My IL's have to book their timeshare for next year and want us to come. I have no idea what air travel is like for 1 kiddo, and I'll have 2 by then! Anna will be ~2.5years old and the baby will probably be around 6 months when we travel... would you pick somewhere a few hours out and drive (talking 6 or 7 hours) or would you fly somewhere?

I flew from Portland Or to SLC Utah once with a 3mo and 3yr old. By myself. Although it was kinda hectic, I would much rather fly than drive that distance. If I could go somewhere only a few hrs away, then definately would take the drive over a longer flight.

Either. Depends on where you want to go. Granted, I only have one kid, but we'll have two soon enough and I'm sure that, like our first, our second will be on an airplane before 2 months.

Flying is hard on kids - but so is a long road trip. I guess if money were absolutely not a factor, I'd rather fly 2 hours with two kids than drive 6-7. My 2 year old kind of likes it - lots of fun stuff to see, gets to run around the airport, but she's only confined for a shorter period of time. Driving that long sucks.

So, flying=hard
driving=sucks

But, have fun! Because once you're there it's great!

We took a 10 hour road trip this past summer. We went with my ILs and they only stopped 2 times!! 1 time for food and 1 time for gas. I thought Sophie was going to flip out but she did really really well. She just slept and we read books and looked at the scenery. We have been doing 2 hour trips a few times a month since she was born though so I think that helped. Um I would think with 2 adults and a couple of breaks planned that you should be fine driving. I wouldn't do it alone though.:)

If it's a direct flight, I would definitly fly! I flew by myself when Svea was almost three and Rory was 8 months and it was fine. I didn't take their carseats onto the plane and they were well occupied during the 1-1 1/2 hour flight. Much easier trip than when we've driven it. My husband got to "escort" us to the gate to board and I made really, really sure that my family would be there on time to pick us up!!! :p We also pre-boarded both directions. If you're flying with another adult, I would think that it would be fairly "easy" (using that term with a grain of salt, of course).

I've been scared to death to fly with my 2 children. I remember the last time I flew. I didn't have any children and our flight was cancelled. There was a lady there (that was on our cancelled flight) with two children and she was crying. It was obvious that they had had a long day.

We talked to her and it was her first time flying. She was along with the two children and was obviously overwhelmed. She said her DH travelled all the time and told her it was easy. LOL She said it's probably not hard when all he had to lug around was a brief case and underwear.

We got food for them and helped her get squared away with us on another flight. I would die if I had been in her place with no help at hand.

I would consider a direct flight, but a shortish one.

We do drive 7 hours about 3 times a year to visit family. It's nice! We have our own car and can stop as often as we want. (Generally we only stop 1-2 times.) We tend to leave around 4pm and stop for dinner then don't stop again. I have a 1.5 and 3 year old. We've been traveling this same trip their entire life.

My children are as good as can be expected in the car. Only you know how yours are.

Also, my friend traveled from Germany to the USA with her 2 children alone. There were around 5 & 7 years old. She said the trip over went so well and the kids were great. I don't know how her return trip was.

Driving you could stop when you wanted and you would have your own car and car seats. You would also have more room for stuff. my boys were always so good in the car so I never worried about that. I flew to visit my mom with my kids and then I didn't have a car! I felt a little trapped at times.
trisha

Tough question...it depends on the child. My first two HATED the car at that age and would scream their heads off on short trips, forget about long ones! Now at ges 2, 4 and 6 they love car trips and we take them frequently. I would take that over trying to wrangle three kids through airport security, and on the place, etc.

I flew from Ca. to NJ alone with an 11 month old and a 3 year old who had just potty trained and was therefore fascinated with the airplane toilet, and we did fine. It was hectic, but luckily I sat next to a wonderful man who was on his way to his 50th high school reunion and he read books to Avery (she really liked him...lol) and played games with us. He even cleaned up our seats while we were in the bathroom.

One thing I wouldn't recommend though was pre-boarding. I tried that once and found I didn't really need the extra time and I prefer to wait until the very last minute to confine them :)

How many miles are we talking about?

My parents live 270 from here. It takes up about six hours to get there - sometimes less, sometimes more. We do stop a lot and for extended stops. I think it would be a 4 1/2 hour drive w/o kids. Traffic is also an issue around here and can make a two hour difference.

I suppose I would consider flying IF the airports were located in strategic areas. The thing about flying is that you have to factor in travel time to/from airport, time at the airport going through security and in some cases (ours) time getting rental cars and car seats.

If you fly, you will need transportation to/from airport. The baby car seat will be easy but you will need to either bring your toddler car seat or make arrangements to use one. BTW, the rental car seats I have seen are usually not all that good - but then I am picky about this kind of stuff. If a relative is helping w/ transportation, you will need to be sure they can fit you + two kids in their car - I think people somtimes forget how much space car seats can take.

The biggest major airport for us is about an hour away (two hours in traffic). The biggest airport close to my parents house is about an hour away - so for us in addition to the flight time, we would have at least two hours of drive time (to/from airport each side of destination), maybe another 2 hours at the airport including going through security and getting rental car, and I am guessing about a 45 min flight - but more like an hour on the plan when you factor in waiting for takeoff and stuff - so that is about 5 hours right there. Tickets would be about $275 per person (even children except under 2 on lap) so for us it would be over $1000 to take the 5 hour journy + rental car cost.

We take our journey to my parent's house about 3 or 4 times a year - sometimes more than that. We try to approach the travel as part of the adventure/vacation. We plan places to stop on the way that are fun for the kids - arcades, playlands, toy stores, parks. We have also tried the trip at night a few times to let kids sleep but it is hit/miss how that turns out for us, though others have a lot of success doing that. We keep vowing to bring an icechest full of snacks/meals and to stop mainly at parks and rest stops but packing in and of itself is often a chore for me and my ducks are not quite in a row enough yet to do that. We have a bag in the back of van that has blanket, balls, etc, so stopping to toss a ball or use potty is pretty common for our family.