Traveling During the Holiday Season

Traveling During the Holiday Season

In this episode of TravelEssary, we talk about what it’s really like to travel during the holiday season, which for us means October 31 through January 1. We share the upsides, like stacked vacation days that make it easier for families to explore, plus festive small-town events, local experiences, and holiday deals.

We also cover the challenges, including heavier traffic, higher travel costs, unpredictable weather, and juggling busier schedules on the road. Even with the downsides, holiday travel has a unique energy and creates memorable experiences you can’t get any other time of year.

Tune in for an honest look at whether traveling between Halloween and New Year’s is worth it for full-time and part-time travelers.

Transcript

  We're the Essary family and we're exploring America one destination at a time. On today's episode of TravelEssary, we're going to discuss the pros and cons of traveling during the holiday season. Let's chat. . Welcome and thank you for joining us on this episode as we talk about traveling in the holiday season.

Now we need to set some parameters. Number one, what do we consider? The holiday season? Well, for our family, we see it kicking off on October 31st and lasting until January 1st. So pretty much two months, pretty much the entire months of November and December. . Now, we love the holiday season. Holiday season is one of our favorite times. It's also one of our busiest times. Yeah. In the past, I don't know if it's going to be like that as full-time travelers, but it is definitely a busy time of the year.

I feel like it probably is for most people, . And although it is a busy season for most people, it's also a popular time for travel. Now there are usually people on both sides of the fence. There are . Those who refuse to travel during the holidays, and, and we know a lot of those, and I'm actually kind of one of those people in the past.

Um, and then those who only traveled during the holidays or, you know, absolutely swear by it. And we know a lot of those. Yeah. Today we wanna get down into the pros and cons of traveling during the holidays, if that's something you choose to do. Traveling during the holidays can look so different for so many people.

For instance, for us, all of our family is here. Whereas some other people, they're having to travel from one state to another state. Some people even travel across the country to go visit family members that have, you know, moved away or, you know, life has taken them in opposite directions.

Right? There are so many reasons that people do travel during this time of the year. It could be simply to go visit family. It's like a a little holiday vacation. And then there are those who take their full-blown vacations during this time as well. And we're gonna discuss all of that. And one thing that we definitely want to talk about, one of the pros to traveling during the holidays is you're gonna have travel days.

You're gonna have travel days from school, you're gonna have travel days from work. You're gonna have time off. A vast majority have designated time off, especially for school. They're taking a holiday break. Yeah. I think between October 31st through New Year's, there's probably a good week or two built into that time where there's no school.

Most jobs are shut down. There's plenty of time for you to be able to get out and do some traveling and. It's great because you don't have to use your vacation days.

Yeah, it's one of the few times a year where, you know, the parents and the children's schedules line up as far as off days, because in the summer or the spring break. The parents don't have very many off days. During that time, their job is still into full swing, but during the holiday season, you're able to collaborate more.

Yes, they definitely match up more, especially around Thanksgiving there's not a whole lot of people that are working on Thanksgiving Day, so you have Thanksgiving day. A lot of people don't even work the Friday after, so usually you're getting a four day week. Yeah, it works great. Whenever Christmas falls, you know.

On a Friday or Monday because it's gonna give you a guaranteed three to four day weekend. Yes. Which allows you to travel, allows you to get out and to visit family and friends, or just go to a vacation place. Yeah, just take a trip with your family since you have that time available.

But with everyone being off pretty much at the exact same time and wanting to travel, you're gonna have a hard time in traffic. More than usual. Yeah. The holiday season. It can bring the worst out in people, especially when it comes to traffic. I was just watching on the news the other day of that massive traffic, , at the DFW airport.

Oh yes. Did you see about that? And it was crazy how much that was backed up. People were in standstill traffic. Not moving an inch for up to an hour just to get up into the airport, just to get into the airport. I don't know what happened. I don't know if there were some delays. , Or if everyone was just trying to leave at the same time.

It was the day before Thanksgiving and I guess everyone's like waiting until the last minute before they went and visited their family. But yeah, traffic. Oh man. It's. Probably one of my least favorite things about the holiday season, and it's not only car traffic, but a lot of it has to do with air traffic.

