Will You Travel as Usual This Holiday Season?

Since we moved to Puerto Rico, all our vacations have been trips back to New York to visit family and friends. Especially now that we have a new niece. Even though I have to leave the sun and beaches for the cold dry weather, it's ok. The holidays just wouldn't be the same without my family and friends.

For Thanksgiving, I will be driving only 3 hours away...3 hours there and three hours back...and only spending about $40 on gas!!??!??!?! I am so psyched every time I drive to the pump these days. I know it's short-lived, but it's TOO exciting! I will be flying to FL to visit Mom for Christmas...but it was about $100 cheaper to go the entire week BEFORE Christmas. Good thing, my boyfriend's family lives close, so I won't have to be alone on Christmas! I'm debating on whether to drive back to MI for the weekend around Christmastime, though. We'll see what happens!

My husband is the store director for Toys R Us so we never get to travel to be with family at Christmas looking forward to the time when we can though! :( It is definitely important for people to learn how to travel better for less & learn how to get insider deals that travel agents have gotten for years to save $$$. We now have our own travel website so can do just that - it was the best business decision we have ever made - we previously were booking on-line anyway now we get paid when we book. The insider deals save us thousands too! and we get to write our vacations off on our taxes too. Any one is welcome to contact me for more info on how this can benefit your family too!

We always go to the Caribbean every summer. I wish I could live there year around. On any island or on a yaught, but I don't see that ever happening. There is nothing I love more than spending time doing anything in or on the ocean. I am alredy looking forward to my next trip in 2009. However, I find myself wondering what the expense of travel may be when that time arrives. When would be the best time to make the least expensive reservations. Will the cost of travel decrease as the months pass by or will it remain stable or increase?

We've spent the last several years at holiday time in India traveling around. This year we decided to take advantage of the current downward trend in gas prices and consolidate our storage. Due to far-flung relatives, we've storage facilities in two states, East and West. So, finally, we're driving our storage from both places to a good location (for us!) in the middle of the country. It means long hours on the road, but it'll be a total adventure! We'll be together, and we get to spend Thanksgiving week with my family! We have so much fun on car trips that we expect to have as much fun or more in a truck. We might even do a bit of winter camping along the way! Please keep fingers crossed that this adventure doesn't mean blizzard camping!

I don't have to travel to be with family, but Christine Gilbert wrote a post here - http://www.europestring.com/ - that shows some really great European air fare deals.

I will be traveling to Crystal Beach, Tx, this year to be with my daughter. She lost everything in the Hurricane and has been living in a camper. She will be moving to a house that was one of the few that was left standing next week. Utilities should be up and running this week. So we are going to spend the holidays with her and her family to try and give them some normalty in the holidays. There are no stores left on the island so we will be bring them some household items. This will be a special Christmas, the whole family will be flying in to be with them in their time of need.
Jean

Tom, I'm in New York so I fly JFK to Shannon. My brother (at home in Clare) just told me this morning that Aer Lingus will be striking around Christmas this year so it's just as well I'm not going. Apparently the company is looking to tighten the belt and that involves a lot of layoffs and replacing the Irish flight staff with Americans. I have to admit that one of my very favorite things about flying Aer Lingus is that feeling that I am "home" as soon as I get on the plane--the Irish staff are so helpful and cheery and chatty, and I'm sad that may change. Companies always strike in Ireland around Christmas--I think it's that they want even more time off than they already get!! (p.s. love Altan!)

I've already done all my traveling for this year because of an illness in the family, so will be staying right at home.

P.S. Jacinta, where do you fly out of?
I hear Aer Lingus has a flight out of LAX to Dublin, 11 hours!
I fly out of Boston and it's about 5 1/2 hours.
Aer Lingus is my favorite airline! The food is pretty good for an airline and the staff is pretty funny.
My grandparents came from Donegal so I applied for and got Irish citizenship so I could live there or anywhere in the E.U. if I wanted. The people up there are funny as hell and I always go to visit my friends in the group "Altan" while I'm up there. They own a pub in Teelin.
Stunning scenery up there!