accommodations with breakfast daily for three nights in Madrid and three nights in Rome; the same package is approximately $70 more from Chicago $30 more from Los Angeles, with intermediate prices from other U.S. cities (and the tour operator will make your flight arrangements from any of scores of U.S. cities). The tour company to be contacted is European Destinations (www.europeandestinations.com, phone 877-267-2247).

19. $989 for six nights in London and Paris (four nights in each city), including round-trip airfare between New York and both London and Paris
A two-city, trans-Atlantic, air-and-land package operated by European Destinations, and identical to the Madrid/Rome offering described immediately above, except that you are flown (in March and April) from New York to London, then flown from London to Paris, and then returned from Paris to New York, after spending three nights in a London hotel and three nights in a Paris hotel, receiving breakfast each morning. Add-on prices from other U.S. cities are roughly the same as above, as are the Web site identification and phone number for European Destinations. 

20. $100 a night for self-catering apartments all over Europe, not including airfare
Increasingly, Americans have learned that a housekeeping apartment capable of housing from two to six people is the key to an affordable stay in a European city or other location. Such apartments are not only roomier and more comfortable than the equivalent hotel, but they enable the traveler to cook occasional meals, and to enjoy an occasional evening of novel European television in their apartment. And such apartments are broadly available for the equivalent of $100 a night, per apartment, from such international rental firms as Rentalo.com. Access that site, go to various locations, and you’ll be impressed  with the savings available to you.

21. $2,299 for a classic African Safari, including round-trip airfare to Kenya from New York
Operated by the well-regarded Lion World Tours of Toronto (whose clients are mainly from the U.S.), this remarkable package (“Best of Kenya”) flies you on British Airways to and from Kenya, performs airport-to-hotel transfers, puts you up for one night on arrival in a high-quality lodge of Nairobi, and then takes you on an escorted, six-day safari into the famous game parks of Kenya, including twice-daily game drives in an open-air van (seeing thousands of wildebeest, elephants, lions, giraffes, cheetahs, monkeys and more, all in their native habitat), accommodations at safari lodges, and three meals a day while on safari. The price is $2,299 per person for departures in April and May, $2,599 per person in February and March.  Go to www.lionworldtravel.com (or phone 800-387-2706), click on “specials,” and then consult “Best of Kenya.” This is undoubtedly the least-expensive safari ever offered, and yet the six days on actual safari are perfectly sufficient, in our experience, for first-time safari travelers. 

Asia and the South Pacific

22. $957 for eight nights in Bali and Singapore, including round-trip airfare from Los Angeles or San Francisco
You are flown on mid-week flights (from now until June 5) of award-winning Singapore Airlines to Bali, spending one hotel overnight in Singapore en route, and are then housed for five nights in Sanur Beach, Bali (at the Ari Putri Hotel) and then for two nights in the central, crafts city of Ubud in Bali. You receive airport-to-hotel transfers, breakfast daily and a half-day Village and Temples tour. The tour operator is Roe Gruber’s “Escapes Unlimited,” which pioneered travel to enchanting Bali, and is reached at www.escapesltd.com or by phoning 800-243-7227. The same tour can be booked from other U.S. cities for a slight add-on.

23. $999 for seven days in Thailand, including round-trip air from Los Angeles
You’ll be flown on China Airlines via Taipei to Bangkok, and put up for seven nights (with full American breakfast daily) at superior first class hotels in Bangkok, then in Ayutthaya, then at a resort near the River Kwai, receiving all transportation within Thailand. There will be daily escorted sightseeing (except for one day at leisure), one evening banquet, and the entire price — including fuel surcharge relating to your flights — will be $999 for the departures of Aug. 25 and 30, $1,099 for the departures of May 3, 6, 10, 17 and 20; airline and airport taxes and fees add only $99. The tour operator:  Friendly Planet (www.friendlyplanet.com, phone 800-555-5765), which permits you to extend your tour (for an extra fee) to Cambodia and other nearby locations.    

24. $1,199 for nine nights in five Chinese cities, including round-trip airfare from San Francisco, and all else
A “miracle tour” operated to great acclaim for many years by China Focus of San Francisco (www.chinafocustravel.com, phone 800-868-7244), it’s priced at $1,199 for the departures of March 2, March 16 and March 23, and then goes to $1,499 per person in all remaining months — other than June — of 2010 (and costs only $300 more  from New York City, flying nonstop to Shanghai). The tour (called “Historic China”) visits Shanghai, Suzhou, Tai’An, Qufu, Ji’nan and Beijing; includes daily escorted sightseeing and all meals; all transportation within China; comfortable hotels; and even two evening performances.  The artificially kept low value of the Chinese currency enables this feat, and you’d be wise to book it before China raises the price. 

25. $588 for five nights in Beijing, including round-trip airfare from San Francisco
For travelers pressed for time, with only a single week available for a short vacation, this is a remarkable value. You are flown round trip to China’s capital, and put up for five nights, with full American breakfast daily, for only $588 in February, $688 in March and April, including the cost of airfare (which obviously is heavily discounted to the tour operator). Departures from New York City (again on a nonstop flight to Beijing) cost $400 more. Government taxes and fees are, of course, extra. While a longer trip to multiple Chinese cities is recommended, this one will serve the needs of people with only a single week to spare for travel to China and the stay in Beijing. It is from a company of increasing prominence in the operation of tours to China, China Spree (www.chinaspree.com, phone 866-652-5656), which also offers several alternative itineraries for visiting more of China.   

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Pauline Frommer is a travel correspondent and founding author of the award-winning Pauline Frommer's Travel Guides series. She co-hosts the radio program, The Travel Show, with her dad, travel guru Arthur Frommer. Find Pauline's books online at http://www.frommers.com/pauline/.

© 2010 by Arthur Frommer
Distributed by King Features Syndicate