In the past, I just packed a bunch of clothes, flip-flops, and bikinis (ha!) along with piles of magazines and books. BOOM. Ready. For those of you who still get to do this, STAY HERE AS LONG AS YOU CAN.
PLAN:
This is the most important step. You can't just throw your kid(s) in the car and drive with reckless abandon. Actually, I guess you could, but you would just have to have the patience of a saint. And the ears of Helen Keller.
Seriously, you need to plan. What are you going to do when you get where you are going? What will you and the family need to wear and bring to be ready for that? Do you need to make reservations anywhere? Does your car need to be serviced (snicker)?
Do not plan on driving at night to beat traffic and the kids can sleep. I mean, think about it. When the kids wake up all refreshed from sleeping you will be... ready to start taking shots of 5 Hour Energy? Don't do that to yourself, crazy. I speak from experience.
For things to do and where to stay go to http://www.wejustgotback.com/. It's not the easiest website to navigate, but they were mentioned in Forbes, so they must be doing something right.
I also recommend searching for and following travel sites on twitter. For example, if you are going to Hilton Head, (no that's not where I'm going in two weeks, creeper), look for people with the name of Hilton Head in the title. Lots of (smart) companies have twitter accounts and post deals, discounts and events for people who follow them. Ryan got to play a cheap (for Hilton Head) game of golf, thanks to me. What's that? You don't have a twitter account? You know... I can only help you so much. Get it together. And follow me @jacstormy, for the love.
After you've figured all that out, go to http://www.travelmamas.com/pages/packing_lists.html and get her packing lists. From there, figure out what you need to buy and launder. While you are there, you should look around because she's the boss.
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| It's cool, Mom. I got this leg. Just get me more coffee. |
Speaking of buying, I happened upon the website https://www.travelkiddy.com/. It actually makes me angry that I did not know about this website sooner. I mean, do you know how hard it is to entertain an immobile toddler for 8 hours? There was a point in time when I would've gladly set my hair of fire to avoid traveling with children. Well, put the matches down because this website has travel toys and activities categorized by age group. When it comes to actually buying the toys, I recommend going to amazon.com if you have amazon prime. If you do not, you need to look at your life and look at the choices you are making because frankly I am starting to question them.
If your kids are older, you can always try what my sister-in-law does. She goes to the Dollar Store in advance and buys one toy for every hour of the trip, per child. So when she drives up to see us from South Carolina, she buys 14 toys and gives both boys a toy every hour of the trip. Baby Corbin gets a snuggle.
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| Heck, yes I still have a pacifier. |
PLAY:
If you find that by some miracle you are running ahead of schedule and have some time to kill before your hotel or rental house opens up, go to http://www.onthewayapp.com/. Type in your location and destination and a bunch of attractions pop up. Lots of restaurants, movie theaters, and historical sites for you to keep the children occupied while you beg the concierge to let you in early.
Once you are in and settled, consider going off the beat and path for meals. Melissa Kronenthal from http://www.travelerslunchbox.com/ recommends googling your destination and "food blog". With a little bit of searching, you can find some great places to eat and not fall into the tourist trap restaurant with expensive crap food. I recommend checking to see if they offer carry-out or, better yet, delivery.
Speaking of delivery, if you are doing anything outdoorsy, consider renting the equipment you need to save yourself room while traveling. I know from watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills that you can actually have your skis and boots delivered to you. And score a date, apparently. I know that I'm seriously considering having our beach chairs and umbrella delivered. But not because I want to score a date from a beach bum.
While you are doing all this cool stuff, be sure to keep some of the tickets and brochures you get while you're there. Pinterest has a metric cajillion of projects to make with all your memorabilia.
If you have any other suggestions, by all means, please help a sister out. Hope your children are good and you are bad. Happy travels.
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You forgot fun snacks, great tunes (not mickey mouse clubhouse), travel breaks and the blessed DVD player. See you at the beach!
ReplyDeleteI hope those are obvious! I do go to the library and grab a few new DVDs that Henry hasn't seen before... That's a must.
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