Saturdays are great for browsing around and discovering new and fun links to take up more of your RSS feed list. Surfing the web and seeing what other people are saying is a great way to get psyched up for your next trip. Here are my recommendations for this week’s topic ‘Palm Spring Weekend Escapes’ since that’s where I’m going in two weeks…

• For great flights, check out American Airlines. They’ve got flights mostly year round and they run a great ‘hopper’ flight from LAX to Palm Spring Airport so if you’re coming from out of country it is easy to connect. I’ve been flying them almost exclusively for about a year when I go to California from Chicago, but watch out- they might be moving to a no cash situation for on-board refreshments.
• I love Kango’s new Palm Desert Hotel page, it’s some less expensive options than staying in Palm Springs proper and a very close drive. They scour the best of the net and come up with great recommendations.
• I’m getting psyched up with a daily photo of goings-ons in Palm Springs that Matthew posts on his blog.
• I was surprised (I don’t know why) to learn that Palm Springs has a large Gay and Lesbian population that just held a huge gay-pride parade.
• Whenever I can, my favorite, favorite, favorite thing to do in Palm Springs is to go and see the Follies show. This is a Broadway-caliber variety show that is performed COMPLETELY BY RETIREES over age 55. The oldest performer (who did the splits last time I saw it) is in her 80s! I can’t do the splits as a 20-something.
• I also found an interesting blog by a guy named Ridor. Interesting stuff (he’s got some posts about a bizarre encounter in Palm Springs) if you’re willing to read controversial things.

Enjoy everyone!

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If you want to travel, you will have to figure out where to get the money from. For those of us who don’t have a rich uncle, this means finding places in our budget where we can take the belt in a bit and save some extra cash for our vacations. When you’re planning any budget, the first thing you need to do is understand where you currently stand and what you’re currently spending your money on. That said, I’m not in the least an expert in this subject. Tracking my spending is the most difficult part of budgeting for me. There are ways that I’ve gotten around that, but those will come in a latter post.

Step One: Balance your accounts

You probably balance your checkbook occasionally, but you need to sit down and balance all your accounts. How much do you owe on your credit cards? How much do you owe on student loans? How much do you have in your bank account? How much do you have in savings? How much do you have in your retirement account? Who do you have personal loans or other such things from that you need to pay back? Do you have any unpaid parking tickets?

Tally them all up… this is your starting point.
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How do you decide where to go next?

Pippy Longstockings threw a dart at a map and then caught the trade winds and the Jet Stream to get to wherever she ended up next. But that doesn’t work for everyone.

So the question remains, how to choose where to go next. There are several different ways, from the more creative to the more practical, for choosing where to plan your next trip. As it is just beginning the winter right now, it’s the best time to think about what you want to next summer when the days get a little longer… More »

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This blog is about travel planning, in a nutshell about how to travel better by planning ahead

I believe fundamentally that we have a wealth of information at our fingertips on this wonderful wide web of ours, this blog will find and highlight some of the best places where you can start, before you go.

I hope you enjoy this journey as much as I do.

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