Never leave home without it. Use a trip planner for all of your trips, long or short. It will keep you on track with your itinerary and you'll have handy maps and mileage calculations and even gasoline usage requirements. You can check to see what the rate of exchange is in the currency where you are going and check the weather forecast to know what to pack.
Use trip planning software that has been loaded on your computer or look up free trip planning sites on the Internet.
Enter the point of origination for your trip, along with dates, if required. Enter your destination also. Some trip planning programs can generate a list of destinations you might want to see based on your selection of activities and vice-versa.
Have the program generate points of interest along your route that you may want to visit.
Read blogs from other travelers concerning your travel destinations.
Generate a turn-by-turn roadmap for a road trip or use the trip planner to book flights, hotels and rental cars. The planner will show exactly how many miles it is from point to point and give you road numbers and street names.
Print out maps, itineraries and instructions to take with you on your trip. Save your itineraries to the hard drive on your computer for emailing to friends and relatives so they will know your whereabouts.
