A few good links: who's the worst airline of all?

It seems like every country in the world offers discounted rail passes to foreign visitors that aren't available to local citizens. The point of these discounts is, of course, to encourage tourism. And here in the U.S., Amtrak has been doing the same trick for years: offering its best discounts on train travel to foreign visitors. But Amtrak has changed its mind and is now offering Americans the same discounted rail passes that only people living overseas could buy before. The USA Rail Pass is available for 15, 30, and 45 days of travel, but you can space out that travel over the span of six months. As the AP reports, "the 15-day pass offers eight segments of travel for $389." A "segment" is whenever you board a train. There are no restrictions or blackout dates, so you can travel during peak times—assuming a train hasn't sold out. There are a few exceptions, of course. For example, you can't redeem the passes for travel on Amtrak's high-end services, such as Auto Train and Acela Express. (800/872-7245, USA Rail Pass)

The Australian airline Qantas has put about 10,000 seats on sale today at the price of $380 each way, in honor of their new A380 aircraft. Book now to fly on dates in November or next May from Los Angeles or San Francisco direct to Sydney or Brisbane. Add $100 for flights from New York City. Add a 3-night vacation package for $380. On the airfare, taxes add about $300. Competitor airline United has been offering some aggressive pricing on this route as well. With the current exchange rate as of today…$380 U.S. dollars gets you almost $550 dollars in Australia. Act fast: Offer will sell out quickly, I'm sure. Go to qantasvacations.com/a380. MORE For ideas on what to do in Australia, read our editor-in-chief's report from Down Under. Check out BT's Real Deals.

Making for grim reading is this USA Today report that "travelers are postponing, scaling back or canceling trips of all kinds," with experts saying "it could be more than a year before travel rebounds." The only (very partial) upside to all this retreating is that those people actually willing and able to curtail their indefinite staycations and leave their house for a real trip may be able to get some deals. To help with that goal, USA Today also put together a roundup of 25 budget-oriented websites. It's a good selection—and we'd say that even if they hadn't included us (which they kindly did)…

A few weeks ago, I took part in a Trip Coach chat about India. There were lots more questions than there was time to answer, so I thought I'd take a stab at a couple more. Alexandria, Va.: My husband and I are planning a trip to India and would like to plan our itinerary around the the cultural activities and events that interest us most. We love traditional Indian dance for its expression and beautiful costumes. We are interested in attending public performances while on our trip. Are you aware of any that we might attend? One biggie that comes to mind is the Madras (modern-day Chennai) Music Season, held for five weeks in December and incorporating many dance and theater performances as well as music concerts. If you hit the city during that time, you'll be spoilt for choice, especially if you're aren't set on seeing any performances in particular. In addition, most big cities are likely to have traditional dance performances at many times of the year—check the listings in the local editions of the English-language Hindu and the Times of India. (Although both papers have websites, the newspaper editions are easier to navigate for this info.) If you happen to be passing through Mumbai, then be sure to get a copy of the local Time Out for thorough listings in that city. Ft. Myers, Fla.: Please list the top ten destinations off the beaten path. Everyone's list is going to be different. None of the following places are obscure (they're certainly in most travel guides), but they definitely aren't on every tourist's radar. So here goes: the ruins of Hampi, visited by lots of backpackers but not a lot of others, given the fact that it's as astonishing and beautiful as the Taj Mahal (but quite different); the twin temple towns of Halebid and Belur, in Karnataka; the northeastern state of Assam, which I never made it to but wish I had; the Ajanta caves, south of Mumbai (ditto); the coffee plantations of Coorg (a.k.a. Kodagu); inland portions of Goa; the Leh Palace, in the far north state of Jammu and Kashmir; Hyderabad, known for its I.T. businesses but with an amazing Muslim fort outside of town and lots of interesting Raj-era buildings in the city; the Buddhist stoneworks at Sarnath; the coastal town of Mangalore; Bhubaneshwar and other temple towns of Orissa, and Sikkim in the Himalayas, once its own kingdom. Full Q&A; on India