Pre-Flight Planning- First and foremost you want to know that your flight and accommodations are appropriately setup in order to provide the smoothest transitions. In order to make this possible you should spend sometime on the internet looking for deals on airline, car, and hotel packages. Keep in mind when doing this that the earlier you setup your arrangements the better deals you will find. Remember more often than not discounted tickets will be announced in the middle of the week. If your planning on going to a popular destination or somewhere that you believe is going to have heavy travel I would suggest trying to setup your flight 6 months in advance and if this is not possible make sure you do take care of it immediately or else the flights could fill up or the price of the tickets could exceed what you were hoping to spend on your flight. If you are planning an international flight you should try and either purchase travel cheques or make sure that you have the proper currency for your destination this will save you a lot of time once you reach your destination. I would also suggest that you spend time looking into your destination that way when you arrive you don’t come off completely as a tourist. Things to think about when doing this include the countries etiquette so you don’t upset the local people without knowing what you did and check out a few places you want to go look at a map and study how your going to get there and the most effective means of transportation.

Preparing for the Flight- If you plan on traveling with children you should carry some kind of cup for water or some kind of liquid in the event that he/she becomes thirsty and you can’t access anything. Keep in mind that the cup needs to be empty when traveling through airport security though because they won’t allow the cup if it has liquids in it. If your lucky your child is old enough that you can just pack him/her a small video game like game boy or DS and they can entertain themselves for the flight. If you do bring a video game make sure you have enough batteries or a full charge or else your child may get upset when the game stops working. Last time I traveled I simply brought a deck of cards and a book of various card games and this could entertain you and a companion for hours. Some airlines may not have pillows and of course if they do they are not very comfortable so you might want to keep that in mind while packing carry on luggage. Well now that your packed up ready to go and the trip is planned make sure you get yourself something to eat before your flight, flying on an empty stomach can make you extremely nauseous and nowadays airlines aren’t as good about feeding the passengers. Enjoy your trip!