Find a drivable destination and then calculate your fuel costs

Despite high gasoline prices, Americans are likely to hit the roads in near-record numbers this summer, according to the Travel Industry Assn. of America, which predicts a 3% increase in driving vacations this year over 2003.

“The summer travel season will start off with a bang, and we expect it to stay strong through August,” said Suzanne Cook, senior vice president of research for the association. “But there are some causes for concern, including rising gas prices and higher inflation.”

If high gas prices have you looking for help in budgeting and planning your driving vacation, a visit to the information highway could help smooth the road ahead.

Your first stop might be the new Road Trips feature from Hotels.com (www.hotels.com; click on Road Trips). There you type in a ZIP Code and specify how long in hours (up to six) you want to drive to get a list of destinations. You can even specify in which direction you’d like to travel.

I did a test “drive” from my Ventura ZIP Code. Road Trips returned a list of 25 destinations within the six-hour limit: Some, such as Anaheim, San Francisco and Las Vegas were obvious; others, such as top-of-the-list San Bruno and Mountain View, lacked obvious appeal. Some that I thought would be obvious, such as Monterey, Carmel or Cambria, weren’t listed.

The San Bruno information link gave me a generic spiel about the Bay Area but nothing about splendors or attractions of San Bruno.

I narrowed my search to driving northwest. This time Monterey did appear, and San Luis Obispo was the top search result. (San Bruno dropped to No. 4.)

My review: It needs more content for the less obvious destinations; it needs to be more selective about the destinations; and it should add some of the more obvious tourist destinations.

Wondering how San Bruno turned up as No. 1, I called Hotels.com. Human error, said Nicole Hockin, a spokeswoman for the website. “Destinations are ranked based upon consumer interest, available content and accommodations,” she said. The problem was being resolved, she added. When I checked back two days later, San Bruno was nowhere to be found. More destination content is being added during the summer, she said.

Once you have your destination, check out the AAA Fuel Cost Calculator, www.fuelcostcalculator.com, for budget help.

“While this Internet service will provide just an estimate of the costs, it is a way for travelers to plan for their gasoline expenses and get a complete budget for their trip,” said Jeffrey Spring, auto club spokesman.

A map with regional average gasoline prices is updated daily. To calculate the cost of gasoline for your trip, you use a pull-down menu to enter the starting and destination cities, then enter the vehicle type and year. I tested it for a trip from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon in my 1999 Ford Explorer. The one-way trip distance is 489 miles, and my vehicle would use about 26 gallons, it told me. It would have cost me $56 in gasoline to make that one-way trip on that day.

One quibble: The use of pull-down menus limits which cities can be used. Los Angeles had to be my starting point; Ventura wasn’t an option.

Also try :

* www.fueleconomy.gov, the Department of Energy’s site, which includes links to state and even city gasoline price information.

* www.gaspricewatch.com, which claims more than 100,000 volunteer spotters around the country finding the lowest gas prices in a city.

Contact James Gilden at www.theinternettraveler.com.