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Since gas prices finally fell, people are once more hitting the road for long weekends and family vacations. This summer do the unusual, the different and the inexpensive. Avoid the high cost of amusement parks, the congestion of major cities with rush hour traffic and construction bottlenecks and head to some great outdoor vacation spots. You can be close to civilization for movie night at a local discount theater or embrace all of nature and choose a “wilderness or bust” outlook.
In This Post:
3 Inexpensive Family Vacation Ideas
1. State or National Parks
Whether sleeping in an RV or completely “roughing it” in tents and sleeping bags, camping in our parks system can provide a very low-cost vacation. Enjoy nature at its finest and take photo hikes, birdwatching or dip a line or two and relax as the stress just rolls away.
If sleeping on the hard ground is distasteful or just too uncomfortable, camp cots may cost a little at first, but they can be used for years with proper care, and they are certainly cheaper than hotel rooms for the duration.
If you want or need to keep in touch with friends or family and need to take your cell phones or a laptop computer, for example, invest in a small kilowatt generator, some two-stroke engine oil and a small gas can. You don’t have to run it all the time but just long enough to charge those batteries. The gas lasts considerably longer in a generator than it does in your idling car engine, and they also can last for years with proper, inexpensive maintenance.
2. Day Trips
Choose a different direction each day of your vacation and let your front wheels guide you. Whether you plan your destination or choose as you go, discover the hidden America, its hometown culture and its scenic vistas that spring up just around the next bend. Enjoy the hospitality of a family-owned restaurant or discover treasures within a local novelty museum. Take photographs, galore. Then each night when you return home, add to your summer vacations photo album, make calendars for friends and family or create event memorabilia that can bring smiles for years to come.
3. Educational Trips
Discuss with your family things they’ve always wanted to know about but haven’t learned yet and sort from among them the topics or areas which can be explored on vacation. Advanced planning is definitely required for educational summer vacation trips, but involving the whole family in the planning process can turn the “omg” syndrome into the “oh yeah, baby” trip of a lifetime. Rotate ideas from year to year or combine as many explorations as possible. Encourage each member of the family to keep a journal of each experience then share viewpoints and create a family travel book. Who knows? You might even want to see if it can be published if everyone agrees.
Can’t afford a family vacation? Book a vacation now and pay later!
Conclusion
Don’t limit your vacation plans to plane tickets and tourist queues. Spend quality time with your family, learn about each other and have loads of inexpensive fun at a fraction of the cost of “usual” vacations.
