Mom and Dad Cuss (a Little): MDC 10: Lessons From the Road

Lessons From the Road

We are back from our annual vacation to Texas. After executing what we feel has been our most successful vacation to date, we decided to share some of our road stories and tips for surviving the experience.

This year we drove the family van the 1100 miles from Surprise, AZ to Corpus Christi, TX to visit our families. With 4 small children it is obviously no easy task. We made it a point this year to have some sort of activity planned each day of the vacation in order to avoid the dreaded cabin fever that has plagued us in years past. One morning we were even forced to get our day started early by a fire alarm in our hotel. (false alarm by the way) But it was an overall highly successful vacation. and we definitely learned some things worth sharing this year.

Our Vacation Pro Tips:

If you can stand to do it, driving is much more economical. Our total fuel cost round trip was less than the cost of a single plane ticket. With a family of 6 flying would have beyond broken our budget.
Staying with family is always a handy was to save a bit on hotels. It also means you'll have a kitchen handy to have home cooked meals. This also helps reduce dependence on restaurants all the time.
If staying in a hotel, look into getting an extended stay suite with a kitchen. They are typically a bit roomier and again having a kitchen severely reduces dependence on takeout. Considering the cost of dining out for every meal for a family of any size, the cost of the suite with kitchen is more than made up in the big picture.
Put your vacation budget on a prepaid gift card (Visa, AMEX, MasterCard.) It's a great way to avoid overspending. We even separated out our projected gas budget for the trip on a second card to keep those funds safe from accidental spending.
Consider purchasing solid shampoo for the trip. We use a variety sold by LUSH. It is easier to pack/ use/ travel with than bottles. And, if you are flying, you avoid the hassle of TSA security trouble over a bottle of shampoo.