cd

You could check out hostels. They are cheap and you have access to the kitchen so you can do your own cooking.

traveler2005

Well I had a sobering thought. I thought I'd figure out possible expenses and see what was possible for $500.

I started with gas. Dearborn is about 600 miles away. If you get 20 miles per gallon, it would take 30 gallons each way. At $4 per gallon (gas is about 3.59 around here), that alone would be $240. Yikes. On the other hand, if you get 40 miles per gallon and gas is less than $4, you could get away more cheaply.

tomfuller

cd has a good idea with the hostel. HI hostels are better than most. About 9 hours south of Philadelphia is the small town of Pembroke, North Carolina. Looks like a great base for going to the beach or the mountains. http://www.hiusa.org/hostels/usa_hos...pembroke/60101
Maybe 80 gallons of gas RT depending on your mileage.

gail

Back to last sentence of first post - that you can get hotel for this amount in Orlando or LV. While you are certainly entitled to do a vacation as you choose, not sure what would be point of either destination, since on your budget you can't eat in restaurants or do anything that costs money - so you would be paying for gas to drive someplace to swim in the hotel pool - and the often important "just need a change of pace".

In that case, think closer to home - or some of the suggestions above.

Amy

Sounds to me like a perfect time to check out more of Pennsylvania; I realize that you might have done a lot of these, but here are a few suggestions:

1. There's a package deal at the Best Western in Lewisburg where you get the room and tickets for Knoebel's amusement park www.knoebels.com for $189. There's really an amazing amount to see and do in the Susquehanna Valley region.

2. Lancaster is more than outlets and Amish; you can get motels there reasonably cheaply, and visit places like Landis Valley Museum and the WIlbur's Chocolate Factory.

3. Altoona/Johnstown area has a lot of history and fairly reasonable prices. You could even go into Pittsburgh for a day.

4. Priceline a Philadelphia hotel; I've been living in the city 44 years and still haven't done all that there is to do. And you can eat from the carts for about five bucks a person!

persimmondeb

We hadn't put the gas into the $500, since yes, that would take tight into the realms of the ridiculous.

At the moment we are considering upping the budget, since while fiscal responsibility is all well and good, family time is also important, and while DS is more childish than most almost sixteens, there probably will come a day when he doesn't want to travel with us, and this trip is partly for his birthday.

We may, in fact, end up in either LV or Orlando, since just at the moment I had given up on either fitting into any version of reality, I found a couple of air/hotel deals that would get us there under $1000 for 4 nights, so with a modest food/entertainment budget I'd be well over where I had wanted to be, but not to the point of being in the poor house, and we won't have to pay for gas.

And a budget of $50ish for food and $20-25 for entertainment really isn't that grim, although I think we'd be a little up over that in LV, due to the lack of a courtesy breakfast. I also haven't been there in more than 10 years, and am aware that at least some of the big bargains have disappeared. Orlando is easy, although I will admit that I know every Disney counter service trick in the book and have a mental list of very reasonable places to get a bite.

persimmondeb

And thank you all, for what have mostly been really great suggestions that we will keep in mind for another trip.

traveler2005

>almost sixteens, there probably will come a day when he doesn't want to travel with us,

You are absolutely right there. Although I know some young adults that still enjoy traveling with their families, many don't. Take advantage of these days.

RE: Las Vegas - If you have a car and stay off the strip, some of the motels include breakfast. We stayed at one once that actually had a free dinner too. It was brand new and nice. However, being off the strip is much less handy.

The buffets are no longer cheap in my opinion, but just walking around and gawking can be a lot of fun.

persimmondeb

We went for Las Vegas, since the bargain really was unendurable ($328 a pop RT on US Airways, with 4 nights at CircusCircus) and we can get to Orlando much more easily. So, I figure that instead of $300 or so on gas, we're spending close to a $1000 on airfare (making the hotel essentially free-since that's lower than most airfare only prices I've seen) and giving us about $100 a day for food/entertainment, which should be enough to have fun with. So, while not where I wanted to be, not a complete budget buster, and allowing us to take the vacation we really wanted to take and thought we couldn't.

We'll save the roadtrips for another time when the budget isn't so tight and we can enjoy ourselves.

tomfuller

Since your chose Las Vegas, rent a car for one day and drive out to see Hoover Dam and the big new bridge above it.
On the way back, take the road on the west side of Lake Mead and take a drive through Valley of Fire State Park. The scenery is great and there is a set of steps to get close to some petroglyphs. Come back into LV on I-15. Your teenager would love the lightshow and the zipline at the Fremont Street Experience. When traffic is not bad on the Strip, the Deuce bus is a good way to get up to Fremont Street. IMHO the buffet upstairs at the Golden Nugget before 3PM is a real bargain for good food. Also along the north end of the Strip, is the "Pawn Stars" shop.

japw82

Food is pricey in Vegas. Might I suggest researching coupons and cheap eats. The entertainment book has many 1/2 price and 2/1 options. It can be viewed on the web. Also, check out food courts. You will find many of the fast food outlets which tend to cost less. Ask for a mini fridge or invest in a cheap cooler (we take a collapsible one in our luggage)to keep breakfast foods, sandwich meat and cheese, and beverages. Hit an Albertsons or Walgreens for these and other snack items. Happy travels!!

happytrailstoyou

Please let us know what kind of entertainment, food,
and hotels you find for $100-$125 a day. I'd travel
more if I could do it well with that budget.

HTTY

happytrailstoyou

Lonely Planet recently named the world’s ten best free attractions. Two of them are a short drive from Philadelphia: The Smithsonian Institution and The U.S. Capitol. Enjoy.

persimmondeb

We were planning to rent a car for a day to see the Hoover Dam, but thanks for the heads up on the Valley of Fire. DS will likely love it.

HTTY, I don't know about doing it well, but it can be done. I'll write a trip report, and let you all know if we managed to have a good time without blowing the budget. I do have a list of bargains and promotions, and we have a friend out there who is well versed in the art of the coupon. And we're pretty willing to eat fast food. We are also pretty easily amused, and often have fun just walking around (which LV is excellent for).

cd

One thing that I always do once arriving at a destination, is to hit a grocery store. I buy fruit, bagels, peanut butter, soft drinks and wine. If a refrigerator is in the room, I also buy lunch meat, lettuce, tomatoes, yogurt, milk and cereal. This provides breakfast and lunch in our room if we want and frees up money to eat out at dinner time.

happytrailstoyou

It's not easy to find groceries on the Strip. The best we found were the Walgreens near MGM and the ABC stores in Planet Hollywood.

HTTY

persimmondeb

I would have a couple of plans for acquiring groceries, but this is not a destination where we're likely to think we want to bother with more than snacks for the teenager, maybe a little cereal, etc., and maybe a bottle of wine and some soda.

Fast food, coupons, and some canny strategies should do it. We'll see how I do.