#Travel140 Travel Tips – Holiday Edition

It’s the Holiday Season and we’re devoted to sharing tips to ease your travels, so you can enjoy your holidays! It’s the #Travel140 Travel Tips – Holiday Edition!

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Choose Your Travel Days Wisely – Especially during the Holidays!

“Home for the Holidays” is one of our favorite Christmas songs. (Oh, the dulcet tones of Perry Como!) The sentiment is timeless: Oh there’s no place like home for the holidays… Of course, the journey is never that simple, and the song points out the woes of getting there that we all know far too well: …from Atlantic to Pacific, gee the traffic is terrific!

That’s why it’s important to choose your travel days carefully. While sometimes it can’t be helped, there are definitely days to avoid, and some better alternatives.

When NOT to Travel

If you’ve ever been on the road, in a train station, or at an airport on the day before and/or the day after a major holiday, you already know the very worst day to travel. There really is no good option on these days. If you have no choice but to travel on these days, go into it knowing that it will be slow and crowded. The best you can do is put on a smile and be determined to spread holiday cheer no matter what.

Only slightly better are the Friday and Monday following a holiday, especially if the holiday falls on a weekend. You can hardly blame anyone for wanting to stretch out a long weekend. This usually means the Thursday and/or Tuesday around that holiday will be busier than normal as well.

When TO Travel

Ironically, the best days for holiday travel are the days you’re least likely to be able to. Think about it: You want to travel when everyone else is busy at work. Trouble is, you’re usually in that “everyone else” category.

It might mean burning a few vacation days to get back home (or get away from home) but, if you can afford to be contrarian, do it. If you can’t afford the vacation days, find out if you can work remotely. If possible, volunteer to switch your days off, working a long stretch to be off before or after the holiday. It’s worth the trade-off to travel a few days before the holidays because it could be the difference between the family seeing Santa instead of the Grinch when you arrive.

Another, though less appetizing, option is to fly on the holidays themselves. It’s true that one of the loneliest places to be is at the airport on Christmas Day. On the other hand, it will be the shortest security line you’ve ever seen, and you’re much less likely to get stuck in a middle seat. If those are gifts you cherish, this could be an option for you!

[Tweet “Only Santa makes good time the day before Christmas, so choose your holiday travel days wisely…”]

We’d love to hear about your experiences! When do you think is the best time to travel during the holidays? Any experiences you’d care to share? Feel free to share your favorite travel tips, too. We’ll re-post the best tips, so be sure to include your Twitter handle and a link to your blog, if you have one. Or click for more #Travel140!