Tour of the Phoenix Sky Harbor Rental Car Center

I had an hour and a half to kill between a 6am and 7:30am pick ups a few mornings ago so I thought I'd take a few photos and write up some tips on how to get through the rental car process as quickly as possible. It was a bit dark as the sun wasn't up and none of the counters were open yet! You may have already seen this on our Facebook page, but here's some more detailed information.

1. The facility has all the companies in one place and is off-site of the airport. You will take a big green and white shuttle bus over to the facility. There are lots of them so no need to run to catch one, another will come. It will take you about 45 mins - 1 hr from the time you land to deplane, go through customs if necessary, collect your baggage, and take the shuttle over. If you or the kids need a snack, there's a small snack bar with pre-made sandwiches, bagels, coffee, soda, chips, etc.

2. If you are meeting me there with rental items, head to your company's counter. I'll meet you just in front of their designated space inside the facility.  This way you don't have to take all your rental items on the shuttle bus from the airport.

3. Sign up in advance for any of the free express programs your company offers that allow you to bypass the check in line. The lines can get quite long here in the spring. It's free and can save you a LOT of time which is nice when you have kids along.  Budget is trying something new right now also. Instead of having you stand in line, you take a ticket (like the DMV) and sit down in their comfy chairs. They have a small play area for kids which is nice as well.  It's always one of the busiest counters though, so again, sign up for their Fastbreak program so you can get right to the car and get going.

4. Be aware that none of the companies guarantee they will have car seats available, and if they do they may not be up to your standards. We deliver at the facility and we are often cheaper for better (and clean) quality. Rental tax at the airport is almost 30% and you will pay that on everything from the rental car company including the car seat. (Ours is 6.3%).

5. When you leave, use the airline check-in kiosk at the rental facility if you haven't done so already. It will save you from a long line at the airport most likely.

6. Express bag check is coming soon to the facility, so definitely use that in the future too! Anything to make your trip on the bus and through the airport easier with the kids is worth it to me!

Day Trips from Phoenix: Part 1 - Sedona

We took the family up to Sedona for a day trip this weekend and I thought it'd be good idea to do a few posts about day trips that can be taken from the Phoenix area. So, here's part 1: Sedona.

Having been to Sedona several times but never doing anything "touristy" we thought it'd be fun to take a jeep tour of the area. We found a good deal on Deal Chicken (similar to Groupon) and decided to go for it.  The drive from Phoenix, depending on your starting point, is about 2 hours.  It's an easy trip up I-17 and if you have time to make an overnight stay in Sedona, there's some nice stopping points along the way including Montezuma Castle National Monument (just off I-17), Tuzigoot National Monument, and the small town of Jerome and Prescott (which would be a bit of a detour). If you do an overnight trip, here's a map of places you could visit:


View Larger Map

Driving from Phoenix with little ones to Sedona, there's a rest top about 50 miles out of town at Sunset Point, and another at Camp Verde just before the turn off for Sedona. Good diaper changing and potty spots for little ones.  Head on into Sedona and enjoy the wonder of the red rocks as you make the first turn into town and the appear directly ahead of you.  Sedona is famous for it's red rocks, arts and culture, and it's spiritual / metaphyiscal attributes. Many celebrities have homes here as well.

The tour we took was with Arizona Safari Jeep Tours, and they require car seats for kids under 5 (although that should really be under 8, since our law just changed a few months ago). We took a Diono Radian for our 3 yo and a backless booster for our 7 yo.  It's about 10* cooler in Sedona than in Phoenix, so wear something semi-warm in the winter/spring depending on the weather. They also have blankets in the jeeps as well.  We took a 4 wheel drive tour through the desert and along the outskirts to the west of Sedona. Our guide Bevin was very knowledgeable about the plants, animals, and geology of the area. We learned some new things ourselves even being native Arizonans.  Bring snacks for the kids as our tour was 3 hours and there's no where to stop to eat.

We all had a great time and spent the rest of the afternoon walking and exploring the city. Another fun place to check out is the Sedona Airport restaurant, up on a mesa (flat top hill) with a great veiw of the city and red rocks. The kids can sit right off the runway and watch the planes come in.  If you go in the summer, you can also head up to Oak Creek Canyon and Slide Rock, but I wouldn't recommend  Slide Rock unless your kids are at least 4. It requires a little hiking to get down to the creek and the water is pretty cold!

Vacation Time! How to Keep Kids Entertained Enroute

We just came back from a little Hawaiian vacation of our own! Thanks to Maui Baby Rentals for supplying us with some goods!  We had 7 hours of flying each way so here's what we did to keep our 3 and 7 year olds entertained. It really helped that we had 8 adults and another little cousin flying with us too though. Going for a little walk always gets the jitters out it seems.

Portable DVD players - fortunately my mom had an extra so each kid had their own, along with our existing stash of DVD's plus a few new $5 deals from Walmart/Target.   Finding headphones that fit little ones can be hard, but we like the Kidz Gear brand.

Nabi/Nabi Jr. - These are kid-sized real tablets that you can download apps from Amazon and Google Play.  They have a kid mode so they can't get to anything you don't want them to. Even if the games have in-app ads, you can use the tablet in airplane mode or disable the WiFi so they can't actually get to anything.

Coloring books, crayons, colored pencils (and a sharpener!)

We picked up IQ Link for my oldest while we were there too. She really seemed to enjoy it.

Looking at all the photos on my cell phone is always a fun past time for them too.

Don't want to bring along all those electronics? We were quite a site at the security line, with 3 tablets, a laptop, and 2 DVD players.  You can also rip movies to an SD card and put that in your cell phone. I've used DVD Catalyst to do this and it works well.