State-cation!

What does your state have to offer?  Before you hop on over to another state, try checking out your own!  The first place to go is the library. Check out travel books for your own state (don't forget to look for books on major cities in your state as well).  I grabbed all the Illinois books that I could as well as books about traveling to Chicago.

Another great place to start is to go online and search out places and things to do in your state. Pretend you are a tourist from another state and search online for places to explore and places to eat. The internet offers priceless information. You can find addresses, phone numbers, hours of operation, reviews, cost of admission, etc.  Don't stop there! Recently I was making plans to travel about an hour south to Bloomington, IL, so I went to good-ol'-Google.com and searched for "Bloomington Illinois"  I clicked on their tourist/visitor page and learned even more about the city I was planning on visiting. Then I saw that they had a tab for "Request More Information." Which lead me to a page where I could send away for their brochures, calendar of events, etc.  Two days later I got a big envelope in the mail from the city of Bloomington (I love them already!). I immediately noticed that they are very proud of their city by the beautiful brochure they sent me!  I also noticed that the brochure came with a coupon booklet. BONUS! So, my biggest advice of all when visiting a city..."Request More Information" (even for the town you live in!).