Being sick is always a drag. But being sick when you’re away from home is doubly so. Toughing it out in a strange hotel room with none of the items that might make your feel better is miserable. In fact, the only thing that’s worse is being on a crowded plane or train, unable to sleep or get any rest.

We’ve been stricken in Africa, South America, Alaska, and Europe, and an ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure. And though you can’t prevent everything, you can stack the odds in your favor.

Most of the time, we get sick because our immune system is compromised in some way. And when you’re traveling, interrupted sleep patterns, changes in diet, and other interruptions in routine can make you especially vulnerable.

Over the years, we’ve found that the best defense is a good offense. So here are a few things you can do to keep yourself strong and healthy:

1) Be careful about what you eat and where you eat. If anything seems even slightly off, don’t put it in your mouth. Wash your hands or treat them with an antibacterial before you touch your food. And don’t eat anywhere with poor sanitation. Pack a couple granola bars or bags of nuts for times when you’re hungry but there’s nothing good to eat.

2) Drink wine with your meals – it actually helps prevent salmonella. And in many areas, the local wine is one the highlights.

3) Don’t eat fruits and veggies that are mostly water in areas where the water is bad. And speaking of fruit, if you don’t eat a lot of it at home, don’t go crazy at the breakfast buffet. Go easy and give your digestive system time to adjust.

4) Do pack a few Immodium AD pills with your toiletries, in case of emergency. And by emergency, I mean that you can’t stay out of the bathroom but you have to spend the next 12 hours on a plane.

5) Take any over-the-counter medications that you use at home with you on your trip. If you get indigestion or hives or a cold once a year, you’ll get it on your vacation. That’s how it works. So having whichever remedy works for you will save you a lot of grief. Often, if you can nip something in the bud, it won’t fully develop.

6) Don’t drink too much – especially not on the plane where dehydration is a real problem. Yes, you’re on vacation. And yes, those mai tais are the best ever. But being moderate will keep you feeling fine. And trust me, you do not want to visit the Parthenon with a hangover anyway.

7) Drink as much water as you can. Bottled water is for sale everywhere, and in Europe, most restaurants will bring you a carafe of water to drink with your meal. Try to finish it off before you leave the restaurant.

8) Eat a well-balanced diet. Trying new foods is one of the great pleasures of travel. But make sure you get plenty of veggies and whole grains too.

9) Try to get enough sleep. Although it’s hard when you have jet lag, make an effort. If you wake up at 3AM and you’re “done” for the night, just lay there quietly and try to rest your mind and body anyway.

10) Get some exercise. Getting up your heart rate and working up a sweat are great ways to stay healthy and keep extra pounds at bay. If your hotel doesn’t have a fitness center, take a brisk, uphill walk. Even thirty-minutes a day will help.

Taking these simple precautions will help ensure that you feel great during your travels.

Find more travel advice here. And more trip planning tips here.

Screen grab of Arles map that we created in Google Maps

That’s why we always take detailed maps and travel directions wherever we go. Plus a GPS. For us, knowing how to get where we’re going is a trip planning essential that makes travel a lot easier.

Websites like Google Maps and Via Michelin let you get detailed point-to-point driving directions and generate your own travel maps quickly and easily.

But for a three-week trip, that’s a lot of paper to carry, especially when you add email confirmations, and other documents.

For our upcoming trip to France, we wanted to figure out a way to take our maps and travel directions without hauling around a lot of hardcopy. And since cell service and Internet access aren’t always givens, we wanted something that would always be available – even when those weren’t.

Our solution: a netbook and screen captures.

Screen grab of map showing travel directions from Avignon TGV station.

The netbook gives us most of the benefits of a laptop computer – Internet access and a nearly full-size keyboard and monitor for easy reading. And it does it all in a lightweight, pintsized package.

We used Google Maps and Via Michelin to get travel directions to the places we planned to visit, and to create local maps for the attractions near our hotels. Then we did screen grabs of the maps, so that we would always have a digital image on hand.

If you have a Mac, it’s really simple. Just hold down the Apple key, the shift key, and the number four. Your pointer will turn into a crosshair icon that you drag to form a border around the area you want to capture.

Screen grab of an email

Screen captures aren’t just for web pages either. You can grab a picture of an email, a photograph, or anything else on your desktop.

Read how to do screen grabs on a PC at http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/general/ht/winscreenshot.htm

Find more trip planning tips here.

