How To Plan A Weekend Birthday Trip

Drugstore Divas received a product from Old Time Candy for this post. All thoughts and opinions belong to Drugstore Divas.

My father-in-law’s 70th birthday was recently, and we’re heading to Washington, DC next month to celebrate. We’re really excited. Pete and I have been planning a weekend birthday trip for his dad, and I figured our planning could really help if you’re planning any upcoming weekend birthday trips.

How To Plan A Weekend Birthday Trip

Pick a location.
First and foremost, you have to figure out where you’re going. For a weekend, you’re probably not going to fly anywhere. Instead, you probably need to head somewhere within driving distance. Look at a map and find somewhere you can get to in a handful of hours.

For us,  Pete realized DC is halfway between us and his dad.  We could both drive there in a morning and still have the afternoon and evening to hang out.

Find activities.
Once you figure out where you’re going, figure out what you want to do there. Look on Pinterest, travel sites, the city’s Visitor Bureau, etc. Write down a ton of ideas, then start to narrow them down based on where everything is located. You don’t want to overbook yourself, so be sure to choose a couple great activities for each day. But leave time in case there’s traffic, an activity is crowded, etc.

Book a hotel.
Once you’ve settled on a location and found things you can do there, book a hotel. You can ask friends for recommendations or look on discount hotel sites. In addition to prices, those often have reviews from people who have stayed there previously. Be sure to check out amenities as well. A hotel could be a great price, but if you’re paying a ton for parking, it’s not a great deal anymore.

Personally, I prefer hotels that offer a complementary breakfast. If you can have breakfast in the hotel for free, you won’t have to spend as much money outside of the hotel.

Pack.
Figure out what you need for the weekend, including any dressy clothes if you’re planning on heading to a nice dinner to celebrate, plus shoes. And pajamas. I’m writing that because I have a tendency to forget to pack pajamas when we go away, and then I end  up wearing whatever Pete packed.

Bring a gift.
If it’s your birthday, you don’t have to bring yourself a gift. I mean, you could, but that would be a little ridiculous. If you’re going away for someone else’s birthday, bring a gift with you.

I’m going to let you in on a secret, but you have to keep the secret if you know Pete’s dad. We are bringing him a decade box from Old Time Candy. Let’s chat about it for a minute. Old Time Candy is a site where you can purchase, you guessed it, candy from the past. You can pick and choose, or you can purchase by decades: 1950’s to 1990’s. (You can search candy back to pre-1920’s, but this box starts at the 1950’s). The site suggests you pick the decade when the recipient was 10, so we picked the 1950’s box.

Now, obviously, I was not around in the 1950’s, so I wasn’t sure what to expect in the box. When it arrived, some of the candy was familiar to me, like wax bottles and a candy necklace. But there were some that I had never seen before, like a licorice pipe. That one had me laughing. Could you imagine how up in arms parents of today would be if stores sold licorice pipes?

There was a great mix of full-size candies (like Raisinettes and Bonomo’s Turkish Taffy) and small, individually-wrapped candies (like Honeycombed Peanuts and Walnettos). It was so fun for me to look through everything, and it wasn’t even my nostalgia. I was just imagining how I would be with the 1990’s box, snapping back to my childhood as I picked up Warheads and Cry Baby’s. And that made me think of how Pete’s dad would be going through this box. It’s less about the candy and more about the memories.

So of course, that made me think about how much my dad would love this. Yup, I just found his Father’s Day gift (and maybe his Christmas gift too). But back to this box for Pete’s dad. The decades box can be personalized with a “birthday with a zero” box top. Since we are going on this trip for a birthday with a zero, this was perfect.

Do you know someone this would be perfect for? You’re in luck. We are giving away one 4-pound decade box from Old Time Candy. This giveaway starts now and ends at 11:59pm EST on April 13. The winner must be a US resident who is 18 or older. The winner will be contacted via email and will have 24 hours to respond before another winner is selected.

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Drugstore Divas is not responsible for prize fulfillment.