After a dozen years of traveling with kids, I’ve rented a lot of cars in my family’s travels. My husband and I have tried nearly every major car rental company from Alamo to Hertz to Enterprise. We’ve experimented with bringing our own car seats and boosters as well as with renting them from the car …
We’re at the end of the three part Trips With Tykes series covering car seat use on airplanes. Thanks for following along on this air travel odyssey! The final topic covers everything related to car seats after your plane arrives at your destination, from rental cars to car seat alternatives to missing or damaged checked …
I hate paying extra rental car fees. Rental car companies are undoubtedly even worse than the airlines when it comes to extra fees. For family travelers, you can easily be hit with fees for car seat rental, additional drivers, dropping at a different location, navigation systems, and even electronic toll passes. And we haven’t even …
San Francisco is a very popular destination for family travel. With kid-friendly attractions, excellent food, and moderate weather, family travelers flock to the Bay Area year round. Casual tourists are sometimes unaware, however, that the Bay Area is served by three major airports: San Francisco (SFO), Oakland (OAK), and San Jose (SJC). Many travelers, including locals traveling to …
In my many years of traveling, I’ve been fairly brand loyal to certain airlines and hotel chains and have derived a lot of benefits from that loyalty. But I’ve never seen much value in being loyal to car rental companies. Most of them had only paltry (if any) loyalty programs until fairly recently, and the …
If you follow the travel blogs, you’ve probably already heard the news that most major airlines have increased their ticket change fees. This means that once you purchase your airline tickets, you are pretty much locked in to that fare even if the price drops, because the penalty for cancelling your original ticket is too …
One of the biggest logistical decisions to make when planning to travel with kids is how to get to and from the airport in your hometown. With kids, you have the added concern about needing a carseat, and some of the transportation options don’t make that easy. The right answer depends on a lot of …
My travels often bring me to smaller cities without meaningful public transportation, so I often find myself in need of a car at my destination. When you are traveling with a little one (or two or three), car rentals may present whole new logistical and financial challenges. Here are some tips for what to consider …
My law school friend Lucy sent me a Facebook message today asking about a dilemma many parents traveling with children often face — do I bring my child’s carseat along as checked luggage or do I rent one along with my rental car? (Note: If you are going on a trip to stay with family, consider whether …