Even if you have traveled a lot before, visiting new places is always exciting and can be scary. Before you book your trip and pull out your luggage, look over these tips and advice, it should help make planning your vacation a lot easier. Save time and take some of the stress out of vacation planning.

Use a list to help you pack your essentials. You can start your list anytime before you travel. By having a detailed list of what you need, you will take the stress out of packing. Even if you actually pack the stuff at the last moment, you can still be organized and avoid packing unnecessary stuff.

Always keep a picture of your child on you. It can be terrifying to lose your child. It can happen to even the most diligent parents. Being able to show a photo might make a critical difference in the time it takes to locate your child should he or she get lost.

When taking a cruise, find a good hotel in the port city that provides free or low cost parking and make plans to arrive the day before your departure. You can check with staff at the hotel for unpublished parking deals.

Always tip the housekeeper and bell station. Tipping the bellhop around $1 per bag and the housekeeping staff around $2 to $5 per day is certainly not excessive. Tipping the staff will make sure that you receive good service while you are visiting.

Stores often overcharge for such products, and the space you save is minimal. Try to save space in other ways, like packing more efficiently or eliminating unnecessary items. These minimizing tricks will allow you to pack more in a smaller space.

One of the first things you should do before traveling to a foreign country is to determine whether or not you must have a visa. The processing time for travel visas can vary greatly, so it is recommended that you complete the application process well in advance of your departure date. Sometimes you may not be allowed to enter certain countries without a visa.

Get yourself a National Parks Pass if you think you will be visiting often. These passes only need to be renewed annually and are fifty dollars total.

Jet Lag

No matter what the time is in your home-land, make sure you stay out of bed until 8pm local time. This will help you assimilate to the new time zone much quicker, and help to ward off jet lag. If you go to bed early, even if you’re tired, it can make your jet lag stay longer because you keep your body in sync with the time zone from home. So adjust as fast as you can to the new time zone, so you’ll get over being jet lagged faster.

If you use the advice that this article has provided to you, your next vacation will be an enjoyable one. Whether you have been on over ten trips or this being your first, you will have a more memorable and fun trip than you could have ever imagined.