LITTLE ROCK — This time of year, many families are planning getaways. But figuring out all the details - from which hotels are child-friendly to how many diapers to pack for that five-hour flight (more is better) - can be critical for a smooth trip.
Here are seven lessons I have learned over the years from other travelers and through my experience.
DON’T PACK WHAT YOU CAN GET THERE
Leave the extra formula, suntan lotion and Cheerios at home. Any extra cash you may spend will be offset by what you save in checked bag fees and overall inconvenience. Besides, you are inevitably going to forget something and have to make a run to the local grocery or convenience store anyway. If you’re willing to spend some money, you can give a list to the hotel concierge and ask him to buy your supplies in advance for a fee or a generous tip.
THINK COMPACT
The more you can leave behind the better, but there are times when taking along a travel bed or a foldable highchair is worth it. For example, when renting a house with friends last spring, my husband and I packed a borrowed Baby Bjorn Travel Crib for our daughter, then a year old. Listed at $220 in a recent Amazon.com search, the bed (which collapses into a compact carry-on that weighs just 11 pounds) isn’t cheap, but it is convenient.
Our friends, who have a 3-year-old, packed the KidCo Pea-Pod Plus travel bed - a pop-up tent with a blow-up mattress that weighs 6.9 pounds and folds into a convenient carry-on case. We also took our daughter’s Phil & Ted’s Lobster highchair (about $70), which clamps onto most tables and folds flat for easy packing. Sure, we could have managed without it, but it worked perfectly at the breakfast bar and made mealtimes more enjoyable for everyone. (Keep in mind that most major hotels will provide a crib. Some, including the Soho and Tribeca Grand hotels in New York, even keep a few strollers on hand to lend to guests.)
DON’T STUFF EVERYTHING INTO ONE CHECKED BAG
Traveling by plane? Airlines are generally losing fewer checked bags these days. But that’s little consolation if you’re one of the unlucky ones whose bag is lost, especially if all the children’s clothes, gear and toys are in it. As a precaution, pack half of those items in one checked bag and half in another or in your carry-on. At a minimum, especially if you’re traveling with small children, take a change of clothes on board for the child and yourself. That way, when she spills cranberry juice all over you, or her diaper leaks, you have options.
DON’T SCRIMP ON AIRLINE TICKETS
When you are trying to stick to a budget it’s tempting to book the cheaper connecting flight or convince yourself that you don’t need to spend $25 extra each way to check that portable travel bed. The nonstop flight and checked bag fees will add to your expenses, but it’s often not worth the risk of missing a connection or the effort involved in schlepping all those carry-on bags. At least one airline, Frontier, rewards passengers with no carry-on luggage or bags that fit under the seat by boarding them early.
GET CREATIVE WITH ENTERTAINMENT
You can quickly turn a luggage rack into an activity gym for an infant by hooking some dangling toys on it. Play-Doh is a godsend when traveling with toddlers who are too young to sit through an inflight movie and too old to nap in your lap. When interest in that runs out, order ice and extra stirring straws. That kept our daughter entertained for hours after she quickly tired of all the books, stickers and other games we had packed for a two-flight trip to Ecuador when she was about a year old.
And there are plenty of phone applications that can help keep older children entertained on long flights and road trips.
HIPSTER HOTELS ARE GREAT FOR KIDS
Though boutique hotels generally lack child-friendly amenities like children’s clubs or water slides, parents with older children have told me that such hotels often have other attractions. Many teenagers and preteens love the trendy furniture and amenities, like the oversize chess set by the Delano hotel’s pool in Miami or the pet goldfish offered upon check in at the Soho Grand in New York. And families with young children who wake at the break of dawn often have the pool to themselves while other guests are sleeping off hangovers, as my husband and I discovered a few years ago when we stayed at the Donovan House in Washington, with our daughter, then 3 months old.
One caveat: Like many boutique hotels our room had a sexy shower but lacked a bathtub. (We bathed our daughter in the sink.) But at least we could pretend that we hadn’t completely lost our cool.
MAKE SURE THAT SUITE IS REALLY A SUITE
Many hotels will call a room with anything more than a bed and a desk in it a suite, whether it has a separate living room or not. That is a frustrating misnomer for parents looking to put a door between themselves and their offspring. For example, a “classic suite” at Starwood’s Le Meridien Philadelphia has a partial wall between the bedroom and living area, rather than a full wall and door. There are only three true suites at the hotel, which aren’t sold through the website.
Even chains with the word “suites” in their name are not foolproof. Only 10 percent of the rooms at Home2 Suites by Hilton, the chain’s new extended-stay brand, are truly suites with a bedroom and a living area separated by a door. The rest have a curtain that can be drawn halfway across the room to create a separate living area. That’s not to say that these hotels aren’t great for families looking to save money by sharing a room. Home2 Suites offers free continental breakfast and in-room kitchens with full-size refrigerators and dishwashers. But the only way to find out if that room is really a suite is to call the hotel and ask.
Travel, Pages 50 on 07/29/2012