Thanksgiving is a stressful time of year, as we have established. If you didn’t catch my post about self-care and self-kindness during the holiday season, go ahead and give yourself a break from manic Thanksgiving preparations to read this.
If you’re traveling for Thanksgiving, things can get even more stressful. And if you’re traveling with kids? Forget it! It feels like you have 4 million things to do. Plus, you have to pack up what feels like half the house to take along. What if they get sick? (They will get sick. Or you’ll get sick. Fun!)
We’ve traveled for Thanksgiving before and for anyone planning their first Thanksgiving traveling, I wanted to share a few tips and tricks. Before that, however, here are a few others posts I have about travel prep and packing with kids:
Want to pack some masks for self-care? Here are my suggestions.
My post about taking a toddler to Disneyland (and relevant for all travel experiences!).
Hopefully, you find a few gems among those previous blog posts. Now, let’s talk traveling this Thanksgiving!
1. Monitor the Weather Leading up to Thanksgiving.
If you’re traveling a long distance and might experience inclement weather, be prepared. Get your oil changed beforehand, check your tires, and have an emergency kit just in case. If you’re flying, keep a close eye on weather at any of your stops and your destination.
When I was young, it felt like there was always some huge storm at one major airport that made Thanksgiving travel way more difficult. Being prepared and aware beforehand is much easier these days, so stay mindful. If you’re driving, remember that if conditions look bad enough, it’s ok to postpone driving—or cancel.
2. Break Your Trip Up.
If possible, the number one piece of advice I always give to parents traveling with kids for the first time is to break the trip up! An example is that when Danny and I drive to Idaho now, we usually stop in Bend. It’s perfectly doable to drive to Idaho in one day; it’s 9 hours, give or take depending on how many stops we make. However, with a child, we’ve found that having a stop makes it a much more pleasant trip for us.
For Thanksgiving last year, we did this for the first time and it made a huge difference in how we felt when we got to Idaho! Plus, we got more time to be with family.
3. Find Ways to Make Your Trip Fun.
Here are a few things we do, besides splitting our trips into two parts, to make road tripping over the holidays fun:
Get a DVD player (or holder for an iPad!) for your little ones. I know many aren’t fans of this, but let me tell you… that really saves us every time we go for a long drive.
Stop along the way and do something fun. Whether you get lunch at a new, fun place, stop to take a few photos somewhere exciting, or just get out to walk around a Wal-Mart, breaking up the trip this way helps a lot. Plus, you can schedule convenient bathroom breaks this way.
Pack a special snack. We also pack one of Forrest’s favorite treats (honestly, it’s usually the yogurt he eats every single day, but it’s still his favorite thing) to have midway through the second day. It gives him something exciting.
Download a podcast you’ve been wanting to listen to. Danny and I always try to find a long form podcast to listen to for our drive; when we went to California in 2017, we listened to You Must Remember This about the Charles Manson murders and, honestly, it’s one of the most memorable parts of the trip for me. It helps pass the time so much faster!
Those might not be things you would do, but try to think of a few ways to pass the time and make the trip enjoyable for you and your children. Traveling over Thanksgiving can be really exciting, but daunting, especially if you’re a new parent. You’ve got a million things to think about, as well as family relationships to contend with. Find ways to treat yourself well, laugh with your family, and have fun.
Have tips for Thanksgiving travel? Send them my way!
