How do I only copy the non-hidden files and folders in a folder, and is what is the terminal command to do so?

I'm thinking of doing a reinstall, so I'm backing up my files. Ubuntu One is doing a back-up, but I'm just being cautious. What I want to do, is go into the terminal, type in a couple of commands, and have it start to copy my /home directory onto my /backup folder on my flash drive. I don't need anything that is hidden; so I want to be able to exclude them in the copy.