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"I'm coming home.
I've been away too long.
Been away so long.
I'm coming home"
– Ian Thomas, in Coming Home

I still recall my road warrior days. It seemed like every other week, I was hopping on a plane for Orlando or Vancouver or Palm Springs or Washington or Chicago or Toronto.

It might not be Rome, Paris, and Monte Carlo, but Washington, Toronto and Orlando are pretty classy places. I went to crucial meetings. I was an important person. I was a frequent flyer.

However, after a while, all the towns begin to look the same. One airport hotel looks amazingly like another. Surely the taxi driver in Washington and the taxi in Orlando were twins separated at birth. I was yearning to just stay put. I had had enough of hotels and restaurants

Traveling sounds glamorous until you have to do it over and over and over. Especially when you have a family, you want to spend some time at home between the episodes of jet lag. Comfort becomes a much bigger deal, and you want every place to feel like home.

You just can't do that in a hotel. Not in a Marriott. Not in a Sheraton. Not in a Hilton. I wish I knew then about two other options.

Private Vacation Homes (or rental villas)

Private vacation homes, known also as holiday homes or villas are essentially houses that rent on a weekly basis. They are not much help for fly-in meetings. For those, only an airport hotel will do.

But if you plan to be in town for the better part of the week, there is nothing like kicking back in your own private home – a rental home, of course. "Hotel rooms are cramped; a villa is spacious with room to walk about. Hotel rooms have a TV and desk in the bedroom; a villa has surround sound TV and stereo with comfortable couches and chairs in various parts of the home. A hotel has a public pool; a villa has a private pool," says Florida vacation villas rental agent Stewart Granville. "It's private. It's comfortable. It's like a home away from home."

Mr. Granville notes that a vacation home rental also serves as an office away from home, with one room dedicated to the office. "In a villa, you don't have to sit on your bed when you type those memos. And what a great way to entertain business contacts."

Mr. Granville specializes in renting America's vacation heartland: Orlando, Florida, vacation homes. Business travelers often bring their family along to enjoy Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and other famous theme parks. The family plays while the business traveler works. When the meetings are over, they all head for Disney together, perhaps for another week. With family in tow, a private rental home makes much more sense than a crowded hotel room.

Bed and Breakfasts

Bed and Breakfasts are also an option. Although they do not offer the same privacy and space as villas, they are warmer and more homey than a hotel. And like a hotel, they rent by the night, not by the week.

Is a bed and breakfast for you? If a relaxing atmosphere is more important to you than room service, a bed and breakfast is for you, yes. They are comfortable and relaxing, so the business traveler can walk confidently into his meeting free from stress and worries.

Bed and Breakfasts are growing more popular for weekend getaways in the country, but most major urban centers have bed and breakfasts right in the heart of the city...and these are ideal for road-weary business travelers.

It takes a special person to travel with kids – a parent. Children have their own needs. Their idea of a vacation is more "adventurous" than a parent's. They need constant stimulation and they can get as tired as they are tiring.

There are many top ten type lists of tips for traveling with children: how to ensure they eat well and drink enough, how to dress them for weather forecast variances, how to provide the stimulation they need, how to make sure they don't drive off with the family car and leave you stranded in the Mojave Desert, etc.

This list is how to travel in comfort – without tying the children to the roof rack -- which hopefully will reduce your stress.

Make sure you have plenty of room while traveling.

This is easier said than done. On a plane, everybody is cramped. On a train, everybody is cramped, although a little less so. On a bicycle... don't even try it.

If you are driving, get a mini-van. Sure, you might be more of a "car" type, and you might have resisted buying a mini-van so far. But pick up a rental van for the vacation just to give the kids a little more room for fighting. (Make sure it has a roof rack, just in case.)

Reality check: Cram enough people into a tiny space and watch everybody get stressed and enraged. See my humorous but true article on hippo rage.

Accommodations along the way can be tricky. Usually it involves a cramped motel for just long enough to sleep, then back in the cramped car (or somewhat cramped mini-van). This is not anybody's idea of a home away from home. An accommodation alternative is to camp. When not sleeping, you have all the space in the world (unless you have to huddle under the tarp while the storm passes through). I love camping, but not everyone enjoys a good early morning wake-up wrestle with a grizzly as much as I do, so a motel might be required.

Make sure you have plenty of room when you "get there".

My childhood vacations, often involved wandering around lost. Assuming you are actually heading for a destination, make sure to have lots of room when you get there. This part is easy. But it requires thinking outside the box. Forget hotels, motels, and inns. Look for private rental homes.

Probably the biggest destination for families is Walt Disney World in Florida. Good news – Orlando, Kissimmee and the surrounding area is just teeming with private vacation homes for rent. In Florida they call them vacation villas, and they offer all the space of home (without having to fix a leaky sink or oil the door hinges or mow the lawn.) Here are some examples of vacation home rentals in the Disney area.

Sharon Baillie is a private villa owner in the Kissimmee area outside Orlando, just a few miles from Disney World. "Our guests enjoy the spaciousness of the 6-bedroom home. They love the private pool and the private yard in which they can relax," she says. "Parents love the space for children to run around outside, and we leave a box of toys in the garage. So while the parents rest, the children play – and let their parents rest!"

Be prepared for "children being children" events.

Sometimes, stress hits you from behind when the unexpected happens. Like a cut or a scrape ... or a child getting sick. Sharon Baillie told me that is why she tells all her villa rental guests where the first aid kit can be found, and exactly where to go for medical attention. This is particularly helpful for her many guests from abroad, who are unfamiliar with the US healthcare system.

She also makes sure her guests are informed about local pollen and viruses in Florida, so that parents can be prepared. Stress is so much more enjoyable when you are prepared for it, don't you think?

Booking tickets to theme parks and making reservations for just about everything in advance makes the trip less stressful. There is little more difficult than managing young children while trying to get into a theme park or show that requires prior booking.

And to prevent wandering around lost, pick up a AAA Triptik in advance – not that it ever helped us.

Try having your children baby-sat. This might mean bringing along a nanny, such as a grand parent (It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.). The car might be more crowded, but if you've rented a spacious home for the week, it could just be doable. The other option is to hire a local baby-sitter once or twice. Vacation Home owners can set this up for you, and some hotels might be willing to, too.

When you are single, you can go on adventure vacations. When you are a parent, you get little vacation adventures.