The Little Wonder Restaurants of Rome

Even in the Eternal City's third millennium, you can still enjoy a feast fit for a Roman emperor. The tricky part is finagling a full meal in Rome for less than $12. Your best bet is to hunt down one of a handful of traditional Roman osterie, the sort of down-home, family-run restaurant holdover straight out of a 1950s Fellini film. There are several listed below, but to find your own just listen for the clink of glasses and murmur of Roman dialect emanating from behind the strings of beads hanging in a doorway with no sign and no menu posted...
  

Istria: Europe's All-purpose Peninsula

Longing for the beach? Join the Europeans summering on Istria's west coast. Need a city fix? Sip espresso at a café in Pula. Prefer the countryside? Stay on a farm in the hilly interior. But hurry: Come 2010, the area plans to switch to the euro. The beauty will still be there, but we're not so sure about the bargains.

My first experience with Istria was eight years ago. I was on a day trip from Trieste, Italy, just 25 miles to the northeast, and spent most of my time in Okrepcevalnica Cantina, a cozy bar with a wood-beamed ceiling in the backstreets of Piran (on the strip of Istrian coast that belongs to Slovenia). I stopped in for just one drink, but when I went to pay, I asked the kindly proprietor about a tap behind the counter labeled REFOSK...

Road Trip: The Mississippi Delta

The Civil War is a recent memory and blues legends loom large in the cotton fields and swamp towns of the lower Mississippi Delta.

Day 1: I’m not the church-going type, but after a Saturday night of booze and blues in the bars of Beale Street, the only proper thing for a man to do is to get saved. And in musical Memphis, the only proper place to do it is The Full Gospel Tabernacle, where in 1976 the Reverend Al Green went from singing soul to saving souls....

  

Secret Hotels of Sicily

Across Sicily, historic villas and farm estates have been reborn as cozy, family-run hotels and agriturismi, or farmstays, where the food is organic and the people are as warm as the ever-present sun.

CARLENTINI: Tenuta di Roccadia. In 1988, Pietro Vacirca gave up the family clothing business to buy an abandoned 19th-century farm built on the site of a thousand-year-old Cistercian convent. "Finding Roccadia was like finding a beautiful woman," says Pietro. "So I got married--for the second time. First my wife, then Roccadia." Five years later, Pietro opened Tenuta di Roccadia as an agriturismo with horseback riding and hiking trails....

  

Narnia, Oz, Hogwarts, Neverland . . .

These rollicking tales will fire your pre-teen's imagination—and bring sensational travel destinations vividly to life

Each one is fascinating, but just try booking a flight there. To fire your children's imagination about the real world—and bring sensational travel destinations vividly to life—check out these rollicking tales aimed squarely at the pre-teen crowd...

  

America's Most Scenic Train Rides

From the Grand Canyon to Cape Cod, these railroads offer classic trains and breathtaking views.

Arizona: After watching a staged shoot-out in Williams, passengers board the Grand Canyon Railway for a two-hour ride to the canyon's rim—where they have four hours to explore before the return trip. (800/843-8724, thetrain.com, from $65, $30–$40 kids)...

  

Renting an Apartment in Venice

Try the life of a Venetian on for size.

Sometime around day three of an apartment stay in Venice, a transformation occurs. The welcoming 'buon giorno' you've been receiving at the neighborhood cheese shops, butchers, and bakeries grows more enthusiastic, with an obvious trace of recognition...

  

Germany's Castle Hotels: Fairy Tales Do Come True

In Germany, a number of genuine castles--turrets, hidden passages, the whole deal--are more than just romantic backdrops. They're hotels, too. This is a knight that you'll never forget.

Kurfürstliches Amtshaus. Owner Christa Probst is likely to greet Americans with an amazed, "How ever did you find us?" The Eifel region, west of the Rhine and southwest of Bonn, with its rolling farmland and strings of tiny, round lakes filling ancient volcanic craters, is a popular escape among German weekend motorcyclists and countryside trekkers. The closest that foreigners explore is generally the castle-lined Mosel River valley...

  

Secret Hotels of the Amalfi Coast

Reid Bramblett scoured Italy's cliffside villages--and the island of Capri, while he was at it--for million-dollar views at hundred-dollar prices

Locanda Costa Diva, Praiano. Many Amalfi Coast visitors spend their time in the three most famous resort towns--Amalfi, Positano, and Ravello--with little thought of the less-heralded villages in between. Halfway from Positano to Amalfi, Praiano is a nondescript old fishing village with a small beach; it's secluded enough that few tourists hop off at its bus stop. Spilling down the hillside in a series of lush garden terraces and rural structures converted into secluded rooms, the Costa Diva was opened four years ago by the Milo brothers, Pino and Filippo.

Road Trip: Maine's Mid-Coast

Even for non-fishermen, life on the Maine seashore revolves around the water--and you don't need a lighthouse to find a view worth marveling at

I've always hated lobster. My memories of childhood vacations in Maine are clouded by recollections of sitting grumpily at the picnic table of lobster shacks, morosely longing for a hamburger. My girlfriend, Frances, was of another mind. She prepared for our drive up Maine's Mid-Coast--from Portland to Penobscot Bay--by trying to work out ways to incorporate lobster into every meal, including breakfast. I was far more eager to revisit the Maine I loved from my past: offshore islands, Victorian fishing villages, the gargantuan L.L. Bean flagship store, and meandering drives along the narrow peninsulas...

  

Don't Leave Your Pictures Trapped In Your Camera Forever

New programs let you create cool DVD slide shows and coffee-table photo albums

Used to be, when you came home from a vacation with 5 or 10 rolls of film, a quick trip to the Fotomat and a blank wall were all you needed to bore your friends with a living room slide show. These days, you return with memory cards filled with hundreds of digital images to dump onto your hard drive. Before you know it, your computer is crammed with thousands of files, all unhelpfully named something along the lines of DSCN970116b.jpg. Your photos are stored in a maze of subfolders, half of the images are sideways, and for some reason all the shots from the trip to Tuscany are tinted orange. Face it: You need help...

  

Secret Hotels of the Caribbean: Jamaica, Bahamas, and More*

Finding your own affordable but fabulous tropical hideaway

Jake's. Sitting alongside rocky shoals washed by the warm surf of Jamaica's South Coast, Jake's Easter egg-colored guest cottages are funky boutique versions of the Caribbean shack. The two dozen buildings overflow with odd, endearing details that are an exercise in culture-clash chic: Indian minaret-shaped windows, driftwood door frames, glass bottles embedded in plaster walls, Arabian-influenced domes, hammered-tin doors, Mayan-inspired weavings....

* Jamaica coverage.

  

Once Upon a Time in Italy: Apulia

Italy’s rawest, earthiest, and most underrated region is Apulia, an ancient land of cave cities, hearty red wines, and pointy rock houses so far off the tour bus radar you could spend a week here without running into another foreigner

The ancient Romans built seven major highways, two of which made a beeline south to key ports at the stiletto heel of Italy's boot. During the Middle Ages, pilgrims and Crusaders used the roads on treks to the Holy Land. These days, most travelers head to the region known as Apulia (Puglia, to Italians), only to hop a ferry bound for the Greek Isles. By scurrying straight along to sun and fun in Greece, they're missing out on the most wonderfully weird corner of Italy...

  

Let's KO!

Mellow out in a jungle tree house. Groove all night at a beach rave. Climb to a spectacular mountaintop view. Or just float in that turquoise water. Whatever your fantasy, Thailand has the island—or ko—for you.

Maybe you've seen pictures of southern Thailand's sugar-sand beaches with grass-roof huts snuggled into the shade of coconut palms. Or you've heard of the ridiculously cheap prices: beachside bungalows for $10 a night, spicy meals for $3. Or you've dreamed of discovering some hidden lagoon that lies beyond the reach of guidebooks, just as the characters did in Alex Garland's cult novel The Beach (which, like the Leo DiCaprio film based on the book, was set here)...

  

Fly No-Frills

With one-way tickets that average $55 and flight times of only an hour or two, Europe's low-cost airlines make exploring more than one part of the Continent faster, easier, and cheaper than ever before. So pack your bags—keeping it light—and get ready to join the new, budget jet set.

Scrappy no-frills carriers such as Southwest and JetBlue are no longer limited to our side of the Pond. The past five years have seen the creation of dozens of insanely cheap airlines connecting hundreds of European destinations—primarily big cities, tourism hot spots, and Mediterranean beaches—with fares of roughly $40 to $70 each way, taxes and fees included...

  

Tax-free Travel Shopping

The taxing trials of foreign shopping, the vexing vagaries of customs duties, and how to avoid paying any of it

In foreign travel, there are few experiences that are more common and banal yet cause so much confusion as the tangled web of taxes, refunds, duties, and exemptions. The vicissitudes of just trying to figure out what you do and do not owe on a couple of souvenirs can get so complicated that most travelers throw their hands in the air, bite the bullet, and pay what all the governments tell them to. I say "governments" because there are actually two government levies involved in shopping in a foreign country-and the good news is that you don't have to pay either one of them...

  

The Secret Hotels of Florence & Venice

Ten hotels in Flornce, ten in Venice, none charging more than $90 for a standard double room

One thing I will never change is our one-star status," declares Roberto Zammattio, owner of Venice's Al Guerrato Hotel. "I prefer to take in a few euros less but still give a bit more to guests; that way everyone is happy." Such is the attitude that makes a Little Wonder Hotel-a personal touch, comfortable beds, and a price tag of less than $90 per room...

  

The Other New York*

A different, better, and cheaper way to enjoy a renowned city

The ethnic restaurants of Jackson Heights. Superb ethnic eateries litter all five boroughs, but most New Yorkers agree that the finest concentration is in Jackson Heights, Queens. Grab the number 7 subway for a 20-minute ride from Grand Central to the 74th Street/Jackson Heights stop to partake of Indian, Argentinian, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Thai, and Colombian cuisines. North of Roosevelt Avenue, 74th Street comprises a thriving Little India of sari stores, Bollywood video shops, and cheap curry restaurants galore. King of the all-you-can-eat buffets is Jackson Diner...

* Coverge of the Chelsea arts scene, Lower East Side, and enthnic dining in Jackson Heights