(MONEY Magazine) – Best new airline. Nineteen-month-old JetBlue may be the next best answer to Southwest Airlines. Fly from New York City's JFK airport to New Orleans for as little as $89 one way, to Tampa for $88 or to Salt Lake City for $119. No Saturday-night-sleepover games (a policy the major airlines are now aping on selected routes). No wondering whether the price you pay on the website (www.jetblue.com) is different from the price via phone. All JetBlue planes are new Airbus A320s, and all passengers get cushy leather seats (blue, of course) and personal TV screens with 24 channels. With its new West Coast hub in Long Beach, Calif. and added flights from JFK and Washington, D.C., JetBlue (800-538-2583) expects to serve 18 cities with 102 flights a day by year's end. --A.F.

Best new cycling trail. How does an old treasure get deemed a "best new" anything? It gets a face-lift, and a major one at that. The Delaware Canal and its towpath, completed in 1834 and named a National Heritage Corridor in 1988, is the only continuously intact example of the extensive canal system that transported coal throughout the Eastern Seaboard to fuel our Industrial Revolution. Until recently, the Pennsylvania towpath had been a bit treacherous for casual cyclists, but now, with 30 miles of smooth new surface, it's a day-tripper's dream. Five bridges crossing the Delaware River connect the towpath with a sister trail along the Delaware and Raritan Canal in New Jersey. Friends of the Delaware Canal (www.fodc.org) offer tips on biking trips, from an easy seven-mile loop to a 70-mile history-tour-de-force that passes the spot where Washington crossed the Delaware and a tavern that served as a safe house on the Underground Railroad. The antique havens of New Hope, Pa. and Frenchtown, N.J. offer refueling options. So does a little joint called Fifty's, operating on the Jersey side of Washington's Crossing and serving one of the best root beer floats around. Now that's American history. --A.W.

Best new overseas deals. The last time the dollar was this strong against more than 50 other currencies was back in 1985. In other words: Much of the world is now on sale. Here are three destinations we find especially tempting these days.

LISBON. With hotel properties that were opened or renovated for the 1998 World Expo competing for visitors and the dollar hitting a record 229 escudos in early August, there's never been a better time to visit Western Europe's oldest capital city. Between October and May, when the weather is still balmy by most people's standards, hotels can be discounted by as much as 25%. Visit St. George's Castle, the site of fortifications that predate Rome, and make day trips to the pilgrimage site of Fatima and the beaches of Nazare. Supersize your vacation by staying in the Palacio de Seteais (011-351-2192-3320), a five-star hotel in an 18th-century palace in the mountain town of Sintra, 20 minutes from the heart of Lisbon. Pay only $600 per couple for three nights during the low season--less than half of what you'd fork over for comparable splendor in Paris.

BALI. A blanket State Department warning for U.S. travel to Indonesia has driven away American visitors in recent years. But Bali is safe, and you can take advantage of depressed conditions in the local hotel industry and an exchange rate of 9,320 Indonesian rupiah. Round-trip flights can be expensive--typically $1,100 on Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines--but once you arrive, Bali's shockingly low-priced hotels and services can more than offset the cost (and inconvenience) of the 20-hour flight from Los Angeles. San Antonio travel agent Lee Loving of Herff Travel says she can arrange a three-day tour for two people in a private car with an English-speaking guide for $170 (including lunches). Head to Ubud, Bali's arts capital, or go farther east to the beaches of Candi Dasa (Ten Temples), where a room in one of the Watergarden Hotel's 13 cottages--set in one of Bali's best gardens--runs from $70 to $140 a night.

ISTANBUL. Once Byzantium, then Constantinople, now Istanbul, this is where travelers stop to explore the last vestiges of the Roman Empire--and, at night, the neighborhood of Taksim, where today's Young Turks party. Istanbul proper can be packed into a four-day weekend: a cruise on the Bosphorus, tours of the Hagia Sophia (the world's largest church for 1,000 years) and the 17th-century mosque of Sultan Ahmet I, and a shopping spree for rugs, bags and jackets in the 5,000-stall Grand Bazaar. The dollar has tripled against the Turkish lira in the past two years, so being your own guide in Istanbul and elsewhere in Turkey is a better value than going with a group based in the U.S. Still, we've noticed some deals on fall tours. New York City's Tursem Tours (www.tursemtours.com) is dropping its November rates for its 10-day Turkish Delight tour package from $1,490 to $1,155 per person, double occupancy, which includes air fare from New York, hotels, most meals and all sightseeing and entrance fees. --A.B.

Best new forbidden zone. In the post-Revolution lukewarm-up between Iran and the United States, it's been possible to get a U.S. tourist visa through an obscure desk in the Pakistan embassy in Washington since 1997. After a very slow start, a small but growing number of adventurous tourists are now entering Iran to see sights closed to Americans for an entire generation. "This year we announced four new trips to Iran for 2002, and they sold out within 48 hours," says Janet Moore of Distant Horizons (800-333-1240), a Long Beach, Calif. company whose tour groups are accompanied by a history scholar and an Iranian guide.

While you could travel there on your own, we think you'd be nuts to do so. Iran can still be an unimaginably hard and hostile place, even for the savviest sojourner. Better to join a group tour that's sensitive to local laws and customs or arrange a trip through an experienced planner like Absolute Asia (800-736-8187). Its 10-day Highlights of Persia trip ($2,530 per person, double occupancy) starts in Tehran and visits, among other places, the ancient desert oasis town of Bam and the Zoroastrian temples in Yazd. There's a stop in Shiraz, considered the cradle of Persian civilization, and a full day in Persepolis, the 2,500-year-old complex built by Darius the Great, sacked by Alexander the Great and rediscovered only in the 1930s. --A.B.