By Scott Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 11, 2008; P01

Trapped in a loveless marriage with the gasoline engine and way down on an ever-lengthening list of pressing concerns, from paying the mortgage to buying a gallon of milk, the summer vacation as we know it is in serious trouble.

A new survey by AOL Travel and Zogby International says that 57 percent of the citizenry plans to spend less money on summer trips this year than last, that a third of them plan on staying with family or friends while on holiday this summer and that just 10 percent intend to visit Europe.

And so, looking for a cure for this new kind of summer doldrums, we threw ourselves on the mercy of the bargain travel experts. What, we demanded to know, will become of us if the summer vacation disappears? What will the school kids in May have left to daydream about? What will become of that perennial first essay topic in the fall?

Sure, it was a little over the top, but, hey, we got answers.

"Maybe you should stay home this summer."

Wait, what? Tim Leffel, author of "Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune," not to mention "The World's Cheapest Destinations," just told us to stay home? Come on, Tim, we go to you for hope-mongering and you give us that?

"Or maybe this is a good time to discover what is in your home state and home region."

Okay, better. If you're determined to travel farther afield, he said, warming to the task, "south of the equator there are bargains." Not only will it be winter in such places as Peru and Argentina when it's summer here, but there will be fewer South American tourists, especially as their kids will be in school when ours are out. Given those factors and the dollar's relative strength on the continent, Leffel said, "I'm amazed that so many people still go to Europe."

Speaking of Europe, even if you're unfazed by the euro's ferocity, you'll still want to consider skipping that continent's hot spots, targeting rural France instead of Paris, the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands instead of Prague, and the countries of Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania instead of Spain, Germany and Britain. By the way, in Western Europe, Portugal is the most economical destination, Leffel said, although only in a relative sense. (For more ideas, visit Leffel's Web site at http://www.contrariantraveler.com.)

For tips on U.S. destinations, we were intrigued by a new AAA survey, or maybe intrigued and disheartened is a more accurate way of putting it. According to the study, Honolulu is the highest-priced vacation destination, "where the average published prices for meals and lodging for two adults total $673 a day." Rounding out AAA's top five list of offenders? New York City, Miami, San Diego and Las Vegas.

"Actually, we're finding that Las Vegas is unseasonably cheap," said Anne Banas of SmarterTravel.com ( http://www.smartertravel.com), which included Vegas in its list of summer bargains. Clem Bason of Hotwire ( http://www.hotwire.com) agreed. "Vegas has been our best market in terms of savings year over year," he said. "This year, you're paying 20 percent less for a four-star hotel in Las Vegas, and honestly that's only going to get better" as the summer goes on.

Wherever you decide to head this summer, chances are good you'll be confronted with the thorniest of travel questions today: to fly or not to fly.

"Everyone's trying to figure this out," Banas said. " 'Should I even travel, and should I fly or drive for my vacation?' " And if you decide to brave those once-friendly skies? "You need to book early," she said, particularly if you have a specific destination and inflexible time frame.

"And then there are always the tried-and-true tricks," said Hotwire's Bason. "Look to fly on a Tuesday or Wednesday if you can" and take advantage of booking sites that allow travelers to see when airfares are the lowest in the days around their target dates. Other useful tools in that regard are Farecast ( http://www.farecast.com), FareCompare.com ( http://www.farecompare.com) and Hotwire's own TripStarter ( http://www.tripstarter.com), the last of which can tell you when air costs to a destination from your home city have been lowest and highest during the previous two years, as well as allow you to factor in a few variables.

Finally, don't overlook our own "What's the Deal?" column, which is usually posted Friday afternoons on our home page at http://www.washingtonpost.com/travel.

Let's not mince words. Only a chump would take a long driving vacation this summer unless there was a gas card waiting for him when he got to his destination. Really. Let's say that you take Leffel's advice and try to play in your own back yard this summer. Maryland and Virginia, in other words. With regard to the latter, visit the state's tourism site ( http://www.virginia.org), specifically the "Park the Car Getaways" page, where you'll find, among other things, that the Boar's Head Inn in Charlottesville ( http://www.boarsheadinn.com, 434-296-2181) is offering a $20 gas card for each night of your summer stay, the Crowne Plaza in Williamsburg ( http://www.cpwilliamsburghotel.com, 757-220-2250) will give you a $25 gas card and Skyland Resort in Shenandoah National Park ( http://www.visitshenandoah.com, 888-896-3833) has two-night midweek packages that include a $30 gas card.

