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S/o Do you travel a lot?
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amother
Goldenrod


 

Post Mon, Oct 16 2017, 8:52 pm
interesting...
last time we went on vacation it was only a few days and we went out to eat the last meal. I told my husband, next time I want to see if we can manage without the restaurant because time wise its easier to not have to deal with getting to a restaurant...
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33055




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Oct 16 2017, 9:15 pm
amother wrote:
If your DH won't go anywhere without a minyan then you are definitely limited to areas with a frum population, although there are Chabad houses in surprising places. My husband is ok davening b'yechidus during the week but we make sure to stay near a shul if we're away for Shabbos. There are websites like godaven that can help you find a shul and there is usually a website or at least contact info. Many "OOT" shul websites will have info for tourists such as local hotels within the eruv and where to find kosher food. If that info isn't online then there is usually a phone number to call.

When DH and I travel on our own then it's much simpler to deal with food. We're less picky and will willingly delay a meal or nosh along the way. When we travel with the children then meals require more planning ahead. We make sure to only book hotels that have some kitchen facilities or at a minimum they must have a fridge and a microwave. Microwaves are simple to kasher and you can use a treif oven if you double wrap very well.

I prefer to cook ahead and freeze food rather than cooking on the spot when we've just had a full day of touring and everyone is starving. That's one of the reasons we generally do road trips, because it's much easier to transport a lot of stuff in the back of a van instead of dealing with airline restrictions. I make foil pans of things like chicken or meatballs or pasta (dairy) and freeze. We pack them in coolers and they travel pretty well. They go straight in the freezer when we get to our destination and we defrost them one by one in the fridge for the next day and reheat double wrapped in the oven. We supplement meals with veggies and other things we find in the local supermarket. Breakfast is usually cereal and milk bought locally (we hold by OU D, but people who keep chalav yisrael will freeze milk to bring along or use soy/almond milk) or healthy muffins we bring from home. Lunch is usually sandwiches like tuna or deli or PB&J or chocolate spread for a special treat. You have to make sure that kosher bread will be available because it's harder to find in some places and doesn't always travel well from home. If there's a kosher restaurant then we'll go a couple of times a week but not every night because that gets prohibitively expensive.

Some people prefer to bring basic ingredients and cook fresh with sandwich makers and disposable grills or even crockpots. I always bring a good paring knife, peeler and can opener with us but I don't want to deal with appliances while traveling.

Shabbos away requires a whole other level of preparation. There are a lot of little details to remember such as candles and matches and timers and havdala stuff and making sure lechem mishna and wine/grape juice will be available or bringing it with us. I like to bring a small white tablecloth along to bring a Shabbos atmosphere to the hotel room. There can also be challenges such as electric locks or automatic doors.

In terms of Shabbos food, it's easiest but usually more expensive to get take out from a local store. We often take that option if it's available but sometimes we bring food from home. I heat the food for dinner right before Shabbos and then wrap it well with towels and blankets to keep warm until we eat. For lunch and shaleshudis we eat foods that are ok cold or at room temperature.

If you've made it to the end of my megilla then you're probably thinking that it sounds like a lot of work instead of a vacation. That's partially true, but it gets easier the more you do it. I have a master packing list so I don't forget anything and the rest is a matter of research and preparing ahead as much as possible. I'm unlikely to agree to a spontaneous weekend away unless it's all inclusive but we've enjoyed all our vacations tremendously.


I keep all my non - perishable Shabbos stuff packed. I also have a disposal vase which I flatten out, dry off, Ald reuse. I love having flowers.

DH makes arrangements with management to open our doors for us.
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tichellady




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Oct 16 2017, 9:51 pm
amother wrote:
We can usually only get away for a week at most, so either Sunday through Thursday or Sunday through Sunday. If we can extend our vacation further, then usually I bring food for the first week and we go somewhere there is kosher food available for the second week.

You'd also be amazed at how much food you can find with a hechsher in a random chain supermarket if you don't only hold by heimish hechsherim. Sabra chumus is everywhere, for example, and makes a filling snack with crackers and baby carrots.


