Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion

I'm trying to put together a family vacation for next summer. I have a week and a budget of about $5,000 for a family of four (total not per person). Starting in central Ohio and limited only by funds, where would you recommend we go?

Hmmmm, not sure, you have teenage boys, have you asked them? How about someplace tropical? Me, I've always wanted to go to Atlantis. You'd probably have to go there early summer to avoid hurricane season though, or pay for vacation insurance.

A Nickelodeon or Disney cruise? Okay, wait, that's my 9 year old talking.

I thought you were going to Germany? You can get a Euro-Pass and see lots that way. Why don't you have a family pow wow and get everyone's input?

Road Trip! Throw a tent in the car and go on an adventure. Start at your home and at major intersections flip a coin to see if you go left or right. Or make up some rules about how you decide where to turn. Never on a highway, follow the road that has the least amount of letters in it, every night throw a dart at a map and head in that direction. Get the kids involved in making up the game rules.

Put the kids in charge of deciding where you're going to pull up and visit. Buy them each a good camera and get them to document the journey along the way. Depending on their age even get them to do a 1-2 day photography course aimed at kids before you go.

Travel is all about the journey - the destination is usually incidental.

Do you want to stay in the country or travel abroad?
Beach or City?
Tour or Stay in one town/city?
Plane, Train or Automobile?

To get the most bang for your buck here are some websites I frequent:
LuxuryLink.com along with it's sister sites, Familygetaway.com & Vacationist.com
Intervalworld.com - You have to be a member b/c its a timeshare site, but it has travel section that deals with hotels and resorts. Let me know I can help you out.
VRBO.com , vacationrentals.com , & HomeAway.com - These are sites for house/condo rentals around the world. It's a great way to go if you have a family b/c you can get 2 bedrooms/2 baths, livingroom and kitchen for the price of a hotel room. You just don't have the amenities of a hotel like room or maid service. 99% of the time they are clean, beautifully decorated and perfectly located.

If you're going to fly go directly to the airlines website just after midnight. That's when flights that were on hold are released and you'll get the best price. That doesn't mean leave out the major sites like Travelocity or Orbitz just don't overlook individual airlines. They only release a specific # of seats to travel agents and sites and keep the rest to sell themselves.

I love this kind of shit so if you need help, let me know :)

Oh yeah, one more site... tripadvisor.com is a third person site that rates and reviews hotels, resorts, destinations etc. There you'll find actual photos (as opposed to professionally staged), experiences and insights. I never choose a new hotel without checking tripadvisor first.

@Kim, We were going to go to Germany, but the package we were looking at was roughly $8k. That blew the budget and got us to think about other destinations.

@Tania, My boys are 16 and 17. They have been around cameras enough to know all the basics. I am a photographer after all. And we've done the road trip many times over. We want something a little different as the eldest will be in college next year and this may be the last real family vacation with the kids.

@Penney, thank you for the links. I very well may be asking you for more info. How does Costa Rica or Belize sound? Do you think a family of four can do a week for $5k?

I don't know about airfares from where you are but sth east Asia is cheap once you get there. I did six weeks for under $4k. And if your kids are that old it would be a great trip. Intrepid tours are fantastic for seeing a heap, cheaply and without feeling like herded tourists.

Unfortunately travel costs blows our budget before we begin.

Costa Rica and Belize are two places we really want to go to, but haven't yet had the chance. The beautiful thing about both places is that you have rainforest and beach in very close proximity. A photographer's dream I would think. The Dominican Republic is a good place as well, still a cheap place to go. I don't know how you feel about all-inclusives, but cost wise, they may work well for you. My only negative with them is food. When we vacation we like to eat well and sometimes all-inclusive resorts really lack in that area. It'll take some research.

Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico should be in the price range.

Wimped out and decided to go domestic. We rented a house on the outer banks for a week. A beautiful spot and I'm looking forward to a week on the beach with little to do.

I don't see that as wimping out. Every year at this time I go through a million rental listings covering almost the entire east coast, and every year I wimp out and don't make the commitment. Let me know how it works out for you.

Where's the outer banks Jim? I'm picturing down south on the bayou with alligators circling your prime fishing spot and mosquitos making your holiday a new form of hell...

http://www.outerbanks.org/

The outer banks are a series of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina. It includes the towns of Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills. It was on a dune between these two where the Wright Brothers made the first human powered flight. Also located there are the first European colony location in N America at Roanoke Island. There is also a herd of wild horses that roam the islands of Assateague Island and Chincoteague Island. Nice sandy beaches and good offshore fishing as well.

Wow! That sounds fantastic!! What a historic and interesting spot!

Good thing I chose US for my world destination in the PIFMs - now, if I just had enough money to make it reality I could start planning my month long holiday over there! :) But realistically, it would need to be at least 3 months IMO... So many interesting things to do and see over there!

(I spent 3 months Amtrakking around the US in my early 20s and we really only touched on a few locations on our backpacker budget!)