Tips for Finding the Best Fall Foliage

There's a 95 percent chance Senior Editor Christine Sarkis is thinking about travel right now. Follow her on Instagram @postcartography and Twitter @ChristineSarkis.

Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

The Handy Item I Always Pack: The Trtl Pillow. It's easy to pack and comfortable, and makes it so I can actually sleep on flights.

Ultimate Bucket List Experience: Seeing the Aurora Borealis from the comfort of somewhere warm, like a glass igloo or hot spring.

Travel Motto: Curiosity is an amazing compass.

Aisle, Window, or Middle Seat: Aisle all the way.

Email Christine Sarkis at editor@smartertravel.com.

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{{{EmbeddedGallery|gallery=44|align=right}}}More than most vacations, fall foliage trips require perfect timing. Peak color is fleeting, so a week can make the difference between just “ooh” and “ooh-la-la.”

Planning that fall foliage excursion is a whole lot easier than it used to be, though. An abundance of online foliage maps takes a lot of the gamble out of leaf peeping.

Here are some great places to start your search for brilliant fall colors:

Foliage Network: Using data collected twice weekly by volunteer “foliage spotters,” the Foliage Network tracks changing colors in the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast U.S.

Yankee Magazine: With an animated map showing the progression of color by week in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, plus suggested drives in New England, this is a key resource for foliage fans in the Northeast.

Weather Channel: Maps for foliage conditions around the U.S. make this resource useful for finding displays of autumn even in destinations not known for fall colors.

U.S. Forest Service: The Fall Colors 2010 webpage from the U.S. Forest Service lists fall foliage hotspots and links to Forest Service regional fall foliage websites.

Canada Travel News: Information by province, along with links for the current updates, makes this a good first stop in the search for Canadian gold, red, and orange.

What other online resources do you use when planning fall foliage trips?

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