It is hard to argue with the perfect Yuma weather throughout the winter season. While people across the country are coping with ice and snow, slick roads and cold temperatures, this is our time to call our family and friends and say, "Yeah, it only reached the low 70s today, but, of course, we still had clear blue skies."

But, sooner or later we need a change of scenery. And, finding a nice, fun place to go and taking the time to plan weekend trips can be a challenge.

Enter the Internet. A little surfing on the World Wide Web can help ease this challenge and make planning your next weekend getaway a breeze.

Step one — find a place to visit. Ask yourself if you are looking for aspecific activity or a specific location. Then, go to your favorite search engine such as Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com) or Google (http://www.google.com) and type in a few appropriate key words.

Being an east coast transplant, a few weekends ago I was actually craving some cold and snow, so I decided to head for the ski slopes.

I went to the Yahoo! search engine and typed in Arizona ski resorts. This took me to a complete list with Web sites, and then I found Arizona Snow Bowl Resort (http://www.arizonasnowbowl.com) in Flagstaff.

Surrounded by attractions including the Grand Canyon, Sedona, Lake Powell and the Meteor Crater, with peaks reaching 12,633 feet, I knew I had found the right place. And, all this in our warm desert state! Where else can you ski in the morning and golf in the afternoon?

Anyway, once I found Arizona Snowbowl's Web site, I was able to access snow reports, trail maps, ticket prices, rental information, lodging information and a link with information about downtown Flagstaff. There is even real-time information, including weather and a live Web cam showing the snow-covered peaks.

I needed a few other questions answered, so I sent off an e-mail from the link on their site. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a personal response addressing my questions within just a few hours.

Now that my decision was made on where to go on my weekend getaway, it was time to find a place to stay. You guessed it — back to Yahoo!. Only this time, I typed in Flagstaff hotels and found plenty of options.

The next step was planning the drive. Granted, it isn't too tough to travel from Yuma to Flagstaff, but I wanted exact directions to my hotel. MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com) will provide detailed trip information packets between any two destinations.

Once on their home page, I clicked the Driving Directions button and filled in my starting address and my destination address. Within a few seconds I had detailed driving directions with times and distances for each leg, as well as interactive maps that included printable versions.

There is also a feature to download the information into your Palm Pilot or PDA, which is pretty cool. MapQuest also makes traffic reports, yellow and white pages, city guides and basic maps available.

My last stop online before being ready to start my weekend was an all-purpose city guide. The best one I found was the official site for the Convention Center and Visitor Bureau.

The site primarily displayed lists of businesses within categories, such as restaurants and hotels, but it also provided a few links to business Web sites. And, it had a very nice section devoted to Flagstaff and Northern Arizona attractions.

So, the next time you are itching to get out of town, save time and plan with confidence by using the Internet to research your personal weekend getaway.