Does Weather Really Make or Break a Vacation?

You can travel to the perfect destination, stay in the best hotel, and reserve the best restaurants and excursions, and still find your good efforts may be affected by something you can't control: weather.

After the recent tragedies of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Mother Nature is perhaps on the minds of most of us more than ever, and her popularity has plummeted.

But you have to admit the ol' girl has a tough job. The same people begging her for sunshine during New Years vacations in Rio are cursing her warm sunny rays just a month later at Whistler's gay ski week.

Gay pride parade viewers in Amsterdam run under awnings at the merest sprinkle, while hot springs bathers in Costa Rica hope for a cool rain to add the perfect refreshing element to the experience.

So how do you plan a vacation that will not be "dampened" by inclement weather? Here are five things to keep in mind.

1. Play the hemispheres. Northern hemisphere's winter is the Southern hemisphere's summer and vice versa. Escape the cold by traveling to the opposite end of the world!

2. However, remember that depending on what your interests are, hotter is not always better. For instance, Buenos Aires is a notoriously stunning city, but you may enjoy it most when it is at the beginning of the season when the weather is temperate versus being in the city when it reaches the high 90s. This is true for most city vacations.

3. Always be sure to research the weather of your destination. Look at the 10 day forecast surrounding the dates of your trip, and even pull up the weather records for those dates in the years prior.

4. When you're traveling "off season" so that you can take advantage of lower rates, remember that the particular season is "off" for a reason, and it's usually because that time of year enjoys the worst weather conditions. So, bare this in mind and structure you activities accordingly.

5. Structure your days and excursions so that they are not all weather dependent, and have alternative activities in mind. Too many people travel to a destination famed for its sunshine and then don't know what to do when the weather doesn't cooperate.

Bad weather only ruins a vacation if you let it. Especially if you're going on a group trip designed by professional travel planners, like the people at Zoom Vacations, then your vacation will be peppered with options to keep you having fun no matter what Mother Nature brings your way.

Bryan Herb works for Zoom Vacations, a gay and lesbian vacation design company based out of Chicago, IL. Zoom Vacations has become a positive force in the travel industry, and is literally changing the shape of what one can expect, achieve, and receive on a vacation. Visit them on the web at www.zoomvacations.com, or call 1 866-966-6822. Zoom Vacations, as seen on the Travel Channel's hit show, "Vacation Challenge"