Video: Saugatuck celebrates being a coolest small town

It's prime time for leaf peeping! Get inspired to plot your own fall drive or boat trip after viewing these 19 shots of brilliant red and yellow foliage. Settings include the buttes of Colorado, New York's Central Park, and California's wine country. See the slide show. RECENT READER SLIDE SHOWS Bridges | National Parks | Reflections | Doorways NOW IN SEARCH OF... We're looking for your photos of skylines. Upload them through myBudgetTravel, tag them, and check back in the coming weeks for a slide show of the best submissions.

Yes, it is possible to get around certain cities -- or at least certain parts of certain cities -- on buses, trains, and ferries without paying a dime. A PCMag.com post recently highlighted the free public transportation possibilities in cities such as Portland (Oregon), Seattle, Pittsburgh, Boston, Dallas, and New York City, along with college towns like Chapel Hill, N.C., mountain towns such as Vail, Colo., and a few beach towns in Florida. While any freebie is a welcomed freebie, some cities have free options that are quite limited, especially in Boston (free rides between the two main train stations, Back Bay and South Station) and New York (Staten Island Ferry, where the scenery is worth paying for -- even though you don't have to pay for it). The most impressive and useful free transit offerings in the U.S. have got to be these three: Pittsburgh's Free Fare Zone, which includes most of downtown, and where riders can board buses and light-rail trains at no cost seven days a week Portland's Free Rail Zone, formerly known as the "Fareless Square," in which passengers can ride light rail trains and street cars nearly everywhere downtown for free, all day, every day Seattle's Ride Free Area, which allows passengers to, well, ride free from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Metro buses within the downtown area most popular with tourists

Head out to Treasure Island for a prime vantage point as 80 teams of paddlers—each moving to the beat of the boat's drummer—face off at San Francisco's International Dragon Boat Festival, September 25-26. The free festival also includes aiko drumming, lion dancing, acrobatic martial arts, and dance performances. International food stands will keep crowds sated with a choice of Thai, Vietnamese, Hawaiian, barbecue, and seafood options. Sunday is family day, with magicians, dragon puppeteers, and Chinese stilt walkers roaming throughout the area. The kids' Dragon Land area will host arts and crafts activities like creating dancing dragons out of chopsticks, bracelet making, and face painting. Snoopy and Nickelodeon's Kai-lan costumed character from TV show Ni Hao, Kai-lan will both be on hand for photo ops. Treasure Island, California Ave. and Ave. D., free parking. Free shuttle buses leave from Chinatown (Kearny and Jackson Sts.) and downtown (San Francisco Marriott, 55 4th St., at Mission St.) every 15 to 20 minutes between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.