Getting the flavor of … This summer’s must-see places

Escalating airline and gasoline prices are making foreign travel a challenge, said the editors of The New York Times. But here are five great places to see in America right now. “Not one involves the terrifying conversion of dollars into euros.”

Texas Hill Country

This lush region west of Austin “might be the next best thing to crossing the Atlantic.” Unlike the rest of pancake-flat Texas, it’s “dotted with beautiful green hills” that evoke Tuscany or the south of France. The region is “speckled with 22 wineries” and abuzz with food and music festivals.

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Contact: Texaswinetrail.com

Highway 101, Oregon

Old-growth forests, “misty ocean cliffs, and isolated coves” make this the perfect highway stretch not only for drivers but also for bicyclists who don’t mind the occasional challenging uphill stretch. Side trips include the historic Cape Blanco Lighthouse and “artsy little towns like Port Orford.”

Contact: Byways.org

The Boundary Waters

Canoe enthusiasts gather in Ely, Minn., every summer to explore the 1.3-million-acre Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which runs along the U.S.-Canada border. A frenzy of loading supplies soon gives way to “the lull of a canoe gliding through water” in nearly deserted surroundings.

Contact: Piragis.com

Beartooth Road

Charles Kuralt once called this 68.7-mile-long road “America’s most beautiful highway.” As it zigzags along the Beartooth Mountains of Montana and Wyoming, every hairpin turn reveals another dazzling sight—glacial lakes, mountains, waterfalls, even “the occasional mountain goat.”

Contact: Beartoothhighway.com

Jemez Springs, N.M.

An hour north of Albuquerque, this tiny town “is easy to miss.” There’s not much to see—an 1870s bathhouse, a Japanese Buddhist monastery, a family-run winery. “And that’s precisely its charm.”

Contact: Jemezspringsbathhouse.com