Travel Tips

Travel Sites

Travel Books

  1. The Unofficial Guide Walt Disney World 2010
  2. National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the United States
  3. Diners, Drive-ins and Dives Diners, Drive-ins and Dives: An All-American Road Trip . . . with Recipes! (Food Network)
  4. 2010 New York City Restaurants (Zagatsurvey: New York City Restaurants)
  5. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
  6. Rick Steves' Italy 2010 with map

Source: Amazon.com's Top-100 Best Seller's in Travel

One of the best ways to ruin a trip is poor planning. Planning, whether it's done a year in advance or a week in advance, is critical to a successful and hopefully safe trip.

The extent of planning depends on the destination, but here are a few simple trips that should help regardless of traveling at home or abroad.

An Assortment of Pictures around New York City. Times Square, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Rockefeller Building

Travel "DO'S"

  1. Plan Early
  2. Be Flexible with Dates
  3. Have Several Options for Destinations
  4. Research those Destinations
  5. If traveling domestically, look for free events in that area (New York City is great for this)
  6. Directionally challenge? Use sites like mapquest to print out the directions for all of the places you want to go
  7. Have a list of the addresses and phone numbers for places you plan to go as well
  8. Probably the most important: Have all documentations...ie passports, visas, green cards, etc. prepared at least 3 to 6 months in advance. It can take a long time to acquire these documents depending on the destination.
  9. If you're traveling to Europe, it may be smart to purchase travel converter plugs for your electronic
  10. Keep an inventory of the things that you brought with you in case you encouter theft.

Travel "DONT'S"

  1. Don't wait until the last minute
  2. Don't be a schedule nazi. Leave wiggle room in the travel schedule. Who knows? There might be a cute little restaurant or museum that's worth getting off schedule for.
  3. Don't forget the camera. You're going to want to capture those unforgettable moments.
  4. Don't just let anyone drive you around. Make sure that he or she is credible (e.g. they have an ID on them with their work information).
  5. Don't forget to check the exchange rates of money for the country.
  6. If the trip is going to be longer than two weeks, don't leave your house unprotected where you live.
  7. Don't forget to leave the pets in a shelter or with a responsible friend or family member. It would be a shame if fluffy, the poodle, wasn't there when you returned.