So you've booked your airfare (hopefully saving a little money in the process) and now you're ready to head to your destination. The anticipation builds. What to see? How much should I plan? 

Lets be honest, a new city can be really overwhelming. Plethora of guidebooks, Yelp recommendations and that one place your great-Aunt said you just have to try. How can you fit it all in? To help, here's our travel-tested Journey & Play tips for exploring a new destination without all the stress. 

1. Use Public Transportation

If you're headed to a city like New York, Paris, London or Rome, taking advantage of the available public transportation can really help give you an insight into the city. In most cases it's the cheapest option for getting around and you'll feel more like a local using it. 

Avoid during rush hour times between 7-9 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. to cut down travel time and cost for a smooth trip. Remember, if you run into a fun busker in the tunnels playing violin, guitar or some homemade instrument, tip them when the performance is over, but don't fall for scams from buskers on actual trains. 

2. Take A Walk

There's no better way to experience a new place than by walking. Not only are you going to earn that decadent lunch and dessert, you'll probably run across a few hidden places that you'll love. One of my favorite memories in a new city was walking around Pike Place Market in Seattle with my friend Katie and then just continuing along the waterfront. We ran across a ton of brilliant photo spots that I never would have found without moving my feet. 

3. Pick a Starting Spot, Then Explore

My wife and I are coffee lovers so every time we're in a new town, we find a fun little coffeeshop to start our day and then explore the area around it. We started this in New York City by hitting up Stumptown Coffee at The Ace Hotel and then exploring Midtown and the Garment District. 

By picking a single starting location, whether that's around coffee, food or shopping, we kept ourselves in a smaller area so we wouldn't get tired of walking around. After all, it is a vacation. 

4. Don't Plan Too Much

A new destination can be overwhelming and overloading your schedule can quickly turn your vacation into working tourism. The idea is to slow down, enjoy your surroundings and make memories. Leave some breathing room in your schedule to reflect and react. Not only will you feel more relaxed and enjoy the trip more, you'll probably remember it better because you gave yourself time to savor the newness of it. 

Remember, there's nothing wrong with taking a random gelato break in Venice to watch tourists queue to go into St. Mark's Basilica. Take the time to be silly and enjoy yourself. That's when memories are made. 

5. Keep Track Of What You Find

Our last trip to Paris was punctuated by walking around the 15th Arrondissement looking for a pizza place my parents and I had visited years earlier. Why? Because I had failed to write down the name of the restaurant. A travel journal is an invaluable tool for logging those off the wall places you find on your first visit when everything is new and fresh. 

There's lots of ways to document your experiences. If you'r not a pen and paper person, try using Notes on your phone or starting a Google Map for the destination. It'll make recommending spots to your friends much easier and make you look even more in the know. 

So the votes are in!!

First off, thanks to everyone for participating! We did this a bit off the cuff and couldn't be happier to involve everyone in the process. We narrowed down our four choices to places that we have friends to visit and really wanted to go. That itself was hard enough, so with your help, we're finally going to get a bit of rest and relaxation. 

So without further adieu, the winner is...

Wait for it...

Seattle

After receiving a whopping 44% of votes, our next vacation is going to be spent in the great Pacific Northwest in Seattle!!! Thanks to everyone for participating and stay tuned for lots of pictures, videos and other content from the Emerald City!

Leave all your recommendations in the comments below!

Update 10/22/17: The contest is now closed. Check out the winning destination here.

Ever been in one place for too long?

Today we're in travel planning mode thinking about a quick domestic getaway to help recharge the creative batteries. We're lucky to live in such a vibrant city with so much to offer, but sometimes you just need a change of scenery to gain some perspective. 

So to try something new, we're going to crowdsource our next vacation. What's the best place for a quick fall getaway to capture some memories, eat good food and recharge our batteries? Vote below on Twitter and we'll announce the winning destination on Friday! If you're not on Twitter, leave your choice of one of the four destinations in the comments below to be counted.

Help us pick our next vacation destination! What's the best place to recharge the creative batteries?

