Tis the season for holiday highway frustrations. There are two ways to look at this holiday season- 1. If you’re staying home and don’t have to travel, lucky you for avoiding the traffic troubles, but then your concerns lie with having to be the host, and cook for family and friends. 2. If you are the ones making the trek over the holidays to visit family, then fortunate for you someone else will be doing the cooking this year, but unfortunately you will need to cope with the hustle and bustle of fellow travelers!
Since my husband and I have not yet been promoted to the hosting position yet, we are the ones that are traveling around visiting our families during the holidays. Because of this, we have had to come up with a serious system; a time and money-saver system, and a try not to strangle each other in the car system. So, if you’re one of the millions of people that have plans to be traveling in the next months, here are some tips to help make it a more pleasant, enjoyable experience with your spouse!
- Pack the night before. If you don’t have kids yet, you’re still going to find that you are packing for more than yourself, if you catch my drift, so make sure to get the laundry finished ahead of time so that you can pack the day before your trip!
- Be cash conservative! Tolls are out-of-control expensive these days, so conserve your spending money elsewhere by packing a cooler with some H20 and a few snacks for the ride. This will also save you a few minutes of your time sitting through the drive through!
- Music is key! Make sure to have your music selection ready-to-go, especially if you get stuck in some heavy traffic on the way, you will need something fun to take your mind off of your situation at-hand!
- Find your alternative route. You never can be sure that you’re not going to get stuck in a detour or have to stray off of your course due to an accident. Although your GPS can help with this situation, they’re not always 100% accurate, so printing off an alternative route from Google Maps isn’t at all a bad idea.
- Avoid the rage. It is so easy to lose your temper and become frustrated, so if someone flips you the bird, wink, smile or wave back. It’s so much more fun and may help to calm down the other party involved!
What are your best tactics to ease the holiday highway frustrations when traveling, and maintain your holiday spirit!? Please share!