Mm-hmm. It is their busiest season. Thanksgiving and Christmas is the busiest season, and there could be delays, there could be cancellations. And then, you know, you have all these people that don't have a plane to get on that are all looking for alternate routes to get wherever. And then you have all those that are doing their everyday thing.

And that can drastically drive up the traffic. And the amount of time that it normally gets from point A to point B could be an hour and a half to two hours longer just because of the extra traffic that is on the road.

And then the extra traffic always brings out the extra patrols. So your normal cops, more of them are gonna be out on the road. Your interstates, more of the state troopers are gonna be on the road. Yeah. You know, I have seen a lot recently, a lot. A lot because we just got done with the Thanksgiving time.

Mm-hmm. And there's a lot of policemen that go out. I mean, there's more people traveling, so there's more opportunities for people to break the law and for them to pull people over and write tickets and mm-hmm. Right. People not doing what they're supposed to do. People that are starting their celebration a little bit early that are not, you know.

100% cognitive about what they're trying to do on the road and or just, you know, I can think of some of our relatives that just don't know how to drive slow and they wait till the last minute to get to the family function. And so of course they're flying down the highway at 85 miles an hour. They have a two and a half hour drive.

They're supposed to be there at noon and they leave at 11. Mm-hmm. And they want to get there at noon. Yeah. And it's just, it just doesn't work. , But not only people traveling to winter destinations and. Families, but we know a lot of hunters. Oh, right. Hunting season. Texas. Texas is a lot of hunters.

I know. Tennessee, um, Wisconsin, Wyoming. I know that y'all have a bunch of hunters too. And man, the amount of traffic, because they're getting , those work days off and so it's a big time for them to go and get. They're a little bit of hunting in that they can in the season, because if not, they're at work and they're gonna have to take days off.

And so they travel on those big holiday times and it just adds even more because they're pulling trailers. I was about to say, yeah. You know, they're not usually going the speed limit because they're pulling trailers. They have trucks that are loaded down with stuff. They're gonna be gone for three or four days, and I think sometimes that hunters pack more than.

Moms of toddlers. Oh my goodness. Absolutely. Absolutely. They pack a ridiculous amount of stuff to go on a few days, like they don't know how to survive. Without their wives or without being home. But that's a whole different story that I could go down a rabbit. We definitely, definitely go on that one.

Rabbit now, not personally, 'cause I'm not a hunter. I've been hunting a on a few occasions, but we have family members that are hardcore hunters and the amount of stuff that they pack is absolutely ridiculous. It's crazy. So, yeah. Um, traffic, is intense. And you know, something that adds to that is the weather.

The weather totally makes a huge difference on traffic. We were talking about the planes and how they get delayed and stuff. A lot of that is because a winter storm comes in and it shuts down something, or you know, it rains somewhere and it kind of ices over and then it shuts down, and so it delays and then more and more things happen.

But yeah, it could be anything from high winds to blizzards. Or you know, here in Texas, that centimeter of ice we get on the road, it will shut it down. It will shut it down, it'll shut it down from airports to highways, you know, parking lots. We have been out Christmas shopping multiple times and parking lots are iced over.

And you know, you couldn't get in and out of the stores without walking half a mile. So it just adds to, uh, that Christmas rush, I guess that traffic and. Then you're fighting the cold and the wet on top of it. Yeah. Weather. Weather is again, not a great aspect of the holiday season unless you're someone who likes that kind of weather.

I'm personally not very fond of it, but, and it's always unpredictable. And what I mean by that is we've spent a lot of holidays in Texas and no two holidays are the same. Oh, no. We just got done with a fairly cold holiday. Mm-hmm. In Thanksgiving, whenever, usually it's around the seventies. Yeah. It's usually like really nice rolling in.

Short sleeves, you know, outdoor. I don't know if you outdoors. But last Christmas we ran our air conditioner while my family was over. It was so warm. It outside was so warm that we had the air on. And it's crazy because it could be 70, 80 degrees in Texas and it could be negative in like buffalo in Syracuse and places like that.

Jeremy's actually learning that the hard way as he travels every month across the states, , to do his RV transport. , The first time it got cold, I think it was in August, which, you know, in August in Texas, we were in a hundred degree weather and he called me, he was somewhere up north and he was like, oh man, I think you were in New York.