"I've seen hotels that offer a $50 gas card," said Banas, who also advised road-trip types to check BedandBreakfast.com ( http://www.bedandbreakfast.com). You'll find dozens of properties throughout the country offering gas card promotions. To save even more money with those gas cards, check such sites as GasBuddy.com ( http://www.gasbuddy.com) before you leave home. An aggregator of gas price sites from around the country, GasBuddy works by having consumers alert the site to good gas prices at pumps in their neighborhoods.

"No business is recession-proof, but we have proved currently and over time that we have been somewhat recession-resistant," said Bob Sharak of the Cruise Lines International Association, an industry trade group. Translation: Don't look for any real cruise bargains in the next few months; then again, Sharak had lots of ideas on making your travel dollar go further, particularly if Europe is on your summer dance card.

"I had a friend recently who was in Paris," he said. "There were two of them: They had an omelet, a croissant and cups of coffee. Ninety dollars." Small wonder, then, that more and more Americans are taking cruises through Europe; meanwhile, the lines add more ships and sailings each year.

"They buy their cruises in U.S. dollars and get to go from country to country without arranging transportation," Sharak said.

"But consider booking as early as possible," Banas said, "because chances are that prices will only go up, especially after Memorial Day." Sharak agreed, noting that although Caribbean cruises are cheaper in summer than in winter, ships are sailing at 105 percent capacity (that extra 5 percent comes courtesy of two-person cabins that allow three passengers or more), in part because cruise lines allow bookings months or even a year in advance.

If you can't find a bargain this summer, consider a repositioning cruise (generally in the spring and fall, when companies move ships back and forth from the Caribbean to Alaska and Europe). Because these are one-way sailings from, say, Copenhagen to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a one-way air ticket is required. Still, Sharak said, "these are often offered at a bargain."

At last we come to the part of the journey where travelers might actually catch a break this summer. "I think that this year, if you're a bargain hunter for the summer, you have to focus on hotels," said Bason of Hotwire. Given his site's emphasis, you might be inclined to take his recommendation with a grain of salt. Then again, lodging prices are one of the few aspects of summer travel that are not tied to oil prices and therefore are under the industry's control.

"San Diego is kind of my number one [destination] for the summer," Bason said. "It had one of the bigger building booms in hotels over the last three to five years," and several properties "opened up just as we entered this soft time," among them a Hard Rock Hotel ( http://www.hardrockhotelsd.com, 866-751-7625).

And if you think there's no upside to the subprime mortgage fiasco, consider this: "In Anaheim, there's a very interesting story going on," Bason said. As it happens, that area of Southern California near Disneyland is home to the headquarters of various firms involved in the meltdown. As a result, "business travel has fallen off, and we've been able to get good deals around Anaheim, especially midweek."

Otherwise, this is the year to think outside the box. On home-exchange sites such as HomeExchange.com ( http://www.homeexchange.com) and Intervac ( http://www.intervac.com), for instance, you can swap your place with someone who dwells somewhere more exotic. Maybe consider saving on food costs by renting a home at your intended destination through an online broker such as Rentalo.com ( http://www.rentalo.com) or Vacation Rentals by Owner ( http://www.vrbo.com).

Or how about staying at, say, a university while visiting Britain ( http://www.venuemasters.co.uk, 011-44-114-249-3090), where rooms with shared bathrooms in June can be found at the bargain price of $43 a night?

Further down the accommodations food chain, this might be the year to try a camping vacation. "If you go to the Smoky Mountains it will be crowded," Leffel said, "but there are definitely national parks and state parks that won't be." A camping vacation may be the biggest summer bargain going, although there are financial traps.

"You have to have a plan before you walk into a camping store," said Henry Tom, whose Web site BeginnerCampingTips.com ( http://www.beginnercampingtips.com) could not be more aptly named. "Shoppers are very vulnerable, and it's easy to go overboard and end up spending as much as you could at an all-inclusive resort."

Tom recommended researching the amenities and facilities at campgrounds in the area you want to visit ( http://www.ecamping.com is one searchable site) and considering car camping the first time around. ("Throw a tent in your car and bring a few luxuries with you," Tom said.) For $17, he sells an e-book on his Web site that has an exhaustive amount of information for the first-time camper.

However dour their moods, all of our experts agreed that Americans are as intrepid as ever when it comes to summer vacations. "They're definitely still traveling," said SmarterTravel's Banas, sounding impressed and surprised at once. "Everybody is working harder than they ever have," said Sharak of the cruise line association. "The mind-set is, I have these few vacation days, I deserve this."

Even the contrarian author of "Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune" was struck by our resilient populace. "Everything that could have gone wrong has," Leffel said, "and yet people are still traveling."

In other words, our travel dollars might no longer be worth a fortune, but our vacation time is as priceless as ever, if not more so.