If you can travel on short notice,...

If you can travel on short notice, the Worldwide Discount Travel Club has some unusual bargains. Eleven days in Greece will cost you $658, including round-trip air fare from New York, hotels, breakfast daily, three dinners. A two-week Rome/Athens package prices out at $650. And if you can get away on weekdays (Monday through Thursday), you can fly round-trip New York/London for $299. More than 80 packages are on the books. Toll-free phone privileges for members. Contact Worldwide Discount Travel Club, 1674 Meridian Ave., Miami Beach, Fla. 33139, for details, membership information.

Hawaii

Hotel Molokai will fly you and your spouse or a friend to Molokai from Oahu or Maui, set you up with a rental car, put you up for two nights and fly you back to Honolulu or Maui for $225. Or you can start the trip in Honolulu, spend a couple of nights on Molokai and fly on to Maui. Contact your travel agent or Norman E. Yett, Hotel Molokai, P.O. Box 546, Kaunakakai, Molokai, Hawaii 96748.

Week’s Best Buy

For $1 Aeromexico will fly you to 18 destinations in Mexico. This offer is in connection with a $381 round-trip ticket to Cancun. No limit on the number of stops, but a minimum seven days required (30 days maximum) and you must book your itinerary when you buy your ticket. See your travel agent or call toll-free 1-800-AEROMEX.

Now for the bad news: Mexico has increased the departure tax to $10 for international flights, $3 for domestic trips.

Cruise Bargain

If you’re willing to share a stateroom with three other passengers, Western Cruise Lines does a five-day trip from Los Angeles to Mexico and back for $197.50 per person. The Azure Seas sails on Monday, visits San Diego, Ensenada and you’re back in Los Angeles Friday morning. The package includes meals, entertainment, first-run films, captain’s cocktail party. Offer good through May 20. Contact Western Cruise Lines, 140 West 6th St., San Pedro 90731, or telephone (213) 548-8411.

British Columbia

Takes only a phone call to obtain a free 56-page booklet outlining British Columbia’s Cariboo-Chilcotin country northwest of Vancouver. One of Canada’s best-kept secrets. Good fishing, camping, spectacular scenery. Historic villages, ghost towns and a chance to win 86 ounces of gold in a promotion involving Expo 86. If you’ve had it up to here with crowds, smog, traffic, drop a note to Evelyn Gauthier or Cathy Ferguson at Tourism British Columbia, 3400 Wilshire Blvd., Ambassador Hotel Arcade No. 34, Los Angeles 90010, or telephone (213) 380-9171. The girls will also send along details on the new Expo 86 Center (opens May 2).

For Rail Fans

Ex-newspaperman Owen C. Hardy publishes a bimonthly news letter for vacationers who prefer trains. Aimed at anyone who hates to fly or drive a car. Not big on nostalgia, says Hardy, but lots of practical information. Covers the world of passenger trains from the traveler’s viewpoint, Hardy tells us. Specifics on rail trips in the United States, overseas. “Anyone who’s ever lingered over coffee aboard a Swiss diner high in the Alps will tell you it’s fun,” says the publisher of The International Railway Traveler, P.O. Box 35067-A, Louisville, Ky. 40232. A one-year subscription: $15 plus postage.

Travel Aids

Traveler’s Checklist in Connecticut has published its new catalogue listing currency converters, adapters, luggage caddies, film shields (to avoid damage by airport X-ray machines), travel irons, pocket curlers, money belts. A brand-new item: an electronic pocket translator provides the answer in English to questions in French, Spanish, German. For a catalogue send 50 cents to Traveler’s Checklist, Cornwall Bridge Road, Sharon, Conn. 06069.

Other travel aids are featured by the following:

--Traveling Tote Bag, Willow Tree Center, 24310-M Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, Calif. 92653. Telephone (714) 855-1171. (Send a stamped, self-addressed No. 10 envelope for a free catalogue.)