You said, oh, I, I should have brought a jacket. It's cold here. It was cold. Even the New Yorkers had jackets on because it was a little cold spell came through. It was cold. Yeah. So yeah, weather, just unpredictable. No matter where you are in the States, I feel like the weather can just.

Completely blow off your plans and make travel slightly miserable and more complicated and more hectic than it needs to be. , That's one of those things that you definitely have to pre-plan. They give 10 day forecast for. Any CD that you wanna look up and just kind of get a, get a little glimpse of what you're about to run into.

Because the worst thing is not being prepared. Yeah. And then your vacation is miserable because of it. Yeah. Now for us, weather is a con, I guess. If you are a homebody and you don't really travel during the holidays. Your idea of a good holiday is curled up , in front of the fireplace with a book, then that might be a pro to you.

You know, everything shuts down and you're just happy about it, and that might be one of your pros. But for us, for traveling, I really feel like the weather is a con. It just throws a big kink into. Our plans. One of the last things that I will mention about cons of being weather is if you're looking for that winter destination and you're looking for snow on the ground and something happens and it's not there, then El Nina or El Nino or whatever's.

Supposed to happen that year. It doesn't happen. And yeah, the snow doesn't fall until later in the year, until later in the year and you don't get your white Christmas. I have heard of people that specifically went up into the mountains and rented out a little log cabin, and they wanted a white Christmas for their family, and then it didn't, snow didn't happen the whole time they were there.

But regardless of what the weather is like during the holiday season. It's always a great time for shopping. It's the perfect time for shopping.

Obviously. It's the biggest, you know, purchasing time of the year. It's when I think like mm-hmm 40% of products are sold in America for throughout the entire year. During that. You know, small two month period. And as a person who likes to shop and enjoys a good sell, I love shopping during the holidays because you're gonna find prices during that time that not.

Offered throughout the rest of the year. , 

. Either they're trying to get rid of their summer things or their winter thing is happening and they're trying to get as much.

Product and as much, you know, merchandise sold as possible so they don't have to take it into the spring season. Oh yeah. And it's not just, you know, physical shopping. If you're an online shopper, it's a great time for shopping. And speaking of, our Patreon is available for gifting. .

If you wanna drop on down to our show notes and click on that link, you can purchase as a gift or maybe even for yourself. Treat yourself this Christmas and spread some travel. Esry cheer. 

And going online subscriptions are gonna be a little bit cheaper. There's some type of deal going on. Yeah. It'll be like if you sign up now, you get three months free or something. I, I do love, I do love the holiday season. It is such a great time to. Spend money. Yeah. And we're, and we're not all about, you know, hey, be consumers.

Be consumers. Because , we do believe that it is the season of giving. , It really is a great time for shopping. You're gonna find deals that you just can't find that the rest of the year.

. So when you're traveling, whether you're taking a trip or you're just visiting family, you're doing a vacation, it's a great time to be able to buy that souvenir that you normally don't buy because it's gonna be a little cheaper. Something that we just experienced, like Jeremy was saying, we went and did some Christmas shopping.

, While we're out traveling, before we head back home for the holidays and we're able to find some unique items that were reasonably priced and we were just excited for that opportunity. 

Now, the prices when shopping during the holidays are fantastic. It cannot be beat, but the prices when it comes to traveling. During the holidays, that is not something to envy. Everything seems to go up so much during the holiday season when it pertains to traveling, and I'm sure it's because just as we have recognized that the companies out there have recognized that.

This is one of the main times of the year that people travel. It's a peak season, and so we're going to milk them for all they have. They know that people will be traveling to certain areas around certain regions, and they'll absolutely. I don't wanna say jack up the prices, but the prices will increase.

Oh, yeah. Sometimes buy up to 30%. If you don't book early, unfortunately, you will pay the price. Yeah. Sometimes even if you're booking early, they will have holiday prices set in. They're in the Christmas season because there is so much traveling, people, visiting, family, people vacationing. Your hotel prices , are up so much.

Your gas prices tend to jump up. Your Airbnb prices are more expensive. If you're getting tickets to something, you know, a theme park, something like that. They're going to be more expensive during the holiday seasons. , And there's a reason for that. It's because so many people love going to events during the holiday season, and there are so many events out there.

