01:00 AM EST on Sunday, December 18, 2005

BY ROBERT N. JENKINS
St. Petersburg Times

The best gifts are not about quantity or cost but instead meet the desires and needs of the recipient. Gifts noted here also let your favorite traveler carry that feel-good memory far from home. Prices noted do not include shipping and handling, and you may find the same or similar items at lesser prices, so be a careful consumer.

RADIO LIVES: Sure it's great to be abroad seeing unfamiliar sights. But when it feels as if the jungle -- or the cathedrals -- are closing in, you can fall back on a miniature AM/FM seven-band shortwave radio for newscasts or other reassuring voices. This Grundig battery-operated radio has an alarm function and a large LED screen displaying radio frequency or time. It comes in five colors in the Herrington catalog, for $39.95. Travel items are at www.herringtoncatalog.com/herrington-catalog/travel.html.

MAKE SKIES FRIENDLIER: Whole industries are cranking out widgets to return some comfort to flying; here are a few:

To relieve cramps in the back of the thighs, and aches at the bottom of the spine, keep your knees higher than your hips by using a folding foot rest. One that weighs just 15 ounces unfolds to a 4-inch height and sells for $24.85.

Or, if you are serious about avoiding those aches and pains, you can carry on the Best Seat, a cushion with a battery-operated pump and sensors that moves air into various chambers beneath your rear and thighs. It weighs 3 pounds and sells for $195.

Cabin-cleaning crews don't vacuum the seats, so why not bring your own silk cocoon to nestle in, especially for overnight flights? The DreamSack has a pouch to slip your feet into, has a carrying pouch and is machine-washable. In one-person sizes it sells for $39.95 as a sheet, $69 as a 34-inch-wide sack or $110 for a 68-inch-wide sack.

These are from the Magellan's catalog, at www.magellans.com/store/catalog; (800) 962-4943. TravelSmith also has the DreamSack at www.travelsmith.com/ts/home.jsp; (800) 950-1600.

ROOT, ROOT, ROOT: Take in a few away games with a sports fan's dream vacation. The company Roadtrips annually packages trips and tickets to more than 5,000 events, ranging from the Rose Bowl to that other kind of football, soccer's World Cup. There are single-game offers and packages such as the Baseball Hall of Fame tour, which takes fans to four major-league parks for games and also the Hall of Fame, all in five days. For more information, call (800) 465-1765, or go to www.roadtrips.com.

HOOK WHAT? WHERE? The Barbara K Roadside Safety Kit may appeal to any mechanically challenged person not too proud to admit it. The compact 70-page how-to guide takes readers through major parts of the car and their functions and also provides step-by-step coaching through basic repairs, such as changing a tire and jump-starting a battery. Included in the snazzy gray and turquoise vinyl bag are jumper cables, a tire gauge, plastic lantern-flashlight, light sticks, cleaning towels, a bright orange SOS banner, turquoise rain poncho, ice scraper and work gloves. The kit is $29.99 from Barbara K; call (800) 803-5657; www.barbarak.com.

SEND THEM OFF GENTLY: Offer relaxation time in an airport lounge or a night in any of dozens of National Trust Historic Hotels.

American Airlines sells one-day passes to its membership-only lounges for $50, and the pass can be used repeatedly that day, in different airports. This Admirals Club One-Day Pass can be purchased online; if the holder decides to become a club member within 30 days, the fee will be applied toward an annual membership. The pass is good for any day up to one year from purchase. For more information, go to www.aa.com/admiralsclub or call (800) 237-7971. American also sells "Gift Cards" in $50 and $100 denominations that are redeemable toward the purchase of tickets, online at AA.com. The cards have no expiration date and up to eight are usable toward the purchase of one ticket.

If you'd rather give someone an entire night's rest, 74 of the 200-plus Historic Hotels offer gift certificates. And if your favorite traveler has already stayed in one of the historic lodgings, you can bring back the memory by shopping the association's online catalog. Among the items: upscale bedding, bathrobes for adults and children, even a curved shower rod that can add up to 6 inches of elbow room. To order, visit www.historichotels.org and click on "Shop HHA," or call (800)311-0518.

