Holiday Travel Tips

22 Dec 2019, 10:50 am

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, except when it comes to traveling during the holidays it can sometimes make it feel not so festive.

“The holidays are stressful in it in themselves, and when you add on having to travel that just elevates the stress levels,” said Jeanette Casselano, a spokesperson for AAA.

Millions of people every year will either go by plane, train, or automobile to spend the holidays with their loved ones.

“If you’re travelling for the holidays, pack your patience because there’s going to be a lot of people traveling alongside you,” Casselano said.

And to help you feel more like a cheermeister rather than a Grinch this season, here are some important travel trips from AAA.

“If you’re heading to the airport, make sure you’re going early,” Casselano said. “You want to avoid long lines at TSA.”

And if your travels will be by roadtrip?

“Top off the oil, make sure your windshield wiper fluid is full, tire pressure, thread, those are super important,” Casselano said. “And when you’re driving make sure you’re not distracted — your phones are away, you’re focused on the road.”

Just remember — while many things are in your control, Mother Nature can make it quite difficult at times to get from point A to point B.

“Make sure your car has an emergency kit,” Casselano said. “So you’ve got water, you’ve got food, you’ve got chargers. Things to help you in the event that you are stranded.”

By preparing for your trip in advance, having an alternate plan in place in case of weather woes, and checking in with us here at WeatherNation for the latest updates, the forecast looks merry and bright for your holiday travel outlook.

MORE HOLIDAY TRAVEL TIPS FROM AAA

About the author

Meredith Garofalo

Meredith is a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist as designated by the American Meteorological Society. She was born and raised in Cleveland but has worked from coast to coast covering almost every type of weather. Meredith is a weather, space, and STEM journalist and has been live out in the field during destructive tropical storms on the Gulf Coast of Florida, raging wildfires in Southern Cali... Load Morefornia, and covered the wreckage from tornadoes in the Great Plains. In 2009, she reported on the damaging hail storm during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and in 2017, the historic California winter storms that produced record rain totals and devastating flash flooding. Prior to joining WeatherNation, Meredith worked at KEYT/KKFX in Santa Barbara, CA, KOTA-TV in Rapid City, SD, WWSB-TV in Sarasota, FL, and began her career as an intern at WGN-TV in Chicago. She was Santa Barbara's "Favorite Weathercaster of the Year" in 2016 and the Community Partner of the Year in 2017 for her volunteer work with Make-A-Wish Tri-Counties and awarded with the 2018 Valparaiso University Alumni Association First Decade Achievement Award. Meredith is the current chair of the American Meteorological Society's Station Scientist Committee, which focuses on raising greater awareness & outreach when it comes to science education for viewers. She's also an accomplished journalist, producing weather and science stories including rocket launches at Vandenberg Air Force Base and the new GOES-16 satellite and it's impacts on weather forecasting. Meredith was personally invited by NASA's Johnson Space Center to interview astronauts on the International Space Station and was the only meteorologist in the nation to do an exclusive report accompanying the GOES-West satellite from Colorado to Florida, reporting on and covering it's launch in 2018. Meredith's also worked on features that took her paragliding along the coast, white water rafting in Northern California, learning to surf in the Pacific Ocean, and how to be an aerial photographer while flying a single engine plane! Say hi on Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn!