drive or fly for holidays??

mattandlora · November 2013

Our baby will be 6 months old at Christmas. We have him, 2 Labrador retrievers, and a 14-16hr drive for the holidays (depending on weather and traffic). If we drive, we have to bring our luggage, plus baby gear, dog stuff, and gifts. If we fly, we have to board the dogs and still deal with carting luggage, baby gear, and gifts on the flight. Our LO is pretty good in the car, but we've never done anything longer than a 3-4hr drive with him. We'd split the 14-16hrs into 2 days. We have 8 days off total.

What would you do? I'm pretty sure this is a lose-lose situation and it will suck either way.

ASmallWonder · November 2013

I can't say for sure what I'd do but if this factors in, safety-wise your LO needs their own seat on the plane. The cost of that might sway your decision.

MrsArrow · November 2013

You can always ship the gifts. Might be worth the cost vs hassle at the airport. That is what we are doing. My MIL is borrowing stuff from the church nursery and friends for Thanksgiving and then my sister has everything we need for Christmas. We are flying, LO on lap as well, its direct and only 3 hours vs the 20+ hours needed to drive. TX to PA would be ridiculous! ha ha! GL

ASmallWonder · November 2013

For everyone flying with lap babies, you might want to research the dangers of that. Of course in a plane crash from the air survivors are unlikely but in turbulence and take off/landing crashes, babies in arms will be ejected into the cabin. They have procedures to strap down peanuts on flights so really, it makes sense that more precious things should be as well

GalLaura · November 2013

I'm living abroad and have purchased gifts on line and sent to families houses. You can do the same but tell them not to open them.

Personally, I would fly if it was affordable. I assume its a short flight since the drive is 16 hours or so. This way more time spent with family then traveling.

dimples128 · November 2013

You could also look at buying the gifts online and having them shipped directly to where you are going when you purchase them. Most places have free shipping and that will save you a lot of time and money.

kkdgirl · November 2013

We are driving 6 hours each way in december. We have made the trip several times already with our little one and a 16 hour one way. I would prefer flying, but the cost is over 1,000 for the three of us. And I would hate to be at the mercy of my inlaws when not having a vehicle. My best advice for traveling such far distances with the little one is to leave either right before nap time or right before bed. I know traveling at night can be terrible for some and usually horrible weather in the winter, but it is better to only have to stop a few times rather than constantly when the baby starts crying. If we time it right during the day our little guy will sleep for 2-3 hours and we can get some good traveling in. But if we leave when he is wide awake or in the morning he usually cries for the entire 6 hours and we have to make 4-5 stops to feed, change, cuddle and gas up.

Best wishes to you. We will be making the journey too if its not snowing to much.

musicalsilver · November 2013

We have an 8 hour drive ahead of us for the holidays - and LO will be a little over 6 months at the time. We also have 2 big dogs.

We haven't done anything longer than a 2.5hr drive with LO, so I have no idea how he'll do - I'm just planning to be very flexible with making stops and the like. We're also probably investing in a roof rack just to make sure we can fit all the stuff in our car. With the two dogs and the baby, and probably needing someone sitting next to the baby to distract him at times, that eats up most of our storage space!

So we have the added cost of a roof rack, but that's still cheaper than boarding both our dogs for the holidays.

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drive or fly for holidays??

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