My tip is to be creative. Don't just take the standard shot. Mix it up and find and interesting focal point.

Here are some tips from me (somewhat a novice):

1. If you're trying to go for that magical shot of a local(s), its better to ask their permission first so a.) you'll be able to compose the shot properly b.) you won't upset or offend them. Besides, you're trying to sneek a photo paparazzi style, unless you have an amazingly fast camera, good hands, and a good eye, its going to look terrible.

2. If it looks good to you or speaks to you in a special way, take the shot. I think its funny how sometimes you could take a picture of something really abstract, or break ever rule in the book, and show that picture as a snapshot to people and they'll think its a junk photo or comment on what a lousy photo it is. However, you take that same photo, print it on nice paper, put a border and frame on it and put it behind glass, suddenly its a work of art. People might not understand why you took a picture of a certain street sign, an old bicycle on the side of the road, or a random doorway. Ultimately, our travel photos are our way of sharing our experiences with everyone else and allowing them to see that destination through our eyes. Naturally there will be an interesting story to go with each and every one of your photos.

3. You can do wonders with a point-and-shoot camera. You don't have to spend $$$ on an SLR and accompanying array of lenses to bring home interesting images. Since your point-and-shoot camera won't be able to do fancy things like an SLR, focus on moments, faces, interactions, and other things that don't require a high dollar lens. A small, compact camera can do wonders in capturing the minutae of your travels, not to mention, it won't appear nearly as threatening to the locals.

4. If you can afford it, bring both your big fancy SLR for the professional looking shots of monuments, buildings, landscapes, and other tourist must-haves, and carry a small point-and-shoot in your pocket for the ocassional candids with the locals and small places like crowded cafes and shops.

shoot how you feel.

Everyone has the same shot of the hot tourist spot - go ahead take it but don't make it the shot you show to everyone at home (ok, you can include it). Anyway just shoot how you feel, i realize that might sound harder than you think but it's not.

If you need to get in the mood, start shooting everything by holding the camera at hip level instead of to your eye, start shooting while intentionally blurring your shot, shoot while spinning, shoot while riding in the car, the boat, the bus, whatever.

Photography is really the only art (besides video) that can take you back to how you felt in a specific time & place. Once you have captured that, you will have an amazing album and your pics will be unique. Do that by shooting in ways that no one else does until you discover your "eye".

On a technical level, if you are having a tough time metering, meter off green grass. Just point the camera down and set the meter at that, go ahead and shoot whatever after that you should be good to go, the grass is close to middle grey which should make all your exposures work.

My best photo tip is to get an olypus XA film camera from ebay. they are 35 years old and will set you back about $50. They are indestructable and with a good film take amazing pictures, much better than any point and shoot digital camera, I even had mine have a bucket of water tipped over it in bangkok for tai new year and even though the film was wet it was still fine.
I have a whole bunch of travel pics on my website taken with it
inspirational travel photos

Well, I'm nowhere near being a pro photographer and have never taken any form of formal photography training. I just carry a wonderful little canon point and shoot and stap photos happily along as I go. Unlike the hardcore photographers and set up for the perfect postcard shot of all the key scenes on a trip, I tend to keep my camera out all the time (since it fits in the palm of my hand) and shoot random, journal-esque photos of my day and the things I'm seeing. It helps remind me later of where I went on a given day, what I saw, what i experienced. And so what I have at the end of my trip are a series of shots, somewhat evenly spready out over the days and within the day, so that I can put my trip together using the documentary of my photos. Plus, it's effortless, I just hold out my camera, click, and keep walking.

On the occassion that I do have to shoot or more composed shot or one with people or myself in it, I tried to make the shot interesting using what I have, which is a point and shoot. I love semi-candid photos, of say, someone looking up from a book or a cup of coffee, or catching a friend/travel buddy pouring over a map on a busy street in the middle of a crazy city, things like that. What I try to avoid are the run-of-the-mill composed shots of say, a group of 6 friends, all holding up beers and looking straight at the camera in a drunken stupor, in a pub somewhere. Not that there's anything wrong with friendship, I just want to keep things a little more interesting.

Came across this article today that I liked.
The A-B-C-D-E of Travel Photography