There are lots of things to consider when you are planning to fly out for a long trip. One of the first things you’ll have to sort out once the airline tickets have been purchased is how you are getting your family to the airport.
A few years back, seven of us were embarking on a cruise of the British Isles, combined with a stops before and after the trip in Rome and London. In total, we would be gone just about three weeks. Seven people. Three weeks. As you can imagine, there would be a few bags going along with us. Granuaile was just three, and my in-laws are on numerous medications. My mother-in-law also has braces on her legs, special shoes, and other medical necessities that she travels with. Yes, there would be a few bags.
We mulled over which vehicle would be best to take to the airport. We could call Rapid Rover, the local airport shuttle service, but they couldn’t guarantee we would have our own shuttle, even with that number of people, and with my mother-in-laws leg and hip issues, we wanted to make sure she was comfortable. We could take our Navigator, which we had at the time, but that had a tight back seat and virtually no storage when the back row of seats was up and functional. My mini-van? Definitely room enough for all of us, but again, with that back row of seats being used for sitting in, the space in the back to store bags was non-existent.
The decision was made. We would hire a limousine. The car would be huge, and we would all comfortably fit.
And we did.
Until we had to squeeze in our bags.
We totally forgot that as large and comfortable as the inside of the car would be, the trunk is the same size as a regular car trunk. We easily had 14 bags going on this trip, and there was no way it was all getting into the trunk of this limo. It never even occurred to us this would be an issue with such a big car, but we ended up stuffing the inside of the car with leftover bags – including up front with the driver.
Definitely give thought to the types of transportation needs you’ll have every step of the way on your vacation. On that particular trip, we ended up renting a storage locker at Heathrow Airport to keep our cruise bags until we finished the Rome part of our trip, and then going from the cruise back to the hotel in London, we were sitting on bags and packed like sardines.
It’s not only about how are you getting to your final destination when you travel. Think ahead about each leg of your journey to avoid some last minute luggage anxiety!
