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Trip Tools...Get Set

The following information has been collected throughout 30 years of travel both nationally and internationally. These resources have been separated into three sections:

Get Ready
Get Set

Travel Literature
Group Travel
Organizations
Final Logistics

Travel Literature

Guidebooks	Lonely Planet – My favorite! (www.lonelyplanet.com) Fodors - Great Citypack Guides with full color maps. (www.fodors.com) Rick Steves' – European guides only. (www.ricksteves.com) Frommer’s –Detailed picture guidebook. (www.fromers.com) TimeOut – International information and listings resources. (www.timeout.com)
Travel Narratives	Video Night in Kathmandu – And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East (Pico Iyer) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert M. Pirsig) Fresh Air Fiend – Travel Writing (Paul Theroux) The Masked Rider – Cycling in West Africa (Neil Pert) Travels in a Thin Country – A Journey through Chile (Sara Wheeler)
Anthologies	Chicken Soup for the Traveler’s Soul (Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Steve Zikman) Gifts of the Wild – A Woman’s Book of Adventure (From the Editors of Adventura Books) A Woman’s Passion for Travel – More True Stories from a Woman’s World (Edited by Marybeth Bond and Pamela Michael) Women Travel – Adventures, Advice and Experiences (Edited by Miranda Davis and Natania Jansz) The Best American Travel Writing (2001 – Edited by Paul Theroux, 2004 – Edited by Pico Iyer)
Learning Texts	Do’s and Taboos Around the World – for Women in Business (Roger E. Axtell, Tami Briggs, Margaret Corcoran, and Mary Beth Lamb) Business Travel Guide Europe (Berlitz) The Bad Girl’s Guide to the Open Road (Cameron Tuttle) Women of Discovery – A Celebration of Intrepid Women Who Explored the World (Milbry Polk) How to Be a Carioca – The Alternative Guide for the Tourist in Rio (Priscilla Ann Goslin) The Great Wall (Edited by Lan Peijin and Cao Lei, Foreign Languages Press)
Transformative	The Way of the Traveler – Making Every Trip a Journey of Self-Discovery (Joseph Dispenza) The Art of Pilgrimage – The Seeker’s Guide to Making Travel Sacred (Phil Cousineau) The Power of Travel – A Passport to Adventure, Discovery, and Growth (Steve Zikman) Oh, the Places You’ll Go! – (Dr. Seuss) Passport to the Soul - A Lifelong Journey (Quotes – Compiled by Beth Mende Conny)

Group Travel

www.gonomad.com	Another gigantic site serving independent and alternative travelers and traveler businesses. Click on Tours in the header then select a Destination and a particular Tour Type to find a match.
www.shawguides.com	Looking for an inspirational tour? A learning adventure? Shawguides contains links to everything from weekend retreats to year long volunteer opportunities.
www.womenstravelclub.com	Organizes group trips for women. Approximately 25-30 trips a year ranging from 3 nights to 3 weeks in places such as Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Far East.

Organizations

www.goabroad.com	Check out Go Abroad to discover opportunities like study abroad programs, internships, teaching, and jobs abroad. Sort by countries to find the right opportunity for you.
www.tia.org	The Travel Industry Association of America is a Washington D.C. based non-profit organization that has up-to-the-minute information that affect the U.S. Travel Industry.
www.idealist.org	A project of Action Without Borders, this site contains over 47,000 nonprofit and community organizations in 165 countries. Search volunteer opportunities to locate one in the country, city of choice.

Final Logistics

Storage	For longer trips store clothes and furniture in a nearby unit. Shop for the perfect cost and location considering accessibility, weather (not near flood or fire zones), bugs, overall cleanliness. Pack one box of important files and mementos. Keep near the front. Car storage is expensive. Try finding a friend or family member to take it for you and drive it once in awhile to keep the car running.
Packing	There are lot’s of resources in guidebooks and on location specific websites for deciding what types of items to pack. In terms of clothes, I recommend laying everything out on the bed and then take only half. People typically pack more than necessary. For the frequent traveler, create a list of “Always” items, example; camera, Ipod, batteries, gift. Then reuse for every trip.
Money	For short trips, calculate your total budget. Subtract hard costs (airfare, hotel, rental car.) With the leftover money, divide by the number of days to figure the daily budget. For longer trips I recommend dividing monies into three accounts. The last one being start-up money for when you return. Assign a trusted friend or family member a Power of Attorney over your account for emergency purposes.
www.mytripjournal.com	Designed to keep an online account of your travels, this site allows the user to create a template based website with mapping systems, journal entries and photo storage. Use the 45 days free access to test it out or sign up for the standard or premium package ranging from $19 to $89. Eliminate re-writing the same email while on the road.