Going home for break has many upsides—home cooked meals, sleeping in your own bed and not having to worry about doing your own laundry being among them. But for those of us who live more than a car ride away, a huge barrier stands between us and this responsibility-free utopia: plane travel during the holiday season.
Navigating a busy airport can sometimes make you wish you’d just stayed put in New Orleans. So as the holiday season approaches and you prepare to pack your bags or, as the case may be, throw things in to a suitcase 5 minutes before your cab arrives, keep these 5 easy tips in mind for a (relatively) pain free travel experience.
Plan ahead
Cabs in New Orleans are notoriously unreliable. There’s nothing worse than desperately trying to find transportation as your departure time grows nearer and nearer. Leave more time than you think you’ll need to get to the airport or find someone willing to drive you in exchange for your undying love and affection/Dunkin Donuts.
Travel light
Be realistic. If you’re planning on spending the vast majority of your break snuggling with your dog and watching SVU re-runs you probably don’t need 3 pairs of wedges and a bandage skirt. No one wants to be that girl frantically stuffing clothes from her suitcase into her carry-on in order to squeeze under the 50 pound weight limit.
Get comfortable
Make fun of me all you want but my neck pillow has made a world of difference on long flights. I may not look like the most chic traveler carting my pillow through the airport but there’s no shame in being cozy—especially when you’re stuck with a screaming baby on one side and a creepy old man on the other.
Bring entertainment
We all like to think that we’ll spend our 4 hours cooped up on the plane getting ahead on studying for finals. We’ll go over all of our study guides, read that chapter we put off looking at, and make hundreds of color-coded flash cards. If you actually do this I applaud you, but in reality most of us end up watching a movie that should have never been made in the first place on a tiny screen we can barely see. Before your flight make sure your Kindle is stocked with fun (not school-related) in-flight entertainment and grab a couple magazines at the airport store.
Coordinate with friends
Plane travel is so much better when you have someone to commiserate with. There’s nothing worse than eating alone at some sad fast food place waiting for the layover from hell to finally end. See if anyone from your hometown is on the same flight with you and plan ahead to coordinate transportation.