Thursday, April 19, 2007

The Stress Free way to Travel

Many of us live in different areas than the rest of our family. Many of us live several states away from Mom and Dad and there are some of us that require flight time as part of our holiday ritual. The World of holidays can be a tough choice though, considering the plethora of exciting locations to visit. For those of us that have to travel to other countries during the holiday season, flying could be tougher than at other times of the year. Here are a few tips for world travel during the holidays.

First of all, keep your smiling face on during your airport experience. In the airport, the employees have all of the answers and they have all of the power. When you are already running late or sense the upcoming delay in your flight, it is easy to lose patience with these scrooges, but keeping your temper in check could be very beneficial. After all, everything that goes wrong in your life is not their fault, it just seems that way at the moment. Keep in mind that being super nice during a not-so-great situation could mean "free upgrade" and being not so nice could result in lost luggage, or even worse, a full body search as you are "randomly" picked out of the line.

If you have the opportunity, fly during off peak hours. It may be a little inconvenient to have to leave out in the middle of the night, but it could mean beating a huge crowd of people in the airport. Plus if you leave your home airport in the middle of the night, after the time differences (or the international date line) you may be arriving at your destination at a great time of day. Better yet, it could be discounted tickets for those "Red-Eye" flights.

Traveling with children could make everything difficult. Keeping them happy is not always the easiest task on your list of things to do on your world travel. Think about how bored and agitated you get while having to wait in lines and in terminals, then how bored you get on the plane, then multiply that by at least 20 Ð that is how your kids feel. Keep them occupied with small, quiet toys, coloring books, handheld video games or DVD players, etc. What ever will keep their attention and save your sanity.