Invest time in researching your own personal travel style before you research a trip. Are you a weather person? Crowd person? On the go person? Going for a rest? Outgoing? Shy? It's fun to plan a dream trip then hope your personality fits it, but I've never seen that work out.

It really all depends on the type of vacation that I and whoever else I'm traveling with, want or need at the time. I tend to like to be in the cities.

It bothers me that so many people ask where to stay in Paris to be "in the middle of everything" rather than asking if it is important to be in the middle of everything or whether transportation is simple and fast.

I don't see how you can 'research' that. Don't people already know it about themselves? Your style would be based on personality in your normal life &/or perhaps refined by past travel experiences.

suze. One would think that but I have planned trips for people as a hobby for years, and many don't know themselves. They think somehow they can just fit into any itinerary the choose.
Kerouac. US doesn't have the transportaion system europe has, so many americans try to base it on US travel methods. In US if you want to be in a city you usually have to stay there, or drive in.

It's true. So many people go into stores and ask 'what is the most popular?', and 'what is the best?' without giving much thought to their own taste or style. They don't know how they want to decorate their homes, what colours they like. They want someone else to make the decisions for them, they need everything to be society approved.

There are posts like that here about travel, sometimes: 'Is it worth it?', 'What are the best sights?', 'Where should we go and what should we do?'

We are so accustomed to advertisers telling us want we like, want, and need, that it's hard for some people to know themselves and make decisions based on their own desires.

Exactly apres! They also see a movie and fall in love with it and think they will suddenly become that person just by going there. ahh the "tuscan sun"

My sister/best friend/great travel companion does a lot of research online. I like to read travel books.

We both enjoy a relaxed, take-in-the-ambiance and look-at-the-architecture kind of travel. Lots of stopping for coffee and watching the crowds go by as well as sightseeing on a tour bus, streetcar or on foot.

We love finding a good restaurant but we're not above hitting the Golden Arches if we get desperate. Our trips have all worked out very well--probably both because we're pretty flexible and because we've gone to great places.