This holiday season is filled with everything from gifts to Santa Claus – if you have been waiting to go on vacation during the holiday season, I can promise that you will want to go to Washington D.C. Right around December 3rd is the annual National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony – and I can promise it is a sight to see.
Not only will you get to see President Obama, but you will also get to see the beautiful tree light up right in front of your eyes. This year’s tree is actually the most energy-efficient tree in the 86-year old tradition of the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony … and it is all due to Obama.
Also, it is a beautiful sight to see, the tree is spectacular and I can promise that the music is awesome too – and the speech!
Right around the holidays, have you ever noticed that a lot of hotels actually test their chefs and make them come up with interesting and unique things for the holiday season. The Westin St. Francis tops it though, this is actually 70 pounds of gingerbread, hundreds of pounds of sugar, sixty pounds of flour and finally so much candy it could rot your teeth straight away if you ate it all.
This is a twelve-foot holiday sugar castle and I have to say that it looks absolutely beautiful … and good enough to eat! For the last four years, the Westin St. Francis and Houdre, the chef at the Westin St. Francis have built this castle to be on display and it is pretty awesome.
There are a ton of different windows to peek into and 30 different rooms. The weight? Right around twelve hundred pounds and it is so worth it!
Now that we have talked about how you can check into your flight online, it is now time for you to pick your seat. If you want to upgrade, make sure that you do it before you go to the airport – as you might end up on a waiting list otherwise. If you want a specific seat, there might be a fee but you could absolutely change your seat to get the one that you want before you even leave for the airport.
Next, you want to make sure that you pack your carry-on items with airport security in mind. Make sure that you keep your liquids and laptops in easy-to-access places, as they will have to go through the scanner by themselves. You also want to make sure that you dress accordingly.
That means that you need to have shoes that you can take on and off easily and that you do not have a belt that is going to get in the way on.
Flying around the holidays, no matter where you are flying is very, very difficult. The holidays are by far the busiest time for anyone and everyone that is flying to spend the holidays with their family. In the next few blogs, we are going to talk about some tips and tricks that will help you fly to anywhere in the world and help you get through those busy airports.
One of the first things that you need to do is make sure that you check into your flight online before you even get to the airport – this is definitely going to help you in the long run and I can promise that it has helped me in the past. If you need to check your bags, make sure that you check them online, it is cheaper and better.
In the next blog, we will talk about your seat assignment and how you can get that taken care of before you get to the airport!
So, what are the worst — and by that, we mean the busiest — airports during the holiday? Well, if you live in the New York City area, you are pretty much SOL — JFK, La Guardia, and Newark are all going to be both busy and slow. Logan will go at a crawl, as will O’Hare, LAX, San Francisco, Atlanta, Denver, and Tacoma International.
But there is some hope, even though you may have to drive a bit to reach the closest airport that will not slow to a crawl during the long holiday weekend. Florida is a great place to find airports that aren’t crazily busy, in Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, and Fort Myers. Nashville, Richmond, Sacramento, Hartford CT, Orange County, and Cincinnati all have faster airports as well.
