I know we talked about Spring Break, but didn't get too into Summer trips.
What do you have planned?
I was waiting on Hawaii with Southwest points, but the Government shut down has delayed that so it might not work out for summer. Maybe Christmas break?
Other options were Maine and those NE parts? Maybe Quebec, but we would have to drive from ME.
Camping with the kids, maybe Picture Rocks? Something within driving distance of the Chicago area?
Any ideas, we have 250,000 Southwest points. It is getting ridiculous, so I feel like I should book something. To put it in perspective it was 190,000 points for 4 people to San Diego and we don't have plans to go to the west coast, so it will be a lot less points to go anywhere on the east coast. And we already "bought" our spring break flights.
Also, Yellowstone?
Beach vacation? We did an overnight and went to MI beach (rental houses are $$$), so just 1 night in a hotel and that was nice.
That is the problem too we have lots of flight points but we still have to pay for most of the lodging and food. Some hotel points but those go a lot quicker. So even though it's a free flight we don't have the money for 3 week long house rentals per year. And house rentals are not more money than hotels especially if you consider we are saving money by having meals at home.
Kids don't have passports and DH would prefer Hawaii over the Caribbean. I wouldn't mind the Caribbean, but it's a bit more of a hassle. I think we are a no on Mexico resorts for now.
We are down to Hawaii, Alaska, or Disney World for this summer. I would like to Disney again and do it right, stay on sight, etc (we stayed offsite last time, which I felt like was way more work and went during spring break when it was bonkers). Dh would prefer not doing Disney again. He is looking into Alaska and I am looking into Hawaii. So its all still up in the air.
Our Spring Break condo rental was 1K cheaper than summer, which led me to investigate rentals for different times of year. Pretty sure the best plan is spring break, summer (peak rates) and then Thanksgiving for our three weeks away.
Depending on kid schedules the kids and I may stay an extra week or two on vaca (possibly moving to a smaller property as DDs and I can share a room) or go on a second less expensive week long trip. I figure if I am not paying $800 for camp/sitters, we can rent a property instead, as the kids are old enough to entertain themselves while I work, they just suck at it at home.
We'll do... something. Nothing spectacular, likely somewhere within driving range for a week. When they're older and I'm magically rich, maybe we'll do something that involves a plane.
We finally have a reliable babysitter than is willing to watch them for multiple days/nights that has a really accommodating schedule. And my kids love her, so that helps. So I'm trying to talk DH into doing a trip with just the two of us. To anywhere. Maybe wine country, maybe Hawaii, maybe Mexico. I'm still breaking DH into the concept of blowing money on vacations, and this would be spending money on vacation AND childcare, so I'll probably start small.
I don't think we are doing any big summer trips because we have Orlando and San Diego coming up in Feb and April and then are planning Disneyland in October. and we don't know which week daycare will be closed.
Post by covergirl82 on Jan 17, 2019 14:35:51 GMT -5
Nothing big this summer. We just received DS's tournament schedule for travel baseball, so at least now we know what weekends are already booked.
So far, we're camping for a week around the 4th of July. We're also going to camp in Mackinaw City for a long weekend. I'd also like to try and go up to Charlevoix to camp, but we might just try to go for a day instead due to lack of available weekends. I love to look on the beach for Petoskey stones.
Post by supertrooper1 on Jan 17, 2019 15:07:59 GMT -5
I have a running list of places I want to go without H, but I'm not sure what my financial situation is going to be this summer.
Nashville, Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, NYC. Ultimately, I may just be lucky to get away to Spokane or Seattle for a couple of days. Or take DS to the indoor waterpark 3 hours away.
supertrooper1 I’m sure you know this, but you could do Boston and NY together. The Acela train makes it easy - only a few hours. When in Boston, you could tack on a few days on Cape Cod or the Islands if you wanted.
We usually do a week on Cape Cod, but we are doing Disney in March, so I’m not sure if we will do both. I’ve been trying to get everyone to branch out, but I get overruled every year.
