excerpted from Arthur Frommer's BUDGET TRAVEL, (summer 2000).

To learn whether you need inoculations or vaccinations for travel to a particular country, call 877/394-8747 or log on to http://www.cdc.gov/travel

To learn whether you need a passport and/or visa for travel to a particular country, call 800/741-7874 or log on to http://travel.state.gov/passport_services.html

To learn whether a country is safe to visit, phone 202/647-5225 or log on to http://www.travel.state.gov/travel_warnings

To learn the exchange rate for the currency of a country you plan to visit, phone 800/287-7362, access http://www.us.thomascook.com/ or log on to http://www.xe.net/ucc.

For an upcoming forecast of weather at your destination (local or foreign), access http://www.weather.com/ (free), call 900/WEATHER (and pay 95¢ a minute) or log on to http://www.accuweather.com/. For average month-by-month weather information, access http://www.worldclimate.com/.

To buy Eurail passes or country rail passes for traveling within Europe, call Rail Europe at 877/456-RAIL.

To obtain overnight delivery of a small amount of foreign currency for use upon arrival, contact Chase Manhattan Bank's Currency To Go at 888/CHASE84.

To learn the rudiments of up to 70 languages spoken around the world, access http://www.travlang.com/.

To learn whether an airline of a developing nation complies with international safety standards, phone the International Airline Passengers Association at 972/404-9980.

For travel insurance covering trip cancellation or interruption, luggage loss, and other such mishaps, contact Access America at 800/284-8300, http://www.accessamerica.com/, TravelGuard at 877/216-4885, http://www.travelguard.com/, or Universal Travel Protections at 800/211-8952, http://www.utravelpro.com/.

For emergency medical evacuation insurance, contact MedJet Assistance at 800/9-MED-JET.

For hundreds of opportunities to study and live abroad, contact the Institute of International Education, 809 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017-3580, 212/883-8200, http://www.iiepassport.org/.

To receive free (Internet-only) links to tourism offices, contact the Travel Industry of America at http://www.tia.org/.

For the lowest-priced domestic air tickets in all of America, to virtually every major city or area, check with Southwest Airlines at 800/435-9792 or http://www.southwest.com/.

To obtain heavily discounted fares on flights within the United States, contact Cheap Tickets, Inc., at 800/377-1000; 800/FLY-CHEAP, or Travel Bargains at 800/AIR-FARE.

To obtain heavily discounted fares on transatlantic flights, contact Travac at 800/TRAV-800 or http://www.thetravelsite.com.

For information on discount tickets for flights from outside the United States (like Bangkok to New Delhi), log on to http://www.tiss.com/.

To obtain U.S. hotel rooms at discounted rates, contact: Hotel Reservations Network at 800/964-6835 or http://www.hoteldiscount.com/; Quikbook at 800/789-9887 or http://www.quikbook.com/; Travelscape at 888/335-0101 or http://www.travelscape.com/.

To obtain moderately priced apartments for stays of a week or longer in London or Rome, contact Barclay International Group at 800/845-6636 or 516/759-5100; for the same in Paris, call Chez Vous at 415/331-2535.

For discounted rates on hotel rooms in London, contact the Hotel Directory, Ltd., at 011-44-181/770-0123 or http://www.thehoteldirectory.co.uk/.

For discounted rates on hotel rooms in Paris, contact Hotels Marketing Services at 011-33-1/42-60-33-73 or http://www.hms-voyages.com/.

To secure an international youth hostel card (for travelers of all ages) entitling you to stay cheaply at rudimentary but usually adequate dormitory lodgings all over the world, contact Hostelling International-American Youth Hostels, 733 15th St. NW, Suite 840, Washington, D.C. 20005, 202/783-6161, http://www.hiayh.org/.

To obtain an International Student Identity Card or International Teacher Identity Card entitling you to significant discounts on museum and theater admissions, use of low-cost student restaurants, and other valuable student-related benefits (available to teachers, too), call Council Travel at 800/226-8624.

For low-cost B&Bs in New York City (primarily Manhattan), call Urban Ventures (212/594-5650, http://www.nyurbanventures.com/), A Hospitality Company (212/965-1102, http://www.hospitalitycompany.com/), City Lights Bed & Breakfast Ltd. (212/737-7049), Manhattan Lodgings (212/677-7616), or the Bed and Breakfast Bureau (212/645-4555).

To rent a French gîte (bungalow), contact The French Experience, Inc., 370 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10017, 212/986-1115, or log on to http://www.gites-de-france.fr/.

For information on America's leading "personal growth" resort, pursuing every kind of New Age theory, contact the Omega Institute, 150 Lake Dr., Rhinebeck, NY 12572, 845/266-4444.

To work on an Israeli kibbutz, write Kibbutz Program Center, 633 3rd Ave., 21st floor, New York, NY 10017 or call 212/318-6130 or 800/247-7852.

For working vacations in low-income "host" communities around the world, contact Global Volunteers, 375 East Little Canada Rd., St. Paul, MN 55117, 800/487-1074.

For summer work camps maintained for young travelers, contact Volunteers for Peach International Workcamps (VFP), 1034 Tiffany Road, Belmont, VT 05730, 802/259-2759.

To find an Internet café anywhere in the world, log on to http://www.cybercaptive.com/.

To pursue adult summer courses at Cornell University, contact Cornell's Adult University, 626 Thurston Ave., Ithaca, NY 04850, 607/255-6260.

To pursue adult summer courses at Oxford University, write for information to: Department of Continuing Education, 1 Wellington Sq., Oxford OX1 2JA, England, call 011-77-1865/270-360, or fax 011-44-1862/270-309.

To volunteer in the construction of low-cost housing, receiving room and board, contact Habitat for Humanity, 121 Habitat St., Americus, FA 31709, 800/HABITAT or 912/924-6935.

For a vast body of information on scores of other travel opportunities, access http://www.frommers.com/, and click on the headings in the vertical bar to the left of the main menu.

but recommended to me by a student of mine is http://www.bestcruises.com. Let me know if you try it and have good and/or bad experience with this site.