Yes! Tofu, lox, salmon, English muffins, pasta etc. we have done well just shopping and cooking locally
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 17 2017, 3:37 am
No kitchen + no restaurant + no Chabad? Bring dishes for the microwave. We have used microwave in mall, gas station... plus sandwich and stuff from the list. In America kosher is everywhere with hechsher.

Kids wise, better go a bit out and get a house with garden. We had a faaaaantastic 150square meters (!!!) apartment with a city-garden in Antwerp, for so much less than what we would have paid a decent apartment in an Israeli city (we had looked into Ranana even excentered). Two chassidish shuls in the street.

A very cheap thing we found was like a bungalow colony in Switzerland. There was a communal kitchen that we used as long as it was empty, then we did microwave and list. We had a wood house for... nothing. The kids went around the park which had games and stuff. Then also went around in the village. They learn to communicate quick Wink)
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DrMom




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 17 2017, 7:44 am
amother wrote:
eema of 3- would love to do something like that but food sounds like it would be a nightmare. you won't have a kitchen and there aren't necessarily kosher restaurants everywhere. how does that work for such a long period of time?

If I a going somewhere with no decent Jewis infrastructure, I try and make sure I *do* have a kitchen. I stay at airbnbs instead of hotels.

Then we take with us some dairy old pots and pans and cooking utensils (including a non-stick pan and spatula for making eggs), and a good sharp dairy and/or parve knife.

Fresh fruits and vegetables and kosher brands of pasta are available almost everywhere. We bring cheese and drink non-cholov yisrael milk. We buy fresh fish if possible and canned beans and vacuum-packed tuna and salt, pepper, and buy herbs in the store. You can steam fresh vegetables in a microwave. You can kasher most grills or use foil.

Many European countries have kosher lists of food that can be found in average grocery stores and supermarkets.

We take nuts and dried fruit with us.

We always manage to eat just fine.
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Ema of 5




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 17 2017, 12:10 pm
amother wrote:
eema of 3- would love to do something like that but food sounds like it would be a nightmare. you won't have a kitchen and there aren't necessarily kosher restaurants everywhere. how does that work for such a long period of time?

We take a lot of what we need with us, which means a LOT of planning. I plan out (with everyone's input) what we will have for lunch and supper, and the Thursday before we leave (usually on a Sunday) I buy everything- plastic ware, paper goods, food, snacks....I buy enough to last until we get to our final destination, and then restock whatever needs replacing before we head back. Some things, like cereal, plastic, meat....I can buy enough of so I don't need to replace usually on the way back. My husband only eats/drinks CY, but my kids and I don't, so if push comes to shove we can always just go into a local grocery store/target/Walmart and buy some stuff. We can always buy snacks and drinks at local grocery stores if we need to, even if they wouldn't be as healthy as I would like....we also take along a portable grill, and my husband grills every night. For me and the kids, we alternate nights between burgers/chicken/whatever else we decide can be grilled.
If I'm really able to do a 4-6 week trip next summer, obviously the planning (both the route and the food!) will be serious. In all the years we've been doing it, we have never been in a place where we are not close (within 10-20 minutes) of a grocery/target/Walmart type place. I also try to plan our sleeping so that we are within a 20 min max drive to a shul, should my husband want a minyan. He tries to be makpid to always daven with a minyan, but for various reasons it doesn't always happen. My oldest (a boy) will be 11 on our next trip, so I'll have to figure out what to do with him for davening as well. I have a friend who does long trips, and she leaves her over bar mitzva age son home with her husband. For us this isn't an option, so we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Bh my kids are good travelers, so that makes it easier. Also, we only drive 4-6 hours a day, and even hat is sometimes broken up. We make lots of stops along he way, with lots of activities. I also make sure my kids have plenty to do in the car, and plenty of snacks!!
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Ema of 5




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 17 2017, 12:17 pm
The last thing I want to do in vacation is be. Yay with cooking and cleaning. Most of the hotels we stayed at this time (both in the way down and on the way back) did NOT have freezers. We took lots of ice packs, and when we needed to we refilled our cooler with ice. We had one that stayed frozen/cold longer than the other one, and I'm thinking I'm just going to buy a second one like that for next summer, because the other one was really a pain. It was also smaller, so having two full sized coolers would definitely help. We didn't take a sandwich maker (ours broke and we never replaced it) but I'm thinking maybe next summer will be the time to replace it.
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Ema of 5




