WHAT: Mobil Travel Guide Beijing ($17.95, Mobil Travel Guide)

If your understanding of Chinese is limited to takeout menus, you need a friend fluent in Mandarin. With a telephone interpreter and translation service, English-speaking visitors to China can get directions, make reservations and basically avoid embarrassment.

My fingers tingle in the morning chill. Drizzle whips against my slicker. Gray clouds scud across the sky. Scrubby pines stretch away in every direction.

Camden residents can spend hours discussing wind, fog and other Weather Channel topics. But they can also chat at length about boats, lobsters, art, lighthouses, John Travolta and blueberry picking: the people, places and things in their immediate surroundings.

Chico Hot Springs Resort & Day Spa is quite simply a find. The fact that it's about 30 miles from the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park is a bonus.

Learn about Canada's Gaspé peninsula and how to get there and the best ways to spend two days in Los Angeles.

The week's best travel bargains around the globe, by land, sea and air.

The July 9 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul caused some Turkey-bound travelers to question whether the nation is safe for visitors.

Learn the fees that several major carriers charge for oversize and overweight baggage, as well as new checked-bag fees and size limits for carry-ons.

GETTING THERE: Camden is about 85 miles northeast of Portland, along U.S. Route 1. Flights from Washington airports to Portland take less than 90 minutes; AirTran, US Airways and United offer nonstop service starting at about $200 round trip.

GETTING THERE: Connecting flights from Washington area airports to Bozeman are offered by Continental, Delta, Frontier, Northwest and United. Round-trip fares generally begin at about $800, but discounted fares of about $600 are common, and we recently found a $476 sale price for August travel from...

GETTING THERE: Fly to Detroit (US Airways has flights from Reagan National for about $195 round trip) and drive Interstate 75 to Grayling, 212 miles away.

Maybe to keep a secret, Chicago doesn't crow too much about the miles of sandy beaches on its beloved Lake Michigan.

Travel staffer Christina Talcott visited the beaches in Chicago. Here is her reporter's notebook.