Vacation question?

I recently posted a question about things to do in Houston whilest on Vacation. This apparently stirred up feelings of angst/hate for the city by fellow members who questioned my choice of vacation getaways.

We are still going, and WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A GOOD TIME DANG IT. However, I am curious about where engineers go for a good vacation.

So to formally phrase the question: Where would you go for a week for $2000 or less (with 3 small children)?

badal said:

I recently posted a question about things to do in Houston whilest on Vacation. This apparently stirred up feelings of angst/hate for the city by fellow members who questioned my choice of vacation getaways.
We are still going, and WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A GOOD TIME DANG IT. However, I am curious about where engineers go for a good vacation.

So to formally phrase the question: Where would you go for a week for $2000 or less (with 3 small children)?

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limiting to under $2000...

You are already in Tenn...i was going to say rent a cabin in tenn from timberwinds.com for the week. We did that after graduation. It was nice and peaceful. Got to go fishing, horseback riding, and went to see some caves. They have pool table, hot tub oustide, jacuzzi inside, full kitchen, and grill. There is a community pool too now.

I would rent a rustic cabin way out in the booneys with no internet on a lake, near some mountains.

edit: ha! I guess we're thinking the same way snickerd!

First off, I would agree that Houston is the closest thing to Hell on earth (especially towards late summer). Why do people enjoy the hot humidity so much? Yuk.

As far as vacation suggestions:

I would send the kiddos off to the grandparents house for the week while my wife and I head to Vegas. It costs under $600 for airfare & hotel which leaves $1400 for shopping, black-jack, poker, etc. That's what my wife and I did back in June, but it was a combined celebration of my wife's graduation & our anniversary, so needless to say it was a chance to get away for a bit.

As far as traveling WITH the kids, I would suggest San Diego. There are so many things to do there that cost NOTHING (the beach, visit Old Town, cruise the Pacific Highway, etc), and leave the one big event as the Zoo or Sea World. If you want to save money on lodging, I would suggest looking up vacation home rentals instead of hotels. My wife and I took our oldest son back in 2006 (he was 10 months old) and stayed in a beach-front apartment for about 1/2 the cost of a Super 8 hotel. Best part was that it was a complete apartment (full kitchen, 2 bed /2bath, seperate living room, patio) and was all within a gated community that had a pool, clubhouse, and "community" grills. I wish I was typing this from my home computer so I could provide you with a link to the website that set this up for us.

Another place to visit would be here in Colorado. You could easily burn a week doing relatively cheap stuff in the mountains (biking, hiking, fishing, sight-seeing, etc). I would suggest making this trip in late August / September to coincide with the fall colors.

For under $2000 you have to drive and rent a house to make it work out. Since you're in Tennessee I would go to the outer banks of NC or a beach down here in SC. As for the SC beaches, if you're looking for a place with mini-golf, amusement parks, golf carts, water parks, etc. I would go to Myrtle Beach. Personally, I hate Myrtle Beach but some people like it. I prefer a beach with nothing to do but hang out at the beach so for this I would recommend Edisto or Sullivan's Island. You could rent a nice house close to the beach (a block or so away) and you can drive in to Charleston to see the aqaurium, IMAX, go on a harbor cruise, go on a historic carriage tour, visit the markets, eat at some kick ass restaurants, vist Patriot's Point, play golf, etc.

^^^ Agreed on the roadtrip to NC or SC. My wife has been to Myrtle Beach and she really enjoyed it, plus it was a fairly in-expensive place to visit.

Shortly before we got married, we went to one of those time share presentations while on a vacation in Las Vegas with the plan to only get the free show tickets they promised. Well Mrs S really wanted to get the time share so I gave in and bought it. However, this was not exactly a time share, it is with Hilton and we basically get 1 week per year whenever we want wherever we want through either Hilton or the other time share companies. The thing was paid off about 2 years ago so now we only pay about $600 per year for "maintenance". So now I finally feel like it was worth it since it feels like only paying $600 for the room for the week.

Oddly enough, I'll be heading to Houston in November!

I have to burn a week's vacation before the year is up since we're only allowed to carry over 40 hours. I figured no point in going back to CT to visit family since there's absolutely nothing to do there, so I will spend either my birthday or Thanksgiving visiting old friends, getting hammered, and having another sitting for my tattoo.

I would have to go with the beach. I'm a big time beach bum and have to get my beach fix at least once a year. I don't have 3 kids (waiting on the first one to come sometime this month), but I know I could get a house for the week on one of the many beaches in the Carolinas for <$2000. I've already had my vacation this year, but we are travelling to Peru in December for 2 weeks. I don't know if we could make that trip for less than $2000 with 3 kids, but all we have to pay for is airline tickets since my wife has family there.

