With the holidays right around the corner many of you are already making plans for holiday travel. Whether going to a location like Hawaii or taking the children to visit their grandparents in another state, travelling during the holidays can be stressful. This doesn’t have to be the case though. Planning is crucial to a smooth travel experience, especially during the holidays. Below I’ve listed some tips for travelling this holiday season, with or without children.
1. Plan Ahead! Choosing the right dates is important to saving money and your sanity. When traveling for Thanksgiving weekend, you should try to leave a day before most travelers and return a day or two later. Christmas and New Years are a little different, you should try to travel on Christmas or New Years day for lower rates and less traffic.
2. Remain Flexible! The more flexible you are with holiday travel plans, the less it will cost you. Keep travel dates and mode of travel open. often it will be more expensive to fly during the holidays, so consider traveling via bus, train, or even driving yourself. Checking with discount airlines like Southwest or JetBlue is a good idea as well.
3. The early bird gets the worm! By planning well in advance you can save a considerable sum of money on travel tickets, and in some cases get specials on different vacation packages. Most families travel in groups during the holidays, so look for specials on group rates as well.
4. Research your options! Be sure to do thorough research before buying your airline/travel tickets. If you find a great deal make sure you take advantage of it right away because it may not be available in a week or two. If you are member of AARP or AAA make sure to check on any available discounts that might be available to you.
5. Long trips with the little ones! For long trips, try travelling at night when your child (children) are sleeping. For instance, if your child goes to bed at 8pm, try to book a flight for 7pm. This will give them time to settle down before the flight takes off. Plus they will have the chance to run around the airport and burn off much of that youthful energy!
6. Keeping the kids occupied! Anyone who has vacationed with children knows how much of a struggle it can be to keep them occupied during road trips. Even on short trips, you may end up hearing things like: "Mom, he looked at me", or "Dad, she is on my side of the car", etc. This can be stressful for everyone in the vehicle, so be sure to plan things to distract them. Bring along things like portable video game systems. DVD players and DVD's, games designed specifically for road trips, or you can make up your own games as you go along, such as I spy or having them count and keep track of a specific color of vehicle.
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