affordable mini vacations
 

With the economy the way it is,it seems many families are either forgoing family vacations or finding a way to do mini vacations or day trips.


I would love to hear some great money saving vacations ideas,tips or experiences you all have had .

We were going to rent a house at a local beach for the week. Bring your own food and drinks and just hang at the beach. Around here that is about $1,000 but thats is for a 4 bdrm house and we were going to split the cost with family friends so we'd each pay about $500 for the week for the 4 of us, plus food, no travel costs and not much in entertainment costs. There are shows on the beach that are free, free fireworks one night a week.
Also if you can find a cruise line that leaves from where you live, like Norweigen cruise line cruises out of Boston from early May to late september - ish... its like $500 for a 7 day cruise to Bermuda with no air fare! A cruise includes all your food, so if you can watch your discretionary spending you can do a cruise for pretty cheap if you don't need to fly!

Also camping for a long weekend... its about $20 a night for a campground. If you have all the equipment already that is a cheap and fun get-away if you like the great outdoors! :)

Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Campground Directory - Fun Family Camping

If you like to camp this is a great great place, its cheaper if you have a camper of your own or will use a tent. I perfer a cabin , but this is a great vacation and as a single mom I always could afford it, you buy your own food and cook , but the park has all kinds of things all day that are free, dances, ceramics, movie night, candy bar bingo ,swimming, my kids loved it and for the most part its fairly inexpensive!! Its alot of fun , tons of kids , people from all over, its great !!

We haven't had a REAL family vacation in a long time. The last one I would have considered a vacation was 5 years ago when hubby was getting ready to deploy to Iraq and was sent to California for a few months beforehand. The boys and I flew out there for a 10 day stay. If you ask the boys they will say it was a vacation but to hubby, who still had to work and report to the base everyday, he would say it was no vacation. :p

We do day trips alot. We live about an hour north of the DFW metroplex so there is always something to do to keep us busy for a day. We homeschool and will be going to the homeschool day at Six Flags over Texas next month. We go fishing on one of the area lakes...we pack the cooler and go for the day. The only $$ we are out is if we go to a state park, we pay a small 5-$10 fee for the day. Camping is a great fairly inexpensive "vacation". If you have family near a "fun hub" you can stay with them to forego hotel rates and take advantage of activities. I know for us, lodging is one of the main expenses that keeps us from going places too far. If we do have to get a room somewhere, we always make sure there is at least a mini- fridge and a microwave so we can reduce our eating out bill a bit. We were a military family for a good many years and as you may or may not know, military pay isn't that great, so I was always trying to cut costs in some way or another. :)

I have actually been there and the water playground was a big hit with the kiddies:)

That is totally what I need a mini vacation:D