We are pretty concrete on Panama City in dead season for sports this summer. Dh's sister and BIL have booked a campsite the same week. They are fun and that is great. However. I am staying in the condo, on the beach. I am not driving to the campsite. I have to drive myself 358 days of the year, I am sitting on the beach many days and drinking a few beers then going to my condo and having a nice meal and walking a half mile down the road to the pier and getting some ice cream.
My brother and SIL said over Christmas that they want to come with us. That would be great. But I need an answer soon so I can book. 1 bed 1 bath and a bunk room? or 2 beds 2 baths? Big price difference.
Pacific Northwest for us. DH and I love the San Juan islands but haven’t taken the kids yet. They’re super excited about the idea of the car ferry. The plan is to fly to Seattle on the 4th of July, stay in a hotel overlooking Lake Union to see fireworks, and then another couple nights there. Then drive north to catch the ferry and go to a resort on San Juan Island for 4 nights. Then go to Portland (likely driving but TBD, with possibly a stop on another island) and spend a few nights with our good friends who live there. We haven’t gone on a family trip like this since DS2 was born (the kids will be almost 7, 5, and just turned 2 this summer).
Then later in the summer DH is planning to take the older kids to see his parents on the East Coast. But now both our sets of parents are planning to sell their houses and move (both within the same general area) so we will probably wait until we have more clarity on that to book. We may make it a family trip if DS2 does ok with the July travel. I would love for him to become interested in watching something on an iPad between now and then
Post by librarychica on Jan 17, 2019 18:41:11 GMT -5
We will tentatively spend a week at the beach. Either the less-crowded parts of Clearwater or maybe Amelia Island. Both are a couple hours drive for us.
Pacific Northwest for us. DH and I love the San Juan islands but haven’t taken the kids yet. They’re super excited about the idea of the car ferry. The plan is to fly to Seattle on the 4th of July, stay in a hotel overlooking Lake Union to see fireworks, and then another couple nights there. Then drive north to catch the ferry and go to a resort on San Juan Island for 4 nights. Then go to Portland (likely driving but TBD, with possibly a stop on another island) and spend a few nights with our good friends who live there. We haven’t gone on a family trip like this since DS2 was born (the kids will be almost 7, 5, and just turned 2 this summer).
Then later in the summer DH is planning to take the older kids to see his parents on the East Coast. But now both our sets of parents are planning to sell their houses and move (both within the same general area) so we will probably wait until we have more clarity on that to book. We may make it a family trip if DS2 does ok with the July travel. I would love for him to become interested in watching something on an iPad between now and then
I'm excited about a car ferry! That sounds like a great trip.
Trying to plan Seattle for Memorial Day Weekend. Thinking about dragging the camper to Brookings OR and then do a day trip to the Redwoods from there right after school gets out in June or 4th of July weekend AKA before fire season really starts.
Hoping DH gets a couple backpacking weekend adventures on the calendar. Then DD, the dog and I can plan a couple fun girl day trips.
DD really complained last year that we didn't go on any big vacations like everyone else was doing. I'm trying to at least plan a couple long weekend fun trips to help pacify her.
Post by ilovelucyvv on Jan 17, 2019 19:44:05 GMT -5
I am campaigning hard to go to Mexico as opposed to North Carolina with H’s family. Mexico is one of H’s favorite places but outside of our Caribbean cruise this past fall we haven’t traveled much with the kids yet.
We are going to Europe (Murren, Zurich, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna and Budapest) with the kids in June. Probably beach for the 4th of July and another week sometime in August. I'll probably take the kids out to see my sister in Colorado at some point.
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
We keep it low key in the summer as big spend is usually over spring break. So a few weekend road trips to visit family in rural PA, New York, Rhode Island, etc. Some camping too.
Summer 2020, though...I’m eyeing a family adventure trip that is done through REI, hiking in Scotland. Kids need to be 8 so I gave to wait a year. Expensive but it looks awesome.
Usually we do one week camping, and other small weekend camping trips.
This year our camp week will be near DC. We are going to take another vacation, because my parents are renting a house in Duck NC for my sisters and I and all of our families.
Not sure. When the WDW deals came out a few weeks ago we jumped on it but we just went so I don't know if we will actually go. It's a really good deal compared to everything else we are thinking about though!
