Holiday Travel like a Pro
Nobody likes to travel on the holidays. Except maybe Santa, but let’s be real: he has his own hassle-free airline AND he’s not traveling the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. When it comes to smooth holiday travel, some things are beyond our control (peak days, holiday schedules, Aunt Eileen's insistence on jell-o molds). But. There are a few simple things you CAN control for a smoother, stress-free holiday travel experience. Here are a few concierge approved tips for getting wherever you’re going on time and smiling.
Pack Light. Even if you come from the kind of family who “dresses for dinner”, it’s still possible to keep your luggage pared down to carry-on size. Eleanor swears by a daily-outfit-packing-checklist (and makes her clients stick to it!). If you’re traveling with kiddoes, most “essentials” can be rented, borrowed, or bought at your destination. Going far and staying a while? Consider shipping your bag to arrive when you do. Hands free=joy filled.
Travel Early (or Late). Obviously, traveling on peak days is sometimes unavoidable (they’re peak days for a reason!). The time of day you book your transit, though, can make a real difference. While schlepping to the airport for a 7am flight or hitting the road at 6am is no one’s idea of a good time, you’ll breeze through an almost-empty airport and have the roads almost to yourself before everyone else is up’n’at’em. If you do experience any cancellations (or, ugh, TRAFFIC), you’ll also have plenty of breathing room to secure alternatives/take the scenic route.
Get Smart. Your phone can be like a magic talisman when navigating holiday travel, IF you come prepared. Set up and check in on airline, TSA, and transit apps in advance of arriving at the airport so you can have your documents at the ready while everyone else is still untying their shoes. Don’t even get us started on PreCheck. JUST DO IT. If you’re driving, apps like Waze can smooth your route and keep you moving. Which brings us to our next point…
Actually PLAN for stops. When you’re driving, slow-downs around major cities at high-traffic times are kind of a given. While a smart map app can give you a heads up to traffic snafus, we find that building excellent stops into your travel itinerary is the most fabulously zen move you can make. Will you hit Harrisburg, PA at 5pm? There’s an amazing Mexican taqueria and grocery nestled in between I-76, I-81, and I-83. New Haven jamming you up? Stop for Apizz at Frank Pepe’s. Bottlenecked at Baltimore? Patterson Park Audubon Bird Sanctuary has picnics + playgrounds to burn off some energy (and has easy surface-street egress to get back on when traffic clears). This is especially game-changing if you’re traveling with kids, whose entreaties of “are we there yet” know nothing of the vagaries of the I-95 Hellscape. If you know your route, we can create a dream-stop itinerary along the way for you.
Take the train. While we are no longer privy to the white-tablecloth-Marie-Antoinette-glass-champagne-coupe-dining-car-train-travel of yore, traveling by rail is still one of the most civilized options for getting from point A to point B, especially when navigating between major transit hubs. Climb aboard and snooze/read/work/play/zone out gazing out the window listening to “America” on your airpods.
Call deVivre. One of the most stressful aspects of traveling is wrangling all of the details BEFORE you embark. Laundry, errands, pets, cleaning, clearing out the fridge, packing, prepping, tickets, routes, days, dates, times… We can handle ALL of that for you so you can focus on what really matters: pie.