My vacation was mostly great, but I made one mistake. My hope is that I catch you before you leave for your vacations and help you design them, so you maximize relaxing and having fun with your loved ones. This is an important area of life.

I read once that the glow from taking a vacation lasts only a few days, but the happiness from having planned a vacation lasts eight weeks. I can attest to that.

The purpose of a vacation, they say, is to make us feel better. It is an opportunity to escape from real life for awhile, to pamper ourselves, to do things we ordinarily don't do.

This is the time of year when many people finalize their summer vacation plans -- confirming travel and lodging reservations, dusting off suitcases an...