...this fall when you explore northern Belize and the Tikal ruins of Guatemala on a ten-day trip offered by Alabama-based travel agency International Expeditions (800-633-4734; www.ietravel.com). The $2,700 Naturalist's Quest package includes international airfare from Dallas, Houston, or Miami, meals, guides, lodging, and local transportation. Travel in August or October and for $100 more the company will throw in a round-trip flight from the American Airlines–served airport nearest you to Dallas or Miami. Once in Belize, you'll track howler monkeys, snorkel the Belize barrier reef (the longest in the Western Hemisphere), and canoe through Mayan artifact–filled Barton Creek Cave.

3 NIGHTS FOR 2

At the southern edge of Vermont's Green Mountains, the historic Whetstone Inn (802-254-2500) is a perfect place to watch the first leaves turn gold. And from mid-August through September, the 214-year-old inn, which charges $75 for a room (double occupancy) with a private bath, is offering a deal of three nights for the price of two. The Whetstone is on eleven wooded acres in the southern Vermont town of Marlboro, close to great canoeing on the West and Connecticut Rivers. It's just a few miles southeast of mountain-biking hotbed Mount Snow and 20 miles west of Molly Stark State Park's birch-forested hiking trails.