What would you do? (travel question)

[Armylovin]

In April my boys will be six months (holy cow!) and I am planning to surprise DH by going to Cali to see his family-most of them haven't even met the babies yet. My question is this: fly or drive?

Flying:
$1100 dollars for flights and rental car, this accounts for extra $ in checking the carseats and our rental car is for unlimited miles-I looked into just renting carseats and we are planning to use Budget rent a car and it states in their disclaimer that carseats are held on a first come first serve basis- don't want to not have a carseat KWIM?

5 hour flight each way with 1 lay over on each flight-this would be two ascends and two descends each trip and I'm worried about the discomfort this may cause them.

Flight times fit into the afternoon perfectly so they shouldn't be too grumpy or cranky and it shouldn't disrupt our schedule too bad.

Driving:
12+ hours in the car. DH and I can do the drive in 9 so we have allotted 3 extra hours for stopping as we need to as many times needed with the boys. We are considering driving overnight since the boys do sleep through the night. Downside to this being to drive through the night I would be getting off work at 5, going home to do food/baths on the boys and then loading up and leaving-I wouldn't have much time to sleep if at all prior and DH would have the boys all day so he also wouldn't have much time to sleep-this puts us as driving at night being tired and I'm not sure how comfortable I am with that.

We could always drive during the day but Raygen hates his carseat and I see that ending bad. I should add to this that he loves his carseat to sleep in, it's just getting him to sleep in it (usually about 15 minutes of a nice warm bottle and then some paci does it) that he hates. If he's asleep then its like his favorite little cocoon outside of my arms :)

My other thought is at 6 months it's a probability that they will be in the forward facing seats (right? I have no clue) and if thats the case then I don't see them sleeping well in them-could we use our infant seats since they are more reclined and easier (IMO) to sleep in?

I'm totally new to this if you can't tell. Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions!

Gas and food would probably cost all together 400 dollars and thats guessing really high.

[flatoutgallop]

My other thought is at 6 months it's a probability that they will be in the forward facing seats (right? I have no clue)

No, at 6 months they should still be rear facing for at least another 6 months..


I think I'd drive....based on the info you posted...
cheaper, more convenient (you can stop when you want, no worrying about the boys, etc..).
You and your DH can take turns driving overnight, so that yu get some sleep, and arent driving too tired, etc....

[Armylovin]

I didn't realize how long they are rear facing, thank you for letting me know! :)

[LisaMLS]

I'd drive. With having to get to the airport early, plus the layovers, then waiting for your luggage, and even delays that might happen. you really aren't saving that much time. Also, I know at some age, it's recommended for babies to be in their carseats on planes, too.

[Lydia]

Having done a lot of driving and flying with twins, here are my pros and cons:

Flying with young babies is MUCH easier than one would expect. Sure, it's kind of a hassle, but the biggest downside is not being able to bring along all your stuff. When they're that young, they mostly sleep on the plane. I flew with ours at 9 months with 5-hour flight, one layover, and it was much easier than I thought. We did not do carseats on the plane. We just held them and I nursed them when I could at takeoff and landing (or gave them pacifiers so they could suck) and they were fine. We rented a car, rented car seats, and it was extra money, but it was worth it to not have to lug them around. The downside there was that we had just come off the plane and dh had to fit all the straps to the babies and install the carseats in the car himself, while I tried to manage both babies. We ended up opening the trunk and letting them crawl around in there (with the trunk open, of course) so they wouldn't get away while dh was cursing. That was the hardest part. Oh, and carrying two carseats, two babies, and three suitcases from the rental car counter all the way to where the rental car was parked. Whew!

There are lots of companies that will rent baby equipment, so we prearranged baby gates, a pack-n-play, and other things to be set up when we got there. We didn't have to carry any of our gear. And we timed it so we could go to a store as soon as we arrived to pick up diapers, wipes, food, etc.

I do love road trips with our twins. However, they take MUCH longer. On the plus side, we have our car, our car seats, and room to pack all of our stuff. There is no rental car expense. We can stop whenever we feel like it. Our twins tolerate the car pretty well. I don't know how much I'd enjoy it if I had a cranky traveler. We still stop pretty often, to let them stretch their legs, or to eat. If you plan on doing it at night, that's different. We've never done it at night. Our babies don't really sleep through the night anyway.

Our 6-hour road trips now take 10 hours. That's how much of a change there is for us. I don't know if adding three hours is enough to your 12-hour drive, but on the other hand, if you're doing it at night and the babies are sleeping the whole time, it's possible. I would hate to think of you doing it at night, completely sleep-deprived and potentially dangerous, though. It's not like you're not both already a little sleep-deprived, anyway. And then when are you going to sleep after you get there? If you want to drive, I would say to stretch it out over two days, if possible.

Anyway, traveling with twins can be really enjoyable. It takes a lot of work and organization, but it's worth it!

[RachEM]

Flying doesn't seem to be a huge deal for them. It's just that once you're on the plane you're stuck and that's not a happy thought if they were to not do well.

Like she said Rear facing will be until at least 12 months and 20 pounds. The longer they're rear facing the safer they are though and convertible seats will go to 35lbs that way.

