A Nice Family Vacation??

We went to Atlantic Beach in North Carolinas when my daughter was 2 and my son was about 9 months. It was wonderful. We wnet with my husbands parents, aunt and uncle and all of the uncles brothers and sisters and neices and nephews and uncles parents(40 people all together). We all rented different condos in a row. There was many children and teenagers to help with watching the children so husband and I could go out. I would suggest seeing if someone else could come too just to watch your daughter when you want to go out. There was an "amusment park" for children and putt putt near the condo. It was a really great time. The pool was right by our place so we sat at the pool with the baby monitor when the baby was napping! We were about 100 feet from the ocean!
Good Luck
S.

M.,

When I was still engaged, lol, my fiance and I took our kids to Myrtle Beach. It was beautiful, the ocean and beach was so nice. We stayed in a kids based hotel called The Sea Mist Resort. It had an onsite waterpark, themed dinners with clowns and jesters, and was not to far from shopping and another waterpark. My fiance (at that time) had a 2 yr old daughter and my daughter was 7. They both enjoyed the waterpark as well as the indoor pool, and beach.
Good Luck...Cyndi

if the youngstown/warren airport is still running the special to florida then you might want to go there. tickets for round trip are a little more than 100 dollars each. not bad. and the flight is about 2 hours. the plane lands in orlando. there is a lot to do in florida and of course beaches.

M.,
Well there are so many things to do especially with a two year old! Now you say fall, when in the fall????? early fall is still like summer weather in the south. As for a beach destination well depends. How far do you want to drive/fly? What kind of things do you want to do when you get there? A close popular place is myrtle beach. My sister, husband and two year old just went there in sept and stayed at a nice place called The Landmark resort.(totally geared towards family)It was very cheap also. My husbands family will go to no other beach than siesta key. Very nice, quite, family town. There is also not much to do there and it is a 16hr or so drive.
Now if you decide not to go to the beach I HIGHLY recommend Gatlinburg,Tn. If you've never been there it is great. There is ALOT to do. They have alot of choices to stay at hotel, motel, chalet ect........ They have alot stuff for children now. And it is very pretty in the fall. We go there for a long weekend in the spring. IT only takes about 3 1/2 to 4hrs to get there. (closer to 5 if you like to stop)
I am the vacation queen email me directly if you want more advice or websites :)
Good Luck!!!!
(ps My daughter just turned one and have booked for next aug at the Landmark)

In-laws? Quick, pick something they won't like! Just kidding. Seriously, I've heard a lot of people go down to Gatlinburg, TN (haven't been there yet) and have a great time. My friends have a 5 year old and go every year. You can even get nice cabins for pretty cheap down there, especially on the off season.

If you are willing to drive further to get to a beach, you could try the North Carolina coast. I used to live there, and there are a lot of nice bed and breakfasts, timeshares, and of course, a lot of fantastic seafood. Anyplace along the Outer Banks would be fine to stay. I lived near Morehead City, NC, and there were a lot of islands right off the coast that catered to tourists- Emerald Isle, Atlantic Beach, etc. You'd have to go in early fall/late summer for it to be warm enough to go swimming, though. There are places to play mini-golf and lots of little shops to go in. There are a lot of lighthouses up the coast from there if you are willing to drive a little. Kitty Hawk is a few hours north of there, so if you are flying buffs that is interesting, and they have a lot of kite shops there, so it is fun to get a kite and fly it on the beach or at a park. If you do decide to go, let me know, and I'll give you some restaurants to check out.

Have fun on your vacation!

M.,

I don't know how it is in the fall, but we were there just my mother and I in early march, Chattanooga TN. There are four family things to do. YOu can walk through the caverns which any 2 year old can do or you could take turns carring her it isn't too hard of a walk. They have the incline railway and tuby falls, and also rock city is very pretty. They have a train museum, and also a huge indoor aquarium. Yuo can by all inclusive tickets for each site and save money. You can choose to do them all in one day or over a strecth of days! It is absolutely beautiful there! Plus they have stincky fingers rib house if you are a barbqu fan! THE BEST! When my mom and I were there we said how great a family place it was!

One of my favorite family vacations was when my daughter was 2 and we went to Charleston, SC. We spent time at Folly Beach during the days as well as a little waterpark we found on St. John's Island. It was a short ride into town each evening to eat at one of a gazillion awesome restaurants. (but Starfish Cafe at Folly beach was one of my fave's) By then our daughter was pooped and content to ride around and site see by stroller. I loooved walking around looking at all the beautiful homes and gardens. We squeezed in a lot of other activities. We toured Middleton Plantation. A tip, if you go for dinner(yummy) they let you wander around for free. It was gorgeous at sunset. We also toured Ft Sumter, The Yorktown (dh did this while we were at the waterpark), shopping at the big open market, a great aquarium at the wharf, and we took a carriage ride one day which was great. This was dd's favorite thing and she'd go nuts everytime she saw one and wanted to take another ride. One driver saw how excited she was and stopped to ask us if we'd like to ride back to the stables with him. He then proceeded to give us the grand tour which concluded with baby animals in the barn. So nice. Thinking about it makes me want to go back!!

Hi M.-
We go on vacation every year to Lake Erie. I have 2 boys 8 and 4 and we've gone since my little one was 1. We rent a house in Huron (there are alot of little neighborhoods with houses for rent) Its nice to have all the comfort of home- be able to cook and spread out- and everyone gets their own room. Also the beaches at the lake are great because you don't have the worry of the dangers of the ocean- the waves are soft and it is so shallow- great for little ones. There is also so much to do- Cedar point, water parks (indoor and out door) and if the inlaws want to watch your little one for a day or night there is Put-in-bay island which has alot of fun shops, resteraunts and bars. We really enjoy it there so I thought I would suggest it to you! Good luck and I hope you enjoy your vacation- it sounds like you are a busy mommy who deserves it!!

Hello M.. I wasn't sure if you had your heart set on a beach vacation. A nice family vacation spot expecially in the fall is Pennsylvania. There is a place called Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA or Hershey Park in Hershey, PA. Both are great places for families with lots to do. You can look on line. You could visit several different family oriented places.(There are lots of places!) If your interested, contact the Pennsylvania Tourism Dept. and request a guide.(On line at visitPA.com) Good luck with your search, I hope you have fun. Take care.

M., we went to Mexico for 7 days to an all-inclusive resort with my 11-months-old son. The flight (about 3 hours from Cleveland to Cancun) went just fine, vacation as well. The trick is to research ahead of time what kind of activities you can do at the resort or around it.
Our resort, Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar, had pagoda type of lounges that we occupied each morning. Our son slept there during the day. They basically look like a queen size bed with a palm-tree-leaved roof over it. We didn't want to expose him to the sun all that much, so that worked out great for us.
The hotel also provided a crib, not the best in the world, but that's one less thing to worry about.
The staff loved our son, they gave us boxes of whole milk to take to the room with us for a little tip.
Our hotel allowed to bring our son to a-la-cart restaurants with us.
If your in-laws do come, see them as free babysitters. We would have loved to have some of those, as this vacation went by really fast being on our son's schedule.
If you change your mind about Jamaica, check out www.tripadvisor.com to research hotels in some other place.
Good luck!