--Eagle Creek Products, P.O. Box 744, Solano Beach, Calif. 92075. Telephone (619) 755-8931. This company manufactures its own specialized luggage, handles dozens of accessories from passport carriers to pocket knives. Catalogues are free on request.

Short Takes

For a listing of trips for non-smokers, write to the Non-Smokers’ Travel Club, 8928 Bradmoor Drive, Bethesda, Md. 20817. . . . Teresa Krist of Tours Unlimited, P.O. Box 1233, Glendora, Calif. 91740, will lead a three-day bus tour ($140) to Old Sacramento June 21-23 (carriage rides, hotel, continental breakfast, sightseeing). . . . Golf columnist Lee Tyler publishes a golfer’s newsletter, 1469 Bellevue, No. 804, Burlingame, Calif. 94010. Price: $12 a year.

Reader Recommendations

Fiji--Yolanda Sitjar, Los Angeles: “For those budget-minded, adventurous backpackers traveling to Fiji I would like to recommend the Hide-A-Way resort owned by an Australian family, located between Nadi and Suva on the Coral Coast. Costs $6 per night plus 18 cents tax per person. Accommodations shared with two or three others in a very clean, spacious bungalow. Address Hide-A-Way, P.O. Box 233, Sigatoka, Fiji.”

England--Mrs. Dawn Williams, Cerritos: “Spent several days in the beautiful old Stowe Court farmhouse in Gloucestershire, England. We were on our way to Wales. The scenery was beautiful. Food is all homemade and home-grown. Accommodations reasonably priced. We stayed in the most expensive room for only $15 per person a night. The price included a full English breakfast.” Address: Stowe Court, St. Brievels, Lydney, England.

Kyburz, Calif.--Mr. and Mrs. Edward Cook, Los Angeles: “Want to share with you our delight at having discovered Strawberry Lodge near Lake Tahoe. Beside U.S. 50 in El Dorado National Forest. An absolute charmer. Good food, cozy guest rooms, massive stone fireplaces. Everybody from Horace Greeley to Marilyn Monroe has slept there. Our room was $40. Dinners ran about $8. Write to Strawberry Lodge, Kyburz, Calif. 95720.”

Santa Barbara--Ronald D. Glosser, Akron, Ohio: “Strongly recommend the wonderful Villa Rosa, 15 Chapala St., Santa Barbara. Telephone (805) 966-0851. An absolute jewel. Eighteen rooms beautifully decorated. A quiet elegance.” Weekend rates, $80 to $150.

Austria--Sterling Colthurst, Huntington Beach: “My favorite Austrian hotel is the Maria-Theresien, A-5034 Salzburg-Hellbrunn, Austria. A castle-like atmosphere for about $60 per night. Room with bath and breakfast.”

England--Mrs. N. R. Dunlap, Westminster: “Recommend an extraordinary English country house that’s fully furnished in English Tudor style. Rents for $500 per week. Its own view of Peak National Park in south Yorkshire near Sheffield in the village of Dore. Contact Mrs. Anthony Baines. Her telephone number in England is Sheffield 24282.”

New Orleans-Ruth Reichl, Los Angeles: “The new Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans (300 Gravier St.) is luxury personified. Lobby filled with flowers, paintings in the elevators. Each bedroom comes with a sitting room, a balcony (request a room on the river side). Unfortunately, all this luxury has a price: suites run about $150 a night. Telephone (504) 523-6000.”

England--Celia and Ray Russell, Torrance: “Recommend The Fiddleford Inn, Fiddleford, Near Sturminster Newton, Dorsetshire, England. Heart of Thomas Hardy country. Easy access to Bath, Stonehenge and Salisbury. Bed and breakfast, about $14 per person. Weekly rates with breakfast about $75 per person.”

Readers: Your recommendations should contain the addresses of hotels, inns, restaurants, as well as prices whenever possible. (Please print or type.)