Where do you vacation when your on a tight budget?
 

Curious where you vacation if your on a strict budget? We did some home repairs this summer, so we are on a tight budget for this years vacation. Think we will just go to Florida. Notice airfare is really cheap to Florida for the Fall.

When our children were small, and money was tight, flying somewhere wasn't an option. One year, we rented a cabin on a lake. Other times we did driving trips within a few hundred miles of home, satyed in moderately priced motels, had picnics for lunch.

Agree with the road trip idea. From here you can do Boston/New England or DC for almost free (since hotels can be Pricelined/special found for little - and you have to eat at home anyway).

I'm sure Florida would love to have your business, since we've been inundated with storms these past few months. I recently drove Tampa to Ft. Lauderdale and would not recommend making plans for that section of the State. Also, stay away from the Panhandle (Tallahassee) area. If you go on the east coast, St. Augustine and Jacksonville are intact and doing well (I heard tonight on the news that the beaches took a beating in St. Augustine, though.) I suppose the only areas unscathed by the hurricanes was Southeast Florida (my section of the State.) Stick with a location from Boca Raton, south to the Keys and you'll be okay.

If you want a beach vacation on a budget, consider staying in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, just north of Ft. Lauderdale beach area. You can rent an efficiency or apartment for a week and you'll have a kitchen to cook some of your meals. Consider having breakfast and lunch in your apartment and going out for a reasonable dinner. Look for a location on El Mar Drive and you won't be sorry. You will be a short walk to the ocean/beach areas.

The only other suggestion I can think of is to stick close to home and see the local sights. I love playing tourist in Ft. Lauderdale & Miami. I go to the touristy places like museums, tours, etc.

Our family always does Mexico when the wallet is thin...

Have fun!
Mark

We go to Charleston, SC because we can drive there rather than fly and the accommodations and dining choices are reasonable.

A week at a beach house. We can eat in as much as we choose and the entertainment is right out the back door. It's the cheapest and most relaxing vacation ever.

Go camping! We paid $19 for a tent site at Shenandoah National Park in August and had a blast!

We had to cancel a trip abroad last minute in Oct. 2001 due to frantic family members to we went to Michigan (we live in Chicago) Ann Arbor, Mackinac Island, Tecuhmenon Falls, Traverse City area and Harbor County. The colors were gorgeous, our rooms were dirt cheap since it was off season and we had a great time.

My inlaws have a lake house they let us use on Lake Norris in TN so that's free - can't get any more budget friendly than that. But you can rent houses/cabins in KY & TN for very little anyway and we're in Ohio so it's a pretty easy drive. There is no beach or big city attractions, but the natural beauty of these two states is wonderful. It's also quite an experience to spend a few days in these parts as folks and the culture is quite different than what most of us are used to. Dh and I always joke we should take my cousins from Boston to TN some day - it would be a whole new world to them!!

We do road trips, rent a cabin by a lake, or go camping when money is tight.

If you can get cheap airfare (ff miles?) to a destination like Mexico or Jamaica where it is cheap once you get there, then that will help you budget. I'm not sure how Jamaica fared with this last hurricane but I think she escaped the fury. And camping is a great idea.

For cheap in Florida, go after Memorial Day and before Labor Day. You can get some reasonable rates at beachfront hotels in Treasure Island, Daytona, Cocoa, Ormond, Flagler Beach, and Melbourne. I don't agree at all with accessments of hurricane damage in FL in a previous post -- only Punta Gorda and Pensacola have been hit really hard. Other than that it's business as usual.

I'm crazy for Cashiers NC. Renting a house on Lake Glenville is awesome. Beautiful sunsets, the lake is great.

Florida off season (Sept-Christmas exluding Thanksgiving) and Mexico same off season time.

Florida is such a beautiful diverse state and I wonder how many people realize that?

Washington DC is good for free attractions. Very few sights charge admission fees.

I'd suggest the Lauderdale-by-the-Sea option. The motels aren't very expensive and I'd guess a vast majority of them have some kind of kitchen. I know Coral Key does (I've stayed there twice) and the 1 BD is spacious and there is a mall with a Publix within easy walking distance from El Mar Drive. Just keep on checking airfares daily for the next 1-2 wks, they change everyday and when you find a good airfare $200 or less, go for it. I can't tell you if any of LBTS has been seriously damaged by the hurricane, I hope not, its a great little beachtown.

You can usually fly to New Orleans and get a nice hotel for pretty cheap mid-summer as well. The heat doesn't seem bad when you are wandering the streets with a cool hurricane in your hand. However my budget tends to get out of hand there once I start eating out (though there are plenty of reasonable spots if the budget is really tight).

Right now always go to Michigan and stay at my lake house/entertain. Tons to do, grapes being harvested now and lots of wine tasting- but we find much more to do overall than we do at the sand beaches. Tons of water sports, fishing and hiking ops. Out of work at 5 central time, on my deck overlooking absolute beauty by 9 or so Michigan time. We have done the light house tour all the way around Lake Michigan a couple of times, similar to swalter518.

In the past we went on long drives to Ohio (Cedar Point), Iowa (skiing), Minnesota, and the most times to western Illinois (Galena) and the Illinois River (Starved Rock N. Park) areas. Always on drive vacations and stop where we want, with some priceline reservations thrown in the middle or at the end. St. Louis was one enjoyable drive and very reasonable. Saw the city, saw a ball game, toured the Cahookia Mounds / U.of I. itself etc. on the way back.

There are "back roads" guide books for every area. You would be surprised the interesting and varied things you can enjoy closer to home.

Camping on one of the Great Lakes or staying at a friend's cottage on a small lake in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Also easy on the wallet is Toronto, a five hour drive, where the dollar goes far.

We go to the Adirondacks each year and rent a cabin right outside Old Forge at Palmer point - three bedroom, fireplace and beach for $450 for the week (and that's the most expensive place!) We only eat out one dinner and one lunch and the rest we BBQ! Can't get much cheaper than that!

I didn't catch if you have children or not, but off season in Las Vegas is cheap. You can tour the National Parks nearby, eat at almost any price range and be entertained free. People watching, Bellagio fountain shows and a happy and exciting atmosphere will cost you nothing. Most hotels offer great deals from $49 per night and if you do your homework by reading reviews you can plan 4 days on the cheap.

We will be there in early Nov. for a convention but had we planned a trip for October it would cost us much less. I'm making a travel folder of the things we can do for free and the entertainment we can catch for free as well. Since we have expense allowance we can use the extra cash for dining out, or any other entertainment we think is worth the money.