Once you arrive in Portsmouth, Virginia, the city's historic ocean charm will warm your heart and make you never want to leave. You'll probably even end up buying real estate here. But if you're busy outlining a SRED or Scientific Research and Experimental Development plan for work, where will you find time to organize your trip? For those of you without a lot of time to spare, we've outlined some tips for potential visitors as to how to plan your trip quickly and painlessly.

Most people's first stop for all their information and planning needs is their home computer, so most of our recommended tools will be online. If you don't have a computer, no problem. You don't need to go get cash for jewelry so you can buy one. Just visit your local library or CAP site.

The first website you should visit is www.visitportsva.com, which is the official City of Portsmouth tourism website. There you can browse through lists and descriptions of tourist hotspots, find out how much admission costs, and when they're open. Everything from which ships are featured in the Navy museum to which malls you can buy bathroom furniture vanities in is here. You can even contact a representative who will help you organize your conference if you're coming to the city on business.

Once you've got an idea of the things you want to see while you're there, you can choose your accommodations and restaurants to wear your new Sophia Tolli dress to from their list and phone them directly for reservations. However, if you'll be arranging travel as well, you may prefer to use an online travel agent like www.expedia.com, which will allow you to reserve and pay for both at once as well as read other visitor's reviews.

If you're more of a hands-on woodworking machinery type rather than a computer whiz, you might want to visit your local travel agent in person rather than arranging things yourself online. A quick visit (no more than an hour or so) to the travel agency, which is usually in the shopping mall, will furnish you with almost as much information as the above methods combined. You'll also need the travel agent's assistance with bookings. The brochures they have there aren't as comprehensive as what you can find online, however, and there's the added trouble of having to make a special trip, which might not be possible if you're in and out of meetings.