(MONEY Magazine) – During our second day driving around Tasmania, our then two-year-old daughter Ella finally stopped chattering about her morning feeding wild wallabies--those pint-size cousins of kangaroos--when we stopped to stare at a rare Tasmanian devil blocking our path on a serpentine rain-forest road. In her short life, Ella had already been dragged by my wife and me to Turkey and Costa Rica; France and Germany; and Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. So while Ella's day among Tasmanian wildlife was an unusually fun time for all of us, it was also the kind of exotic experience she had grown to expect of a vacation with Mom and Dad.

At dinner that night, I saw wallaby on the restaurant menu, and out of curiosity, I ordered it. It came in a cream sauce, not one of my favorites. Ella, on the other hand, was smacking her lips. I traded plates for her more mundane burger, telling her the meat in the cream sauce was "chicken," not one of the cute little guys she had fed earlier in the day. She gobbled it up, never the wiser.

Chances are you and your kids will not be eating wallaby in Tasmania over the holidays. But it's a good bet that you will be traveling. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Americans take more than 63 million trips of 150 miles or more from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. If you have kids, some planning can mean the difference between a joy to remember and a head-banging-against-the-steering-wheel experience.

Four for the road

Our prosaic Christmas trips take us 600 miles over the Delaware River and through the Pennsylvania woods to my in-laws' place in Detroit, where roast turkey and apple pie are Grandma's specialties. Ella has just turned seven, and her little sister Sylvia is a feisty 3 1/2. They are seasoned travelers and pretty good with each other, but we still feel it's wise to stick to a travel plan. Here are the strategies that have saved us from misery (so far):

--Make a long trip seem shorter. For us, a long driving day (the trip to Detroit takes about 11 hours) starts before dawn. We pack up the car, then carry the kids, still in their pajamas, straight from their beds to their seats. If they wake at all, they're usually asleep again almost immediately and snooze on through to the first gas-station stop, enabling us to get some serious mileage behind us by breakfast.

--Give kids their own space. Since we have a Ford Escort, we often rent a large sedan or station wagon for the trip. When you weigh the cost against saving the hard winter mileage on your own car and consider the added advantage of extra space during a long trip--as well as the treat of letting someone else clean up the wrappers, crumbs and broken crayons in the back seat--the expense of a rental is well worth it.

Each girl gets her own corner, with the middle seat left vacant. We learned that seating plan the hard way in the California desert when Sylvia, then two, dealt Ella a forearm smash worthy of Hulk Hogan, knocking out a front baby tooth. Each girl also gets her own backpack full of toys and drawing materials. Food stays up front, so there's less chance of the otherwise inevitable "She took my cookie!"

--Keep the music eclectic. Unless the adults are inured to Barney and other kid songs, it's best to find music everyone can listen to. Our daughters like movie musicals, Harry Belafonte, Allen Sherman and old rock 'n' roll, so the arguments over what goes into the tape player are minimal. But in case the girls can't agree--or the adults can't bear to hear Annie Get Your Gun again--we also have a pair of inexpensive tape recorders and earphones at the ready.

--Know when to stop. We lived in California last year and wanted to see a lot of the West, so we ended up taking four different 2,000-mile car trips. We quickly learned never to drive past 4 p.m. so the kids would have a chance to burn off their pent-up energy. You might be perfectly happy to continue a scenic drive, but the average child would rather be swimming in a mundane motel pool, swinging in a schoolyard playground or cuddling the cats on your hotelier's front porch. The day need not end at Disney World, but it should have something the kids can look forward to, beyond a bath and bed in an unfamiliar environment.

Enjoy your flight

Flying is a delight for some kids, a scary experience for others. Parents can make it easier with a little preparation:

--Fly direct. Book nonstop flights whenever possible; when you must stop, try not to change planes. The money you may save isn't worth it. When we flew to Italy we changed planes twice, which completely upset then 18-month-old Sylvia's sleep schedule. I spent more time walking Italian hotel floors at 2 a.m. than seeing sights at 2 p.m.

--Pack food and toys. You know how you feel about most airplane food. Kids usually don't like it either. Pack a few of your kids' favorites, and the flight will go a lot more smoothly. Watch out for dried fruit, though. Ella had a raisin-induced disaster when we couldn't negotiate the aisles quickly enough--several times--on the way home from Turkey. As in the car, each child should get his or her own marked pack of toys, books and art supplies. Airlines sometimes give out children's play packs, but don't count on it.

--Allow yourselves some small splurges. When you're checking in, book a skycap to meet you at the arrival gate if you'll be landing at night. That way, you can take care of your sleepy kids without lugging all that baggage. If you're traveling abroad, get some foreign cash before you leave. You may get a lousy exchange rate, but you'll be able to get out of the airport that much more quickly.

--ID your kids. In a crowded and chaotic airport, it's not impossible to lose sight of a child. Write your name or stash a business card inside each child's backpack and in their traveling clothes. Teach children to approach a police officer or uniformed airline employee and show the card, just in case you get separated.

On your own for the holidays

If you're not going to Grandma's this year, the late fall and early winter can be a great time to travel with young children, especially if school isn't an issue. But remember, vacationing with kids usually means no late-night dining and dancing. If you want some time to be an adult, arrange for babysitting at your destination, preferably before you get there. When you book a hotel room, the management can usually refer you to a baby-sitting service or may even have staff members on call.

Nichole Mazziotto of Liberty Travel's Cherry Hill, N.J. office steers families to the Caribbean, especially to resorts in southerly islands like Jamaica. (Her favorites: Boscobel and Beaches Negril.) "Hotel rates are low in November and early December, and temperatures are in the 80[degrees]--ideal for swimming," she says. Mazziotto notes that most resorts have recovered from any damage caused by fall's Hurricane Georges; if you have a place in mind, call and ask whether all its facilities are open.

Though we do like to go somewhat far afield on vacation, it's wise not to confuse exotic with quixotic when traveling with kids. Australia, Costa Rica, Europe, Japan and Turkey, where we've taken trips with our daughters, all have modern health-care facilities and clean water, and are relatively free of disease. They also have low crime rates and either good roads or excellent public transportation--or both.

I've gone to Greenland, Madagascar and Vietnam since my kids were born--but they stayed home. Overcoming transportation and safety hassles in those places with kids in tow might have made a good story but a horrible vacation.

The overriding tip for traveling with kids is this: If they have a good time, you will too. So whatever you can do to ease travel pains may well make even the smallest pleasure trips with your children seem like the grand tour.