Back in the old days, when you were going somewhere, you went to a travel agency, and they arranged everything for you.

They reserved your flights, hotels, and rental car with a Computerized Reservations System (CRS) like Sabre or Apollo. And when they were done, out popped a written itinerary showing every detail of your travels – in triplicate.

They folded it in thirds, tucked it into your ticket jacket along with your ticket – this is the old days we’re talking about – and you were all set. All your confirmation numbers, hotel addresses and phone numbers, etc. in one place.

But those days are long gone, and if you’re like most of us, you make your reservations yourself, online. Consequently, you have emails from all over confirming your arrangements. And while you really should carry all those hardcopies with you, shuffling through them to find what you’re looking for is a bad idea.

It’s much smarter to create an itinerary that shows all your travel arrangements at a glance. There are several travel websites that will help you do this, such as Tripit or NileGuide. But for years, I’ve used an Excel spread sheet to create an itinerary that lists everything I need to know on a couple of pages.

It ain’t pretty. But it’s fast and easy to do, free, and over the years it’s saved us countless hassles.

We always pack a copy in each of our bags, especially if we’re checking them. If our bag does get misplaced, the itinerary shows where we’ll be, when. It also provides contact information so we can be reached anywhere.

Twice, this has helped us recover our bags quickly. In Buenos Aires, our bag was returned to us in hours because the itinerary made us easy to locate.

Here’s the template I use. It describes in detail a week’s worth of travel arrangements – flights, hotels, transfers, tours, dinner reservations, ferries, and more – on a single 8-1/2” x 11” piece of paper.

You can do it any way you like, but here’s why I like this layout:

1) Numbering the days makes it easy to figure out things like how much the pet sitter will cost or how many days to stop newspaper delivery. And once I get a total trip cost, it’s easy to calculate the per diem.

2) Showing the days of the week alerts me to possible closures that may impact what we can do. In many places, most things are closed on Sundays, so that’s a good day to visit the museums. Many museums are closed on Mondays, so I’ll check to see when they’re open and make sure we have time for a visit on Sunday or Tuesday. It’s also helpful to know when you’re going to be somewhere on a weekend. As a rule, you’re more likely to need reservations for restaurants, clubs, sightseeing cruises, etc. on Saturday night. If you’re in town on a Tuesday, you might be able to get by without them.

3) The rest is pretty self-explanatory. There’s room for detailed contact information and confirmation numbers, as well as any additional notes.

We email the itinerary to friends and family so they’ll know where we’ll be and leave a copy for the pet sitter in case she needs to reach us. I use a yellow marker to highlight the hotel names and telephone numbers.

Find more trip planning ideas here.

Restaurant on the ile Saint-Louis

With a better understanding of French culture and more realistic expectations, these problems can usually be avoided. So be sure to do a little trip planning in advance. It will help you feel more relaxed and more confident when you dine in French restaurants – which also aids in digestion.

Before you arrive at the restaurant.

Americans love to eat and run. If we’re not having lunch in the car, we’re eating dinner on the couch in front of the TV. To Americans, dinner and a movie is a single thought.

To the French, dinner is what you do in the evening. It lasts for hours, and it’s not something you hurry through in order to get to something else. So don’t go out to dinner if you don’t have enough time for dinner.

Arriving at a restaurant at 7:30PM when you have to be somewhere at 9:00PM or even 9:30PM, is just asking for trouble. Don’t think that you can just tell the waiter in your fractured French that you’re in a hurry. It won’t make any difference, and you’ll end up very unhappy.

You’ll receive better treatment if you make reservations in advance. If you’re intimidated by speaking French over the phone, have your concierge make the reservations for you. Or stop by if they’re open for lunch and do it in person.

A Boulangerie in the Marais

Unless you want to be the only ones in the restaurant, or surrounded by other Americans, make your dinner reservations for 8:30 or later.

Do dress appropriately. Yes, after wandering the streets of Paris all day, your feet will be tired. But suck it up and wear real shoes to dinner. And change out of your jeans. The better dressed you are, the better you’ll be treated.

And learn at least a few phrases in French.

At the restaurant.

When you come in, wait politely for someone to come to you. Say “bonsoir,” and address that person as “madame,” “monsieur,” or “mademoiselle.” If you have a reservation, tell them your name. And thank them for showing you to your table. Be as polite as you know how to be. And turn off your cell phone.

