Keeping in step with latest travel trends

WE’VE sorted through travel industry publications for items of interest that will save you money or help you stay on top of trends.

* Although you’d think most Americans would prefer to stay in the U.S. for Thanksgiving, an increasing number are seizing on cut-rate transatlantic airfares and low-season hotel packages to European capitals starting around Nov. 21.

A chief source of these deals is Gate 1 Travel, which offers such Thanksgiving holiday packages as $689 for six days in Prague, Czech Republic, including transatlantic airfare from Los Angeles and hotels (taxes add $236.35); $651 for five days in Amsterdam on the same dates (plus $195 for taxes); and $571 for six days in Paris with air ($166 for taxes). Log on to www.gate1travel.com, or phone (800) 682-3333.

* A payment system known as Dynamic Currency Conversion that instantly converts a credit-card transaction abroad into dollars is a disturbing development in foreign travel. Here’s how it works: You visit a French restaurant or an Italian hotel and receive a bill in euros, but those sums are converted into dollars when your card is used to create a receipt. The exchange rate gives an additional 4% or 5% to the restaurant or hotel. If this happens, request that the receipt be redone in euros, which are then converted to dollars when your monthly bill is calculated by Visa or MasterCard.

* New York visitors will have another option for seeing the city from on high after the Nov. 1 reopening of the 70th-story observation deck of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York. The building’s deck, which was closed for decades, will be accessible from 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. by express elevators. Visitors will get an unparalleled view of Manhattan, including a look at the Empire State Building 16 blocks away. Prices for Top of the Rock are $14 for adults, $12 for seniors and $9 for ages 6 to 11.

* South Africa and countries in East Africa are enjoying a major surge in visitor numbers. Kenya’s future seems brighter than before because it installed a democratically elected president. South Africa is on the upswing because tourists have discovered the glittering attractions of Cape Town, a resort capital as well as a gateway to safari activities. Among the tour operators specializing in both destinations is Big Five Tours & Expeditions, at www.bigfive.com, (800) 244-3483.

* Bad news seems to continue for our nation’s legacy airlines, but the cut-rate carriers are thriving. Although JetBlue’s profit for the second quarter (which ended June 30) was down because of fuel costs, it continued to make a profit. And Southwest Airlines, with its cheap airfares, saw its own earnings for the same quarter go up 40%. I don’t want to draw a lesson from this, but as in so many other fields of commerce, the budget approach seems to pay off.

* Renting a vacation home, instead of a hotel room, continues to grow in popularity. We recently pointed out that a website for renting homes directly from the owner, www.vrbo.com, called “Vacation Rentals by Owner,” had become one of the 50 top travel websites. Now, a site performing a similar function, called www.greatrentals.com, is approaching a million users a month. The site contains photographs of the homes and lengthy descriptions of everything in them, permitting users to bypass real-estate brokers in renting a vacation home. Large families, or even groups of couples traveling together, can enjoy remarkable values from these electronic services.

* Hoi An, Vietnam, now boasts more than 100 tailor shops for the overnight manufacture of custom-made suits, dresses, coats, shoes and other items. Prices can be as little as one-tenth what you’d spend in the Western world.