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 17 2017, 12:19 pm
Oh, and we've never stayed in a hotel for shabbos. We plan our trip so we get to Miami before shabbos, and we get back home before shabbos. I would not want to do shabbos in a hotel. If we do a long trip next summer, obviously it will be over at least one shabbos, so I would make sure to be in places where we can be hosted, preferably by people we know. I guess it's a good thing we know people in random, middle of nowhere places!!
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amother
Natural


 

Post Tue, Oct 17 2017, 12:53 pm
We are makpid on Chalav Yisrael, and still manage to take a lengthy ffamily trip every summer, rarely to places with sizeable Jewish communities (other than on Shabbos).

We've spent 2 weeks in Alaska, 3 weeks in Utah and Arizona, 2 weeks in Oregon and Washington, 3 weeks in Wyoming and Colorado, 2 weeks in northern California, and 3 weeks in Texas and New Mexico - many of which are over 90 degrees in the summer.

Although we always spend Shabbos in a community with a minyan, we are rarely around one during the week, and we are frequently on the go. We usually stop at a nearby Walmart the first day of the trip for some generic staples (ketchup, etc.) and resupply on weekends if there's a kosher store where we spend Shabbos, but almost never have access to restaurants.

The biggest key to our ability to do this was our purchase before our first big trip of a Koolatron, which is basically a portable refrigerator that plugs into the car cigarette lighter for power, which enables us to keep food cold throughout the day. There are many sizes, but the one we use is: https://www.amazon.com/Koolatr.....54E4. It fits perfectly between the first 2 rows in our rental minivans.

We try to stay at least every other night in a hotel that has a full-size refrigerator/freezer, which enables us to deep freeze everything. This has enabled us to still eat homemade schnitzel and meatloaf and have fresh milk for breakfast even in the 3rd week of the trip.

Breakfast is usually cereal and milk, lunch is sandwiches (Zomick's rolls hold up well for 1+ weeks, then we switch to matza) with tuna, deli, peanut butter, cheese, etc., and supper is schnitzel or meatloaf warmed up on a hot plate we bring with us, or pasta and cheese made in a burner we bring with us, or if we're pressed for time, Mealmart shelf-stable microwave meals that do not need to be refrigerated and are double covered so they can be warmed up in any microwave. We also bring snacks for car rides - pretzels, granola bars, etc.

I'm not saying it's easy, but we've done this many times, and the kids are used to it by now, and it's enabled us to see a lot of beautiful parts of the world that we otherwise would have no way of getting to. Anon because there aren't too many families that travel like this.
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amother
Blush


 

Post Tue, Oct 17 2017, 12:59 pm
How do you all take so much time off work?
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eschaya




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 17 2017, 8:33 pm
We don't travel in the hotel/restaurant/amusement park/wine and dine expensive travel sense, but we do like to take long family trips to explore the niflaos haborei across the US when we have the opportunity (ie: summer vacation, occasional shorter trips on winter break). The trips are usually long car trips, camping or motel or airbnb type lodging, packed foods. Our activities are typically outdoor explorative types (hiking, biking, boating) and visiting historical sites too.
Dh has a reduced schedule in the summer, and I do shift work so I save PTO for these trips because it's important to our family.
Is this considered "travel"? It's not glamourous or fancy, but it's an incredible wholesome way for our family to enjoy each other and the wonders of our world. And after a long day of hiking, I can tell you that frozen pizza warmed in our toaster and fresh vegis taste better than any gourmet meal. A portable grill and toaster make all the difference in having great meals. For Shabbos, a crock pot changes everything. Dry ice for the hours of travel. Ramen soups and boxed soups. Bring 1 milchig pot, 1 fleishig pot, 1 spoon of each gender and plenty of disposables. What else do you need? You can buy fresh produce anywhere. Cans and a can-opener. Pretzels, granola bars, crackers.
Some of our favorites locations include Acadia, Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon, Yosemite. Dh and I just did Alaska without the kids (involved flying, was a more costly experience, but something I have dreamed about for years).
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amother
Ruby


