Travel Safely: 10 Things Every Mom Should Know

Featured in Spring 2013 issue of Multiplicty Magazine

Written by: Natasha T. D’Anna

Spring gently creeping upon us and holiday vacations scheduled for everyone, safety is a number one factor for all families. For moms traveling alone or with your little ones, here are ten things that should be considered while making your travel plans. Let’s start with some at-home planning, before leaving for your vacation.

1. Whether you are a mom traveling alone or with your family, make sure that you do the most research that you can on the location where you will be staying, and it’s surrounding areas. It is always best to stay in a highly populated tourist area close to the city, especially when traveling out of the country. The best places to stay for boarding are usually on popular travel websites, such as Trip Advisor and Travelocity, where you can find other customers’ comments and ratings. If you are traveling alone, leave all forwarding information regarding the name of your hotel, your check in and check-out time, and keep in touch with friends and family back home on a predetermined schedule.
2. Always pack your necessities in your carry-on luggage or an easy to access bag if traveling by car (i.e. passports, driver’s license, itinerary, credit cards, favorite snacks, items for the kids, chargers, and means of communication, etc.). Also, make sure that you begin your journey with a fully charged phone or laptop, and at least $200 in cash.
3. Instead of copying your passport and photo ID, scan and email all passports to yourself.
4. If traveling with your own car, have your mechanic check your oil, make sure your wipers are working, along with all major lights. Most importantly, fill up your tank with gas. Always pay attention to your gas tank along with speedometer on roads with heavy traffic. When your tank is a quarter full, begin to look for a popular, well-lit area to get gas. Don’t wait until the last minute and take the chance of having to drive into a dark, unfamiliar area looking for gas.
5. When traveling with children that are still using a carseat, always bring their own. You are familiar with the history of your child’s carseat, but not that of a borrowed one that may have possibly been in an accident. This safety precaution applies to cribs, as well. You are better off bringing a pack-and-play with you. If you plan to fly,the safety precaution is to make sure that the crib that the hotel is providing is in great condition, is not broken, is a popular brand, and has not been recalled….

…Read tips 6-10 on page 40 & 41 of the Spring 2013 issue of Multiplicity Magazine. Also check out our Great Family Getaways on page 26 for planning a great family vacation!

Natasha T. D’Anna is a mom of wonderful twin girls, an educator, a self-published writer of a children’s book titled Twindollicious, and a blogger; she enjoys blogging about all things twin-like and fashion for kids. You can also find her on facebook.

Hotel Tips For Travelling With Twins

Written by: Kerrie Mendoza

My husband and I love to travel, whether it is a flight far away or a just a short road trip, travel is one of our favorite things to do.  Since the twins were born our planning for travel has changed quite a bit.  Pre-twins we often used websites that allowed you to ‘bid’ on hotel rooms.  We loved this as we got to stay in top hotels for less.  However, that kind of hotel booking really does not work with infants or toddlers.  Now we look for a number of key things when booking a hotel.

• Do they have cribs available?  Are they guaranteed?

This is crucial, unless you wish to travel with two pack n’ plays everywhere you go or prefer co-sleeping.   One thing we have found is that many hotels do not guarantee cribs, instead they say that cribs are ‘first come, first served.’  I can tell you that arriving at a hotel at 11pm with two crying infants this policy does NOT work!  It is imperative that the cribs are there, that they are set up in the room and there are two of them.

• Is there a fridge in the room?  And a microwave?