Events that you normally don't get. . You know, I think of. Disney World, and I know we've said this a lot, but you know, they go above and beyond at Christmas time when it comes to their theming and their decorating.

As soon as those gates close behind that last person, the staff is out and they are working the entire night getting it set up and ready to go, and it's immaculate. And people love to visit Disney during that time because you're just completely immersed in this magical Christmas, Disney wonder.

You're gonna pay for that, you're gonna pay extra for that. They went out and they did the work, and they spent the money to make your travel time and your holiday time special. So you'll be paying those prices and there's other events that will be happening that. If the weather does happen, there's ways of going around it or it's part of the event itself.

, One of the things that I'm talking about is the NFL. It's a huge NFL season right now. It doesn't matter what the weather is like in most places, unless it's lightning. They're playing in the snow, sleet, rain, it doesn't matter, and you're paying for those tickets. Basketball season started up, NHL has started.

There's a lot of events that happen that are gonna be indoors, that regardless of what the weather is. You can go, but just know if you're going during the holiday season, you're gonna be paying a little extra price for it. Yeah. And while that part absolutely stinks, the pro is that there are so many events, so many that go on during the holiday season, and not all of them cost.

We have already participated in several free, , events and themed places that have been really nice. There's Christmas braids, you don't have to pay for that. A lot of times you can go look at Christmas lights and go through like a mini winter wonderland for just a couple bucks a person. So the opportunities to get out and travel, , they increase like tenfold during the holidays.

And it's really amazing because, almost every city participates in a Christmas parade. Whether it's a allotted one that's at night, or whether it's a day one where, you know, you just decorate your, floats or whatever.

You don't have to have lights on it or anything. And. Those are just so great. There's so many plays that go on. Oh, you know what One act is going on. I think it's so funny that you just mentioned that just this morning I was reading, you know, we're about to head back home and I was reading, , an article of what Christmas plays the local high schools were putting on.

Mm-hmm. Because they're just a couple of bucks a person. It's way cheaper than going to our local live theater. And I was thinking maybe we should take the kids to one while we're there for the holidays. So Yeah. I mean. That's again, another, just one more thing that you can do. During this time of the year, one of our family traditions is hitting up Starbucks and turning up Christmas music really loud, and then just driving through the suburbs, listening to Christmas music and stepping on our hot chocolate or our mochas and just looking at all the Christmas lights and decorations , I know we've talked about like the plays that the schools are going on, but there's programs that the churches are putting on.

So you can go, which are free most of the time, which most of the time are totally free. But , they're gonna have like children's programs.

They're gonna have singing programs that happen. Ooh, singing, talking about singing. Uh, usually the local schools will put on. Choirs. Mm-hmm. Or little singing Christmas concerts. Christmas Pro concerts, that's what I was looking for. Christmas concerts. They travel around to the banks or you know, in all different places and they sing.

And it's just a wonderful time for just a lot of, a lot of things are happening during the holiday seasons. Yeah. And no matter where you're traveling to, you're gonna be able to be immersed in that. I feel like anywhere from the small towns to the big towns across the United States. They're going to have Christmas events.

I've never seen anything that existed where they weren't doing something in that community. Regarding the holiday seasons, whether it's, you know, from Halloween all the way to New Year's, there's , fireworks on New Year's. There's Christmas programs, there's Thanksgiving dinners, there's Halloween activities, so no matter where you're traveling, you're gonna be able to , participate in those events. And we have seen that firsthand being full-time travelers Yeah. Of just going to the different cities and different events that are happening that only happen during the holiday season, and so it's not just the the time of Thanksgiving and Christmas that we're talking about, but everything from Halloween to the first of the year.

There are events and activities that are happening and most of the time, your work and your school is gonna give you time to go enjoy those events.  So are there cons of traveling in the holiday season?

Yes. You're gonna have to deal with a little bit of traffic. Prices are gonna be a little bit higher. Weather's gonna be unpredictable. But on the other side, you're gonna have a ton of things to go to. There's gonna be some great shopping either locally or even traveling to somewhere else. There's gonna be great shopping that takes place and you're actually going to have the time to get out and do these things, so enjoy them.

We are going to enjoy them to  📍 their fullest, and we will catch you on the next one.