(MONEY Magazine) – Air fare for globetrotters: Even the most serious case of wanderlust can now be sated for as little as $2,500. That's the cost of an around-the-world air ticket offered jointly by Air Canada, Lufthansa, SAS, Thai Airways, United Airlines and Varig (get in touch with any of the airlines directly). You must make at least three stops (15 is the maximum) and stay out on the road for at least 10 days but no more than one year. There's no need to plan every leg of the trip; just book the first destination ahead of time and then you are free to decide all your other stops on the fly.

Driving south in the fall: And north in the spring. Car-rental companies need to shift their fleets between summer and winter destinations. From October until just before Christmas, you can rent a compact from Hertz (800-654-3131) in one of 34 northern cities for $6.95 a day, with unlimited mileage, and drop it off in Florida. But take note: Hertz may boost prices this fall.

National park vacation: Four million visitors overrun Yellowstone every year. We prefer three less crowded national parks in Washington State, all within a half-day's drive from Seattle: Mount Rainier (360-569-2211; noted for wildflowers), Olympic (360-452-0330; combining rain forest and rugged Pacific coast) and North Cascades (360-856-5700; considered the American Alps). At $10 for seven days, park fees are about half those at the more popular parks. And you don't have to reserve a camping space five months in advance--they're first come, first served. (For more on national parks, see www.nps.gov.)

Park pass: Next time you have a desire to see the Grand Canyon, bring along the grandparents. People over 62 can get the Golden Age Passport, a lifetime pass to all 54 national parks, for just $10. Just have Grandma show her passport and proof of age at any park entrance and everyone in the vehicle gets in free.

Broadway tickets: If you wait until you're in Manhattan to buy tickets to, say, The Lion King, from a broker, you'll shell out hundreds of dollars. If you order tickets through the mail, you'll pay about $75--but you'll head to the theater sometime in the fall of 1999. We can't beat the $75 price, but we can suggest a way you may be able to get primo house seats this summer. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids (212-840-0770) puts four seats for every performance of the most popular shows on sale the first week of the preceding month. You'll pay $150, but half is a tax-deductible contribution.

Off-season trip, part one: Go to Park City, Utah, site of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, in summer and you'll find lodgings that cost half as much as they do when the snow flies. At the New Claim Condominium Suites (888-870-7529), a two-bedroom apartment with a fireplace and kitchen rents for about $129 a night, compared with about $300 in winter. Even if it's 80[degrees]F outside, you can watch Olympic athletes training for the bobsled, luge and Nordic jumping events at the year-round Utah Winter Sports Park. Or you can do something more seasonal, from cycling to hot-air ballooning.

Off-season trip, part two: The pricey season in Europe now stretches into October, so head for London or Paris in November. Round-trip air fare from New York to London drops from $551 in October to $421 in November; to Paris, from $612 to $457.

Place for pampering: It's not new--or New Age--but La Costa Resort & Spa (760-438-9111), north of San Diego, offers the most coddling per dollar in the business, according to SpaFinders, a nationwide spa advisory and booking service. La Costa's four-night Renewal Package ($1,340 a person, double occupancy, with spa-cuisine meals) includes a choice of more than 10 daily fitness classes and unlimited access to a state-of-the-art spa, 21 tennis courts, five outdoor swimming pools and two 18-hole golf courses.

TWA tickets: To fly TWA, call Global Discount Travel Services (800-977-7110). After a messy split with TWA several years ago, corporate raider Carl Icahn walked away with the right to sell TWA tickets at a 20% discount--which he does through Global Discount. (Some international routes have discounts of up to 25%.)

Special for free spirits: If you'd be equally happy in Mexico, the Bahamas or the Caribbean, Club Med (800-CLUB MED) is offering a weeklong Wild Card package for $999 through Dec. 10. You pick the week you want to travel, and you'll hear where you're going 10 to 12 days before you leave. Nearly everything is included. You will have to pay a $30 initiation, plus annual dues of $50 per person. If you want to bring the kids along, Club Med's similar Family Escape package to Florida, the Bahamas or the Caribbean goes for $799 a person. (Children's dues are $20 apiece.)

Bargains online, part one: To get e-mail about discounted last-minute fares on American (www.aa.com/aa_home/aans.html), Continental (www.flycontinental.com/cool), Northwest (www.nwa.com/travel/cyber/cyber_reg.html), TWA (www.twa.com/odpairs) or US Airways (www.usairways.com/travel/fares/esavers.htm), leave your electronic address at the airline's Website. You'll get details of cheap flights, typically once a week for the following weekend.

Bargains online, part two: The Web page (www.bestfares.com) of Best Fares magazine offers a mountain of information on air fares, hotel and car-rental discounts. Among recent "Snooze You Lose Fares" on the site: an Indianapolis-Orlando round trip on Northwest for $98 (fare code K14R).

Home swaps: Three-year-old VacationLink (www.vacationlink.com or 404-843-2779) hooks up second-home owners for rent-free vacations. Limiting membership to owners of second homes ensures an affluent clientele and barely-lived-in vacation pads--you won't have to sleep in Jenny's twin bed under her Leonardo DiCaprio posters. The tab: an annual membership fee of $195 to $495, depending on the value of your property, and a per-exchange fee equal to your membership fee.

Capital idea: Let's face it. Washington is hot in August--even Congress takes a break. But it's a great time to take your family to the National Air and Space Museum and the other museums on the Mall. On weekends in August, four people can stay at the JW Marriott Hotel, only one block from the Mall, for $119 a night (including breakfast for two); the same room would cost $249 during cherry blossom season. You can walk to all the monuments and museums. For lunch, grab a bite in the cafeteria of the National Museum of American History. And if the heat gets to you, take a dip in the hotel pool.

Play on the Asian crisis, part one: A 14-day Discover Thailand package from Absolute Asia (800-736-8187) now costs $2,050 for air fare (from L.A.), first-class hotels, guides, airport transfers and breakfasts. It includes stays in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Phuket. Only a year ago, the same package would have run $2,700.

Play on the Asian crisis, part two: Because so many Asian tourists are staying home, Australia is now a great deal. One example: Round-trip tickets on Qantas, seven-day car rental and seven nights in Flagg International hotels anywhere in the country for $1,285--down from $1,535 last year (800-4JETSET). Thanks to the strength of the U.S. dollar, tickets to the Sydney Opera House that would have set you back $48 last year are just $38 this year, and a Great Barrier Reef cruise that would have cost $106 is now $85.