Hitting the trail in Oregon or Scandinavia for less

HOW can we retrace the steps of the Lewis & Clark Expedition? What are the best ways to save money on vacation? What’s the least expensive of the three major Scandinavian countries to visit?

We receive travel questions all the time; here are a few answers.

* The 200th anniversary of the Lewis & Clark Expedition is approaching. What’s the best way to make the same trip?

The route taken by the Lewis & Clark Expedition begins just outside St. Louis and ends at Ft. Clatsop on the Oregon Coast. You can make the entire drive (partly alongside the river route of the explorers) in about 10 days, although adding a few extra days will give you time to linger. The early part of the trail is through a partly urbanized area, but from about Omaha, the countryside opens up as you go west, and you can almost believe you are seeing the landscape as they did. For a daily driving itinerary, get a copy of Julie Fanselow’s “Traveling the Lewis & Clark Trail,” contact the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation at (888) 701-3434 or piece together an itinerary from Stephen E. Ambrose’s bestselling “Undaunted Courage,” available in libraries and bookstores.

* What are the most important rules of low-cost travel? Pack light and be free of porters and taxicabs. Seek out a consolidator for reduced-price international air tickets. In booking standard hotels, bargain for a better rate -- let the desk clerk know before you arrive that you are shopping around. Better yet, book nonstandard lodgings: pensions, guesthouses, B&Bs;, hostels. Travel off-season. Share and split meals or courses with your travel companion and thereby cut the bill in half. Take occasional meals picnic-style from ingredients bought at a grocery store or the food section of a department store. Use local transportation at your destination. Seek out foreign ATMs for your currency needs; their rates are the best for money-changing. Reserve your overseas ground transportation, car or train, before leaving the United States; the savings are considerable. Sightsee on your own two feet, again using local transportation in part. Never change money in a hotel; never send out laundry from a hotel; never make phone calls from a hotel.

* Which is the least expensive of the three major Scandinavian nations?

Surprisingly, it’s Sweden, to which oil-rich Norwegians now travel to go shopping. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, rating the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar within the United States as 100, Norway comes in at a hefty 131, Denmark at 112 and Sweden at a cheaper 101. Thus, Swedes pay about the same as we do for goods and services.

* Although I enjoy the intensely urban atmosphere of New York City, I’d also like to visit some of the quieter historic rural areas nearby. Any suggestions?

Starting the last weekend of May and through Labor Day, leaving Saturday mornings and returning Sunday afternoons, New York Waterway features overnight packages leaving from Manhattan’s Pier 78 and heading north on the majestic Hudson River to Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow (of Washington Irving fame).

Included are an overnight stay at the fine Dolce Tarrytown House on a historic property, entrance fees to three major estates (including Nelson Rockefeller’s and Irving’s), a visit to a colonial farm and a church with windows by Marc Chagall, a huge breakfast buffet and bus transfers to all of the sites, for $175 per person, double occupancy, including the round-trip four-hour boat ride from Manhattan. The visit to the Rockefeller complex of homes known as Kykuit is especially noteworthy. Call (800) 533-3779 or access www.nywaterway.com.