What $100 Buys in... Mexico City

For nine years during the Vietnam War, approximately 23,000 Laotians hid from American forces in the Viengxay caves, creating an elaborate city—complete with a hospital and a theater—in the 486 limestone caverns and 155 miles of tunnels. Seven of the caves have been opened to the public. English-speaking guides lead three-hour walking or biking tours, during which you'll see the dwellings of former Communist leaders, still stocked with uniforms and emergency oxygen pumps. Lao Air (lao-air.com) runs twice-weekly 80-minute flights to Xam Nua, in the Houaphanh province, from Vientiane. 011-856/64-314-321, from $3.

These Gluco-Max tea biscuits look like they should be from Japan, but they're actually from Uganda. Munch on enough of them and you might end up sumo-size, too (18¢).

For more travel news, updated daily, check our blog, This Just In. Houston deal The new Houston CityPass covers six attractions for just $34 (kids $24). New York falls This summer, artist Olafur Eliasson is creating four waterfalls in New York City's East River. Tel Aviv by bike The city is considering launching a bike-rental program like the one in Paris. Open L.A. Downtown L.A. Open House is a self-guided, free tour of the city's gentrifying downtown (June 6–8, downtownla.com). Saarinen in D.C. An exhibit on architect Eero Saarinen will be at the National Building Museum May 3–August 23. London layover Heathrow's Terminal 5 debuted in March; it's devoted to British Airways. Cruising Tobago A renovated pier allows large ships to make the Caribbean island a port of call. Jewish museum San Francisco's new Contemporary Jewish Museum, designed by Daniel Libeskind, opens June 8. Mexican port Damaged by a hurricane in 2007, the Costa Maya cruise port will reopen this summer. Security lanes The TSA is testing a system at Salt Lake City's airport in which people choose their own lanes at security checkpoints based on their familiarity with TSA procedures. Summer routes Spirit Airlines begins twice-daily nonstop flights between Fort Lauderdale and Long Island's airport in Islip, N.Y., this month. Baggage fees US Airways has started charging $25 to check a second bag and $100 for each bag after that. Mobile GPS As part of a pilot program, Omni guests in San Francisco can rent a handheld GPS to help them get around. The device also gives event and restaurant listings ($15 per day). Priceline by cell Priceline users are now able to search for hotels in real time from a Web-enabled mobile device. You must still make bookings on a computer or by phone. Driving music Book your rental car with Avis and receive free song downloads from emusic.com. You get five songs if you rent a car for up to four days, and 10 songs if you rent for five or more days.

