Tips on How to Visit Life's 100 Places to See in Your Lifetime (America the Beautiful) Before You Die

TheLife publication exhibiting beautiful American scenery to witness before your time expires has been an inspiration for countless vacations, road trips, and weekend getaways. However, what discourages many travelers is the vast amount of scenes printed that they are not likely to ever view. Assuming you aren't a retired twenty-two year old millionaire, chances are you have a limited amount of financial resources and time in which to view America's beauty. If that's the case, consider the following realistic tips on how to visit Life's 100 Places to See in Your Lifetime (America the Beautiful) before you die.

Tip #1: Don't fly. Rather than booking a flight to visit a special spot across the country, map out a driving trip and visit as many of the other listed Life locations as possible en route. Even if you lose a few hours of driving time, dedicate the traveling itself to crossing even more locations off of your list.

Tip #2: See, don't stay. In other words, you don't have to plan a week-long visit to the Grand Canyon in order to experience the exhilaration that it offers. Have a camera or video recorder ready, and dedicate a few hours to the adventure. Shorter visits mean being able to see more on your list.

Tip #3: Concentrate on one coast at a time. Rather than trying to figure out how to visit Gettysburg, Zion National Park, and Amish Country all in one year, plan your trip based on a single geographical area. Every year presents a chance to explore a new piece of America, so take it one step at a time.

Tip #4: For extended visits, keep the new climates in mind. If you are able to devote a trip to an extended visit once in a while to one of the many locations on your Life list, forgo the romantic notion of merely choosing a random spot in the publication. You may find the heat and isolation of the deserts of the West or the frigid temperatures of Alaska make long term enjoyment a bit of a challenge when on vacation. Plan accordingly.

Tip #5: Keep a special map on hand of the Life locations. A visit to your aunt's or an unscheduled business trip may lead you to a venue very close to one of your destinations. Keep the map in your wallet or glove compartment at all times, and take a glance at it during unexpected traveling.

Tip #6: Go along as a chaperone to your children's school trips whenever possible. While the state aquarium might not be a tremendous place of interest for you, it may lie near a Life location that you and your child can visit before heading back home.

Tip #7: Take that yearly vacation. Don't miss a single opportunity to plan an extended trip. Deliberately plan to visit a Life location each and every year.

Tip #8: Use long weekends to visit locations within driving distance. Rather than using that aforementioned yearly vacation to visit relatively nearby locales, save them for extended travel and use your three day weekends for viewing one of Life's 100 places to see in your neck of the woods. Check your calendar, and you'll notice that you probably have two or three long weekends a year that can be used for more than backyard barbeques.

Making the most of every holiday, planning to see a cluster of locations at one time, and using every available traveling opportunity are key if your goal is to truly see those 100 Places to See in Your Lifetime before time's up. Make every year a chance to learn more about your own beautiful nation. When you're done, you may find you have the time and resources left over to see the rest of the world while you're at it.