Photo courtesy of Flickr Commons.
Having recently returned from our 22 Day A Pit Stop a Day road trip, I will admit I’m already thinking about our next vacation…where we’ll go, when, and how we’ll get there. Trip planning can be daunting, but breaking it up into stages and ‘sharing the load’ with travel resources at your disposal can make it much more manageable. My top tips for taking your next vacation from concept to reality:
1. If you’ll need airfare, tackle that first.
The key to finding reasonable airfare is all about flexibility, something you lose the minute you book your exact travel dates with a hotel or resort (or submit time off to your employer). If you can shop for airfare with more generalized dates, you’ll have the advantage. Even a few days’ flexibility to play with helps. Once I know the week or even month I want to travel, I check my favorite airfare-finding sites (most allow you to sign up to see their ongoing rates to particular cities via email and give you multiple airline options). Be sure to check additional nearby airports beyond your primary choice for cheaper departures (we’ve been known to drive up to five hours to get cheaper fare).
2. If travel planning seems overwhelming, consider a travel agent.
Normally, I like to plan my own vacations (part of the enjoyment!), but for specialized destinations with lots of ins and outs, a travel agent such as Liberty Travel can save the day. For instance, while trying to navigate all the package, lodging, and ticket options at DisneyWorld, we chose to enlist the help of an agent. She had the most up-to-date information on all of Disney’s various discounts, could book our dining so I didn’t have to get up at 4 am to snag a pirate cruise, and took care of our tickets and luggage tags. Experts such as these will know of destinations you hadn’t thought of, keep abreast of industry information you can’t be bothered with, and can provide group discounts you can’t get on your own.
3. Get Out the Guidebooks Early
Popular resorts become booked quickly, so depending on your destination, you may need to be planning six months to a year out. (This is especially true of National Park lodges and nearby accommodations in summer.) When choosing our hotels and lodges for this past vacation, I primarily utilized Frommer’s travel guides (especially the national parks with kids editions) and Michele Bigley’s Explorer’s Guide to Northern California. Next time, I know I’ll be thumbing through Northwest Kid Trips by CascadiaKids‘s Lora Shinn as well (look for a review to come). To find guidebooks specialized to the region you need, start with travel blogs dedicated to those states and cities; many website editors can point you in the right direction.
4. Finally, once you’ve booked your primary destination(s), look for day trips or, in the case of a road trip, overnights en route.
We utilize GoogleMaps to determine distance and exactly how many hours in the car we’re facing each day (and try to keep it to 5-7 hours max), then google individual cities en route to find interesting places to overnight or use as pit stops. Obviously, Pit Stops for Kids interstate and state pages can help with that! Once you’re all set to go, there’s nothing left to do but check out our pre-road trip packing advice!
Happy Travels!
This post has been linked to The Talking Trekaroo’s Spotlight Thursday!
Great advice! We have definitely stopped by Pitstops for Kids to find a side trip on our past few roadtrips. We found some great stops here!
Ditto for me too. It really helped that you have an interstate search feature. It made looking up potential stops really easy.