Making Holiday Travel Work for You

There’s no way to put this lightly… the holidays are hectic. Between social gatherings, family drama, shopping, cooking, and, especially, traveling the responsibilities never end. The only way to get through it all and not lose your mind is to stay organized. We’ll try to arm you with a few handy dandy tips to make it possible.

Booking

Everyone’s looking for travel deals for the holidays. Whether you’re booking hotel or airfare online booking sites like Expedia or Travelocity offer the greatest range of options. Here’s a tip for Internet searches: If can’t find the low price you saw on a site during a previous search, open your Internet Options tools and delete your cookies to clear any record of the booking engine. You should be able to find your original price.

You may also be able to find better deals by book one-way, non-stop flights. You may have to build in a layover but it could end up saving you a large chunk of change.

If you can’t stay with family or if you’re traveling somewhere you don’t have a place to crash it’s best to search local reservation Web site in major cities like Washington D.C., Express New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or San Francisco. These sites are much quicker and more effective than searching generic search engines, and they’ll give you a more realistic idea of your accommodations and surroundings.

Packing

When traveling with a family for the holidays there’s plenty to bring and not a lot of space to do it in. In addition to the basic necessities, you’re packing gifts. Pack everything in clear plastic bags not only to conserve space, but also to make it easier for security. When checking luggage security will open and look through your bags, and the easier they can successfully make their scan through your stuff the better.

Oh, and never wrap your holiday gifts whether you’re carrying them on or checking them: they will be opened. If you can manage it, bring along an extra bag when traveling home for the holidays so you have somewhere to pack the gifts you receive.

Being that one of the best things about the holidays is the food and considering holiday food is all about tradition you may be inclined to bring something special and tasty along. When traveling with food remember that liquids are prohibited in carry-on items, including cranberry sauce, creamy dips, spreads (cheeses, peanut butter, etc.), salsa, jams, dressings, jams, jellies, syrup, oils, and soups. Apparently pies will make it through.

Planning

With all the policy changes being implemented by the Transportation Safety Administration recently, it’s hard to know what is and isn’t acceptable and what’s required of you regarding airport security. Read the latest security rules prior to your trip, including the TSA’s Helpful Hints for Holiday Travelers for everything you need to know about new advanced imaging technology and pat-down procedures.

Tensions run high when it comes to the holidays, but instead of arguing with family about who will travel to whom during one of the most festive times of the year, why not meet each other half way… literally. Start a new tradition and spend the holidays in a central location between family members.

And consider using your credit cards for all travel you book throughout the holidays; you may already be paying for insurance or it may be built in to your card service and could end up helping you save on your travel expenses.