LEEDS, ENGLAND York Gate Garden When asked to spotlight a special garden, designer Andy Sturgeon (who has won numerous awards at the Chelsea and Hampton Court flower shows) picked York Gate, saying simply, "It's a gem." The one-acre garden is tucked behind a 12th-century church and comprises a series of outdoor rooms: The Dell is an informal woodland garden with half-hidden pathways and a stream; a formal herb garden, with an Italianate summer house, is dotted with topiaries, many pruned into spirals. 011-44/113-267-8240, perennial.org.uk, $7. PORTLAND, ORE. Elk Rock Garden of the Bishop's Close What can you say about a garden that overlooks a dormant volcano? "'Wow' is right," says landscape architect Steven Koch, whose Portland firm is known for its ecologically sustainable work. Vast lawns lead to woods with magnolia trees and English-style borders (designed by Frederick Law Olmsted). The vista opens up at the edge of the gardens—from a bluff, you can see Mount Hood and the Willamette River. The east-facing scene calls for a sunrise visit. 800/452-2562, diocese-oregon.org/theclose, free. ESCONDIDO, CALIF. Queen Califia's Magical Circle, Kit Carson Park "Queen Califia's Magical Circle garden in the park's arboretum is a sculptural fantasy," says landscape architect Pamela Palmer, whose firm, ArtEcho, won the American Society of Landscape Architects' top residential-design award last year. The Magical Circle was dreamed up by the late French artist Niki de Saint-Phalle; it depicts the mythical figure Queen Califia standing on top of a 13-foot-tall, five-legged eagle. (Legend has it that California was named for the warrior queen.) Eight totems, each covered in hand-cut glass and stone, represent the cultures that settled the state. 760/839-4691, queencalifia.org, free. WAYNE, PA. Chanticleer Julie Moir Messervy, who collaborated with cellist Yo-Yo Ma on the Toronto Music Garden, didn't think twice about her top pick. "I love how quirky Chanticleer is," says Messervy of the garden in suburban Philadelphia. Walk among the cut flowers and the bulbs (there are tens of thousands) and you may come upon a carved-stone sofa. Stroll through a woodland only to encounter a ruin where plants appear to be reclaiming all vestiges of man. Bend over a gushing fountain and you may be startled by the carved marble faces looking up at you. Formerly the estate of Christine and Adolph Rosengarten Sr. (he was head of a pharmaceutical company), Chanticleer was established in 1913. It was made a public garden by Rosengarten's son, Adolph Jr. 610/687-4163, chanticleergarden.org, $5, guided tours $10. CRESTWOOD, KY. Yew Dell Gardens Imagine sprawling lawns dotted with evergreens surrounding a Cotswolds-style castle; a secret garden overflowing with 70 types of hellebores (Lenten roses) hides at the end of a holly-canopied allée. Then imagine that you're only 15 minutes from Louisville, Ky., usually thought of as a mecca for horse lovers, not horticulturists. "This is a must-see," says designer and author Wayne Winterrowd, who visited the gardens while working on nearby residential projects. Yew Dell was the vision of plant expert Theodore Klein, who started the now-public garden as a nursery and laboratory in 1941. Klein collected and tested more than 1,000 plants and developed more than 60 unique plant varieties, including a variegated redbud and several types of sugar maple. 502/241-4788, yewdellgardens.org, $7. GAMBIER, OHIO Schnormeier Gardens "The last thing you'd expect in the middle of the Midwest is a Japanese teahouse," says designer Tracy DiSabato-Aust, author of The Well-Designed Mixed Garden. "The garden, owned by entrepreneur Ted Schnormeier and his wife, Ann, offers many things—except a sense of place." Indeed, the 75-acre garden in central Ohio is a monument to the unexpected. Along with a Chinese pavilion, there's a Japanese zigzag bridge over a pond with Australian black swans. The Schnormeiers also added a waterfall, 10 lakes, and dozens of sculptures. The garden is privately owned, and it's only open one weekend a year (in 2008, June 14-15). schnormeiergardens.org, free. ORONO, MINN. Noerenberg Gardens This is a garden that beer built—and landscape architect C. Colston Burrell finds it intoxicating. "It's a journey through lots of colorful plantings in an artful design," says Burrell, a residential designer who has twice won the American Horticultural Society's book award. Grain Belt Brewery founder Frederick Noerenberg created the garden on the north shore of Lake Minnetonka, just outside of Minneapolis, first planting a grove of Scotch pine and Norway spruce that reminded him of his native Germany. The garden is noted for its ornamental grasses and some pretty resilient azaleas, which are cold-hardy down to -35 degrees Fahrenheit. 763/559-9000, threeriversparkdistrict.org/parks, free. NEWTOWNARDS, NORTHERN IRELAND Mount Stewart Spread across 90 acres on the Ards Peninsula, about 30 minutes east of Belfast, Mount Stewart is one of the finest gardens in Europe. Founded in the 1920s by Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry, with advice from gardening legend Gertrude Jekyll, Mount Stewart contains so many subtropical plants that you'll have to remind yourself you're in Ireland, says Helen Dillon, one of Europe's best-known gardeners. There are more than 100 eucalyptus trees, some of which top out at 120 feet, as well as an eye-popping stand of bloodred and orange rhododendrons. The whimsical topiaries include an Irish harp, a shamrock, a sailboat, stags, the goddess Diana, and the devil. 011-44/28-4278-8387, nationaltrust.org.uk, $11. APPLEDORE ISLAND, MAINE Celia Thaxter's Garden Celia Thaxter's Garden is on an island 10 miles off the coast of Portsmouth, N.H. "You can only reach it by boat, which is pretty exciting stuff for a gardener," says designer Gordon Hayward, author of several books, including The Intimate Garden. Framed by spectacular sea views and tended by volunteers and staff from the nearby Shoals Marine Laboratory, the garden is only 750 square feet, but it's filled with colorful annuals such as red poppies and blue love-in-a-mists. Nineteenth-century poet Celia Thaxter fashioned the garden, saying it gave her "perfect happiness." 603/430-5220, sml.cornell.edu, full-day tour $85. HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND Hamilton Gardens The small city of Hamilton is home to "one of the most spectacular gardens you'll ever see," says Richard Lyon, an award-winning landscape architect in Kennett Square, Pa., who also leads garden tours of New Zealand. Built on the site of an old sand mine, the 143-acre public park is like a trip around the world. There's an Indian walled garden with a carpet of Persian roses, dianthuses, sweet williams, zinnias, and more; English-style garden rooms with a fountain and a dovecote (and doves); a Japanese Zen garden with artfully raked sand; and an American modernist garden with a kidney-shaped pool and a mosaic of Marilyn Monroe. 011-64/7-838-6782, hamiltongardens.co.nz, free.