Going on vacation

Hello! We are planning a family trip for 5 days mid-April. The drive is 7 hours and we feel it will be too stressful for Tucker who, at that time will be 17 weeks old. As everyone on this forum knows, caring for a bun is a bit more involved that any other pet. We found someone who has offered to board Tucker and all of his habitats while we are gone (crate and playpen - see attached photos). The play pen is 15sf and, because Tucker is still working on litter box training (I'm being generous), we think its best that, while he is boarded, he sleeps in his crate and plays in his playpen only. My questions are, is it okay that he will not have the freedom to roam (he is free to roam while supervised throughout the day) and second, what should we expect when he comes home? In other words, how mad will he be? Lastly, while we were really excited about him being neutered at 16w, we are thinking we should hold off on that until after we return? Any thoughts/feedback is appreciated. Thanks everyone!

U’m Looking forward to hear responses as these are my first bunnies and we have not left town in more than two years. I would like to have a plan if we ever want to travel again! For us there are chickens, ducks, donkeys, cats and goat too! It seems the best thing (at least for us) would be to find so
Done who would “be us” and stay in our house when we are away.

We took ours to Vegas from Central CA--12 hours, no trouble.

If he is provided his cage and his playpen at the boarder's place, that will be just fine. It's only 5 days. Even if he was moving permanently to the boarder's, they wouldn't be advised to let him out of the playpen for roaming for at least that long until he adjusted to the new space. He'll feel safer and adjust quicker if confined to the cage and playpen.

As for surgery, that's up to you. I wouldn't feel right leaving a bun with a sitter so soon after a surgery. Places too much burden on them and they may not notice subtle mood or behavior changes that you would.

A pet sitter would be good. Our son comes over and cares for the 2 bunnies, 11 birds, and our livestock--2 great danes, the small one is 176 pounds.