For those of us who are short on money, short on vacation days or both, another alternative to a week-long vacation is a fun weekend getaway. My boys used to love our weekend getaways and sometimes enjoyed those more than our "big" vacations!
As long as you avoid any weekends during school breaks and major holidays, weekend room rates can be very reasonable. Even better, if the kids have a Monday or Friday off because of a school superintendants meeting etc., you'd just miss one day of work and you'd have an extra day for fun!
When deciding where to spend your weekend, I always headed to one of the nearest larger cities which may have been in our state or in a neighboring state. You just don't want to spend too much time traveling to your destination when you only have a couple of days for your getaway. I live smack dab in the middle of New York State so we can easily reach Niagara Falls in under three hours, drive into Manhattan in 3 1/2 hours, reach Boston in close to 5 hours and Philadelphia in 4 1/2. We also love driving up to Montreal in Canada which is just 5 hours away and Toronto in 4 1/2 hours.
To help me decide which area to visit, I always check out the tourism sites for those areas and always look at the events calendar for any special events going on that weekend. Also look at the seasonal activities to come up with some great ideas for cold weather fun. I've found some great sledding opportunities, horse-drawn sleigh rides, ice skaiting, winter festivals complete with fireworks, chili cook-offs and more.
Once you've chosen your destination, it's time to look around for great accommodations. We love staying at hotels with suites such as Embassy or Homewood Suites. We like having separate rooms to spread out in as well as some sort of kitchen facilities which with Embassy Suites for example would only be a small refrigerator and microwave or if we stayed at Homewood Suites, we'd have access to a full kitchen which is very helpful if you want to save money on eating out although we've done very well with just a microwave for heating food. We'd just hot up the local grocery store and buy a prepackaged, frozen meal that can be easily microwaved.
Regardless of where we stayed, it HAD to have a pool. The pool was a very important componenet of our getaway. The boys would spend hours in the pool wearing themselves out. Another important factor for us was having a nice (free) breakfast buffet. We love Embassy Suites for this reason. They have a fantastic breakfast buffet which will keep you full beyond lunchtime. I know that Embassy Suites (and others) sometimes offers weekend specials that often include special freebies for the kids so look around and see if there are any interesting promotions going on during your stay.
In additon to the free swimming and breakfast buffet, we would check out the local kid's museums, aquariums and any other places of interest to children. I recommend checking out the local restaurants online before you leave because sometimes you'll come across something very unique and special to that area or maybe even a popular restaurant chain that's not in your area. For instance, we'd always hit up the different Fudrucker's restaurants for great burgers when we were traveling through Pennsylvania and always stopped for Philly Cheesesteaks at Pat's. We've also tried out countless diners and buffets during our trips. My boys love eating at restaurants so that's always a special treat for them.
Now, to help make your weekend getaway slightly more affordable, try Expedia or Hotels.com etc. first to get a feel for a weekend rate. Please be aware that not all properties for the area will be listed on these sites so if when you have a destination in mind and have a hotel chain in mind, go directly to the hotel chain's website and do a search for the area you'd like to visit to see what's available in that area. Check the hotel's website for any special offers and you can always call the hotel directly to see if they have any unadvertised, last-minute special rates.
Look through your giftcard stash to see if you can use any of them along the way. Fast food gift cards always come in handy for breaking up a long car ride and feeding hungry kids. Look to see if any restaurant gift cards you may have can be used in your destination city or along the route home. We have been able to pay for lodging and "purchase" gas gift cards with credit card reward points which can take a decent chunk out of your vacation costs. If you plan on visiting a museum, zoo, sceienece center etc., check to see if you can get in free or at a reduced rate with any local membership you might already have. Sometimes, if you have a large family or think you'll be back to visit that area again within the year, sometimes the cost of a membership is equal to or not much more than what you'd pay to visit just one time and you usually always get extra perks with memberships.
I hope these tips have been helpful and that you can all enjoy a weekend getaway soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment