10 Holiday Travel Tips

Thanksgiving is approaching fast. ‘Tis the start of the season for travel nightmares with bad weather and crowds. The key to stress reduction is meticulous planning at every point in the process.

Here’s a quick summary of the travel tips discussed in the article. I know it is impossible to follow all of the flight tips — what is best of the schedule, is often not best of the wallet.

1. Avoid peak travel days

2. Take the first flight out

3. Check-in online and arrive early

4. Plan for delays

5. Pre-ship luggage and gifts

6. Moderate sugar intake

7. Get creative with transportation entertainment

8. Leverage the Web to book activities and special events ahead of time

9. Select and book babysitters early

10. If you haven’t booked a holiday vacation and still want to take one, there is time and any hotel with open occupancy at this point is running specials and promotions to sell rooms.Look for deals!

Here are five outstanding options from the Ciao Bambino portfolio. It’s a challenge for us to stay on top of every promotion. All requests sent from our reviews go directly to the property for a custom quote — the latest pricing and specials will be included in the response.

Kimpton’s oceanfront Vero Beach Hotel & Spa in Central Florida is running a hotel package for stays through December 30, including accommodations for two adults and two children, a goodie bag of pool toys, a two-hour bike rental for two adults and two children, an in-room movie, milk  and cookies, and a donation to the Homeless Family Shelter equal to 5 percent of the room rate. Rates for a family of four start at $175 per night.

The Resort at Paws Up in Greenough, Montana is offering an incredible Christmas package including a personal Santa for every family, Christmas Eve dinner and kid’s party, a tree in every guest room complete with a personal stash of decorations, a holiday horse-drawn sleigh and wagon ride, ice skating, holiday games, and a Christmas Day Brunch.

The starting rate for accommodations and breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day for a family of four is $7,376 for a five-night stay. Available from December 22-29.

Mammoth Lakes is known for early, fantastic snow conditions (typically, skiing is well underway by Thanksgiving) and now they have direct flights into the area from Los Angeles, San Jose and Reno (connections from Seattle and Portland). The Village Lodge at Mammoth has condo rooms that are ideal for families and there is holiday inventory available, although rates are not discounted, there’s a laundry activities in town in addition to this area’s phenomenal skiing including an outdoor ice rink, snow tubing, and dog sled tours. Rates for a family of four start at $254 over Thanksgiving and $569 over Christmas/New Years.

Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore is located far away from the bustle of Waikiki and the wide variety of oceanfront rooms, suites, and villas set this property apart from the other hotels in this quality category. They are running a Christmas/New Year promotion where the fifth, sixth, or seventh night is free and includes a complimentary room upgrade (based on availability). Rates for a family of four start at $289 per night.

The ideally located Le Parker Meridien in New York City is offering a 20 percent discount off best available weekend rates from November 20-25 and December 20-27.