The real secret to cheap family vacations is to be
opportunistic. When a friend offers you their cabin on the
lake, say yes. Can you have as much fun at the cheaper, closer
amusement park? Then that's where you need to be. Do the kids
like the idea of cooking dinner over a campfire? Drive right
on by that reastaurant. Find out what everyone really enjoys.
It's sad to spend MORE on a trip for LESS enjoyment.
Examples Of Cheap Family Vacations
In Michigan, and many other places, you can find reasonable
motels on the beach. Cheaper, and usually more scenic, are the
numerous campgrounds on the beaches of Lakes Michigan,
Superior, and Huron. You can find these in Michigan,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, and in Ontario, Canada. Below are a
couple beach-based vacation ideas.
Treasure Hunting Vacations
Two metal detectors will cost less than a few nights with
the family in a hotel. Why not camp near a ghost town or
beach, and spend your days hiking, exploring, and hunting
buried treasure? We always find interesting things when we
take our metal detector to the beach. The kids will love the
adventure, and when they get bored with digging up quarters,
they have swimming nearby.
Beachcombing Vacations
This is cheap, and the whole family can enjoy it. You can
find all sorts of things washed up on the beaches of the Great
Lakes and the Oceans. In Michigan, we used to find bouys,
parts of houses, and light bulbs. The light bulbs actually
worked, a mystery solved years later when a sailor told me
they throw them overboard for target practice. We were finding
the ones that escaped the bullets.
We also found chunks of coal that had fallen off
freighters. We burned them in the campfire. We found balloons
with messages attached, sea shells, fossil rocks, odd-shaped
driftwood, pieces of styrofoam big enough to use as rafts, and
- you get the point.
Camping Vacations
If your family is willing to live in tents for a few days,
or if you already own an RV, camping is the cheapest of cheap
family vacations. We recently stayed at Williams Landing in
Florida for eight days. We stalked alligators, watched
armadillos walk through camp, saw a dozen other forms of
wildlife, and sat around the fire trading stories with new
friends from England and Texas every night. The cost,
including the hot showers: zero. Woodall's catalog, available
at any big RV dealer has listings of free campgrounds.
Other Cheap Family Vacations
How about a Montana testicle festival? Festival vacations
can keep the whole family happy. You'll usually find carnival
rides, music, events, contests, and more. By the way,
Montana's testicle festivals are billed as family events, but
good luck trying to get the kids to eat the "Rocky Mountain
Oysters."
Boondocking is all about parking your recreational vehicle
where you don't have to pay. If you aren't sure that kids will
enjoy being in the middle of nowhere, find a ghost town or
other treasure hunting locale. In Arizona, an old Mayan Indian
showed us where to look for arrowheads, semi-precious stones,
and ancient pottery. The desert is a great place to escape to
in the winter, and treasure hunting is cheap vacation as
well.
There are many more cheap family vacations, and many ways
to keep any vacation cheaper. Stock the cooler with 25 cent
pop instead of paying pop-machine prices. Keep the kids full
on healthy snacks to avoid restaurants. Be an opportunistic
vacationer.
Steve Gillman hit the road at sixteen, and traveled the
U.S. and Mexico alone at 17. Now 40, he travels with his wife
Ana, whom he met in Ecuador. For more cheap vacation ideas,
and to read their stories, tips and travel information, visit:
http://www.everythingabouttravel.com/
Source: http://www.websition.com/
Save this page del.icio.us