Tag Archives: holiday travel

Avoiding Holiday Travel Woes

AAA estimates that more than 33 million people will be hitting the nation’s highways today. The Sunday following Thanksgiving is traditionally the busiest travel day of the year, and this year is no exception. Adding to the mad rush are the millions of others, who will be heading home from Turkey Day celebrations, via boat, train or plane. Unfortunately, for those of you who are doing it all over again next month, travel experts don’t expect numbers to decrease. Meaning, you will have just as much company on the roads and in the skies as today. However, thanks to the … Continue reading →

Holiday Travel with Allergy Sensitive Children

Sensitive to dust, pet dander, peanuts, wood burning fireplaces, etc. When you have children who suffer from allergies, asthma, and other immune deficiencies holiday travel can be down right horrific. You’ve hosted Christmas for the past five years in order for your child to remain in a controlled environment, but now your relatives are complaining about making the trip yet again. You can’t rob your family of holiday fun with your kids, so what do you do? Do you make the trip and deal with your child’s sniffling, sneezing, wheezing and coughing? Or do you stay at home and risk … Continue reading →

Pack the Car and Save Money

With Thanksgiving coming up next week, you may be thinking about holiday travel. If you are going by car, the way that you pack it up can affect how much you pay in gasoline. Factors in saving money when traveling by car include not only how much you bring but also where you place it. Keep reading to find out how you can travel frugally just by how you pack. The first step in packing your car the correct way to save money is to consider the passengers. The people come first, so you’ll have to make adjustments in your … Continue reading →

Mother Nature vs. Baby New Year

My friend just called to wish me a Happy New Year… from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. No kidding. The poor thing is sitting in an airport on New Year’s Eve on her way back from spending Christmas with her brother in Colorado. She’s been waiting 3 hours for her now twice delayed connecting flight back to Wisconsin. If she’s lucky she’ll land here by next year. Mother Nature has not been kind to holiday travelers this year. Bad weather has made the busy travel season difficult for flyers from coast to coast. Making matters worse is a new report from the … Continue reading →

Holiday Travel Nightmares

In my previous blog Mother Nature vs. Holiday Travelers I discussed how the horrendous winter weather conditions wrecked havoc on millions of Americans trying to get home in time for Christmas. Here in Wisconsin we were slammed with rain, fog, ice, snow, and high winds that created white out conditions. To say it led to travel nightmares is a severe understatement. In fact, last night the local news profiled a family from Bosnia who has been living in the baggage claim area of the Milwaukee airport for past 8 days. In Chicago one couple reportedly spent 3 days in the … Continue reading →

Mother Nature vs. Holiday Travelers

Score one (hundred) for Mother Nature. This past weekend holiday travelers were slaughtered by snow, ice, fog, and high winds that crippled airports from coast to coast. I too have spent the past few days dealing with horrific weather conditions that have blasted the Midwest portion of the nation. Luckily, I didn’t have to travel too far from home for Christmas, but, unfortunately, I didn’t have the luxury of simply staying in my house until the inclement weather passed either. All tolled (according to news reports) more than 25 weather related traffic deaths have occurred in the upper Midwest during … Continue reading →

Travel Tips to Help You Survive the Holiday Crush

If you are reading this blog as you wait for your delayed flight in New York, Chicago or Boston—I feel your pain. I was in your place almost a year ago to the day. If you are one of the lucky ones whose holiday travel plans won’t take you anywhere near an airport over the next two weeks count your blessings. The airport–or more specifically–airport security checkpoint lines are the last place any of us want to spend our precious vacation time. That said, my family lives in Hawaii, roughly 5,000 miles away from my current residence so I realize … Continue reading →

Travel Tidbits: Unique Holiday Destinations and Good News for Directionally Challenged Travelers

Christmas is exactly one week away and by now most families have their holiday travel plans set in stone. I’ve covered dozens of destinations worth traveling to this season in the past month, and thanks to some well-heeled readers I have a few more to add to the list. Thank you to Angela who reminded me that reindeer parks make for great family outings this time of year. If you live near Redmond, Oregon consider yourself lucky. Operation Santa Clause at The Reindeer Ranch near Redmond bills itself as the home of the country’s largest herd of domesticated reindeer. If … Continue reading →

Where Are You Ringing in 2008?

There was a time in my life when there was no place I would rather ring in the new year than New York’s Times Square. I remember as a child watching the glittering ball descend on the Big Apple on TV from my home on the Big Island of Hawaii (five hours after it had actually dropped). I spent years dreaming of being in the midst of the pomp and pageantry. That was a few decades ago, and now Times Square is probably the last place on the planet I’d want to be at 11:59:59 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. … Continue reading →

Holiday Travel: Tips For a Smooth Flight

A year ago this week I was on a flight to Hawaii to spend Christmas with my family. (We actually flew out on December 23rd.) I prepped, planned and packed like a pro, but the brutal reality of flying during one the busiest travel weeks of the year is that you are at the mercy of the airline… and the nation’s air-travel system. If you are planning to take flight this week (or anytime between now and January 6th) you run a good chance of being delayed, missing a connection, or otherwise experiencing some type of travel inconvenience. While there … Continue reading →