If you like water with your meal, order a carafe of tap water (un carafe d’eau). It’s free and perfectly acceptable. If you prefer bottled water, order it. But don’t do it to impress anyone. It’ wont.

Don’t order a soft drink unless you enjoy abuse. And don’t order coffee with your meal. Coffee is taken after dinner, and that means after, not with, dessert. House wine (vin de maison) is usually pretty good. If you want something better, ask your waiter to recommend something. As a rule, it’s not necessary to spend a lot to get very good wine. So don’t choose your wine from the right side of the menu.

Do NOT use your hand sanitizer at the table. And try not to leave the table during the meal. It’s considered rude. If the people at the next table can hear your conversation, you’re talking too loudly. And don’t ask to split dishes, or even worse, take something home. The chef has served you his creation at its absolute best. He doesn’t want you eating it tomorrow cold from a carton.

Do expect to be ignored. This is a sign of respect. Think of it this way – the servants at Buckingham Palace don’t stare at the Queen while she eats. They pretend to be invisible. Your server will do this too. If you need to get his attention, try to do so discretely. And whatever you do, don’t say “garcon.”

To the French, rushing you through your meal would be the height of rudeness. The longer it takes them to clear your first course, the more time they’re giving you to enjoy it.

After dinner.

Floating restaurant on the Seine

Once you’re ready for the check — chances are very good that you will not receive it without asking for it — tell your waiter “l’addition, s’il vous plait.” If he’s across the room, make the international “I’m writing in mid-air gesture.”

In France, tax and tip are automatically included in the bill. But it’s customary to leave a 10 to 15% tip in cash. Euros, not dollars. Thank your waiter and anyone else you encountered, and bid them “Bonne nuit.”

Hopefully, these trip planning tips will help you understand the French point of view and feel more comfortable dining in France.

Read more articles about travel in France here.

Trevi Fountain Rome

But Rome is very much a city of the present. So your trip planning should include some insider experiences that let you enjoy la dolce vita away from the crowds.

Here are some of our tips for having the best possible time in Rome:

* Not that long ago, a visit to Rome involved spending your time waiting in line, often for hours. But Rome’s attractions have entered the 21st century, and now it’s possible to make reservations and purchase tickets for many of them in advance. A service called 060608 lets you reserve museums, exhibitions, concerts, and more with a single telephone call. From the U.S., dial 011-39-060608 between 9AM and 10:30PM Roman time. English-speaking operators can help you make reservations for the Coliseum, the Capitoline Museum, or the Borghese Gallery with just a credit card. Or visit their web site at www.060608.it/en

Borghese Gardens

* Traveling in Rome can be tiring. The incessant buzzing of Vespas — the word means wasp in Italian — the crowds, and the heat can really take it out of you. So why not reenergize yourself the way the ancient Romans did — with a nice hot soak. Rome’s first Turkish bath, or hamman, opened a couple of years ago near Piazza Mattei. At Acqua Madre, you’ll move progressively from cooler to warmer pools, being massaged, steamed, and kneaded along the way. By the time you’re through, you’ll be completely mellow and ready for anything.

* Fans of Art Nouveau, known in Italy as the Liberty style, should allow time to visit the Quartiere Coppede. It’s not far from the Villa Borghese, near the Piazza Buenos Aires. Built between 1919 and 1926 by Florentine architect Gino Coppede, it’s a little architectural wonderland. The entrance, off Via Dora, is through a giant, medieval-looking arch that is covered with reliefs of bees, lions, and mythological creatures. The dozen buildings here feature elaborate ironwork, turrets, mosaic tiles, winding staircase, and elaborate brickwork. Look for the Fountain of the Frogs, the Palazzo of the Spider, and the charming Fairy Cottages.

* Traffic in Rome can be brutal, and the distances between sights can really take a toll on your feet. But there’s another way to see the glory that was Rome — on two wheels. On Sundays, the Via Appia Antica and the Via Fori dei Imperiali are closed to cars and bikes rule the day. There are several bike rental places in town — ask your hotel concierge which is most convenient for you. You can take a guided-tour with a group or just head out on your own. Pedaling past the Coliseum and the olive groves and cypress trees of the old military road is a travel memory you won’t soon forget.

* Antique lovers should head for Via dei Coronari, where more than 40 antique dealers sell everything from furniture to jewelry. The narrow, pedestrian-only street leads all the way to Piazza Navona, and it’s lined with buildings dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. The best time to shop is during the Fiera dell’Antiquariato, which takes place in mid-May and mid-October.

