Image by Lyn Millett via Flickr
Last summer I wrote about all the technology we loaded into our car for a week-long road trip to visit family. We are gearing up for another such road trip and once again technology is playing a huge role, although this time as part of our preparation and planning. The biggest piece of technology is the vehicle. Last year I mentioned the prospect of "the dreaded minivan" and yes, we now have one of those. We bought it with these long road trips in mind because of how cramped and crowded we felt in our smaller car last time around. So in just a short while we'll be putting the van through its paces as we head out on the highway.
That's probably the most expensive piece of technology we've deployed to get ready for this trip. But there have been several others techie tools we've been using, in addition.
My goal for travel--business or non-work travel--is to do enough thinking in advance that I don't have to think very hard while on the road. I'm out of practice though, because I've barely traveled at all since my son was born. But here are some of the tools I'm using to try to get our family ready for not only the upcoming road trip, but a couple of other work trips and then a short vacation in a couple of months.
OmniOutliner -- This is where I keep my canonical travel list. Categories include: Actions To Do Before Leaving (such as "check weather at destination"), To Pack in Carry-On, To Pack in Luggage, and so forth. There's a separate set of lists for when my husband and I are traveling together that includes things like "suspend USPS mail" and "Pause newspapers." When I was traveling semi-frequently for work, my OmniOutliner list was so complete that I could stop and start and be completely mindless about packing as long as I only checked something off the list when it was actually in the bag.
Evernote -- I'm keeping some notes and links and trip-specific thoughts as they occur to me in Evernote for the time being.
Wave -- My husband and I finally found a use for Google Wave as a place to keep shared notes on trip planning. I'd prefer to use Evernote for this as it's interface is so much nicer, but that requires paying for premium and I'm not quite ready to do that, yet. Although, I'm close!
Trip Advisor and Google Maps -- I'm using a combination of Trip Advisor and Google Maps to figure out where we might want to stay while we're on the road and not in a city where we have friends we could crash with. Trip Advisor lets me narrow down hotel choices based on several useful criteria (such as family-friendly, free wifi, and so on.)
For the road trip itself, we're planning to take a portable DVD player and a Garmin GPS -- the former to keep the toddler occupied (we hope -- more tips for keeping a 21-month-old entertained on a looooong car trip desperately needed!) and the latter, with our iPhones, to keep us from wandering too far afield. I am also investigating options for a USB gadget to connect to the cellular network from our laptops (and not just from our iPhones), but the pricing schemes I've seen are not too attractive yet.
Time to get back to the listmaking. Tips and suggestions for travel with a toddler are most welcome!
OmniOutliner -- This is where I keep my canonical travel list. Categories include: Actions To Do Before Leaving (such as "check weather at destination"), To Pack in Carry-On, To Pack in Luggage, and so forth. There's a separate set of lists for when my husband and I are traveling together that includes things like "suspend USPS mail" and "Pause newspapers." When I was traveling semi-frequently for work, my OmniOutliner list was so complete that I could stop and start and be completely mindless about packing as long as I only checked something off the list when it was actually in the bag.
Evernote -- I'm keeping some notes and links and trip-specific thoughts as they occur to me in Evernote for the time being.
Wave -- My husband and I finally found a use for Google Wave as a place to keep shared notes on trip planning. I'd prefer to use Evernote for this as it's interface is so much nicer, but that requires paying for premium and I'm not quite ready to do that, yet. Although, I'm close!
Trip Advisor and Google Maps -- I'm using a combination of Trip Advisor and Google Maps to figure out where we might want to stay while we're on the road and not in a city where we have friends we could crash with. Trip Advisor lets me narrow down hotel choices based on several useful criteria (such as family-friendly, free wifi, and so on.)
For the road trip itself, we're planning to take a portable DVD player and a Garmin GPS -- the former to keep the toddler occupied (we hope -- more tips for keeping a 21-month-old entertained on a looooong car trip desperately needed!) and the latter, with our iPhones, to keep us from wandering too far afield. I am also investigating options for a USB gadget to connect to the cellular network from our laptops (and not just from our iPhones), but the pricing schemes I've seen are not too attractive yet.
Time to get back to the listmaking. Tips and suggestions for travel with a toddler are most welcome!
First of all, I'm jealous of your van. When our van died two years ago, we decided we could no longer justify the gas guzzling and got a (very) small car for our family of 5. Vacation trips are now what you might call cozy. I have to say that despite our lower gas bills, I miss the behemoth.
That being said, my ploy with my kids when they were little was to stock up on fun sticker books and little travel toys (target is a good place to get them, as is Child's Play), and pack them all in a backpack. They were not allowed to see anything until we were already on the road (or on the plane) and I would take things out one at a time, calibrated for the length of the trip. Games were interspersed with snacks, of course. Now that they're all older, they basically just plug in for the duration, which has its charms as well, as it allows me to read and snooze.
Good luck!
Posted by: Karen Paul-Stern | Friday, March 12, 2010 at 08:28 AM
Wow. Evernote. I didn't know about it 5 minutes ago, and now I don't see how I ever lived without it. Thanks!
Posted by: Katxena | Friday, March 12, 2010 at 10:03 AM