Travel Tips: How to plan the perfect vacation

The first step in planning any family vacation is deciding where and when you are going. It is best to decide at least six months prior to leaving.

Once you have decided where to go, the next step is how to get there. This really depends on how far from home you are going and how much time off from work you are taking.

If you are going a great distance and want more quality time at your vacation destination, you may consider flying. Although, if you enjoy the travel as much as the destination, driving is the best alternative. To drive takes only a couple of decisions more. You must route out you trip, estimate milage, and estimate gasoline expenses.

Now that you know where you are going and how you are getting there, start making all necessary reservations. If you reserve airline tickets, rental cars, and hotel/motel accomodations early, they are usually cheaper. Anything you can reserve early-Do it! It will save you hassels later. Once you have made reservations, keep all the information in a handy place.

Now you can decide how much money needs to be available for the trip and start a savings plan. Set aside a certain amount every month in preparation for the trip.

Also, decide who will take care of your pets or if they will go to a kennel to be boarded. Call your veterinarian to check on your pet's current vaccinations.

Ask a trustworthy neighbor or family member to collect your mail and newspapers or have them held while you are away. If you have houseplants that are easy to care for, you can leave them in a bathtub with an inch or two of standing water while you are away. If your plants are complicated, you may ask a neighbor or family member to plant sit.

About one or two weeks before the trip, begin reconfirming all reservations to ensure everything is in order. Now is the time to remind neighbors/family members about watering your plants or collecting your mail. If you choose to have mail and newspapers held, this would be the time to set that up.

Go to the bank and get traveler's cheques for the bulk of your spending money. Try to keep about $50.00 cash for on the road snacks and small souvenirs.

Get out your luggage to decide what you need for each family member. If traveling by car, remember to pack a bag of activities and snacks for younger trip takers. If you are traveling by plane, choose what you think will really occupy your children as the carry-on bag will have to be smaller.

Packing to make sure you don't forget anything is simple. Go into each room of your house and think about what you use on a daily basis from that room. This will ensure that you will not miss any common items such as a toothbrush.

Visualize a wardrobe for every family member taking into consideration the climate of your vacation destination. Even if you travel to a warm destination always bring at least one warm outfit and a light jacket in case the temperature drops unexpectedly.

The day before you leave, drop the pets off at their respective places for boarding. Make sure all the bags are packed and you have all necessary paperwork readily accessible. Before you leave, put plants in bathtub with one inch standing water and make sure all appliances are turned off.

6 Tips For Travel

Have you been on a vacation lately? If not, why not? Everyone needs to get away a few times a year. It doesn't matter what you do. Not taking some time off from where you work can lead to a very unhappy you. It will make you not want to be at your job. It will put you in a bad mood when you realize that you have not had a break in a very long time.

When you finally do decide to take that much needed time off, the following tips can make your vacation a lot less stressful and much more relaxing. After all, a vacation's whole purpose is for you to recharge your batteries. The less things you have to worry about during the time off you have, the more enjoyable your time away will be.

1) Make sure your reservation is intact. There is nothing more stressful than getting to where you are staying only to find out there is no reservation for you. Call the place you are staying at least a week ahead of time to make sure all is in order.

2) Decide which credit cards you will be taking with you to use. If you have many credit cards, do not take them all with you. If for some reason you lose one or they get stolen, you will only have to deal with the ones you know that you brought. By limiting the cards you bring, you limit having to remember every card that you have.

3) Get travelers checks to pay for the all inclusive fee. This will diminish the amount of cash you have to carry. IF they get stolen or you somehow lose them, you can get more. If you have cash there is no replacing that. Just be sure to keep the travelers checks separate from the the form with their serial numbers on them.

4) Book your flight so you can be at your resort in the morning. The resort will let you use all of the facilities while you wait for your room to be ready. You will get a whole day in the sun by doing this.

5) Carry a backpack or something similar. Put a swimsuit in there and a change of clothes. You never know when that airlines will lose your luggage. This way you have a day to wait if you luggage gets to the wrong destination.

6) Bring tip money. A little tipping here and there will go a long way. The staff will be very appreciative and you will be surprised at how much better the service you get will be. Remember, always be nice to the bartenders. If they don't like you, they will try and not serve you. Besides, your on vacation. Be nice and people will be nice to you.

If you follow the 6 tips you will be on your way to a stress free start to a well deserved vacation full of fun and relaxation.

Travelling Benefits and Possibilities

When we are doing something we usually desire to get some other benefits from it. The thing is that the combination of travelling while learning something else seems to be quite appealing. Thus it's not surprising that this is the case while stopping on some specific destination point.

Well, let's start with the most typical reason to travel abroad. I bet that no one would disagree with the idea that it's simply either learning a new language or mastering the learnt one.

While this is the first benefit while travelling you should pay attention to some more practical usages of the tour. One of these options is culinary tours. During this kind of tours tourists usually travel to the original countries of some specific cuisine and thus learn how to make dishes from the locals.

For those who prefer sports- gyms and fitness centers usually provide various trips during which you can exercise you body when climbing mountains and find the spiritual calmness with yoga. Another great option her is to practice the water sports. They are believed to give lots of adrenaline and impressions.

As for those who prefer to stop at the extreme ways of time leisure the offer of learning how to ride a race car or a motorcycle will seem appealing enough, if not taking into account the possibilities of riding such cars as Ferrari and Lamborghini in Italy.

If all of this is not enough for you then you can also start a new hobby and travel to Egypt to learn how to make drawings from the sand, Batik technique somewhere in Asia or simply flamenco in Spain.

The fact of tourism

The World Tourism Organization (WTO) recently released their data for the world's top tourist destinations for 1998. Below is a list of the twenty top countries that received tourists for more than one day, along with the number of visitors for 1998.

1. France - 70,000,000

2. Spain - 47,743,000

3. United States - 47,127,000

4. Italy - 34,829,000

5. United Kingdom - 25,475,000

6. China - 24,000,000

7. Mexico - 19,300,000

8. Poland - 18,820,000

9. Canada - 18,659,000

10. Austria - 17,282,000

11. Germany - 16,504,000

12. Czech Republic - 16,325,000

13. Russia - 15,810,000

14. Hungary - 14,660,000

15. Portugal - 11,800,000

16. Greece - 11,077,000

17. Switzerland - 11,025,00

18. Hong Kong* - 9,600,000

19. Turkey - 9,200,000

20. Thailand - 7,720,000

*Though Hong Kong was considered separately, it is a Special Administrative Region of China.

From the WTO's fascinating list, additional details can be discerned. For example, France receives 11.2% of the world's travelers. Spain, Portugal, and Greece each had large jumps in the number of tourists between 1997 and 1998 (10%, 16%, and 10%, respectively). Hungary suffered a drop of 15% and China's number of tourists decreased by 7.7%.

Countries that many people often associate with travel, were not on the list of the top twenty. Surprisingly, countries such as Croatia (31st) and South Africa (25th) beat Japan (32nd), Australia (33rd), and Brazil (39th). Overall, the top 20 countries account for 73.6% of all visits worldwide.