Coliseum Rome

* Mozzarella is on virtually every menu in Rome. But no place has as many varieties as Obika, which features “flights” of hand-made mozzarella, including Paestum, Pontina, Smoked, Stracciatella di Burrata and Ricotta di Bufala. In addition to the mozzarella bar, Obika also has traditional antipasti items, salads, crostini from the wood oven, pastas, and desserts. The location in Piazza di Firenze proved so popular that there’s now a second Obika at Piazza Campo dei Fiori.

Read our trip planning tips for Paris here. And find more Italy travel info here.

A lot of people don’t do any travel planning before they go on vacation.  They just show up and let whatever happens, happen.

But if you’re like most of us, you have a lot invested in your vacation, both financially and emotionally.  A little pre-trip planning can save you money, eliminate hassles, and maximize your precious time.

Before your trip, check out the destination guides at travel sites like fodors.com, frommers.com, or our sister site, tripaddiction.com.  In just a few minutes, you can learn the sights and experiences that no traveler should miss.

Many of the most popular sights, like the Sistine Chapel or the Eiffel Tower, can have really long lines.  So consider purchasing your tickets in advance.  You may pay extra for the convenience.  But how much is three or four hours of your time worth when you’re only in Paris for a few days.

Viator.com sells tours, day-trips, and activities in 450 destinations – everything from camel rides in Dubai to helicopter rides in San Francisco.  But you can often find other options by doing a Google search for “Uffizi tickets” or “Alhambra reservations.”

We’re not big fans of group tours, but sometimes a tour will get you in and out of a popular attraction with no waiting, and you’ll see several others sights while you’re at it.

Even if you’re not traveling abroad, some advance travel planning can still be well worth the effort.  Food is a big vacation expense, and if you only eat at restaurants on the tourist trail, you’ll pay through the nose, and the quality may not be the greatest.

To find a wide array of restaurants, check out the local newspaper website or weekly periodical.   Many have online dining guides with restaurant reviews, top ten lists, and special events.  The information is usually very current, and you’ll find restaurants in all cuisines and price ranges.

If you’re traveling to a major city, another good source of restaurant information is Timeout.com.  Looking for a curry house in Buenos Aires?  This is the place.

Concerts, plays, cultural festivals, art exhibits, and other events can really enhance a vacation.  Even if you’re not an opera, classical, jazz, or bluegrass fan, consider stepping out of your comfort zone and doing something you wouldn’t ordinarily do at home.

Since many of the most popular events sell out well in advance, plan ahead to avoid disappointment.  A Google search for Paris concerts, Honolulu events, or Las Vegas entertainment calendar will usually get you where you want to go.

Just a little bit of travel planning can transform any vacation from good to great.  So next time you plan a trip, take an extra few minutes to make it exceptional.

Get more travel planning info here.

Almost everyone we know loves to travel.  But for the average vacationer, trip planning can be a real hassle.  Just figuring out where to go and what to do can take hours of research.

Is it any wonder that most people just take the easy way out and book a cruise or vacation package?

But doing your own travel planning has lots of advantages.  First of all, you don’t have to be surrounded by tourists if you don’t want to be.  Making your own arrangements gives you more options.  And it’s often less expensive.

It doesn’t have to take a lot of time, and there are plenty of travel sites and online resources to help you plan a trip.  The first step is to answer these simple questions:

1) What kind of travel experience are you looking for?

There are as many kinds of trips as there are travelers.  Do you want to kick back and relax, enjoy an active outdoor vacation, or drink in the splendor of ancient Rome – as well as the wine?  If you’re not sure, think back on the travel experiences you’ve enjoyed the most.

If your fondest travel memories are of hiking in the mountains, a big city like London or New York probably isn’t right for you.  Love Las Vegas nightlife?  Cross Tahiti off your list – everyone there is tucked in by 10PM.  Want to shop till you drop?  Check out the currency exchange rate.  Shopping’s not much fun when everything costs twice as much as it does at home.

Once you’ve figure out what kind of vacation sounds good, figure out:

2) How much time do you have?

These days, jets can take you anywhere in a fraction of the time it used to take cruise liners and trains.  But just because you can travel somewhere in twelve hours doesn’t mean you’ll be bright eyed and bushy-tailed once you get there.

