I take my kids on road trips without my husband. AMA

amother

Amethyst

Mon, Oct 02 2023, 10:29 pm

Wow lucky you! I'm so bad at planning and our trips only work out when we go with other families who do the planning. Would still love to do a trip for chol Hamoed. Would you be willing to suggest an itinerary for us? We are in tri state area.

Ema of 5

Mon, Oct 02 2023, 10:32 pm

small bean wrote:

I actually flew to Israel last year without my husband and he met us there after a week. I would do again.

Oh my!!! That I’m scared to do. How many kids did you have with you, and what ages? I’ve flown domestic without him with just a baby, but I don’t know that I’d be able to do international, and with the kids???? My hats of to you!!!

Ema of 5

Mon, Oct 02 2023, 10:32 pm

small bean wrote:

I think you've been to more states then we have.

I’ll take any ideas you have, I’m sure there are plenty of places we haven’t been to, even within the states we’ve been to.

Ema of 5

Mon, Oct 02 2023, 10:35 pm

amother Amethyst wrote:

You can go to Lancaster, or Boston, or Richmond, or Washington DC…..or do you mean places WITHIN the tri-state area? We just went to Rhode Island this summer, but there’s not much to do there. I’ve heard about governors island, but I’ve never been there. One year we went to Ellis and Liberty Islands, that was a lot of fun- we looked through the archives for family members!

amother

Amethyst

Mon, Oct 02 2023, 10:37 pm

Ema of 5 wrote:

Thanks, mind sharing what's there to do in Boston, Lancaster or Richmond?

Any tips how you plan your trips?

Ema of 5

Mon, Oct 02 2023, 10:46 pm

amother Amethyst wrote:

Thanks, mind sharing what's there to do in Boston, Lancaster or Richmond?

Any tips how you plan your trips?

I use Google maps and trip advisor. In the days when we were making stops along the way, I would put in our starting point and final destination, then plan stops along the way. After I picked a place to stop, I would go to trip advisor and put in that location and find things to do. Alternatively, you can Google “things to do in xyz” and trip advisor will be one of the options that comes up.
We like history, so we do a lot of plantations, old houses, museums…..in Boston we went to cheers! Took pictures for my father, of course :-) I think we did a duck tour, we did some sort of walking tour, we did a hop on- hop off bus tour. We went to Paul Revere’s house, a few other houses….oh and we threw tea into the harbor :-) We also went to Plymouth plantation.
Also…..we lost the car!!! That was fun :-)
Lancaster we did a farm, an old house, a bus tour, stradsburg (not sure how to spell it) railroad….
Richmond we did a plantation, and I think one other thing.

amother

Amethyst

Mon, Oct 02 2023, 10:54 pm

Ema of 5 wrote:

Thank you for taking your time to help.

amother

Jean

Tue, Oct 03 2023, 1:00 am

My dh does not drive, so it's always been on me. I took my kids on many road trips without him when they were younger because he was either working or not interested in joining. I also took them to Israel and Europe alone. It's really not so scary. My parents traveled with us a lot as kids, so I had a good sense of how to travel with family. My kids and I had a lot of fun and they really enjoyed our experiences. I wouldn't do it alone with 10 kids (cost notwithstanding), but it works for our size family. For a family traveler living on the east coast, the trifecta of Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC is a great place to start. There are great museums, universities, zoos, kosher food, and plenty of history. Pick one big thing, one small thing, and one fun thing (pool, ice cream, pizza) daily. Involve the kids in the trip planning. Watch videos in advance of the trip if you can or take books from the library about where you are going. Build in some downtime every day. Everyone should get some good sleep. Don't over schedule the day. Make sure to have everyone say their best and worst things of the day and record it all on those little paper notepads with the hotel's name (or bring a small pocket-sized notebook in your handbag).

amother

Cerulean

Tue, Oct 03 2023, 1:37 am

I've always wanted to do trips with my kids, but haven't been able to. My DH would've loved to travel as well, though it's very pricey. Traveling (especially with kids) is costly and we don't have the means. It's in my dreams.
We have boys, they are not so flexible as girls could be. Yeshivas don't allow to miss out mid zman. Even Vacation time doesn't work. Every kid has off different weeks.

Ema of 5

Tue, Oct 03 2023, 9:15 am

amother Cerulean wrote:

That’s stinky!!! My kids never miss school for these trips, it’s always in the time between camp and school. They all end camp the same week, although not necessarily the same day, and we usually leave the following Sunday. We are gone for about a week and a half. I wouldn’t pull my kids out of school for this. It is definitely very pricey, I’m not going to argue. This year we had to make a shorter trip (we were only away for a few days) because a longer one just wasn’t in our budget.

WhatFor

Tue, Oct 03 2023, 9:18 am

Ema of 5 wrote:

Originally we did one place every day. We would go somewhere, stay overnight and do something there or on the way to the next place, and then go to the next place. Also originally we were going to Florida every summer, and we would stay with my parents for shabbos. Lately, we’ve been doing one place, and doing different things there every day.
So far we have been to:
NY
NJ
PA
DE
MD
VA
WV
NC
SC
GA
FL
AL
TN
MI
RI
NH
MA
VT

We’ve driven through
KY
OH
CT

This is amazing! Your kids are so lucky! How many miles are on your car?

small bean

Tue, Oct 03 2023, 9:38 am

Ema of 5 wrote:

8 kids - oldest was almost 16 and we did a stopover. I was a bit nervous but it went well.

Ema of 5

Tue, Oct 03 2023, 9:43 am

WhatFor wrote:

This is amazing! Your kids are so lucky! How many miles are on your car?

Not a clue!! I took my current car on one road trip so far. I spend most of last year driving my kids to and from school, one being 45 minutes from where we live, and a little over 13 miles. That was 26 miles per day which isn’t much on its own, but definitely adds up, and quickly. BH this year I’m driving much less. We do have to take my car when we go anywhere as a whole family though, because my husband’s car isn’t big enough!

Edit: we just got in the car, so I looked. It’s at 6508. I got it right before pesach.

Last edited by Ema of 5 on Tue, Oct 03 2023, 12:34 pm; edited 1 time in total