Whether it"s for planning a weekend away, a family vacation, or a business trip, National Geographic Trip Planner 2002 provides a flexible program that makes such planning easy. This three-CD-ROM set combines National Geographic"s travel expertise with easy-to-use trip planning technology. Using features such as searchable street-level maps for major U.S. cities, printable itineraries, and multimedia videos, along with Palm handheld compatibility, travelers can put together a trip in minutes. Travelers can select scenic driving and walking tours, and learn about more than 100,000 points of interest across the U.S. and Canada. They can also access national and state park guides--which offer valuable information on hikes, scenic drives, campgrounds, and accommodations--or they can peruse the interactive park maps. Users can plan lodging and dining with more than 20,000 rated hotels and restaurants from the travel experts at Frommer"s. Travelers can discover destinations along the way with first-person accounts given by National Geographic writers and photographers. For those willing to stray from the beaten path, National Geographic Trip Planner 2002 suggests side trips and tours for unique travel experiences. Multimedia videos let travelers explore regional events and the scenery of some of the greatest locations before they even depart. There are also easy directions and mapping with Palm handheld and MapQuest. Covering more than 1 million miles of roads, National Geographic Trip Planner 2002 helps plot the fastest route or the most scenic drive through an advanced mapping technology designed by MapQuest, publishers of the popular interactive finder that allows travelers to easily find locations or destinations. Travelers can zoom in on detailed city maps, routes, directions, itineraries, and points of interest for the U.S. and Canada. They can then copy and paste this information into documents or the Trip Planner Notebook, download it to a Palm handheld, or print it out. National Geographic Trip Planner 2002 also offers support for the global positioning system (GPS). Travelers with GPS receivers can avoid the frustrations of getting lost and let the CD-ROM graphically pinpoint their exact locations through the advanced satellite system. National Geographic Trip Planner 2002 includes information from National Geographic"s extensive library of travel books and magazines, including National Geographic"s Driving Guides to America, National Geographic"s Guide to Scenic Highways and Byways, National Geographic"s Guide to America"s Historic Places, and National Geographic"s Road Atlas of the U.S. and Canada.