You should figure on one day of jet lag recovery for every time zone you cross.  If your dream destination is more than seven times zones away, don’t go for less than a week.  Otherwise, it will be time to go home just when you’re hitting your stride.

With two weeks vacation – 14 nights away from home – you can go almost anywhere you like.  Don’t plan on much activity for the first couple of days, and remember to schedule days off into your itinerary.  Sometimes you just want to loaf, no matter where you are.

With one week, you’ll probably enjoy your vacation more if your destination is less than a six-hour flight away.  And don’t fly more than three or four hours for a long weekend.   Remember all the time spend getting to and from the airport, and standing in line.

By now, you should have a pretty good idea of how far you can go.   Next, ask yourself:

3) How much money do you want to spend?

Want to practice your French, wander down cobbled streets, and dine on Coq au Vin?  Montreal’s got it all for about half the price of Paris.  Looking for a secluded beach you can call your own?   If you’re willing to hike ten minutes, there’s one on Kauai for a lot less than that private island in Tahiti.

Most travel experiences are available in a wide variety of price ranges.  So figure out what you can afford, and then back out the cost of meals.  Many people underestimate how much they’ll spend on food.  So unless you intend to be very frugal, add another 30% to the cost of your trip.  After all, dining is one of the best parts of traveling.

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ve already started the trip planning process.  The next step is to start doing some research.  For an introduction to travel sites that can help you with that, read the best travel sites for planning a trip.

Read more trip planning tips here.

Best Travel Sites

Do a Google search for “travel,” and you’ll see that there are nearly 800 million sites on the topic.

So how do you know which travel sites can actually help you with your trip planning, and which ones you should check out first?

If you read Trip planning basics – three key questions to ask yourself before you plan a trip, you probably have some idea where you want to go.   So figuring out how much it will cost to get there is a good first step.

There are several sites that compare airfares, but a couple are head and shoulders above the rest.  For airfare within or originating in the United States, Kayak.com is hard to beat.  Not only do they list fares for virtually all domestic carriers, when you click on the fare you want, you’ll be routed directly to the airline’s website for booking.

A calendar showing fares by date makes it’s easy to see how much you could save by traveling midweek or going a earlier or later than planned.

Sidestep.com is another excellent airfare comparison site.  It pulls information from over 600 airlines.

You may have heard about the ridiculously cheap airfare in Europe — sometimes it costs as little as $2 to fly from London to Italy.  There are plenty of hidden charges, but if you’re flexible and traveling light, they can still be a bargain.

Dohop.com is the best place to find these deals.  It lists fares for EasyJet, Ryanair, and other discount airlines.   Just be sure to read all the fine print before booking.  Last time we looked, Ryanair led the industry in customer complaints.

Recently, the airlines have begun charging for advance seat assignments and exit-row seats.  Before you pay for the privilege, you should probably visit Seatexpert.com or Seatguru.com.   Either one will help you find the most desirable seats on your flight.

Once you have your flights figured out, or at least know how much to budget, you can start researching hotels.

Many people love tripadvisor.com.  In fact, it has over 25 million user-generated hotels reviews.   We use it to get ideas, but the couple of times we’ve reserved hotels based exclusively on tripadvisor, we’ve been disappointed.  Not everyone has the same taste, so even though tripadvisor users think a place is great, you could still hate it.

If you do find a hotel on tripadvisor that interests you, look for a professional recommendation before you book.  Fodors.com and Frommers.com both provide objective, professional reviews.

Venere.com is a great travel site for European hotels.  It represents lots of small inns that you won’t find on bigger sites.

When you’ve chosen a hotel and you’re ready to book, don’t waste a lot of time comparing prices.  Two or three parent companies own most of the hotel booking sites, so prices don’t vary much.  If you find a room for a lot less, make sure you’re comparing apples to apples.  Rates can vary a lot by room type.

Many sites now require payment upfront for the best available rate.  And often, these rates are nonrefundable.  So read the terms and conditions carefully, especially the cancellation policy.

And before you make your reservations, be sure to contact the hotel directly – especially if you’re making your plans at the last minute.  They’re often willing to negotiate.  They usually don’t require prepayment except in high-demand periods.  And their cancellation policy is usually more liberal.

With a place to stay and a way to get there, all the heavy lifting is done.  The next phase of trip planning is figuring out what to do when you get there.  For advice on that, read Travel planning tips to help you save time, reduce hassles, and make the most of your vacation.

Read more travel advice here.

Airplane window image Flickr: contraption