MY ACHING BACK: Hours behind the wheel, and the tension of traffic, can bring on aches and pains. The IZON Car Massager is a neck-massaging device that attaches to the head rest of a car, truck or minivan seat, plugs into the 12-volt socket and provides a choice of eight massaging rhythms. A coating on the fabric provides quick evaporation of moisture from skin and the massager, and it comes with an adapter for plugging into a 120-volt socket. It retails for $44.95 and is available at some retailers or at www.bumperbib.com.

THE BOOK SHELF: We're not talking literature now but reference works for the traveler:

The Rough Guides imprint built a strong reputation for conversational, up-to-date books for less visited regions. Times change. Now comes a 25-book series titled Destinations, and the pocket-sized works cover not only Marrakesh and Malta but also Las Vegas and London. Heavily illustrated, the books include the entire text on a CD downloadable to a PC, Mac or PDA. An excellent buy at $10.99.

For 14 years, Dave Hunter relentlessly prowled Interstate 75 from the Canadian border to the Georgia-Florida line. Each year, he updated his spiral-bound, multicolored guide to list each exit's motels, gas stations, restaurants and worthy attractions. Now the genial Hunter has outdone himself. During the four-hurricane horror of summer 2004, he realized visitors listening to broadcast warnings may not have known which county they were in nor toward which county they should head. So he has just published a Florida-only guide covering every mile of four Interstates, their bypasses and various toll roads.

The guide, at 25 miles of roadway to the page, still features details for each interchange, as well as Hunter's favorite stops, lodgings and restaurants. But it also has emergency radio frequencies and parallel surface roads for evacuation alternatives. Along Florida's Expressways is $23.95 in major bookstores or by calling (800)431-1579; www.FLonline.info.

The top destinations for Yanks leaving this country are the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic; we go by the millions. But even if you've been there so often you know which color Tube line to ride in London or how to easily reach Glasgow and Galway, you can always use a friend's advice on where to stay.

So grab the hot-off-the-presses 29th edition of The Good Hotel Guide, Great Britain & Ireland. More than 800 establishments are listed, first by country, then alphabetically by city or village. Much of the critique is excerpted from readers' comments and is sometimes amusing, sometimes prickly. The book includes color maps, an index by name of accommodation and a selection of "best-ofs" for categories such as Romantic, For Families, and Dogs (the subhead: Bring your best friend). The price is $25.95, but the guide includes vouchers worth discounts of 25 percent at a number of hotels. Edited by Balmer and Raphael, it is published by Steerforth Press, Hanover, N.H.

Get away from city life by staying in one of the national parks. Accommodations from cabins to B&Bs, from motels to ranches, are listed in the 2006 National Parks Lodging Guide for the United States and Canada. The guide provides a description of lodgings inside and near every national park, and includes rates, acceptance of pets, Web sites and amenities. The guide is $14.95 plus $3.95 shipping from the National Park Society; call (800) 578-1883. Proceeds go to support volunteer efforts in the parks.

For help with a U.S. or European metropolis, give your traveler a Zagat guide for the carry-on. Renowned for compiling reviews by everyday folks of restaurants and hotels, Zagat now offers its pocket-sized guides in "executive," leather-bound and even PDA versions. The most popular titles are still America's Top Restaurants, Europe's Top Restaurants and Top U.S. Hotels, Resorts and Spas -- each at $14.95 -- but there are titles for major city nightlife, golf courses, even reviews of more than 1,350 movies. See the product line at www.zagat.com/shop/shop_products.asp?

THE PERSONAL TOUCH: If your favorite traveler will be gone for many days, slip into his or her suitcase a card signed by you. It can be funny, it can be romantic -- and when it is opened in some hotel room after one more night on the road, it can be magical.