Creative Family Vacations

Everyone needs to take some time to relax and spend time with their family.  We need to do this everyday, but some of our best memories have been made on family vacations.  We have lots of fun when we go on vacations, but we can’t always afford to take the vacations that we would like.  Sometimes we have to get creative so we can still enjoy time with our family and make memories that last.  We have taken all kinds of vacations over the years, with just our immediate family, extended family, the church, youth group, and friends.  Many years ago, we were told by an older couple to make family vacations a priority.  As the kids have grown we have really seen the wisdom in that advice.  I am not saying to run up a bunch of credit cards taking lavish vacations.  I am saying that spending time as a family is extremely important and worth making some other sacrifices.  We try to make the most of whatever situation we come across.

When I was a child, our vacations usually consisted of camping trips or trips to visit family.  My parents owned a camper when I was young so we spent weekends or a week at the lake or river, sometimes just us and other times with my mom’s side of the family.  My dad had 2 brothers that lived in Ohio, so we made a few trips to visit them and their families.  I remember one time when I was probably about 8, a lot of the family all went together in a caravan style.  We stopped and had picnics on the way and did some site seeing while we were there.  We were able to visit Niagara Falls and went to the zoo.  When I was 12 my sister got married, so after that most of our vacations and trips were to visit her.  We stayed with them and she would take us to special events or tourist attractions near her while we were visiting.  Shortly after I got married my parents purchased a hunting cabin and we spent a lot of weekends and holidays there.  We have spent lots of days visiting local attractions and shopping while the guys hunted.  My kids have spent a lot of time there over the years, learning to fish and hunt while spending special time with their grandparents.

Our church started taking a yearly vacation to Branson, MO when my oldest wasn’t quite 2.  It was just a long weekend trip and the activities changed each year, but we always had church at the hotel on Sunday morning followed by a buffet breakfast before everyone split up to head home.  Sometimes we would go up a day early or stay a couple of days later to make it a little more of a family vacation, but that was our vacation many years when we couldn’t afford one any other way.  We did the yearly church trip for over 15 years, but everyone got tired of the constant fundraising, so now we only have one every few years and we have been to St. Louis, Mo and Hot Springs, AR on our last 2 trips.  There is a youth conference held in Branson, MO during Christmas break every year and the youth raise money so they can attend.  My husband and I have went as chaperones for the last several years since all our kids are involved.  It is a fun trip which we usually extend by a few days to have a chance to spend with the kids before we all kick off the new year.

My husband has family that live in Michigan, Illinois and Mississippi.  We have taken several trips over the years for graduations, weddings, funerals, and just visiting.  Sometimes they are short overnight trips and have been as long as a week.  Last May, Devin’s Odyssey of the Mind team went to the World Competition which was held at Michigan State.  John was off work due to a hurt knee so we would not have been able to afford to go see the team perform if we hadn’t stayed with his nephew and family.  We were able to spend almost a week visiting with the whole family and support our son as well.  They had a camping trip planned for the weekend since it was Memorial Day weekend.  They left on Friday to go camping, we were at Michigan State on Friday so we were out of their way while they got everything packed and ready, then Saturday morning we went up to the campsite to spend the day with them.  It was interesting to see the differences in camping in Michigan compared to camping here in Arkansas.  Most of our campsites are part of the park system and you pay to camp there and any other activities you take part in like swimming or paddle boats are an additional fee, but entering the park or campsite to visit, picnic or play doesn’t cost anything.  The campsite they stayed at was huge, probably 300 or more sites, had all kinds of activities for the kids including a playground, bounce area, blow-up water slide, scooters and other kiddie vehicles.  I have never seen so many activities provided at a campsite, it cost 5 of us $40 to get in just for one day, but all the activities were included with the armband.

Visiting family and camping trips are still some of the most affordable ways to take a vacation.  Hotel costs can be the most expensive part of vacations.  Just be sure you are aware of all the costs involved before you reserve a campsite because they all have different rules for what is included such as electricity, water, sewer, even Wi-Fi is provided in some campgrounds now.  Sometimes the parks have great cabins that are less expensive than a hotel if you prefer a little more convenience.  Ours has small cabins for individual families and large ones that will hold many generations or families.  This is also a way to lessen the cost of housing by sharing the expense with others.  Most cabins will have kitchens so you can cook instead of eating out which helps keep down the costs.  If visiting family, be considerate during your stay by helping cook, clean and purchase food if possible.  Leave the house in as good of shape as you found it.  We spent some time in the house by ourselves while they were at work and camping, so I washed towels and dishes and cleaned up where I could.  I tried to make our stay as easy on them as possible.

Sometimes being able to take time off from work and school can be a problem.  In this case, short weekend trips to locations that are within a few hours is a way to get around this.  There are lots of places and activities within driving distance that we haven’t visited and I am sure there are some around you as well.  Almost every weekend there is some kind of festival in a neighboring town, most of these cost very little money or are free to attend.  They usually have bands and music to listen to, vendors to shop, food to eat, activities for the kids such as bounce houses, face painting or sometimes even a carnival.   We have lots of museums and other educational attractions within a few hours of us.  There are theme parks and water parks as well as lakes and rivers.  We love to do cave tours and look at waterfalls and just enjoy all the wonderful beauty that surrounds us.  We aren’t into hiking or biking, but there are wonderful trails for both all over.  Lots of fun, adventurous things are all around us, we just have to look for them.  The internet makes finding these little treasures easier than ever before.  I always check on Groupon when I am getting ready to go on vacation.  We have found some really fun activities that we might not have tried if it wasn’t for the Groupon savings voucher I purchased.

If you really can’t afford to take any kind of vacation this year, then make up some fun activities right at home.  In the summer, water was always a hit with my kids at any age.  We have had kiddie pools, water sprayers of all kinds, slippery slides, a wet trampoline, whatever we came up with.  As long as it was wet, they didn’t care.  Camp out in the yard, have a bonfire and make smores, make a fort and sleep under the table in the dining room.  It really doesn’t matter what you do, just do something together.  It is really easy to just watch TV or play on our phones and let the kids do the same, but that is the easy way out.  It takes some planning and effort to find things that everyone will enjoy, but it is worth is, because one of these days you will look up from your phone and your kids will be grown.  Then the chances to have fun together and make memories are less frequent.  They get busy with their friends, go to college, have to work, get married and have their own family.  Take advantage of these few fleeting years and make all the memories that you can, I promise it will be worth it.

Leave a comment and let me know what you do for creative summer vacations.

Other posts you might enjoy are Spring Break without the Crowds and 35 Summer Fun Activities for Kids.

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