When does your holiday start?

[Susan J]

Is it only my husband who likes to be at the airport hours before departure-
he likes to have a large breakfast after checking in the bags, then a look round duty free, and sit in the lounge reading the paper, its all part of his hols- I wouldn't mind an extra hour or two in bed, and don't like the large breakfast[ but don't object to the Duty Free!], but still its a step nearer to sunny Florida!!
ON the other hand, he won't pack his case till about midnight the night before- no longer though, I have retrained him on that one!
What do all of you do with regard to packing, and going to airport etc.

[gail and david roberts]

we do like to get up and off early to the airport , always pack a couple of days before we leave
and I do it all
pack all cases, book the car , flights getting the money [msnscared]
so for me once at the airport and cases have gone I can relax
until we get to Orlando (car hire)[msncool]
I don't mind sitting in the airport as long as we leave on time ,finger crossed for June flights [msnscared]
will be taking my notebook with me , as this helps a lot with the wait

[ShirleyD]

I only live down the road from the airport, so I don't normally arrive very early. I will always shop in Florida, so duty free doesn't really interest me... just one more thing to carry!

[dbrook]

We're a bit like Susan's husband and like to be at the airport about 3 hours before.

I pack the day before normally and Geoff packs his own things the night before and it takes him about 2 minutes.

I don't relax until the cases go through and then my holiday starts. I love to have breakfast, stroll round the shops and treat myself to loads of magazines and a book, and I wind down slowly!

Think I will take my Notebook with me next time too Gail.

[stabard]

Don't get me started [msnsmile2]

My boys ( lee included ) always say that we have to be at the airport as early as possible because I am paranoid about being stuck in traffic and missing the plane. This almost happened to me once and I held up the plane while Lee parked the car [msneek]. So in most cases we get to the airport the night before and if possible check in and off load the bags then.
On the morning of the flight I am not happy till we are through security and then we have a nice breakfast, followed by a browes round the book shop. once we have taken off I can relax until it comes to immigration and car hire ( thank heavens for Dollar Express ).

I usually pack over the week before the trip as the boys will insist on wearing stuff they then want to take. So I have to wash, iron and pack as I go. Once it is in the case heaven help the boy who tries to take an item of clothing back out![msnwink]

[Ian Mcc]

I like to be there nice and early case of any hiccups, traffic etc, had looked into on-line check-in etc and did think that it would not give you much time to browse, normal 3hr before flight sounds a lot but by the time you have something to eat and a browse round shops/ duty free etc it does go in quite quickly, part of the holiday for me. usually enjoy a couple of beers too regardless of the time of day but will nedd to give that a miss this time as will be driving at the other end, roll on Sept.

[ellie]

Susan, for me, my holiday starts the minute we turn the key in the lock and get into the car on our way to the airport!

We, too, love to be early to the airport. We book an overnight hotel and are up bright and early to get to the airport 4 hours before the flight. I love getting in the taxi in the morning with the sun just rising and the roads clear and bright. I just can't wait to get there! It is only when we are checked in that I can finally relax, and to be honest, the time goes in a flash and I never have enough time to do everything I want to do. We go and have a relaxing breakfast - this has become a bit of a ritual - then I browse round the shops whilst my husband watches the world go by or reads a newspaper, I buy a long book to read, and chill out.

We are paranoid about missing the flight so would not feel able to leave it to the day in case of traffic problems etc. But my two daughters had a near miss recently - they were flying back from Dubai and on waking discovered that the electricity had tripped out in their hotel room. They had to finish packing in the dark and could not use the bathroom until the maintenance guy arrived so they were late leaving - and they were a fair way from the airport. They eventually arrived at the airport to see the board saying 'flight closing.' Thankfully the airport is quick and easy and they ran like mad and made it with a couple of minutes to spare. Now for me that would have been a total nightmare (one daugher is like me and likes plenty of time, the other was quite happy not to have had to sit and wait!). So it takes all sorts to make a world!

As for packing, I used to pack weeks in advance when I had the children - had a packing room which I used. But now I tend to pack the week before - again, I could not cope with packing the night before, but each to his own. [msnwink]

[Lyn]

My holiday starts the minute I book the flights, I plan and plan and plan, where shall we visit, what shall we take, what size car do we need etc etc. We always fly from Gatwick and drive down the night before for twylight checkin. Then we go to our hotel for a nice meal and an early night. Up on the day of the flight we have a nice English breakfast leave for airport about 2 hours before flight time, straight to security, enough time for a look round the shops before going to the gate. I just love all of it, at the moment we have a trip planned for late October and one for February. Before we go next Feb I will have to book Octobers[high5]

[chrizzy100]

Mine starts when I get on the bus to Boston...we leave early so we can eat at the airport..I don't really pack much because we have stuff at the house in FL..

[kitch50]

Hi

Like Gail, I do it all, from booking the villa, flights, car, park tickets etc to packing cases and after the trip before last supervising the loading of cases into the car ! we got to the near enough the motorway and my husband said "where are the cases!!!!" the one job he had to do was to put them in the car !!! I ask you.... men !

My ritual (apart from checking I have the passports 100 times before we get to the airport checkin) is when we get through security etc I have a large hot chocolate with whipped cream and a chocolate spoon from Costas (not just when we go to Florida but any time I go away) then my holiday can start ............[msnsmile]