Holiday Travel Slideshow: 7 Tips to Make It Less Stressful

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Make Holiday Travel Less Stressful

Traveling is an integral part of the holiday season for many of us. While traveling any time can be a major source of stress, holiday travel -- with gifts, baggage, and kids in tow, and fraught with flight delays and wintry roads -- is especially nerve-racking. Although you can't eliminate the stress associated with holiday travel, these tips can help lessen its impact.

Accept the Situation and Plan Ahead

Crowded airplanes, bad weather, harried personnel, and unexpected delays are all beyond your control. Assume you're likely to encounter them, and recognize you can't change them. Instead, focus on your reactions to these stressors. Form a mental plan for remaining calm and dealing with these stressful events. It will greatly reduce your perception of stress.

Give Yourself Enough Time

Whatever your mode of travel, allow yourself more time than you can possibly imagine you will need. On these heaviest of travel days, just about everything -- from airport parking, security lines, and finding a cab -- can take longer than usual. Business travelers accustomed to a travel routine may also find that traveling with the family doesn't run quite as smoothly. Allow adequate time for unexpected delays to help prevent anxiety and stress.

Make a Few Contingency Plans

Prepare for the unexpected, like an accident blocking the road or a snowstorm. Always check airline departure times, weather, traffic, and parking reports before leaving home. Prevent panic by having backup ideas ready: alternate routes mapped, bus or train schedules printed, and extra time allotted to leave early or arrive at your destination late.

Check Your Bags

If you're traveling by air, consider the advantages of checking your luggage. The risk of delayed or lost baggage is actually very small, and the freedom of movement gained is often worth the risk, particularly if you'll have connecting flights or layovers in crowded airports.

Keep the Kids Happy (and Well Fed)

Travelers with young children should plan for fun things to do during long waits, drives, or flights. Have a few "surprise" novelty items to hand out at intervals. Since children tend to be more anxious when hungry, bring along some (non-sticky) snacks. If you’re stuck on the tarmac, in traffic, or a long stretch of highway, you won't have instant access to food vendors.

Think About Changes of Clothing

If your children are babies or toddlers, have an accessible change of clothing for you as well as for them. Your little frequent flyer may decide to spill his food on you rather than on himself! Or dress in layers, which can be removed if necessary. If you must arrive looking your best, think about traveling in comfortable clothes and changing on the plane or at a rest area before you reach your destination.

Plan Ahead for Next Year's Holidays

If you find holiday travel unbearable, use this year's gathering to discuss alternate plans for next year. If family "tradition" dictates that you travel far from home, suggest alternating venues. If you feel the need to skip travel altogether next year, a tactful announcement is much easier to make now than three weeks before next year's festivities.