There is nothing wrong with an all inclusive vacation, as long as you realize that the true price you are paying is often limiting yourself to only seeing what the resort wants you to see. You may be saving money and drinking lots of Mojitos but you are often unable to safely wander outside the area and you are not experiencing the true country and people.
There are some key elements needed to really experience travel and they are: Research, time, language, and an ability to get around.
Research
Planning a trip is often almost as much fun as the trip itself. My suggestion is to first decide what type of trip you are looking for. Do you want adventure, history, luxury, relaxation, or a shopping trip? Ask your friends and family for suggestions of places to go depending on the type of trip you want to take. It's also very important that the person that you are travelling with wants the same thing. I once went on a trip to France and Italy with a large group of people and when we broke into smaller groups, I ended up in a group of shoppers when all I wanted to do was wander through museums and churches. It was a huge disappointment.
One of my favourite resources is "The Travel Book" by Lonely Planet. It offers readers a snapshot of every country in the world. It is by no means comprehensive when it comes to describing each country but is a great starting point. It offers a brief description of the country, the best time to visit, a list of essential experiences, suggestions of books, music and food, a key word to learn and a few more important points. It will inspire you to learn more before you go and will help you avoid missing important points of interest. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/
Time
Don't expect to take a 5 day vacation to Bangladesh to experience the culture. If you only have 5 days to travel choose a place close enough that you won't spend more time in the plane than at your destination. One tip, don't underestimate jet lag! Consider traveling in your same time zone to maximize your vacation time.
If you truly want to go abroad, you must take at least 10 days to a month to do it. When I travelled to Bangladesh (my longest trip at 5 weeks) the people I stayed with behaved very differently after I had been there for two weeks. They let their hair down, so to speak. I began to see the real attitudes of the people toward women and children, in particular. It was what I had hoped for, although in hind sight, I wish I had done more research prior to the trip.
Language
Before you go, take the time to learn some of the language. You don't have to become fluent in Portugese to go to Portugal, but a few words or phrases like: please, thank you, train, bus, how much? can really help. Also, when you are there, don't be afraid to try to speak the language. Once you get over the initial fear of worrying that you sound like an idiot you will find that locals will actually coach you and soon you will be asking for 2 tickets to Faro by train with no problem.
Ability to get around
All of the above items allow you to do the most important thing to really see a country and to get to know the people. Getting around! In Portugal, we travelled by taxi, city bus, local train and on foot and it was amazing. It was wonderful to walk to the bus, order a train ticket (in Portugese) to the next city and see the farms from the open window of the train. We only took the taxi home one evening because we did not feel safe.
Every time we came to a new town or city, we located the tourist centre, picked up a map and started walking, making sure to make note of landmarks. One trick I learned in the cities of Italy was to stop and turn around when walking from our hotel to a destination and to choose a landmark. That way when we walked home we knew we were heading in the right direction.
Get away from the touristy areas. They are easy to spot with lots of people! Meals are advertised at fixed prices and shopping is more expensive. It's also where all the pick-pockets hang out. My best meals have been off the beaten path, where the locals eat. In Portugal it was a little hole in the wall restaurant where the Sardinas were spectacular and the wine came in a glass jug. In Italy it was down an ally where the tables spilled out onto the cobble stone streets and Prosciutto hung from the ceiling. Amazing!
I always go out of my way to find a real grocery store when I travel. In Rome you could by a bag of pasta from a tourist shop beside the Trevi Fountain for $9 Euros. I found the same bag for $2 Euros in a grocery store. In Petra (Jordan) I found boxes of unique spices for $0.69JOD ($0.99 CDN). Be careful and do your research to ensure that your purchases are legal to bring home.
WARNING!
If you get a funny feeling in your gut that tells you not to walk down an ally or even back to your hotel, don't ignore it! Call it intuition, call it God, call it anything you want but do NOT ignore it. We are animals after all and do have instincts. This is part of research as well, there are many beautiful places to visit in Nicaragua, for example, but also many places that should be avoided.
ODD BITS!
Many, if not most countries in Europe include the gratuity in the price of the meal. It is like an auto-grat and is not negotiable. If you want to leave extra money for the server, go ahead, but you do not have to and if the server insists that you do ask for the manager. We were in Italy with a youth choir and the server was very rude to us as we got up to leave, he insisted that we leave him extra money, even to the point of harassing some of the youth. We spoke to the manager and he was reprimanded. We were eating in a very touristy area and he could get away with it.
NEXT TIME!
My personal experiences with pick-pockets, beggars and bartering!
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