 

Post Tue, Oct 17 2017, 8:51 pm
Dh and I both work so we can’t just take off whenever we want but we still do vacation quite a bit. I’m from out of town and we go to my parents frequently ( at least 2x a year) we’ve done many road trips as well plus we’ve done other places. Dh isn’t particular about davening with a minyan During the week and we try to be either home or in a frum area for shabbos. Food we usually pack a cooler/insulated bag filled with cold cuts, some Frozen dairy like calzones, Pizza etc, canned tuna is a great option, we brought some frozen deli roll and other shabbos left overs. We usually stay in hotels and just burn out their microwave to use (we made burgers in a microwave) and we sometimes bring a toaster or burner with us. If the hotel doesn’t come with a fridge we always pay for one and refill on ice in the morning for our insulated bag. We also pick up kind bars and snacks at random gas stations.
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saw50st8




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Oct 18 2017, 7:43 am
eschaya wrote:
We don't travel in the hotel/restaurant/amusement park/wine and dine expensive travel sense, but we do like to take long family trips to explore the niflaos haborei across the US when we have the opportunity (ie: summer vacation, occasional shorter trips on winter break). The trips are usually long car trips, camping or motel or airbnb type lodging, packed foods. Our activities are typically outdoor explorative types (hiking, biking, boating) and visiting historical sites too.
Dh has a reduced schedule in the summer, and I do shift work so I save PTO for these trips because it's important to our family.
Is this considered "travel"? It's not glamourous or fancy, but it's an incredible wholesome way for our family to enjoy each other and the wonders of our world. And after a long day of hiking, I can tell you that frozen pizza warmed in our toaster and fresh vegis taste better than any gourmet meal. A portable grill and toaster make all the difference in having great meals. For Shabbos, a crock pot changes everything. Dry ice for the hours of travel. Ramen soups and boxed soups. Bring 1 milchig pot, 1 fleishig pot, 1 spoon of each gender and plenty of disposables. What else do you need? You can buy fresh produce anywhere. Cans and a can-opener. Pretzels, granola bars, crackers.
Some of our favorites locations include Acadia, Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon, Yosemite. Dh and I just did Alaska without the kids (involved flying, was a more costly experience, but something I have dreamed about for years).


Of course that's considered travel! We do a lot of travel like that too.
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33055




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Oct 18 2017, 8:01 am
amother wrote:
Dh and I both work so we can’t just take off whenever we want but we still do vacation quite a bit. I’m from out of town and we go to my parents frequently ( at least 2x a year) we’ve done many road trips as well plus we’ve done other places. Dh isn’t particular about davening with a minyan During the week and we try to be either home or in a frum area for shabbos. Food we usually pack a cooler/insulated bag filled with cold cuts, some Frozen dairy like calzones, Pizza etc, canned tuna is a great option, we brought some frozen deli roll and other shabbos left overs. We usually stay in hotels and just burn out their microwave to use (we made burgers in a microwave) and we sometimes bring a toaster or burner with us. If the hotel doesn’t come with a fridge we always pay for one and refill on ice in the morning for our insulated bag. We also pick up kind bars and snacks at random gas stations.


How do you burn out a microwave?
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doctorima




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Oct 18 2017, 9:37 am
I assume she means that they boil up a cup of water inside, which according to some opinions is sufficient to kasher it, but this is not at all universally accepted, so we do not do so.
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saw50st8




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Oct 18 2017, 10:44 am
doctorima wrote:
I assume she means that they boil up a cup of water inside, which according to some opinions is sufficient to kasher it, but this is not at all universally accepted, so we do not do so.


It's fairly universally accepted (there is no such thing as 100%). Many people don't kasher microwaves for Pesach though.

I'm curious what your background is?
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Oct 18 2017, 10:56 am
Oh my, if you're looking for universally accepted... most things aren't. You'll always have someone to have another custom. Do you.
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