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WHAT'S NEW
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5 travel-planning tips
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Learn how to pick the right destination, what to pack and how to avoid lineups.
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By Andrea Chrysanthou
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Planning a vacation is a learned art. While almost anyone can buy a plane ticket, pack a bag and fly away, it takes a lot more work to design a first-rate vacation. Rick Steves, author of numerous travel books including Europe Through the Back Door (Avalon, 2002), spends three months a year travelling. He's a big believer in researching and planning your own trips: "Equip yourself with good information and you will travel smart."
Steves' books and travel shows are packed with hundreds of suggestions on how to make the most of your vacation. The following are some of his favourite tried-and-true tips.
1. Enjoy the planning stages of your trip
Steves says you should arm yourself with sufficient information before booking your trip. "Some people say they don't want to spend money on guide books, but what's spending $15 to maximize a trip that's costing you $3,000?" Travel guides not only include standard information on what to see and when to go but they can also reveal where to buy the best attraction tickets, how to get discounts and how to avoid red tape.
2. Include the whole family in the planning
Steves warns that when travelling with young children, you may not be able to squeeze in as many activities as you could in an all-adult trip. He suggests packing heavier with kids and using a vehicle for transportation rather than relying on local transit. As far as teens are concerned, Steves warns that if you don't include them in the planning, they may feel resentment and not enjoy the trip.
3. Pack light
All good travellers know the advantages of packing light. Steves takes it one step further and urges people who travel on his tours to pack only carry-on luggage. "With congested airports and lineups for baggage pickup and customs, you can save so much time by packing minimally," he says. This also allows you to be more mobile while travelling on the ground.
4. Avoid lines
Steves suggests making reservations and buying advance tickets for numerous attractions in Europe -- while others may wait hours to get into Rome's Colisseum or Paris' Louvre, you can walk right in. "It's a big waste if you have one day in a city and you spend a quarter of it in line," he adds.
5. When in Rome...
Steves recommends that you don't think like a tourist but rather try to emulate the local residents. "When you're on holidays, there are a lot of local resources that aren't necessarily [widely] known," he says. He suggests asking for hints from staff or patrons in local hotels, restaurants and gift shops.
For more information about Rick Steves, go to www.ricksteves.com.
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