Peter Greenberg, travel editor for NBC's Today Show, has visited more than 146 countries and logged over 18 million miles not only on planes, trains and automobiles but also on the backs of elephants and donkeys, submarines off the coast of Russia and bicycles in China.

Along the way, he's learned a lot about travel, jam packing that information into the 624-page "The Complete Travel Detective Bible: The Consummate Insider Tells You What You Need to Know in an Increasingly Complex World" (Rodale, 2007).

The book covers just about every subject imaginable from lifestyle travel which includes chapters on pets, seniors, solo and gay and lesbian travel to Travel with a Purpose such as weather vacations (storm chasing), culinary travel, tough travel like going to Afghanistan or Bhutan and Medical Tourism where people go to get operations.

"My book is not about destinations," says Greenberg. "It's about the process of traveling. It represents a culmination of years of research and travel. If you always go the same route the same way, this probably isn't the book for you."

According to Greenberg, the definition of a tourist is someone who will be victimized which can happen in many ways from being overcharged to eating the wrong foods to getting stranded.

"A traveler is someone who won't be victimized," he says. "Travel is the biggest industry in the world and it needs to be taken seriously so we can have fun."

Greenberg says that his father taught him that "it's all about adjusting. For example, it you want to know if you want to marry someone, travel with them first."

There's plenty of advice in his book.

"One of the main things is that you should never take a no from someone who is not empowered to say yes in the first place," he says. "You have to find the person who can say yes."