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One of the hardest parts of going on vacation is figuring out where do you want to go and what to see while you are there.  Recently we found a book called 1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die which is good for finding places to go categorized by state.  We started by looking neighboring states for some vacations that we could do more vacation than driving.  This book gives about a page of info on each location along with website addresses to find more information which makes your job easier.  My only problem with the book is there are a lot of events listed when interesting places are left out.  If you like food festivals and flower shows this won’t be a problem for you but I was a bit disappointed by some of the entries.  Over all this is still a good guide to find places of interest to you.

After finding places that look interesting searching Google is always a good way to find more info but a couple of sites can really help you out along the way.  The first is Trip Adviser where people write reviews of different areas.  It is a good resource for filling out your vacation itinerary.  The second site which is really helpful and a little less obvious is Flickr.  Tons of people use Flickr to post photos and you know everyone has vacation photos.  For example if you search South Dakota Badlands  you are bound to find pictures of places to go while in the area that might not show up in the travel guides.

There are  a ton more sites out there to fill out your vacation itinerary but these are the ones we always end up using.  A quick tip if you don’t like getting junk mail don’t sign up for the print version of the state/area travel guide don’t sign up for it.  You will be surprised what kind of “mail offers” you will get.  If you do find that your only option is to give them your address a little trick that I learned long ago is to fill in your name with an alternate middle initial.  So if start getting mail for John Z Doe, you will know exactly who sold your information.  Most places are pretty good with keeping your information to travel related businesses in their state but other states just make a quick buck from selling your name to every mass mailing list out there.

Have a favorite travel planning resource post it in the comments.