Make the most of your vacation

Trying to make the most of your vacation time has never been so important. With gas prices at record highs, and making new record highs every week, there is a strong desire for summer travelers to make the most of every moment they have to be on vacation.

Some great ways to make the most of your vacation include:

• Use travel planner sites to plan the route you will be taking
• Check gas prices in your destination area and mark the best places to buy gas on your trip map
• Buy drinks, snacks and sandwich making supplies at a large store and stow them in an ice chest to avoid unnecessary stops for snacks along the way
• Decide before you go what you will be looking for as trip mementos. Don't buy every t-shirt and shot glass you see just because it looks cool, decide on what you will actually be cherishing later on and think about what has ended up lost or stored from past vacations. If you have a collection of shot glasses, then decide if you really need one from every hotel, or just one nice one that represents the whole trip.

There are a lot of ways to make your trip more enjoyable, and a little planning ahead can help a lot, but don't be afraid to be spontaneous as well. You might only get to be somewhere once in your life, so if you really want to do something that's not on your planned activities, don't be afraid to change your plans to do it.