Spring Break Travel Planning for Bay Area Families

If you are thinking of traveling with the family for Spring Break, you may want to jump into the planning process now.

While April is still five months away, even in this kind of economy, great accommodations and inexpensive flights get snatched up early. In the next couple blog posts I’ll highlight some of the favorite spring break destinations for Bay Area families. But first, here are a couple things you may want to do in advance.

1. Set up flight alerts for all your possible destinations if you are planning on flying. I use the travel alerts on Bing but you can also set them up on Sidestep and other websites. On Bing, just run your search and on the page with the results, you’ll have an option to set an alert (upper right). I’ve found that I can usually save up to $300 on longer flights by tracking the prices through alerts. Remember that Southwest is not covered by most flight search sites (like Bing, Sidestep and Kayak) so you may want to check those out individually.

2. Set a theme for your trip. This may sound corny but my husband and I do this every trip so that we are on the same page in terms of what we want out of it. Adventure? Culture? Relaxation? Extended family? A mix? I usually bounce three or four ideas off my family and figure out which one appeals, meets the budget and travel requirements.

3. Figure out how far you are willing to go. Even thought my kids are a little older now, I’m still loath to fly or drive more than six hours with them unless it is a very special trip. Also direct flights rate high as you reduce the chance of a delay which isn’t so unusual given the state of air travel.

4. Start to scope out good family accommodations that may include rental homes, condos, as well as resorts. Choose your “must haves”: number of bedrooms, location, pool, beach access, slope access, etc and start the search. Talk to friends and neighbors and get their recommendations (or ask us!). I find the best trips are a combination of finding the right destination with the right flights and the right accommodations.

After polling parents around the Bay Area, here are a couple destinations high on their list for Spring Break. We'll try to provide some tips on for each of these travel destinations in the coming weeks.

• Hawaii (of course)
• Sayulita (north of Puerta Vallarta)
• Cancun/Playa Del Carmen
• San Diego
• Arizona
• Florida
• Caribbean

Let us know your favorite spot (leave a comment or start a forum post) and we'll make sure we cover it.