I'll 2nd the outer banks idea... I've been there 3 times... you can easily find a house for the week for less than $1500... and probably with a pool... and/or a pet... if you go early in the fall "off season", it' probably be cheaper than that... It's not commercial by any stretch of the imagination... I love it down there... Lots to do with sites, the beach, sound-side beach, wind surfing, etc, etc, etc... And pretty quiet too... dammit, I need a vacation....

The 3 small children will be the limiting factor. You could do a whole lot of stuff for $2k with older kids or just you and your spouse.

Which half of TN are you in? East or West? Or Central? It's not fun to drive with kids, but depending on where you are, it could be workable and save you a ton of money and make the $2k stretch more. Just give yourselves 2X the drive time with kids as they like to slow things down considerably.

I'm going to Virginia Beach with a bunch of college buddies in September (Labor Day week). We rented a huge beach house with a pool and lots of amenities. I'm not sure how much the whole thing is for the week, but I'm only paying $225. We'll split the cost of gas to drive over there, so that'll probably be about another $50. We'll get groceries and cook-out most of the week, so food will only be about $100 for the week. We're going to buy a bunch of booze, so that'll probably run about $150 each. I plan on playing 2 rounds of golf while I'm there, so that'll be about $100. I'm thinking that I can get away with a $1000 budget for an entire week's vacation on the beach.

ble31980 said:

I would have to go with the beach. I'm a big time beach bum and have to get my beach fix at least once a year. I don't have 3 kids (waiting on the first one to come sometime this month), but I know I could get a house for the week on one of the many beaches in the Carolinas for <$2000. I've already had my vacation this year, but we are travelling to Peru in December for 2 weeks. I don't know if we could make that trip for less than $2000 with 3 kids, but all we have to pay for is airline tickets since my wife has family there.

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I'm going to Peru in two weeks. For my wife, my kid and I the tickets alone cost $2500 total, plus some tax. I'm paying a little extra to go non-stop, but December is summer, so I can't imagine getting them for much less than $600 apiece, even with the most shrewd shopping.

And my wife has family down there, but I'm not planning to sit in the house all ten days. Most people go to Macchu Picchu, although I'm not going this time.

So I think it's pretty much impossible to spend less than 2K and enjoy yourself.

benbo said:

I'm going to Peru in two weeks. For my wife, my kid and I the tickets alone cost $2500 total, plus some tax. I'm paying a little extra to go non-stop, but December is summer, so I can't imagine getting them for much less than $600 apiece, even with the most shrewd shopping.
And my wife has family down there, but I'm not planning to sit in the house all ten days. Most people go to Macchu Picchu, although I'm not going this time.

So I think it's pretty much impossible to spend less than 2K and enjoy yourself.

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Yea, I didn't mean to make it seem that you could travel to Peru with a family of 5 for less than $2000. We've already bought our tickets for december and they were about $550 each, so we got a good deal on those. When we went a couple of years ago we paid about $715 per ticket. We did the Cusco-Macchu Picchu thing then and that trip only cost us ~$550 each for 4 nights and 5 days from Lima, so yea, definitely couldn't do that for under $2k with kids.

ble31980 said:

Yea, I didn't mean to make it seem that you could travel to Peru with a family of 5 for less than $2000. We've already bought our tickets for december and they were about $550 each, so we got a good deal on those. When we went a couple of years ago we paid about $715 per ticket. We did the Cusco-Macchu Picchu thing then and that trip only cost us ~$550 each for 4 nights and 5 days from Lima, so yea, definitely couldn't do that for under $2k with kids.

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My experience marrying a South American lady is that money basically flows by osmosis (higher concentration to lower concentration). Therefore it goes from North to South, unless she comes from a wealthier family. I suspect it will be two weeks of me paying for most everything for everyone. Plus I just got done sending them money to remodel their bathroom, and we’re bringing about three suitcases full of gifts, which everyone expects, and everyone wants something or other "Made in the USA ". It’s okay, I’m happy to do it for my wife.

Hmmm..... that sounds familiar.

Sounds like some excellent suggestions above. I was also thinking of the beaches in NC and SC.

Mountains + W Virginia + Rafting.

But I am a whitewater junkie so I might be biased.

How young is young? Maybe want to leave the rafting for the too young to hang on.

we did weeklong flatwater trips on the green river when the kids were little. rented a raft, hired a shuttle and guided ourselves, camping on the riverbanks. not sure if that stuff is available in TN.

DisneyWorld.

Gas from Tennessee to Orlando ~ 1400miles (round trip), 25mpg, $2.50/gal = $140

5 day adult ticket $222 x 2 = $444

5 day child ticket $187 x 3 = $561

Radisson Hotel Orlando, $67 night on hotels.com x 6 nights = $402

= $1547

The difference should cover tax, parking, but food might put you a little over. I would cut one day off if necessary.

badal said:

We are still going, and WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A GOOD TIME DANG IT.

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:appl: That's the spirit ! :appl: