If you're a road warrior, these travel tips will help reduce the stress of your journeys.

1. Choose your Travel Modality Wisely Planes, trains or automobiles: what's the choice to be? While air travel is clearly the only way to go for long journeys, shorter trips of a couple of hundred miles might be faster via train, bus or auto.
When making your decision, consider time spent traveling to and from airports, plus time spent lining up for check in, security and departure. Also consider the effects inclement weather can have on your travel choice. It's no fun hearing the announcement that your plane can't land due to poor visibility and you'll be returning to your departure airport.

2. Consider Alternative Airports
If you're flying, consider alternative airports that are outside the city you're going to visit. As a rule, these airports have fewer flights, less overbooking and less delays than their larger counterparts.

3. Obtain an International Drivers License
If traveling outside your own country, an international driver's license will be more readily recognized than your locally issued driver's license. The cost is not prohibitive and in most regions, the licenses are easily obtained by showing your local driver's license. Inquire at your local Automobile Association.

4. Get Your Maps Before You Leave Home
Travel is less stressful if you know how to get around. Before leaving home, obtain maps of your destination city. One approach is to visit web sites such as City Search (http://www.citysearch.com/) and print out maps. Place your printed maps in plastic folders for protection against the elements. Trying to read a road map while
standing on a rainy street corner has its obvious disadvantages.

5. Carry Electronic Documents Rather than Hard Copy
Rather than carry heavy stacks of brochures or sales letters, take electronic documents on diskettes and have them printed at a local printing service. Similarly, if you are working a booth in a trade show, it's a good idea to carry electronic documents in case you run out of the stack you shipped from the office.

6. Find Hotels that Cater to Business Travelers
Hotels that cater to business travelers will have Internet capabilities and offer access to business machines such as faxes and photocopiers.

7. Remember Adaptors and Converters
If you're traveling to a foreign country, remember that you might need special voltage adaptors for electricity. You might also need plug adapters to accommodate both electrical plugs and telephone jacks. A good travel store will be able to help you decide what's needed.

8. Use Calling Cards
When you're staying at a hotel, the phone bill can be a major expense. The cost of calling your family,  checking your voice mail and checking your email is best handled by using a telephone calling card or a corporate credit card.

9. Check your Cellular Service
Cellular phone companies regularly offer new rates. Check to be sure you're getting the best deal -- some now include long distance charges in the monthly fee. If your business travel will take you to small, out-of-the way towns, your digital phone might not work. You will need an analog or dual digital/anlog phone for such trips.

10. Protect Yourself Against Theft
Before leaving home, make copies of your travel documents (passport, airline tickets, travel insurance, credit cards and itinerary).

Take copies with you and leave a copy with a contact at home. Take special precautions for your electronics. See what your local travel store has to offer in terms of protective luggage. You can purchase laptop cases that disguise the fact that they're used for laptops, or laptop cases that look old and battered. And of course, you already know how fast and savvy a pickpocket can be. Avoid carrying important documents in your purse or hip pocket.

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I’m making an assumption that at want point in your life you’ve been a tourist. You’ve carried a map, a camera, maybe even had a tour guide. You’ve traveled to different destinations, relaxed on remote beaches, climbed stairs in buildings you see on television. You’ve done all of these things but some how when you get arrive home, all your left with is a short memory, and a few photographs.

Vacations are nice every once in a while, but it doesn’t make sense to me why we will travel thousands of miles to sit in hotel rooms and watch movies, or lie on a pool deck and catch some rays. These are all things that we can do where we are from, I want you to think about being a traveler not a tourist. You want to soak in as much of the new country and culture that you can rather than bring as much of your culture to them. It’s really quite simple. In one step you need to forget about your way of live, and adopt theirs.

It’s simple things like the mindset that we have when we go abroad, and what we bring. Don’t bring all of the things that we depend on in America. Bring what it is that you are going to need to survive and stay healthy during your visit. The more comforts you have, the more you will depend on them, and the less you will step out to become the traveler you ought to be!

Put yourself out there. Locals are always interested to interact with foreigners, and it’s best to take advantage of this. Meet people that you can share life with while you are in their country. Immerse into their culture and be open to new idea’s. A lot of times we are closed to new idea’s and we miss out on opportunities for better things to come along. Be open, willing and accepting.

If you want to be changed, and to experience you need to leave the tourist at home. Bring out the inner traveler in you and see the world in the way that it was meant to be seen.

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Written by: Ryan Fyfe

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