<The more you travel, the more you learn what matters to you.>

Yes, I think of travel as a skill set . Over the years we've really learnt a lot about the style of how we like to travel, where, how long, what is worth the money to us and what isn't, what is satisfying for us to do etc. However, because it's so personal I think that only some of the skills you've developed are helpful to others and for me this is the tension in Julie's original question. Yes, I think I have some useful general advice but lots of it is very dependent on whether the people who are asking have similar options/tastes/ideas or preferences.

This is why I like trip reports because they aren't proscriptive -you can see how others travel and take from it what you want. You describe what you did and maybe it's useful.

Where do we submit our photos so we can be judged worthy? Would it be like that thing in <i>Social Network</i>?