Family Vacation on a Budget

G.,

My name is M. Frankowski and I own a timeshare with Westgate resorts, it is a beautiful resort and I have a full 1 bedroom with kitchen, etc that sleeps six. I can book anywhere that there is a Westgate Resort. If you let me know the dates and place....I would be willing to let it go for $600.00. That is a 7 day stay with free meals for 4 days. I am not a real estate brooker...haha...just a local mom in Orlando that knows how hard it is to plan a family vacation on a budget...Let me know if you are interested and I can meet with you to show you the places Westgate has available....my family loves this place....Good Luck with the vaction!!!

Hands down the best place for a family vacation is Washington DC!! Especially for the ages of your kids! Your biggest expense will be getting there (gas) and the hotel-- and of course your food... But otherwise, you can do soooooooo much for little or NO money!! There are tons and tons of museums and 99% of them are FREE, FREE, FREE!!! Email me if you want some tips on which ones to go to, but they are NOT all "art" museums (though most of the art ones are also breath taking and/or tons of fun!) There are science museums, air and space, history, governemnt buildings you can tour, monuments (it's so much fun to GO to the places you see printed on our money!!), and the best zoo on the planet--- all FREE, FREE, FREE!!!! Once you arrive in the DC area, you don't even need your car. Just be sure to book a hotel that is only a few blocks walking distance from a Metro station-- then you buy passes (the people at the stations are super helpful in helping you figure out which passes are the best value based on how long you'll be in town) and you can hop on and off of the Metro-- which is a safe and pretty clean subway system. I recommend staying in Virginia or Maryland, (not in the city of DC) because you will find cheaper hotels there. I can give you tips on where to go to eat, plus other non-museum fun places to go. Also, if you run into any locals, they can give you great out-of-the-way places to go (there is a gallery where they have Van Gogh and other serious artists and we would have never know about it if a local hadn't told us-- there is a small admission fee-- it's called the Phillips Gallery) and locals can tell you great places to eat for good prices. Plus, there are tons of websites if you do a google search and you can figure out what to do and where to go and where to eat before you even arrive... OK, I can go on and on forever about DC, but my family has been 3 times and we just love it!!!!!!!!

hello, not sure if this is what you are looking for, but for years my familiy (and friends) would drive to Helen, Georgia for a lower budget, "outdorsey" type of vacation. It is a small tourist town in the mountains that is modeled after a German (Bavarian) city. There is a cute little downtown with lots of shops, etc. In the same area there is Ana Ruby falls, where you can walk up the path to the top of the waterfall (and splash in the creek on the way up). There is tubing, mining (the fake kind for kids), etc. It's a cute place and I always had a good time from childhood to adulthood. good luck and have a fun vacation.

Money was very tight growing up in my family and we went to the mountains in North Carolina (Asheville area) a lot. Lots of fun outdoorsy stuff to do there and we would drive the blue ridge parkway and make stops, picnic, etc. Those are very fond memories for me. The other thing my family always did was plan vacations around visiting family. So we also went to Maryland, Mississippi and Louisiana a lot (since that is where family was) We didn't stay with family the entire time, but even a couple of days of not having to pay for a hotel room can save a lot of money to do other things. So see what fun things are around people you know! And since you live in FL (one of the favorite places for people to travel to) you can always return the favor!
I hope that helps! Have fun!

St. Louis and Washington D.C. are both relatively inexpensive. Many of the attractions are low cost or free and so the biggest part of your budget would be food and lodging and gas.

Hope this helps,
J.