Comments on: Christmas travel

By: Bethany

Bethany — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:57:56 +0000

I’ll be doing a lot of traveling this year. I’ve never traveled more than an hour or two for the holidays before, and I’ve never flown at the holidays. We bought our tickets in July, when they first went on sale, for a little more than $700 each, roundtrip. Everyone tells us we got a great deal, and I like that we didn’t have to think about price comparing when the holidays were beginning to pick up, hoping for a last minute sale.
Once we get there, neither of us will have cars (mine was sold, his sister now drives his), so we may have to rely on parents/siblings/friends for rides, but we won’t have to add miles to our car or put in gas, unless we borrow one. But we want to see those people, anyway, so that’s more time together if we carpool (and better for the environment!). And then we have four Christmas celebrations to attend between the two of us, in three different locations, over the course of a week. At least they’re all in the same state! The traveling will be an adventure in itself, not to mention trying to see everyone we can in less than two weeks’ time. We’ll be driving all over the place, but hopefully it will be as economical as possible.

By: Kacie

Kacie — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 03:31:22 +0000

Ug, some of you have to drive a long ways!

I think I will go ahead and get the AAA membership this year, since it will be at a greatly reduced rate. Maybe we’ll be able to use it for discounts this year, as well.

We don’t live near family, and of the few friends I have in Pittsburgh, I wouldn’t want to call them if I needed a jump start or whatever.

By: Margo

Margo — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 02:28:18 +0000

I’ve also never found AAA to be worth the annual fees. We haven’t broken down for a while, but in the past, we were able to rely on family and friends to help us. However, we don’t do a lot of long distance driving anymore, so maybe that would change my mind.

By: ashley @ twentysixcats

ashley @ twentysixcats — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 01:43:16 +0000

I’ve always done lots and lots of traveling since it seems that I have never lived near family. :-) This week, we had to drive 8 hours for my brother’s wedding. We left at 2am and it was really really nice driving at night, due to less traffic. I think you probably save on gas in the long run because you’re not speeding up or slowing down as much. Of course, it messes up your sleep schedule so I don’t think it’s always that worth it. When finding a gas station, I always stop at an exit that has multiple gas stations, since I find the competition usually leads to better prices. I also have made that drive so often that I know which exits tend to be the best for gas. For example, I’ve found that just south of Atlanta has better gas prices than the city itself.

Another thing I do is try not to travel during high-traffic times. I’ve never gone home for Thanksgiving, because most people travel that Wednesday and Sunday, which leads to higher gas prices, more traffic, and more cops on the road. It’s just not worth it to me. That is also true for weekends like Memorial Day and Labor Day.

I don’t know what your options are, but my experience with AAA is that they are REALLY slow at answering your calls. They take on average 3 or 4 hours from the time you call to the time they get there. Of course, they may be the cheapest, but it wouldn’t hurt to check around. I have roadside assistance through my car insurance company. I know you can also get it through some cell phones.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:12:30 +0000

We are traveling to see family…which means $$ for gas, but we won’t spend money on food while we are there!!! No one expects us to bring anything to family dinners during the week (except our daughter’s allergen free stuff) since we are traveling, so that is nice.

We stay with family, make sure the car’s running well and the tires are full to get the best mileage, and we pack snacks for the car so that we don’t have to buy food on the road. And we always buy gas in Indiana vs. Illinois–it’s always cheaper!

By: Rebekah Montague

Rebekah Montague — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:50:36 +0000

I wanted to share a gas saving tip I just discovered .. if you goto a Walmart gas station you can save $.03 a gallon if you use a Walmart credit card OR Walmart gift card!! So if you buy a gift card then purchase your gas with the card you’ll save a bit! Plus in our area Walmart is usually the cheapest for gas .. it’s literally the only thing I go to Walmart for anymore!

By: joanna

joanna — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:44:45 +0000

Most of our family lives within 45 minutes of where we live, so holidays don’t involve too much travel- but when we’re driving round-trip 45 minutes, 3 days in a row, it can add up. Our solution? Sunday and Christmas day, our family is coming to US. (Christmas Eve, we’re going to them) That means we’ll have 13 people in the house Sunday and 8 on Christmas, but cuts down on the travel for us, making the whole holiday less stressful (for me, anyway. I’d rather cook for 13 than be running around and away from home!)

BTW, where in Indiana will you be? I’m in the Indy area.