Our family is currently planning our Christmas trip to Iowa to visit my husband's side of the family. Because we have a large family, we have decided to make this a road trip to save some money on the traveling. We have estimated taking this method versus flying should help us save roughly $1500 - $1800. That is a whole other trip or in our case, extra funds to help pay off some debt and make some repairs on our family vehicle without affecting our Christmas experience. Now last summer (2012), the hubs and I took our oldest & youngest two kiddos on a road trip to Iowa and tried to be tough and drive straight through.
While it did work out, I do not recommend making a trip that long in such a short period of time. I remember Little Man was less than a year old and Gracie was about to turn 8 years old. She was a great helper during the drive while they were awake, helping to keep Little Man entertained and give us eyes in the back seat better than any baby mirror. We did a lot of driving while they were sleeping so as to not be as noticeable for them and made sure to make plenty of stops along the way. After that trip, we agreed to not do it again in such a short time span. So this time, we will be driving over 2 1/2 days each way with several days in between. We will also have all four kiddos with us so we will have to get a van to make sure we have plenty of room for our family as well as the luggage we will be hauling. Other than that, here is how we are organizing our trip plans to (hopefully) have a smoother ride. This is all based on the MANY road trips I have taken with the kids, using the failures & successes as well as adding in some other ideas we have come across & come up with to make it better.
While it did work out, I do not recommend making a trip that long in such a short period of time. I remember Little Man was less than a year old and Gracie was about to turn 8 years old. She was a great helper during the drive while they were awake, helping to keep Little Man entertained and give us eyes in the back seat better than any baby mirror. We did a lot of driving while they were sleeping so as to not be as noticeable for them and made sure to make plenty of stops along the way. After that trip, we agreed to not do it again in such a short time span. So this time, we will be driving over 2 1/2 days each way with several days in between. We will also have all four kiddos with us so we will have to get a van to make sure we have plenty of room for our family as well as the luggage we will be hauling. Other than that, here is how we are organizing our trip plans to (hopefully) have a smoother ride. This is all based on the MANY road trips I have taken with the kids, using the failures & successes as well as adding in some other ideas we have come across & come up with to make it better.