1. Super heavy duty travel research
The ladies at our local libraries (yes, you read that right - librar-ies) were gobsmacked as I checked out a whopping 27 chunky Lonely Planet guides. They are by far not our only resource - but 90% of bloggers agree when you're looking at the drawing board, you're looking for a Lonely Planet. I have one for every specific region we are travelling to, except Poland and Turkey, which is rather frustrating really as we are planning quite a bit of time in both Poland AND Turkey. The former I already have a good knowledge base on, but for Turkey I'm pretty much in the dark. If anyone has any awesome suggestions I am all ears.