My family and I just returned from our summer vacation to the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. We packed tons of activities into one week’s visit to these awesome parks, but to do so meant we had to switch hotels several times …which adds up to a lot of packing and unpacking. Which can also add a lot of stress and take up valuable time to do all of that “checking in” and “checking out”.

To make sure we could handle the moving in and out of hotels several times throughout our trip, we used the following summer travel tips to streamline our trip as much as possible:

1. Plan your trip! Create a quick spreadsheet on your computer and assign each day of the trip it’s own column. Designate a row for each part of the day. This may seem a little “over the top”, but it actually helps you map out the things you really want to see and do while on the trip. It also allows you to have quick access to all pertinent information (confirmation numbers, phone numbers to hotels, adventure tour companies, and restaurants). Also, if your phone runs out of juice, you’ll have one piece of paper with ALL of the information you might need. Be sure not to “overbook” yourselves and leave some timeframes open to explore or to just relax. Here is what our handy spreadsheet looked like:
2. Don’t forget the chargers! With today’s technology dependency, it’s critical to make sure you have packed the right tech accessories. Have each member of the family pack their own “tech accessories” in a small zippered pouch of some sort and have them label each of their accessories so it’s quick and easy to identify and store them each time you pack up a hotel room. Then, the pouch is stowed away in each individual’s bag or backpack. If you are each carrying phone charger cables with battery backups, this ensures that each person can quickly grab these out of their bag when needed. The zipper pouch that our son loves to use is clear so that he can easily see the items tucked inside. We bought his pouch at The Container Store.
3. Designate a bag for summer must haves! Summer vacation “must haves” such as sunscreen, small first aid kit, snacks, etc. can be packed into one container for the family. Each member of the family can then take turns carrying this container in their backpack (or more realistically…. Dad can carry it in his backpack).
4. Plan for dirty clothes! Give each member of the family their very own laundry bag (we like these from The Container Store). These help keep the hotel room clean of dirty laundry piles, and you can just throw the bag back in the luggage when you are packing up.
5. Remember the daytime essentials! Each member of the travel party should carry a bag for daytime essentials (preferably a durable backpack…I brought this North Face backpack from Dick’s Sporting Goods along with me and it didn’t let me down). We included items such as the “summer travel must haves” mentioned above, hat, sunglasses, chapstick, wallet, tissues, hand sanitizer and reusable water bottle.

I hope our top five summer travel tips help you and your loved ones have an easy, breezy summer vacation. They certainly helped us survive our big trip up to Wyoming, and allowed us to make terrific memories along the way!

Happy travels!