When you begin planning a vacation, one of the most important steps is to book a hotel room for your stay. After you have made your arrangements to take off work and get to your destination, you will have to figure out an affordable place to stay. There are many ways to approach hotel booking, the most tried and true being purchasing a vacation package through a travel agent. However, travel agents are becoming more expensive and less practical as Internet travel booking becomes the norm.

Let's Go Camping! by: Guy Jieslip

Looking for a fun and cheap vacation? Camping maybe the solution for you. Camping is a great way for the whole family to chip in and participate, even in the daily activities. The kids can go catch fish for dinner, or help set up a tent. Camping only costs about $400. If you need camping gear, then plan on spending at least $600 dollars more. Even still you can have a lot of fun for a family of 4 for under $1,000 dollars.

Hiking, fishing, there is so much to do when camping. Some camping grounds even offer swimming and show movies at night. Another great camping perk is watching the sunset or start glazing. Since most camp grounds are away from city lights, the stars will be amazing.

Like all vacations, you'll need to plan a camping one too! First you have to decide on shelter. Are you using a tent, a RV or a cabin? I would recommend a tent for first time or light campers. Tents only cost between $60-$200 dollars. They provide protect against bugs and rain. Next I would bring a sleeping bag. You'll need something to keep warm at night. And then I would take a pad. Pads are soft and bring comfort to any camping trip.

The last major camping item is food. Depending on what your planning to eat, you can bring a variety of things. The most basic is a cooler and a bag of charcoal. Cooler for drinks and charcoal for a grill. You can make basic camping food such as steaks, ribs, hot dogs and hamburgers. If you plan on making dishes then you can bring a propane stove and a skillet. With it you can make a lot of stove-top meals. If you're really skilled at camp cooking, then you can bring a Dutch Oven for baking.

To make your camping trip smoother, plan a few months ahead of time. It may not seem like that much goes into a camping trip, but after just figuring out what to bring, it begins to be over welling.

Figure out everything you're going to need and write it down. There's nothing worse then getting to the camping ground and realize you forgot to pack a tent.

Camping is an excellent vacation filled with all sorts of fun things to do.