We are also considering just doing a few small trips (San Antonio and New Orleans) and saving for something bigger next year.
We really want to do Hawaii but we just can't make it work. Flights are SO expensive.
No actual trip. But I am sort of planning to spend every weekend I have the kids up at my parents' house on the lake. Lots of easy time at the beach with no stress about planning a real trip. And it's free!
No actual trip. But I am sort of planning to spend every weekend I have the kids up at my parents' house on the lake. Lots of easy time at the beach with no stress about planning a real trip. And it's free!
I would love to do something like this but our family lake house is a 6.5 hour drive. Even if we lived where our Grandparents did it is still 3.5 hours. I would love something an hour away.
One of my friends has a soapbox about parents full stop paying for college. Her point is that vacations should not happen if kids have to work/take loans/miss out.
It always throws me, but we are on track for 24k/year/kid, and I assume they will get some $$$. But it does sometimes make me feel like we should hold on house upgrades/repairs etc. I plan for the kids to work - independent of money. Full ride? Still working.
My focus is overall quality of life and retirement and college savings and I think we have the right balance (if we saved more it would be for retirement). I figure we can hold on vacas and repairs when they are IN college if needed. But it always hangs out in the back of my head....
2chatter, I have a hard time reconciling that in my head. The amount I am able to spend on a "vacation" with my kids each year wouldn't even put a dent in college costs. So why would I deprive us of some enjoyment now, while they're little and we can have fun together, just to scrimp and save for when they leave for college? It seems like a miserable way to live.
But, paying for a full ride to college is not, and never will be, in the cards for me, even pre-divorce. I won't even have my own loans paid off until my kids are in middle school. By the time they're in school, I hope to have the monthly cash flow to help them out, but I won't have some big nest egg to present to them.
2chatter, We just finished paying off my husband's student loans. I think that they have a place, and there isn't anything wrong with kids taking out a reasonable amount of student loans. We save for college for the kids, but honestly I prioritize saving for retirement over saving for college, because you can't take out loans for retirement. And honestly, if it really came down to it, I could move to teaching at another university, where faculty's kids get a discount (they currently don't at mine).
We are saving as much as we can for a new bathroom, retirement and kids college. I don't see vacations as really interfering with that except to keep the overall budget in mind. If we don't then the vacation ends up on a credit card which is not ideal. But if it is budgeted and saved for or paid off that month off the CC, then no problem. If I never vacation because of "college" we might also go insane, which is not great for the kids either.
Vacations don't have to be expensive. I think we paid about $25-$40 a night for our camping trip and we cooked a lot of the food, which we would have eaten at home anyway. We don't have the money to rent a house 3 times a year, so the camping trip is ideal for 1 of our trips.
Also we have that free lake house, but it is very far away. And my mom was super mean about it last year- like texted me multiple times about problems she thought we left when really there were guests after us that had done it. Like kept asking us where we put our dirty rags, and if we left bacon in the fridge etc. So it almost seems worth it not to go there- almost, and I think we were only there 2 nights anyway and really only went there for the showers and washer/ dryer.
Post by erinshelley21 on Jan 18, 2019 12:28:26 GMT -5
What if kids don't want to go to college? I mean, we're still saving in 529s despite that possibility, but I can't imagine completely putting off traveling to pay for college.
We only have one trip on our radar so far, but it's just for DH and I. We are talking about going to Austin, TX in the fall to celebrate our 30th birthdays. I really wanted an all-inclusive beach vacation, but financially a smaller trip makes more sense.
Possibly taking a 5 day or one week camping trip to Myrtle Beach, if we keep the camper.
Post by sandandsea on Jan 18, 2019 18:28:23 GMT -5
I highly value vacations and traveling. Like a lot. They are amazing quality family time a our only real chance to get away and focus solely on each other. Kids learn so much from traveling and experiencing other cultures and places. It makes them better, more aware, global citizens in my view.
Of course Disneyland and legoland don’t exactly qualify for these education filled trips but the family time is top notch. And my kids are small.
And of course vacations don’t have to be pricey to have value. We camp a few times every summer and the boys learn real skills camping that they’ll hopefully never need but again, it’s about the family time.