Improvements in the travel cost method of estimating demand for a recreational site have focused upon more complete specifications of the per capita demand function. With these refinements have come additional data requirements as well as a host of complex measurement, specification, and estimation issues. The added complexity limits the application of these methods for demand and value estimation, particularly within fisheries and other resource management agencies where the data and necessary economic and statistical skills may be lacking. This paper proposes a shortcut approach to travel cost analysis. Compared to unit-day value methods, the suggested procedures add only modest increases in data requirements and technical skills while capturing the price-quantity relationship and the influence of population distributions around the site. Substitute sites, quality variations, and other complexities of recreation demand must be handled in an ad hoc manner.