I would consider driving if you could stop and spend the night somewhere. Maybe take the day off a couple hours early and drive for a while then stop and spend the night somewhere and finish the trip the next day. You don't want to arrive at 7am somewhere to introduce two 6 month olds who have slept through the night in the car to people they've never met and may not take to that quickly and you guys absolutely exhausted and then take care of them ALL day long again. I'm sure the family would love to give you a break and let you have a morning nap and all, but the boys may want none of that.. new place, new people. So I wouldn't do it in one night. You can make reservations at a hotel in advance and they'll have a pack n play or two ready for you when you get there. Spend the extra $50 or whatever and get a nice hotel room, I think ours was a Hilton Garden Inn and I want that bed :)

Anyhow, I guess I'd drive. I like road trips. But I don't think you said how long the trip is, if it's super short I wouldn't want to waste the extra time driving and stopping overnight.

[mommabert]

I can only go off of my experience with a singleton. You remember we took G on a 600+ mile roadtrip when he was 3 weeks old right? We broke it up into 3 days. What would have been an 8-9 hour drive for us ended up being about 5 hours each day. We easily could have gone longer than the 5 hours, since he really did sleep most of the way, but we had stops we wanted to make.

That being said, we made teh same drive in November, so he was 5 months old by that time. We found that it was MUCH easier to travel during napping time (i.e. 9 am until about 6 pm) than it was to drive at night. On the way up we left at about 6 am and got into town at about 3 pm. We made two stops. If G needed anything and I wasn't driving I climbed in the backseat. If G needed anything and I was driving I stopped so DH could climb in the backseat.

On the way home we left at like noon and he slept for half the trip, but the last 3 hours were no fun for any of us. He cried and whined the whole time and that drove DH crazy. Nothing I could do soothed him, he just wanted out of his car seat. DH was bent on NOT stopping, had he stopped I think G would have been much better behaved.

In your situation, I'd drive. But I'd plan one overnight stop.

[bridgetwu75]

Hmm. I'm saying fly. Both of my children at age would just fall asleep on an airplane. Carseats are so restrictive and on a plane you get to hold them. Much easier to keep them happy.

[ColtsFan1912]

I'm scared to death of planes so I say drive. lol. We drove all the way from IN to CA with Caleb.. but he was a bit older. 10 months.

[twinmom34]

My money mind says to drive. We took the twins on vacation with us at 12 months old and it was a 12 hour drive to our destiantion. We made it a 2 day drive for all of our sanity. My Kenedee doesn't like the carseat and actually did better on the long trip than she was doing on short trips. I did spend the money to get a dual screen dvd player and played lots of baby einstein videos. We have other disney movie videos but none of them did the trick like the Einstein videos. We left right before the morning nap, made sure we were ready to stop at lunch time and tried to arrive at our destination just after the afternoon nap. Good luck and hope you have lots of fun!

[TripMomma]

My little sister is due with her first 2/17 (unfortunatly DH can't get time off until July or August) we plan to drive to Vegas and stay 10 days. We will get one of those little Uhaul tug behind things to take all the babies stuff. I don't even know how we would fly with three babies and just DH and myself.

[CDingMama]

I'd drive But then again there's not enough Valium in the western world to get me on a plane

[kenzie]

I have never flown with my twins but we have driven across the country when they were 11months. It was actually not that bad thanks to our DVD players. I sat in the back with the boys and kept them entertained. They watched Baby Einstein movies all day and were pretty content as long as I sat between them. My guys don't like to fall asleep in their seats so at nap times it would take me a while to get them to sleep. I would never have considered driving at night (still wouldn't) b/c as Lydia said - we were always and still are in a state of sleep-deprivation. Good luck to you!

[Mrs JS]

If you can afford it I would fly. It's a much faster trip to fly, and you and your DH can hold one of the boys on your lap. I flew from Boston to Phoenix with a 10 month old. It was a 13 hour trip, but it really wasn't that bad.

[Armylovin]

I just remembered I posted this! Ooops. Thanks for your replies gals. We still haven't come up with a definitive as to what we plan on doing yet although its looking like driving. My mom has offered to take the boys for a stretch of time that day so DH can get in some good sleeping time and then when I get home from work I will take a nap as well and we'll probably drive over night-I hear all of you and am not ignoring your suggestions to drive during the day, I just don't have the time to take off of work to do it since I missed 6 months during my pregnancy. I'm still trying to kiss up and show my gratitude for them keeping my job open! Because of the limited amount of time off I get I think driving overnight would maximize our time there.

Katrina I don't know how I would fly with DH and 3 LO's, how far away is Vegas from you? I know Boise to Portland, without babies is about 10 hours, I can't imagine then going the extra ten it takes from Boise to Vegas. Are you coming through Idaho? :) If so you, DH and babies are MORE then welcome to crash a night at our place, save you the money on a hotel room and we could have 5 babies scooting around!

Cyndi-I remember your trip and I remember thinking she's crazy :) Me at 3 weeks PP was not a good sight.

[TripMomma]

Thanks momma...I will let ya know, would be fun :)

[wannaBmomma]

If you carry the car seats to your gate you can curb check them for free. AND if there is extra seats on the plane they will let you use them for the flight.