As my family and I gear up for our family vacation to the Pacific Northwest I thought it might be useful to share some of my favorite travel tips. I know that traveling, especially with a family, can be stressful for all those involved. Take a look at these ten tricks for stress-free travel.

Do you have one that should be added to the list? Let me know in the comments! 👇🏼

1. Pack As You Do Laundry

In our home laundry is typically done over the weekend. With that being said, we all work to plan out our suitcase as we put our laundry away. This allows for us to plan ahead and avoid double handling the items. 🙌🏻

2. Limit Yourself to Three Pairs of Shoes

I know this one can seem downright crazy, but bare-with-me. If you really think about it how many pairs of shoes do you actually wear while you are on vacation? 1: Comfortable walking/lounging shoe 2: A dress shoe for a night out and 3: An event specific shoe. Setting these boundaries will free up space in your suitcase and decrease stress overall. Fewer options yield less anxiety. 

3. Inventory Your Suitcase

This one can be time-consuming and seem ridiculous but it really is helpful, especially for children. Make an inventory of everything in your suitcase, i.e. 1: Blue V-neck, 2: Black tank tops, 1: Black Converse, 1: iPhone charger etc. Once you have created your list, pack it safely in a suitcase pocket. When you go to pack for the return trip, use this list to account for everything you brought – no more forgotten items! 

4. Look Into Rental Car Authorization Levels

This one has been especially helpful over the years. As you become more familiar with car rental companies you will discover that each company has there own standard credit card authorization amount. This authorization is the amount they run your credit card for before giving you the keys. Now you would think, the rental is to cost $ 208.71 they will charge me $ 208.71 – but that is not the case. A couple of the companies charge a percentage of the rental in excess while others authorize a flat rate in excess. It is important to know what your particular company does.

If your someone on top of your game with zero revolving credit, feel free to skip number 4. Buuuut if you are like most Americans, revolving credit is pretty normal. Number 4 is important to me because trying to figure out if you have the proper “available” amount on your credit card while being rung up at the counter can be super stressful. 😳💯

Take the time to figure out the standard authorization for your company prior to departure – I promise you’ll be happy you did.

5. Pre-schedule Your Uber

This one is one of my favorite new tricks! Through the Uber App you can now prearrange your Uber transporation. Taking a moment to set this up will greatly decrease your departure stress – and bonus – no parking fees. 🙌🏻🙌🏻

6. Weigh Your Suitcase at Home

I don’t know about you but the bigger my suitcase the harder it is to keep it under the 50 lb (sometimes 40 lbs) weight limit. And NOTHING is worse than having to open up your suitcase on the floor at the ticket counter. Frantically pulling out shoes, jeans and whatever else appears to be “heavy” just to get that scale to read 50.00lbs. 😅 Do yourself a favor and weigh the suitcase before you leave. Don’t have one of those fancy bag weights? Try the old-fashioned math technique. Weigh yourself holding the bag, then weigh yourself without the bag and subtract the bag weight. 

Having the dawning at home that you “probably shouldn’t have packed your Doc Martins” will allow you to be flexible and rethink your plan. 🧐

7. Accessorize After Security

This is something I only recently started. As I prepare to travel, I am one who likes to choose a “travel outfit” this outfit will always include a light jacket, slip on shoes and great accessories. One day as I moved through security I proceeded to remove all the jewelry I literally had just finished putting on in the car and it hit me. Why am I putting these things on before security?!? 💡 Now I plan ahead, all accessories go into my purse/personal item and I do not put on my jacket. The items are sent through security and then once on the other side, I get all suited up. Saves time and effort all around. ✨

8. Avoid Hangry

This one seems silly but can be so helpful. Pack one granola bar or small snack per person in your crew. Watching and being prepared for those moments when people are hungry will help reduce stress and hurt feelings all around. I’m sure we are all sorry for something we once said when we were hungry. 🤬

9. Essential Oil Roller Ball

In our house, Young Living Essential Oils give us life! 🙌🏻 For traveling (especially via plane) my go-to roller ball is filled with Peace & Calming, Peppermint and Joy. Applying this to my wrists and/or neck before entering the plane not only brings me peace and joyfulness but also to those around me. Learn how to make your own Roller Ball Dilution here.

10. Ginger Candy

Do you have any car-sick kiddos? Generally speaking, our family is pretty good with car travel or plan turbulence. That being said, I still always aim to be on the side of prevention. These Ginger Candies (I get at TJ Maxx) are the perfect addition to any carry-on bag. At the first sign of nausea or discomfort take one or two and be amazed at the calming power of Ginger. Also, they are candy – so handing them out to the kids before the road gets windey is always a good plan. 

Thanks for reading and happy travels!

xo,

Carolyn