Skaftafell Ice Cave in Iceland

The first day of your trip is often lost to logistics and unfamiliar surroundings. First you have to haul yourself and your stuff to a resting place. Then you have to figure out exactly where you are, what attractions are nearby and how best to use your limited time. Planning ahead will help you make the most of that first confusing day.

You may want to sketch out a walk near your digs, which can help you get oriented as well as shake off travel fatigue and jet lag. Also, check out any nearby amenities -- like a rooftop lounge nearby, a balcony with a choice view or a heated pool for maximum chill-out at the end of a harried travel day.

Similarly, if you're going to be drive during your trip, it may be worth mapping out that first route ahead of time. Some car rental companies offer GPS units, but they're not always in English and they may not be in working order. Figuring out how to get where you are going in an unfamiliar location from a one-page map choked with advertising is another way to risk more than just your afternoon; you could end up driving around with the doors locked and windows sealed in a neighborhood that is anything but tourist- or outsider-friendly. Mapping out your first drive as though you were mapping out an escape route will save you time and anxiety in those first stressful hours of your trip.

On a trip to Seattle a few years ago, a quick Web search on public transit produced two very worthwhile pieces of information: 1) the public monorail system was not working, and 2) the downtown bus system was free for the entire length of downtown. Not surprisingly for Seattle, it rained all weekend, and those buses proved very useful in making short trips of a few blocks, for which you would not want to drive, but neither did you want to slog through in the rain.

Most cities and even medium-sized towns have some kind of weekly entertainment rag, such as Time Out New York, Time Out London or even the Ticket entertainment insert in Montgomery Township, PA.

These are excellent sources for entertainment listings, reviews, city "best-of" lists and more. It is best to check these from home, as you can then purchase advance tickets where necessary, make restaurant reservations, etc.

The weather is the single factor most likely to affect your trip positively or negatively, and one of the things many people most take for granted. Of course it is going to be warm in Spain during the spring -- but there are always exceptions to prevailing weather patterns, especially during transitional seasons. A weather forecast can guide your packing strategy, and failure to check the weather can result in unprepared, unhappy and very soggy travelers.

1.-Because the Manhattan cocktail was invented here:

New York is the birthplace of many a great concoction, including the iconic, rye-whiskey-based tipple. Legend has it that the drink was created by Dr. Ian Marshall in 1874 for an event at the Manhattan Club (hence the name), though some liquor historians claim that it was actually the handiwork of a bartender nicknamed Black, who worked at a Soho lounge. Regardless of the origins, this cocktail is replicated in countless watering holes across the world, but there’s no better place to enjoy it than its hometown.

 NYC residents live about two years longer than the national average. In 2010, a New Yorker’s life expectancy at birth topped out at 80.9 years. Maybe it’s that after surviving the job hunt, the apartment search and calorie-count menus, the rest seems easy. (That we walk more than other Americans and eat fewer trans fats also probably helps.) To quote Dorothy Parker, “As only New Yorkers know, if you can get through the twilight, you’ll live through the night.”

NYC is typically the first stateside stop for a budding foreign rock band. And the CMJ Music festival, held each October in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn, certainly doesn’t hurt. But the fact remains that as much as this is an incredibly tough town to be a musician in, it’s the best place to see one—any night of the week offers the possibility of peeping the next bbig thing on a tiny stage.

The song-and-dance show has come a long way since The Black Crook, a five-and-a-half-hour-long pageant considered to be the world’s first musical, took primordial Broadway by storm in 1866. In the intervening century and a half, New York City has more than earned its name as not just as musical theater’s birthplace, but the spot where it’s done better than anywhere around the globe. Sure, the spectacle-drenched tuners of London’s West End (Les Misérables and the Phantom of the Opera) get exported to our shores. But many of the most innovative, memorable musicals of our time came to maturity on the Great White Way, from the golden age of Rodgers and Hammerstein and the rise of Sondheim to the unorthodox, form-reinventing hits of the past decade like  Spring Awakening . Broadway is the mecca for bright-eyed hoofers

Perfect !!