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Christmas Getaways

While there’s no place like home for the holidays, there are a lot of really good reasons to get outta Dodge for Christmas.

Home for the Holidays

For some people, home isn’t “home“. Whether you’ve moved away to pursue a career, settled in your dream location or just needed a change of scenery, the holidays may be a time when you want to head back to the place you grew up to visit friends and family.

It might be that you’ve retired to sunnier shores and you’re heading back to your point of origin to see your grandkids open their presents on Christmas Day. Whatever the reason that you’re heading to that home away from home, take a look at the travel tips below to help plan your holiday excursion.

Green Christmas

Regardless of where you live, you might want to hitch up the reindeer and head someplace a bit more green and glamorous like Hawaii, the Caribbean or the Mediterranean. There are a variety of exotic locales where you can grab a hotel room, rent a villa or take a leisurely cruise among the islands for the holidays.

Personally, I love the snow and the ambiance of early Winter, but a lot of people don’t. If you’ve got some time off from work and you want to get away, this is a chance to really get away from it all. There are a variety of sites and travel agencies who can help you plan your perfect holiday in paradise.

Change of Scenery

If you already live someplace green and glamorous, you might want to switch things up and head someplace that looks more “like a picture print by Currier and Ives“. Whether it’s a ski vacation or just going someplace where a sleigh ride is not out of the question, you might want to go where the cold winds blow for the full holiday experience.

Skiing, snowmobiling, snowboarding and taking countryside sleigh rides are among the many options you can find at ski lodges, rustic country inns and even in big cities like New York City where you can ice skate at Rockefeller Plaza, go see The Rockettes and have a snowball fight in Central Park like Buddy the Elf.

Travel Tips

There are a lot of ways to get from here to there, but the most common are driving yourself or simply hopping a flight if driving would take too much of a bite out of your holidays. Let’s take a look at some tips on these most popular travel options.

Driving

Driving is the most popular way to travel during the holidays. 83% of holiday travel is done by car.

Long car rides can be particularly challenging at any time of year but if you have a couple of excited kids,  you’ll need a lot of extra patience and organizational skill.

Here are a few tips to help your holiday driving go smoothly:

• Involve your children in the planning stage so that they can look forward to participating in something that they helped to plan.
• Allow for extra travel time just in case there are traffic jams or weather-related road conditions that slow you down.
• Have two drivers in the vehicle so that you can switch after a few hours. Switching makes long drives easier..
• Driving while the kids are asleep allows you to make the most headway and alleviates the needs for unnecessary stops.
• Limit your driving to just 6 to 8 hours per day and include some kid-friendly stops along the way. Everybody will have a chance to stretch their legs and have some fun at the same time.
• Pack a cooler with snacks. Include wipes for cleaning up before and after eating. Place the cooler between kids in the back seat to help them feel like they have their own personal space. The top of the cooler makes a convenient place to play with toys and travel games too.

Flying

Timing

Always check the status of your flight in advance of arriving at the airport. You can check the status of your flight on the airline’s website. You can usually sign up for automatic flight status notification right on the site. You can be notified by text message or through an app on your phone.

The website of your departing and arriving airports come in handy. It can show you nearby places to eat and how close they are to your departure gate. If you anticipate a lengthy delay, you’ll be able to identify local sight-seeing opportunities or leisure activities that can be enjoyed while waiting.

Give yourself plenty of extra time and arrive at the gate well before you need to. This way if there are long lines at the security checkpoint you won’t be late for your flight. Checking in will always take longer than you expect. A good rule is to be at the airport an hour before domestic flight times and no less than two hours before international flight time.

Security

When you are flying, you will need to be prepared for security procedures. Not preparing ahead of time for what you can and cannot take aboard the flight will cost you and your fellow travelers time and aggravation. Be aware of what can be taken with you and what needs to go in checked luggage.

When you approach boarding sections you will need to take out your laptop as you get near the scanner. It’s important to pay close attention as your belongings come through the scanner so that you pick up your laptop and not someone else’s.

Traveling with gifts has some special precautions as well. Do not spend the time or money to wrap your gifts because you will just have to unwrap them in front of the guards. To avoid a hassle, either wait until you arrive where you’re going to wrap them or ship them ahead by mail or UPS. Shipping them separately could also save you money if they’ll put you overweight on the baggage. There’s a fee that you’d have to pay for that which likely would be offset by shipping your gifts ahead. You can wrap the gifts and them put them in the shipping boxes so that they arrive ready for Christmas even if you don’t make it due to delays or cancelations.

Contingencies

There isn’t much you can do about snowstorms and other weather delays. Booking a flight early in the day will give you time to arrange other options if the worst occurs. For coping with these delays,  booking later flights or making other travel arrangements can help to fix the situation so you can still arrive at Christmas dinner on time.

Always know what the plan is for once you arrive at your destination. Is someone picking you up or are you renting a car? Be sure that you have a printed copy of the driving directions to the hotel or your relatives’ home so that you don’t get lost once you leave the airport.