Think back to your first big trip. Maybe you backpacked through Europe, crossed North America by train or took a road trip down the Baja Peninsula.

Wherever you went, you surely researched, planned and, most importantly, dreamed.Remember the pre-trip excitement? Your head started enjoying the big trip before your body left home.

Travel has changed. Fully formed trips now pop uninvited onto our email: cruises, tropical resorts, weekend getaways. The packages offer effortless booking. We buy. We pack. We go.

It is a convenient, efficient and often economical process, perfect for busy people.Sometimes though, we want more from our travel time and dollar. Sometimes we want to recapture the feelings of the exciting build-up to those first big trips.

Travelers to Papua New Guinea

One of the highlights of my year will be leading a small group of people on a journey through Papua New Guinea. This is a trip offered by Trans Niugini Tours, Papua New Guinea’s leading inbound operator. Itinerary details of the August, 2010 trip are on Trans Niugini Tours’ website at http://bit.ly/1900Bj .

It is an experience for discerning travelers who are attracted to exotic cultures and remote places. During our twelve days together, we explore dramatic and undisturbed landscapes, meet people living genuinely traditional lifestyles and attend a major highlands sing-sing. We travel by vehicle, aircraft and boat. We stay in comfortable wilderness lodges.

I admire the members of the group who prepare, dream and start enjoying the trip long before the first day on the itinerary. Their early entry into the spirit of travel in Papua New Guinea increases the return they receive on the time and money they invest in this big trip.

Below are some tools to prepare and shape your own pre-trip experience and gain more from your travels.

Films

Films are a good way to get below the surface of your destination.Netflix and local library systems are handy sources. In addition to travelogues, try documentaries that focus on historical turning points or natural history topics as well as movies set in your destination.

First Contact, about the dramatic meeting of two cultures, and Attenborough in Paradise, about Birds of Paradise, are documentaries that always raise the excitement level of ticket holders to Papua New Guinea.

Let the movies get your imagination rolling. The list of films set in big trip travel destinations seems endless: Australia, Out of Africa, Roman Holiday, etc. After recently watching Rapa Nui, I added Easter Island to my travel wish list.

And, for fun, I will mention Shirley Valentine, a movie set in Greece. If you’ve seen the film or the original play, you know why.

Books

Some popular destinations fill yards of bookshelf space. Books about countries with small numbers of tourists, including Papua New Guinea, may require a visit to a bookselling website. One of my favorite travel book sites is Longitude at www.longitudebooks.com.

When it comes to guidebooks, completeness and accuracy vary, even among books from the same publisher. Much depends on the researcher. Nevertheless, most guidebooks provide good basic background information on a destination’s geography, history and culture. When you select your guidebooks, consider ones with the most recent publication dates.

Buying phrasebooks, or their electronic equivalent, well in advance of your departure date allows you to have fun practicing the language of your destination with traveling companions. Field guides start training your eye to recognize the shapes and colors of the flora and fauna.

Accounts of other’s journeys inspire and build anticipation. Peter Mayles’ books about exploring and living in Provence transported thousands to that romantic landscape. As you turn the pages of a book about others’ experiences in your upcoming destination, it feels good to know that this time you are not reading as an armchair traveler. You are a preparing traveler.

Music

Get into the mood with music. The sound of Papua New Guinea’s drums, flutes and chants transports the preparing traveler from the car or the kitchen to village sing-sing grounds and cultural festivals. The rhythms of contemporary music put you into urban markets.

Go to iTunes, Amazon or your local library for downloads and CD’s for your destination. Include the national anthem in your listening. A visitor who knows even a few lines of it is always appreciated.

Maps

Beware! This is the tool that can raise excitement levels the highest. With Google Maps you can easily visualize yourself walking along shaded boulevards and over bridges. You may even by able to figure out the best views from your hotel.

Despite the impressive features of electronic and online maps, most preparing travelers still get pleasure from a hard copy. Buy a map and put it where you can easily pore over it. You are almost there when your eyes move from the names of towns and rivers to the curves of coastlines and highways to the solid mark of your international port of entry. One comprehensive source of maps is http://maptown.com/. They are located in Calgary, Alberta and ship internationally.

My favorite maps of Papua New Guinea are the ones smudged by index fingers pointing to where we are one day and where we will be the next. There are almost no roads crossing the contours between the smudges. We can imagine the scenic flights, boat trips and drives we will take, the people we will meet, the adventures we will have, the memories we will make.

Our departure date is six months away….and it’s already exciting.

What are you favorite travel books? Which films have made you excited about a destination? Please share them with us. Send to: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Travel tips, questions and requests for information about travel in Papua New Guinea are welcomed at the same address.