Logistics of going away chol hamoed

Rutabaga

Thu, Apr 11 2019, 3:03 pm

I've seen a lot of posts about this so I'm asking out of curiosity, how do people travel overnight just for chol hamoed? This is out of my area of knowledge since we just do day trips.

Unless you go to family or somewhere that has a Pesach program already how can you ensure that your hotel room will be clean to your standards for Pesach? Also, do you only bring food that can be eaten at room temperature?

amother

Orange

Thu, Apr 11 2019, 3:32 pm

We bring with thick tabelcloths and cover all the surfaces used for food. We bring loads of room temp snacks like fruit chips etc. some yogurts/ string cheese and milk .

Bags of lettuce, some tomatoes cucumbers olive oil salt and pepper

Burner/ pan/ spatula for eggs in the morning

Frozen prepped meat/ chicken for a bbq and a portable grill (usually for the second night).

Trays of 9 * 13 food ready to reheat - we bought a portable oven/ toaster that fits two

roasted potatoes (cant freeze) or blintzes (can be frozen)
Boneless chicken bottoms or ready fried shnitzel

Besides for that need to pack plastic good to eat on and some real utensils. Nothing gets washed in the sink in the hotel. We also bring along drinks and fruits etc.

We work hard but have loadsss of fun! We don’t stress over the food- it’s a big job to prep it all but not harder than cooking it at home on chol hamoed and the serving cleanup is the same. We usually do 2 night and 3 days.

sra

Thu, Apr 11 2019, 3:47 pm

amother [ Orange ] wrote:

As long as you have fun! If you are getting stressed out over it, it is probably not worth it...

amother

Orange

Thu, Apr 11 2019, 4:12 pm

amother [ Red ] wrote:

Thanks for the tips. What about the refrigerator in the room? Even though room service cleans the room to normal cleanliness standards, they can't possibly clean the frige and line it they way we do at home. Do you clean it yourselves, just use it anyway, bring your own cooler, ...?

As I said in my post above we bring coolers and refill the ice as needed

amother

Ruby

Thu, Apr 11 2019, 4:19 pm

pesek zman wrote:

Hotels rooms are always cleaned . Not to mention if there are any crumbs (which I’ve never seen, and I’m a frequent traveler) you don’t own them. Also, isn’t kashering a microwave the easiest thing? Microwaving a cup of water?

Kashering a microwave for pesach isn’t so simple.

Please Aylor

amother

Orange

Thu, Apr 11 2019, 4:23 pm

sra wrote:

As long as you have fun! If you are getting stressed out over it, it is probably not worth it...

For sure! We are all adventure lovers and also find that (for us) yt is a very long time to be home, gets tirinf serving and cleaning up in the kitchen every day of chol hamoed and hosting all the marrieds (I’m now bh one of those, this is my parents household I’m describing) planning outing. And the food needs to be prepped somewhat in advance anyways even for day trips- we bring along a bbq or come home with a big crowd of ppl hungry for food so we always fry the shnitzel/ prep the blintzes etc before Yt.

We only go away on chol hamoed when it falls out like this year or similar not if there’s a Shabbos in the middle. We love day trips as well!

Everyone pitches in to help before yt (well, like most families some of us more than others;)

There are many things that are important to others but not a value for us- we like serving fresh healthyish food, so the Seudos on yt have fish, soup at night, one main, roast potatoes/ sweet potatoes salads and grilled veggies and we don’t spend time on kugels and patchkes of that sort (aside from blintzes for trips cuz they transport well).
We have 3/4 basic dessert recipes and cakes we make and nothing has layers.

Besides for the desserts, condiments, a few roasts and blintzes/ schnitzels almost nothing is made before. I look at ppl making these sorbets and meats and kugels and I’m like wow that’s dedication for one week.

Pesach was bh never a stressful time. My mother started cleaning/ organizing with us about 2 weeks before. Turned over the week of (before we had a small pesach kitchen which we have since my oldest son got married).

dancingqueen

Thu, Apr 11 2019, 4:28 pm

Rutabaga wrote:

Wow, that seem like a lot of work, especially after you just cleaned your home for Pesach and worked so hard to make the Sedarim and other Y"T meals! Kol hakavod and I hope you enjoy!

ree

I agree I'd rather go away for all of Pesach or just go on a regular vacation a different time.

amother

Orange

Thu, Apr 11 2019, 4:58 pm

dancingqueen wrote:

ree

I agree I'd rather go away for all of Pesach or just go on a regular vacation a different time.

It sounds like more work than it is:) and again we don’t do it every year but the years we do it’s a really good time to go away- the summer gets hard with pritzus etc. and we have to entertain the kids anyways so a long chol hamoed like this is a lot of work at home also.

amother

Papaya

Thu, Apr 11 2019, 5:08 pm

We have done it once or twice and thinking about doing it this year. Our kids are mostly teens. One night only. We go in the morning, stay overnight and come back the next day. So its 4 meals we need to think about.

We are chabad and don't eat processed food. From what I remember last time we took with: frying pan, electric ring. Foil. steak and salad veggies for supper. Matza, avocado, homemade butter. Pesach cakes and cookies. Fruit. Milk. raw and hardboiled eggs. grape juice to drink.

amother

Azure

Thu, Apr 11 2019, 5:36 pm

amother [ Red ] wrote:

I try to book only hotels that have a fridge in each room, but you can't count on them getting cold enough or being big enough. I pack a box of quart-size ziplock bags and make ice packs using the hotel ice machine. If you're concerned about moisture, double up the bags. If you keep the top of your cooler closed most of the time, a cooler with lots of ice may very well be colder than a hotel fridge.

As for cleanliness, I've never seen a dirty hotel fridge. I would wipe it out and make sure the food doesn't sit directly on the shelves. (We hold that for Pesach a fridge needs to be clean and shelves covered, but nothing fancy).

dancingqueen

Thu, Apr 11 2019, 6:09 pm

amother [ Orange ] wrote:

That makes sense. Have a great time!

pesek zman

Thu, Apr 11 2019, 8:17 pm

amother [ Ruby ] wrote:

Kashering a microwave for pesach isn’t so simple.

Please Aylor

I don’t actually kasher anything for Pesach as BH I go away for the whole Yom Tov but pretty sure my mom microwaved water to kasher it when I was a kid. If we ever stay home I’ll certainly look into it

mig100

Thu, Apr 11 2019, 8:21 pm

pesek zman wrote:

That may work. Undone kno w Just adding some microwaves r also convection ovens which make it more difficult