Executive Travel : Business Travel Notes

* Exchange Rates: The best exchange rates for the dollar overseas are not at hotel counters or airports but at automated teller machines that draw on your bank account back home, according to a survey made in 14 countries by Visa/Plus.

It found that using a U.S.-issued bank card to draw local currency out of an ATM was on average 43% cheaper than the money counter at the local airport and 57% cheaper than using a local hotel. The reason: Bank card networks do so much business that they can afford to offer wholesale exchange rates.

*

* Parking: Parking will cost you plenty at hotels in six cities around the world, says a new survey in Business Traveler International magazine.

Costs have skyrocketed, with hotels cashing in on growing numbers of driving executives, especially in Europe. The survey included Dallas, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London and Paris. London was by far the most expensive city, with parking nearly $40 a day. L.A. came in at $9 to $16.50 a day.

*

* In-Flight Maps: Even if you leave your atlas at home, you can hit the ground running in more than 40 cities with Personal Travel Guide--a new computer navigation system available this month on planes with FlightLink.

The on-screen maps give travelers the best route and directions at their destinations--from a hotel to the closest ATM or Chinese restaurant, for example--and even suggest the best form of transportation. FlightLink is on about 70 planes and will be aboard about 1,000 in 1995.