May 15 2011
Travel Planning Tools
It seems that I’m always planning a vacation or getaway or dream trip of some sort. Some come to fruition, and others don’t, but I really enjoy the planning.
Whether planning a day trip or a road trip, I have a number of tools that I use regularly.
Internet: I have a number of websites that I turn to, including
- Google maps, for calculating routes and mileage when driving
- Google search for “CityName Visitors” to quickly find the site for the local or state tourism agency, where I browse online guides or order paper materials
- Roadside America for quirky stops along the way
- Six Suitcase Travel when looking for overnight accommodations for our family of six, which doesn’t fit neatly into most hotel rooms
Travel Guides and Maps: We’ve seldom had to use our AAA membership for roadside assistance, but I find the annual fee more than worthwhile when considering hotel and other discounts and the free maps and Tourbook guides. I get a Tourbook for every region we consider visiting, and my kids love to pore over the maps.
Nationwide Guidebooks: Once we have a destination in place, I pull out my national guidebooks to see what interesting things I can find at our destination and along the way. These include:
- The Next Exit
- National Geographic Complete National Parks
- Reader’s Digest Travel Guide USA
- The Most Scenic Drives in America
- Off the Beaten Path
- Over 1001 Amazing Places to go in North America
- 1000 Places to See (USA/Canada) Before You Die
- Roadside Attractions
- Watch it Made in the USA
- America’s Best Zoos
- National Geographic Scenic Highways and Byways
- Road Trip USA
- Greetings from the Lincoln Highway (if the old road is part of our trip)
- Campgrounds in the USA
Local Guidebooks: Because many of our trips are right here in Minnesota, I’ve amassed a good collection of local guides. If we’re traveling elsewhere, I don’t hesitate to buy an Off the Beaten Path or other helpful family guidebook for our destination. My Minnesota guides include:
- Tales of the Road
- Family Fun Great Lakes guide
- Oddball Minnesota
- Minnesota Curiosities
- Minnesota Family Weekends
- Minnesota’s State Parks
- Minnesota State Parks: A Camper’s Guide
- County Parks of Minnesota
- Minnesota Day Trips by Theme
- Minnesota: Land of 10,000 Lakes
- Minnesota Museums
- Minnesota History Along the Highways
- Hiking Minnesota with Kids
When we get home, we put a pin in our family map for each place that we stopped and did something interesting along the way. We still have a lot of ground to cover, don’t we?
Note: Links to books above are Amazon affiliate links. Some books are no longer available for purchase; check your local library for availability.
What are your favorite vacation-planning tools?
I love the idea of a family map! Time to start one at our house, too.
My favorite local book is published by our Audubon Society. It has descriptions and maps of local hiking trails… we’ve made it a goal to visit all of them. Free and fun!
Great advice, I can’t believe how many local guides there are:)
I am an internet junkie. I start by contacting the places and asking for recommendations.
Then I move on to Tripadvisor and other sources similar.
But I have to say, I find the most info for our trips via bloggers and contacting them, if they traveled there or live there.
Marina K. Villatoro´s last [type] ..Picture This! What a View…
[...] Researching a destination is one of my favorite parts of planning the trip. I order visitor’s guides from our destination and check out travel guides and AAA Tourbooks. I scour websites to find interesting things to do along the way that I may not have heard of before. I’ll pile up as many books as I can find, then sit with a pad of paper and a pencil and jot down absolutely everything that looks interesting. Much of it will be weeded out later due to time, cost, weather, or closures, but I like to start with as many possibilities as I can. [...]