Try to travel in the middle of the week if at all possible, Motels, flights, everything is usually cheaper and more available.  But if your a tourist trying to go to certain places make sure they are not closed on the days you are there. and some places close down at certain times of year.  If your going north, in the spring, winter or fall , look for snow and rain.
In the south it will be hot in the summer,  can be over 100 deg. F
Take everything into consideration, if you need a special diet, do you need to be close to a hospital.  do you drive in snow or rain. does heat bother you.  I went to Oregon one Fall and forgot a coat, what is worse I'm from Oregon:).  I left  Bakersfield, Ca it was  in the high 80's  in Oregon it was in the 50's  and raining. Don't forget your camera. send me some pictures.  When you leave your home,  leave a light or two on,  leave a radio playing, get a neighbor to keep an eye on your place.  or tell the local police you will be gone a few days. If you have a pet and want to take him with you,
make sure your motel allows pets. I get  a friend to take care of our cat.

Be careful how you carry your money, debit cards are nice, but one time in a small town no place was open that had a machine on the week end. another time a machine took my card and was broken down, it took  2 weeks to get my card back to me. I even lost my wallet a couple times...  I don't recommend carrying checks or money, so put your cards in a safe place.. I admit I do carry a few dollars in case I get stuck, I carry it , not in my wallet , but in my front pocket. Ladies may want to use some sort of money belt, if cash is needed...
If you have medical problems  check with your Doctor before you go anywhere.   High Blood Pressure can raise with altitude, or  being in a boat. How much walking will you have to do. how heavy will your luggage be. If you have never been there before, check it out and
make sure you have a map. If you go to the country you may encounter pollens or dust, poison oak or ivy, in the cites more car emissions, at the coast, the salt air, which is good for some people and hard to breath for others... City noise is usually: cars, trucks, factories, trains.. country noise: chain saws, farm equipment, animals, log trucks......check it out first, don't spend your trip miserable

The best days to fly, well Airline tickets are usually less on  Thursdays, if that don't work try for Wed or Tuesday.

Your airline ticket may be a bit cheaper if you give  the longest possible notice..  at  least  two weeks. if possible  a couple months. Tickets with less than two week reservations can be very expensive.

Also the time of year makes a difference in prices,  early spring and late fall are probably the best, times to get ticket reductions.  if your in no hurry  check different  months  when looking for a flight.

The best buys on tickets I found is at: Travel Now  so i put them on the front  page.. Airline Tickets!
or click here for Travel Now Airlines Search

but check out  others such as StoreMaker.com, Cheapairlines.com  call some of the airlines themselves. United, Delta, Alaska, what not. you can find them on the search engine at google search.

Give yourself plenty of time,  I usually get to the airport a couple hours  early....

Parking your car,  I don't do this.  many of the large parking lots are not safe. and you may get home to find a dent in your car or a broken window.

I catch a bus to the terminal or call a cab, have a friend drive me.

I use different methods, sometimes I reserve a room on the web, I found a site where  you can even find small towns.  I use to run ads for a site, but when I needed a room in  Newberg, OR  or Bishop, CA  I could only find big cites..  so I now run an ad for this site.  Hotels Click Here  They seem to list  even the small towns.

Sometimes if Im sure there is going to be a vacancy in the town, and I leave on the spur of the moment.  I stop in the state  where Ill be staying, and  get  a travel guide. there are several kinds. They have coupons for motels, and I can save a lot of money sometimes. But they usually don't honor coupons on week ends. You can usually find Travel guides in restaurants.

It never hurts if you know a motel where your going to call the motel themselves.

Try to make any Reservation as far in advance as possible. Hotels can be full unexpectedly

If you get the newspaper  from a City. look in the sunday paper for  coupons..

Where is the best place to take a vacation,  Well I prefer to stay away from the large cites.  they are  hard to find your way around in, and the traffic can be very bad.  But if you want to see Sea World, Disney Land, Las Vegas.  Many of the attractions in the USA are in  or close to large cites.

But to relax I prefer the smaller towns.   I go to Bishop, Ca   sometimes, great fishing.  the small coastal towns are good West ot East coast. and in small towns  you get  more help to find things to do and see.
If its mountains you like, how about Mt. Hood, you can stay at  Timberline Lodge, or Government Camp. But each state has many attractions, it would take a thousand lifetimes to see them all.
Indian hieroglyphs, ice caves, boating, fishing, the old west, I could go on for hours.

If your going to visit Relatives, ask them the names of a couple motels close by, and call the motels.
same if you need a rental car.  then check the web and see if you get a better deal.

Keep one change of clothing, tooth brush, comb, shoes, socks, and debit card or money with you. do not forget the luggage you put in the luggage compartment may not arrive with you. and it could get lost for a few days.

Take all phone numbers, of:  relatives, friends, neighbors, Doctor  with you. you may need to contact someone while your away.

Don't forget: Reservation slips, ticketts, coat, dress clothes, casual clothes, extra shoes, tooth care products, razor, camera, medicines, phone numbers, cell phone, purse, wallet, debit or credit card.

Do not walk down streets alone. If you see no other people walking, don't walk.

Use a cab at least once in a city, the cab driver can tell you the parts of town to stay out of.

Dont walk off main streets, and dont walk at night.

Remember  Men get killed and robbed and Ladys molested on  busy big streets in citys even in the day time.

Tourist Towns can be very bad, people will do things away from home they will not do at home. If a guy robs you how  you going to tell the police who he is,  you may be in LA  and he is from NY, so you describe him and it means nothing, he knows that.

Stay with the tourist  places and tourist people if you dont know the town, do what they do and go where they go.

Best of Luck and We wish you the Best, on your business trip or Vacation.

The advice I have given you, I use, it may not work well for you, What we are saying is be careful and take everything into consideration.
 

If you need  brochures  we have  places on searchjeeves.com where you can get  them free.

Here is  our Travel Guide with can tell you a lot.  Travel Guide  its free and can give you lots of information

for travel questions you need to contact our sponcers, as we ourselves are  a web site and have no actual information its self except for what you find on the pages of searchjeeves.com.