— Journey & Play (@journeyandplay) September 20, 2017

I've long been a fan of Matti Haapoja's brand Travel Feels. Some of his videos are the reason I created this site and his content is still a huge inspiration for everything I do. For the last several months, Matti has been more homebound in Toronto due to the birth of his child (congratulations!) but now he's heading out on the road again and sharing his travel gear for his trip to Norway. 

This simple setup (well, if you don't include the drone) has all the basics that you'll need for travel photography and videography. And speaking of drones, I've never been a huge fan but in a place like Norway or Iceland, it'd be almost criminal to not get some aerial footage of all that natural beauty. Just don't overdo it and leave the pesky humans out of it. 

Make sure to follow Travel Feels on Facebook for more great travel film content.

We live in exciting travel times. The world seems to get smaller every single day and our options for seeing things our parents only dreamed of are getting longer and longer. So don't just dream about that beachside resort in the south of France, get out there and experience the coastal life. Here's a few tips to get you off your couch and into your dream vacation without blowing your savings account. 

Become a Super Sleuth (or Just Use a Private Browser)

Ever looked up a certain route on a Wednesday morning only to find that when you get home from work, the price has increased by $80 each way? Odds are you've been caught by the cookie. That is, the airlines watch what flights are being searched for by checking your internet browsing metadata and adjusting pricing accordingly. It's the same reason that one funny t-shirt you looked up two weeks ago keeps popping up in your Facebook feed or next to a story on immigration on CNN.

The internet tracks you so why not work smarter and open a Private Browser window when checking flights. On Google Chrome it's called "Incognito", on Safari it's a Private Window, but what it does is keep your flight queries from checking on you. I've watched flights go up solely because I daydreamed about a trip to Seattle and kept obsessively checking flights. On a Mac, just click on File and the second option down should be "New Incognito Window", or whatever language your browser uses. Alternatively, use Ctrl+Shift+N to open an Incognito tab in Windows and ⌘+Shift+N on a Mac.

Go Incognito and save some of that hard earned cash for when you get to your destination.

Be Flexible

This works on both ends of the trip. If you can be flexible with when and where you fly into, you can usually grab some pretty amazing deals. Living in Houston gives me access to a few international airports within a 4-hour driving distance so if there's a really amazing deal that can only be had from Dallas' airport, weigh out if the drive is actually worth it or not. The increased options can net some really low prices. The same is true for where you're going. Right now it's cheaper for me to fly into Manchester non-stop from Houston and take a train to London. It might not always be like that, but flexibility means I can make it happen for a much lower cost. 

Some search engines let you look up One Way, Round Trip or Multiple Cities so play around with some different options and see what you can find. On my first trip to the U.K. in 2007, it was cheaper for me to fly into Birmingham (BHX) and then fly out of London as opposed to just going roundtrip from a single destination. Same for last summer, I went into Paris (CDG) and out of Amsterdam (AMS) and saved at least $400 on a non-stop flight.

Don't be afraid to explore a new destination and you might save some money!

Compare, Research, Compare

I love Google Flights. It searches a ton of airlines fast and usually comes up with the lowest prices for me. The ease of use keeps me coming back, but it doesn't always give me the best deal. To compare, check out sites like BookingBuddy or Priceline before clicking buy to make sure that you're getting the best bang for your buck. 

There's also fare sites like my favorite, Escape Houston, that list super cheap deals and notify you via Twitter or email when new deals become available. They currently check flights from 5 metro areas in the U.S. (Houston, Austin/San Antonio, Dallas/Fort Worth, New York/Newark and Chicago) and have dug up some amazing sales, glitch fares and more. Make sure to click through on their links when booking flights as that's how they stay in business. 

Lastly, check individual airlines for sales. Southwest Airlines has some great domestic U.S. fare sales that they don't list on search engine sites. The only way to find them is by digging a little bit on southwest.com. Many other airlines are the same way so if you have a preferred flying choice, check out their corporate site before booking on Google or Priceline.

Got any other tips for booking cheap airfare? Leave them in the comments below!