Help me come up with ideas for unforgettable AFFORDABLE vacations?

[bisous]

I realize that all travel requires some money. But there have to be ways to forge unforgettable family experiences and stick to a budget! While I would love to go to DW or Hawaii, I don't know if we can afford to do that before DS1 leaves the house and still stay on track with our financial goals (which include things like paying off our own student loan debt and trying to buy a house!)

What have you done that has been really amazing and surprisingly inexpensive. Maybe it is coughing up the money to fly somewhere that has a low cost for expenses? I'm thinking of how Europeans regularly travel to 3rd world destinations. They cost a bit to get there but end up not being too expensive because accommodations and meals are cheap?

Or maybe it is just National Parks! We love Yosemite. I'd love to see Yellowstone. Maybe we bite the bullet and get really great camping equipment so that is more pleasant and we can stay cheaply wherever we go?

Got any great tips that you've encountered?

[georgiegirl]

If you can get cheap tickets to Iceland, you can do it relatively inexpensively if you cook for your family and avoid restaurants. It’s super amazing if you like the outdoors. It’s very kid friendly. We flew Iceland Air.

For super cheap, you could drive to a National Park.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[jgenie]

Some of my favorite memories with my kids are just being outside so I would road trip from where you are. My kids talk most about fun out of the ordinary things. Getting to have ice cream for dinner or going to a local grocery store and checking out the snacks we don’t recognize from home and getting to pick a few to try. Stopping to check out the tide pools or waterfalls without being rushed along to the next thing on the list. Visiting local toy stores and picking something small to take home. You don’t have to spend a fortune to make memories.

[bisous]

Some of my favorite memories with my kids are just being outside so I would road trip from where you are. My kids talk most about fun out of the ordinary things. Getting to have ice cream for dinner or going to a local grocery store and checking out the snacks we don’t recognize from home and getting to pick a few to try. Stopping to check out the tide pools or waterfalls without being rushed along to the next thing on the list. Visiting local toy stores and picking something small to take home. You don’t have to spend a fortune to make memories.

This is the kind of thing that my kids tend to remember. I need to consider this. My kids' ages span ten years. The most memorable thing for my 5 yo might be different than the most memorable thing for my 15yo. Or maybe not? I guess I'm really even trying to get into the psychology of it...I do think that being relaxed is important for forging pleasant family memories! I remember one very stressed out mother and for years I hated the thought of vacationing as a family! I'm trying to avoid that for sure.

DS1 who is a TOTAL scaredy cat went snorkeling this summer with the Boy Scouts and I would say it was at very least paradigm shifting for him. He didn't want to do it but he LOVED it. Getting outside our comfort zone can be amazing.

[jgenie]

This is the kind of thing that my kids tend to remember. I need to consider this. My kids' ages span ten years. The most memorable thing for my 5 yo might be different than the most memorable thing for my 15yo. Or maybe not? I guess I'm really even trying to get into the psychology of it...I do think that being relaxed is important for forging pleasant family memories! I remember one very stressed out mother and for years I hated the thought of vacationing as a family! I'm trying to avoid that for sure.

DS1 who is a TOTAL scaredy cat went snorkeling this summer with the Boy Scouts and I would say it was at very least paradigm shifting for him. He didn't want to do it but he LOVED it. Getting outside our comfort zone can be amazing.

We were on vacation this summer and we ran across a mom who had just hit her limit. She had two younger kids maybe 5 and 7. She was screaming at them in very colorful language that it was her birthday trip and they were ruining it for her. I felt so awful for those kids. I would have loved to offer to take them off her hands for 2 hours so she could get it together but I couldn’t. I know we all hit our limits at time but all I could think was all the money they spent to get there and those kids would likely remember their mother’s fit more than anything else they did the rest of the trip.

[ahisma]

We have traveled pretty extensively. Our kids' two favorites are super budget friendly:
- Nova Scotia (we never paid more than $100 / night and stayed in great places!)
- Custer State Park (combine with Badlands, Mount Rushmore, etc - but Custer is a destination all of it's own). You can rent a camping cabin for $50/night.
- New Orleans - we stay with friends, but even with hotels it would be really affordable. SO much more than Bourbon Street.

[bisous]

If you can get cheap tickets to Iceland, you can do it relatively inexpensively if you cook for your family and avoid restaurants. It’s super amazing if you like the outdoors. It’s very kid friendly. We flew Iceland Air.

For super cheap, you could drive to a National Park.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

That's the kind of thing that I think might be completely unforgettable! But I feel like others were posting that it was expensive once you were there? I want to go to the hot springs there!

[marinkitty]

Where you are, you could do so many great outdoorsy vacations for little expense:

Channel Islands - take the ferry over and camp
Joshua Tree
Alabama Hills/Eastern Sierras (there is so much to explore there, lots of dispersed (free) camping and not as many people as the national parks)
Kings Canyon/Sequoia (DS1 and I went there this summer - we rented a camper van but you could easily car camp - and we really enjoyed it, esp, Kings Canyon)
Yosemite (going in the shoulder season would make it easier - we went this summer and found camping just outside the park and just drove it early and parked before it got too crowded and then rode bikes all over the valley and did day hikes)
Mono Lake
Tahoe

The UT national parks aren't too far away or Death Valley in the winter.

One thing I really dislike about living in Chicago is how far you have to travel to get into the wild. Other than heading far north into Michigan and Wisconsin everything is a haul. Being in SoCo you have so many fabulous natural resources nearby. For budget travel its hard to beat plus it get your kids more active, which I remember you were interested in as well.

ETA: We didn't find camping in Big Sur this summer (trip planned on short notice) but we spent a day driving through and that area was also FABULOUS. We stayed at State Parks in San Simeon, Big Basin Redwoods and near Point Reyes - so coastal camping trips are also easy and so beautiful and bring a whole different vibe to the trip).

[SASM]

That's the kind of thing that I think might be completely unforgettable! But I feel like others were posting that it was expensive once you were there? I want to go to the hot springs there!

I was trying to make Iceland work within our very limited budget last summer. Even though I found reasoanbly priced tickets (we would have to drive 6 ours to that airport), it would have still be costly once we got there - camper van was cheap but groceries, gas, etc were costly per trip reports that I read.

I planned a trip to Bergen, Norway for 3 within my $6k budget. My DDs loved it! Restaurants were expensive but I found cheap-ish food, we ate bfast in the AirBB/sometimes just had dessert for dinner, and we did splurge on a few activities.

Scotts Cheap Flights is great for deals and sometimes you can add onto a reservation to include early seat selection and checked bag.

[nfceagles]

I would go camping in Yellowstone and/or the Grand Tetons. Island Park, Mesa Falls, Earthquake Lake near there are also amazing. Or Yosemite is even closer to you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk