In this season of gas-price discontent, it's not enough to gripe - we've gotta take steps to keep the vroom in our vacations and spare our wallets from becoming moth motels. We can't control the cost of gas, but we can act to stretch what we have and offset the fuel drain and high prices through creative planning. This year, the math of a family vacation means trying to make up for added expenses by subtracting elsewhere so overall travel costs land within a Frisbee-throw of affordable. To make that equation easier to solve, the Daily News has plotted a handful of routes to savings. Come along - no GPS needed!

STAY CLOSE

Yesterday's fuel-price report from AAA Mid-Atlantic showed the five-county Philadelphia average for regular unleaded gas at $4.14 per gallon, the South Jersey average at $3.97 and the national average at $4.07 Fellow penny-pinchers, this isn't the right summer for the long drive to the national parks out West. But within a 200-mile radius of Philadelphia - that's about half a tank of gas in a car that gets 27 miles to the gallon - hundreds of destinations beckon. We all have places in that circle that we've never visited because, well, we knew they'd always be there. This is the summer to bump them to the top of the list. To limit your driving and gas consumption:

(1) Choose a destination and use it as a base for visiting other nearby attractions or (2) plan a circular route in which you can make several stops without retracing your path. Our 200-mile circle stretches south into Northern Virginia and the Eastern Shore of Maryland; north and northeast to Binghamton and New York, and as far west as Central Pennsylvania.

Check out some possibilities in text format (with links to all destinations and attractions) or on our interactive Flash map, including:

SCRANTON
THE HUDSON VALLEY & THE CATSKILLS
BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va.
THE JERSEY SHORE
WASHINGTON, D.C.
CHINCOTEAGUE, VA.

FREE BEACHES

Offset gas-price hikes by going to beaches that don't require daytime beach tags, which are $4 to $6 per day for people 12 or older in most Jersey beach towns. (Senior discounts and multiday tags often are available.) The sand is free in Atlantic City, Strathmere and the Wildwoods - North Wildwood, Wildwood and Wildwood Crest.

Don't forget to fill your tank in Jersey, which has some of the cheapest prices in the country, usually at least 10 cents a gallon cheaper than in Philly.

Farther south, no beach tags are needed in Rehoboth Beach and other Delaware beaches, except those in state parks. Maryland's Ocean City, the only big Atlantic beach city in the state, is free, too.

GAS CARDS

The summer's discount darling is the gas card - $25 or $50 of gas credit offered by companies that want your business. Often you must earn it: Stay three times at Choice Hotels through Aug. 14 for $50 of gas. Hotels.com's $50 deal requires three nights booked by July 6, travel by Sept. 30. Several major-league baseball teams are  giving gas cards to encourage ticket sales (but not, so far, the Phillies).

Even the Red Cross is biting on this one. Until Sept. 30, the American Red Cross Penn-Jersey Blood Services Region is raffling a $50 gas card daily, with one winner from among the day's blood donors.
Watch for other gascard deals at chain groceries and drugstores.

PARK & BIKE

Biking is the ideal way to cut the engine while you explore, with only heavy breathing to foul the fresh air. All
these trails can be done as day trips or are in areas where the biking can be combined with sightseeing or other diversions.

Schuylkill River Trail/Perkiomen Trails. In our own yard, these two gems together stretch more than 40 miles from near the Philadelphia Museum of Art to Green Lane, Montgomery County, paralleling the Schuylkill to Valley Forge National Park, then Perkiomen Creek to Green Lane Park.

Pine Creek Trail. This breathtaking midstate route has grown in the past decade to 62 miles of crushed-rock trail snaking along the bottom of the Pine Creek Gorge, aka the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, from near Wellsboro to Jersey Shore.

C&O Canal Trail. From Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Md., the towpath along the old Chesapeake & Ohio Canal provides a 180-mile path that can be broken into segments, with highlights on the Potomac River such as Great Falls, Harpers Ferry and Shepherdstown.

Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park. This towpath trail runs for 70 miles from New Brunswick to Milford, N.J., for biking, canoeing, hiking, fishing and horseback riding. The main canal connects New Brunswick and Trenton; the upper portion of the feeder canal follows the Delaware River through historic Frenchtown, Stockton and Lambertville.