With the end of the school year and summer nearly in full swing, thoughts of vacation begin to fill your mind. Questions...Questions...Questions! Why didn't I plan earlier? Where do I want to go? When is the best time? Where do I stay? How long do I want to stay? How do I get there? Do I drive or fly? What can I afford?

Along with a multitude of exhausting thoughts, I find myself wondering what is the best way to plan a vacation that will please my whole family?

If you are anything like me, this may sound all too familiar!

With the recession still on, my vacation will be close to home. For the purpose of this article to show you the best way to plan a vacation, I will use a Cape Cod vacation for demonstration.

Keep in mind there are several ways to plan a vacation.

You can do all the work yourself from booking your own flight and hotel, to renting a car if needed and searching for best deals on tourist attractions, etc., etc., etc…. Makes me tired just thinking about it!

You can also use the service of a travel agency or the AAA travel that provide a wide range of services assisting people in many areas of their lives. All of your needs are satisfied in an assortment of ways from getting to your destination or help on where you would like to stay.

And then there is the best way to plan a cape cod vacation or the vacation of your dreams. You can plan and book your entire vacation in one place with an online personalized trip planner. You might be thinking there are many online sites out there claiming to be the best so before you get started planning your cape code vacation be sure the travel site you choose is easy to navigate and understand.

Check out the "Best online travel sites" for things that make for a good travel site written by our hubber friend, Stormy Brain.

The online personalized trip planner I chose was the Nile Guide.

The first thing you need to do to plan and organize your trip using the Nile Guide’s travel tools and printout of your personalized Guide-To-Go is to join as a member. All services are free including ratings and reviews, exclusive travel tips and expert suggestions, all in one place. All this and more for less than a minute of your time to join. What could be better than that?

Once you have joined ‘Choose a Destination”. There you will see a menu with a list of countries. Since I am planning a cape cod vacation I have chosen the United States. Once I clicked on the United States it brought me to many vacation spots within the U.S., such as the Big Island of Hawaii, The Florida Keys, The Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, San Francisco Bay, Washington DC, Boston and Cape Cod to name a few.

To plan for my cape code vacation I have clicked on Cape Cod. This brought me to the Highlights page or snapshot of my destination where I came to a brief history of "The Cape", the top 5 guides, hotels, things to do, restaurants, and bars, clubs and the nightlife.

At the top of the snapshot page you will see 5 more menus; find and book hotels, things to do, restaurants, bars/clubs/nightlife, and guides.  Go through each menu one at a time.  Each one will ask for a preference, for example, the hotel menu will ask if you want for business travelers, kid friendly, brand name and other similar questions.  Make sure you answer your preference at the beginning of each menu to customize your trip just the way you would want it. 

I did not need to find a hotel because my sister has a place on cape cod where I am always welcome to stay.  I wish everyone could be that lucky.  When planning for things to do I chose my preference as off-the-beaten-path since I have already seen much of the main attractions. 

You are now ready to select what you like from each menu and add to your list. Once this is taken care of you are now ready to “organize your list”. This will take you to a page called “My Guide” where you will be asked to plan your days, such as how long is your trip and the start and end dates.

After you have planned your days you will be prompted to print your free Customized Guide. You are now ready to go on a cape cod vacation or the vacation of your dreams.

1. Cape Cod is a truly unique vacation spot offering miles and miles of beautiful ocean and fresh water beaches that are so much fun to explore.

2. I love Cape Cod for it's natural beauty and character.

3. I love the fresh sweet taste of seafood (especially lobster) straight from the bay waters.

4. Coupled with The Cape's distinct New England weather and gorgeous coastal sunrises and sunsets how could you go wrong with a cape cod vacation.