What do you know about your state? Have you been to all of its state parks or any national parks that are in your state? Have you been to the museums and other attractions in your town or other towns in your state? I bet you haven’t–because I haven’t either!
Maybe it’s time to explore your own “neighborhood.” You don’t have to reserve a plane ticket well in advance, although you may want to call about reserving any hotel rooms that you might be needing.
And, exploring your state will actually help your kids when they study your state’s history. Most states have some kind of tourist phone line with information as well as websites to tell what attractions are in your backyard.
Go off-season. Virginia Beach is really nice in October. It’s quiet and the hotel rooms are cheaper. The ocean is still just as beautiful, only it’s harder to get a sunburn. The beaches are quiet and you can take a stroll or build a sand castle just as well as you can in July.
Take at least two meals’ worth of food per day. This doesn’t have to be drudgery and dull–take along those attractive, well-advertised, junky foods you never let your kids eat in normal life and they will be perfectly happy to eat out of the picnic basket instead of the fast food restaurant. Then you can have one meal per day at a nice restaurant (or one that allows kids to eat for free or reduced price!).
Also, don’t fall for vending machine water or pop. Bring your own. Be flexible. If you can be flexible on both dates of travel and location, you may be able to find a great deal at the last minute for a trip on the web. If you can look at this as an adventure–kind of like spinning the globe and putting your finger on a random place, only you will actually go there, this could be a lot of fun and not just a poor substitute for grand vacations of the past.
Send postcards. Instead of buying Aunt Margaret a souvenir that she’ll put in her next garage sale, buy postcards and have the kids write them out for various friends and relatives. A series of fun and funny postcards is a lot more personal than a piece of plastic. Bring along addresses and stamps (if your trip is in the US) and you are ready to go. This also gives your kids a chance to practice their writing skills, which is a good thing to do in the middle of vacation.
Walk. See if you can park somewhere central and walk (or rent bikes and ride them) to all your destinations in one area. This will save you gas and it will also wear your kids out which means they won’t be bouncy at the end of the day. It will also keep your calorie splurges from having such a devastating effect on your waistline.
Before your trip, use a mapping website to plan where you can park and routes and distances you might walk. You can look at the need to save money as a tragedy or you can see it for what it really is: an opportunity to try some new things and have some memorable family adventures.