Favorite vacations/trips as a kid? Or with your kids?

[mamagoose]

We have a 1.5 year old daughter and want to travel with her when she's older (i.e. able to comprehend the idea of getting on an airplane or going on a road trip). We camp frequently in our area and enjoy local trips within 2 hours, and we try to stay away from long road trips unless it's night driving b/c she is not a fan of the car. We have used Amtrak and will use it again since it's very toddler-friendly, but it only goes so many places. As a child, I didn't travel much (didn't get on a plane until age 19) but my husband took trips to Europe and ski trips after age 7 or so.

I am curious for those who traveled as kids, or who travel with their kids, what were some of your favorite destinations? We live in Orlando so Disney is old hat, we prefer national parks (although driving around Yellowstone would not be toddler-friendly right now). I also want to travel internationally when my daughter is old enough to understand a little geography, so maybe school age. How old were you/your kids when you took big trips? Right now our only tentative plans are a train trip to DC in the fall (zoo/Smithsonian/monuments) and a Caribbean cruise to celebrate potty training whenever that happens.

[Cookie78]

We had a lot of family road trips growing up, which I was and am very thankful for. The best one I remember was Alaska/Yukon for a month or so. I grew up in northwestern Alberta, so it wasn't crazy far for a road trip, but far enough. I got to bring my dirt bike on that trip because we towed a trailer, which was awesome to zip up and down some mountain trails where we were camped (in the middle of nowhere, not at campsites). We also had a camper on the back of the truck and took off into the wilderness on some dirt trails, crossing rivers when we had to (by sending my brother out into the river to test the depth was ok).

Generally we traveled a lot around the northwestern corner of North America. The only exception, and the only time I remember flying anywhere was when I was 4. We went to Texas/Mexico. The only things I remember are looking for the rental car in the parking lot, being intimidated by a girl my age in the swimming pool because she was speaking Spanish and I didn't have a clue, and visiting the house of a Mexican family we'd met and their son jumping out of the closet at me and saying 'Boo!' Can't remember much at that age.

[I'm a red panda]

I've never traveled internationally with my family (my husband and I put priority on international travel though). I did go on an international trip once as a kid with Girl Scouts, so all my examples will be US.

My favorite vacation was around age 10 when we went on a 2 week long roadtrip up the east coast. We stopped at lots of places, but the ones I remember were Vicksberg, MI and a few other civil war battle fields, Biltmore, NC, colonial Williamsburg, VA (with a trip to Busch Gardens, though I really hate rollercoasters and would have preferred more history), and the mansions in Newport, RI.

I also always loved family trips to Washington DC, that was maybe age 12?

I also did Girl Scout trips to New Mexico to go skiing and I really enjoyed those- that was 6th and 7th grade.

[lise]

So I got car sick as a kid (still do in fact), but my fondest memories are of road trips I took with my parents. 
So don't rule them out ... because sometimes it IS about the destination and NOT the journey.

[Kitsune]

Favorite vacation memory as a kid: going to see my grandparents in Florida a few times a year and swimming in the ocean and picking oranges off the tree in the back yard with my grandfather. (Cost to my parents: 0$ - my dad travelled so much for work that air miles paid for the flights, and we stayed with my grandparents, which rocked for me as a kid.)

I went to Europe with my mom at 16, which I have AMAZING memories of, but I'm glad they waited until I was older before bringing me... I wouldn't have appreciated it as much if I had been younger!

[LiveLean]

I grew up in Virginia, which meant there were always tons of places to see from a historic, scenery, and outdoorsy perspective. I had only been on a plane once when I graduated college, but my mustachian parents did a terrific job with state parks, historical attractions, and long drives. My Dad disguised looking at farms and raw land on Saturday afternoons with me as "going for a drive," which seemed very cool as a kid and helped start my real estate education. I remember thinking a 4-5 hour drive to Pittsburgh or NYC taking forever, but with DVDs our guys think that's a short day of driving.

We live in Florida now and our kids are 12 and 9, but we still focus on history, scenery, and outdoors vacations, taking a 4-5 week, 5,000-mile driving trip each June/early-July. (I can work anywhere and my wife works for the school system.) Some of our favorites:

Gettysburg -- Awesome.
Cooperstown, NY -- I had been as a kid and even though our guys aren't baseball fans, they enjoyed it.
Cog Railway, NH -- Worth the price.
Vermont, Maine -- Can never go wrong anywhere.
Mt. Vernon, Monticello, Montpelier -- I grew up around these places, but more amazing than ever with all of the interactive stuff.
College campuses -- We follow college basketball, and stopping at schools is a cheap, easy way to spend an afternoon and get the college evaluation process started early. The schools are empty during the summer, great time to visit.

[hunniebun]

We have two kids 2 and 6 have had a few trips airplane trips with them, Florida, California and Montreal.  We also do a lot of camping in the summer and the odd road trip to a waterpark hotel a few hours away.  Their favorite destination is a pool or a beach (anything involving swimming) so for the next little while...we will be picking places with those things!  I am also trying to think of a destination for next winter...but am having a hard time picking a budget friendly place.   I find that traveling with them even on planes is always easier than I think it will be. They are such great kids and love new experiences so it makes me want to plan some grander adventures for when they are little older.

[mrsggrowsveg]

My family never traveled internationally when I was growing up, but we always went on trips.
-Florida:  Our usual destination was Key West.  That was so much fun for all of us.  We rented a beach condo.  Once we did Disney, which was just ok.
-Ozarks:  We went to Branson and Eureka Springs quite a bit.  There is so much to do for everyone in both of those places. 
-Colorado:  We did some summer and winter trips here.  We loved all of the outdoor activities.  We usually visited Colorado Springs.
-Washington DC:  This was really fun when I was school aged.  It also was neat learning about some of the places I went back at school.

DH traveled significantly as a child.  His mother was Mexican and his father Swiss, so he spent a lot of time in Mexico and Europe.  He enjoyed both. 

Our son is two.  So far, we have just taken him on a few flights to California to visit family.  We are taking him to Mexico City for Christmas this year with family.  We also do some weekend camping at nearby lakes.

[RootofGood]

We went on a long road trip from North Carolina to DC, Philly, NYC, Montreal, and Quebec City (then back home).  2300 miles.  With a 2 year old boy and girls age 7 and 9.  We were worn out after 2.5 weeks and cut the trip short (skipping Ottawa, Toronto, and Niagara Falls).  The 2 year old did okay, but we only got in a few hours of sightseeing each day due to his general temperament.  YMMV of course.  We stayed in an airbnb apartment for the extended stay in Montreal and it worked well.  Trip summary for the curious. 

Our kids loved Montreal and so did I.  Hopefully we'll make it back some time.

We won't be doing any long road trips or overseas trips in 2015 but hope to resume in 2016 (Berlin, Germany? Oaxaca, Mexico?  Southern Spain? Cross-country USA? Argentina? Thailand? who knows).  The youngest will be 4 by then and much more manageable hopefully.  Slow travel is key here, since it seems like it would take a day to recuperate after a half-day of travel.  Apartment stays are also much nicer than hotels when you have multiple kids.

We love cruises and our kids love them too.  Very relaxing and cheap way to visit other countries (for a day at least) and determine whether you want to spend any significant time there (or avoid that city altogether). 

DC is a great destination for youngish kids.  We went when our 2 girls were around 4-5 years old and they liked it a lot. 

[gaja]

We went to Africa for a wedding when the girls were tiny (1-2 years old). They don't remember anything, and the whole thing was more stress than anything else. So the next years we did staycations, with a few detours to family owned summer houses and visits to grandparents (less than 1 hour drive). One christmas we went to the Canary Islands, that was nice enough, but nothing special. Denmark and Legoland the same. But last summer the girls had both started school. We travelled all of southern Norway for three weeks, and had a blast (details in blog, link in signature).

The great thing about travelling in an EV with children, is that you are forced to stop regularly, and you have to wait for the car to charge. So it is very difficult to get stressed.

This summer I'm almost certain we'll do the Faroe Islands, via Sweden and Denmark. I crashed the car, and will probably be getting one with a slightly better battery.

[Dee18]

Best trips with my daughter: camping in Alaska when she was about 9 and renting an apartment in Paris for 10 days when she was 16.

[MLKnits]

One of the ones I'll never forget is Ringing Rocks Park. You bring hammers for each member of the family, and go around smacking them on the boulders, which have enough iron content to ring out. Clambering over the boulders and wielding a big hammer turned out to be enormous fun, despite my complaints on the drive there.

For a slightly less violent but similar sort of trip, there's the Herkimer "diamond" mines, where you crack rocks open (again, bring your own hammers) and look for crystals.

I also have some fond museum memories--the Please Touch museum and the Franklin Institute in Philly, the DC Children's Museum, any and all natural history museums (rocks! tigers! fossils!)--but my absolute favourites were all outside and free or nearly free, which is pretty ideal for Mustachian parents.

[ltt]

Lots of road trips with my parents when I was a child.  Typically we went out west--South Dakota, which is always fun, Colorado, Utah, etc.  The one memory that sticks out was when my parents' car broke down on the interstate in Denver.  It cost way too much to fix it, and my dad was very, very much a frugal person and said that he didn't want to fix it because the car wasn't worth that much.  So my dad sold the car for enough money to get us home by bus.  And so we traveled back home by Greyhound and my grandfather picked us up.  No cell phones at that time.

My favorite with our children have been the Disney trips because Disney offers something for everyone.  And, especially, with the varying personalities and food likes and dislikes in our family, it's the one place that everyone loves.  It's expensive, so we make sure we have the money upfront before we go.

[pachnik]

We did a lot of road trips when I was a child.  Drove to the Okanagan, stayed in a motel and spent time at the beach. 

My mom took me and brother when we were 6 and 3 back to the old country - what used to be Yugoslavia - so we could meet our grandparents.  I was six and remember some things about it: the pop corn stand in the middle of town, the ancient stone bridge that separated two sections of the city- I remember putting my little hands into the well-worn grooves on its steps, a horse breaking out of its harness and running down the street, and my grandfather pointing to a gypsy caravan and telling me to stay away since they steal children.  These things come to mind.

[alice76]

Driving to VT (winter) and Martha's Vineyard (summer) are what I did as a kid. At 16, we did one international trip to London, which was awesome!

Now as a parent, our most amazing family trip was a vrbo apt in SF with a car to explore Muir Woods, Berkeley, Sonoma, and Stinson Beach. Our son was a precocious 4 and he LOVED it all. So did we ;).

[aperture]

I want to reanimate this thread. We are planning vacation, and it is helpful to hear what others have done or are planning.

As a kid, my family did one memorable vacation in Daytona Florida.  I was about 10 and the beach was the only thing i remember.  I would not go there again.  Typical of developed beach areas anywhere on the gulf coast of US and there are lots of nicer, quieter places.

We have taken our kids camping in Yellowstone a twice and had a blast.  My daughter was about 3 one one year and she wore her Disney Princess costume (Sleeping Beauty?) everywhere.  I am certain she was in many people's photos of geysers that summer.  If you camp there, be sure to bring adequate clothing, and sleeping bags for the cold.  Yellowstone campgrounds are at ~9K feet and nights can get chilly (especially in June).  There is a lot of driving in Yellowstone (the place is huge), so if you map your day well, young kids can nap after a hike or between locations. Yellowstone is a great place to see wild animals (buffalo, mule deer, elk, bear (rare), coyote, wolf (extremely rare) and lots of squirrels. The park is beautifully outfitted and handles crowds well.  It is good for family because there are enough anchor-destinations for multi-day trip that does not become stale. 

Other places we have enjoyed camping with kids:
Rocky Mountain NP - visit both sides of the park.  Lots of great hikes - probably better for either kids you carry in backpacks or kids old enough to walk ~4 miles with inclines.
Glacier NP - perhaps the most beautiful range of mountains in the Rockies. 
Arches NP - camp and visit during Spring Break or in Fall (or even winter) - it is too hot in Summer
Zion NP - an amazing place that you must visit, but go off season (if there is one) as it can be crowded.  I hiked the Narrows with my 12 year-old son.  It was a safe adventure in that he could hike ahead of me without concern that we would get lost from each other. 
Capital Reef NP - go in the fall during harvest season
Bryce Canyon NP - a dream for photographers - probably a B+ park for everyone else.  We passed on the campgrounds and stayed in a motel outside the park.

Enough for now - going for my walk, Aperture.

[Venturing]

My husband and I have both travelled extensively internationally. However, the only overseas trips we will do with our children are to visit family. Any big international trips they can do when they are independent and can visit places that appeal to them.

As my brother in law summarised it 'my kids love going to the beach, the couldn't care less whether the beach is down the road or in France'. We deliberately stick with local trips, there are so many amazing places to visit in our own backyard without the hassle and expense of major journeys.

My fondest memories of childhood holidays are the ones where we camped at some sort of national park and befriended a bunch of other kids to go on adventures with.

[Lucky Girl]

I have lots of fond travel memories as a kid.  I think being in a different location makes the memory stand out, so I'm glad we traveled to several places and had lots of great experiences.  All my childhood memories are US based.  I remember camping in the mountains of Colorado with my uncle (it snowed in July!), going to DC during a government shutdown (Mt. Vernon was still open), Disney at age 12, skiing at age 5 in Colorado, and trips to my grandfather's farm in the middle of nowhere, Texas.  I think traveling anywhere with kids is great--it does not have to be expensive or exotic.

I now have two kids, age 3  and 6.  We regularly go to the beach in Maine, which is a short drive.  We have also gone for a week to Myrtle Beach because the grandparents have a condo there--great sand and surf, what more does a kid need?  And we have flown as far as California, which the kids did like champs (thank you iPad!!!) but I would only go so far for family with the kids so young.  I'm looking forward to taking the kids camping and hiking more as they get older and can enjoy it.  We will travel internationally too, but keep it limited due to cost until they are much older.  I want to wait until we hit FIRE and can spend an extended period in an international location, not just the two weeks I can get away with now.

[aperture]

Thanks Venturing and Lucky Girl - seems like you both agree that investing in international travel with very young kids may not be a great investment.  I agree. (Though it is hard to say what will shape a child's life, and if we had the $s when they were very young, I would have taken them to a beach in Thailand).  As my kids get older and we are FIRE'd spending a few months (or longer) with them in a foreign country is on my bucket list.  I would like to have the ability to do it and then determine if it is right for them. 

This summer, I think we are going to head to Southern California, (not going for Disney and theme parks).  It does not seem like a vacation destination to me, but I have been out-voted 3 to 1.  I am picking up the Lonely Planet guide to LA and San Diego and will be trying to figure out what we might enjoy doing. Typically, we will look for a VRBO or AirBnB and set up camp in one location, then take day trips from there.  In SCAL, that will mean time in traffic daily (which is why I voted against this one).  Anyway, now that we are decided, I am looking forward to learning more, and perhaps coming up with some really cool interesting things to do.

Thanks, ap. 

[Endersmom]

We love to travel and have taken our daughter to all sorts of places. She was born in England and I flew home (winnipeg canada) with her for a month when she was 5 months, we took her to Turkey when she was 7 months, moved back to canada with her at 17 months took her to England at 3 years old, puerto vallarta at 4 we went with friends so she had a buddy, Omaha to spend a week at The Omaha zoo when she was 5, disney world for her 6th birthday (My husband was the one who liked Disney the best) France and England at 7 years, her dad took her to puerto vallarta again when she was 8 (he managed to get a free trip for 2) then my daughter and I visited mt best friend in B.C. and her family took us RVing to Oregon and back up the coast. (this has been one of her favorite trips so much so that she turned down going back to Disney so that she could go RVing with my friend again the next year) So a second trip to B.C. and camping locally last summer and then spent her 10th birthday in Cartagena Columbia (for a wedding of one of my husbands best friends they live there) stopped in Panama City on the way back so we could see the canal. This summer we hope to go to Drumhella to see the dinosaurs and Calgary to the science museum, hopefully back to B.C. to see my friend and next year we want to do a Europe trip. I think it is the best way to educate a child travelling with them, we also started home schooling this year so part of our schooling is researching the places we are going and learning the languages.Travelling is our non negotiable budget item and Trinity benefits from the experiences but I know she would be happy just to go camping and make friends and run wild. I realize that some of her memories of trips have to be triggered by pictures and other people telling her the stories but I believe everything we experience help shapes the people we become even if we don't have a direct memory of the events.I don't think it matters where you take  your kids as long as you plan the trips that there is interesting things for everyone to experience and price definitely has nothing to do with most memorable. When I was kid I went to England at 5 and have fuzzy memories of it and Grand Forks at 11 or 12 since becoming an "adult" all I want to do is travel.

[frugalmom]

My 4 yr old really likes Niagara Falls.  It was a fairly inexpensive vacation.  We stayed in a nice, but inexpensive hotel from an internet deal.  We drove there from Chicago via Toronto.

Things we splurged on Toronto Aquarium, expensive but worth it.  It was seriously the coolest thing her and I have done together.  Lunch at the CN tower.  It was a bit pricey, but the lunch menu was affordable I think I used a coupon.  She liked eating in the "princess tower" -her words- so much that when in Niagara we dined in the Skylon too.  Which had an even cheaper menu and better food.  Most of the rest of the trip we used hotel points and ate food bought at grocery stores. 

If you had not already mentioned DC--I would have suggested it.  At your daughter's age...the zoo, Air & Space, Natural History, and American History were her favorite.  We walked through looking at the BIG things she liked.  Honestly she loved the subway system and taking buses as much as the museums.

[AMandM]

When I was a kid, my family pretty much didn't take trips for vacation.  My father took us backpacking occasionally, and we stayed at my cousins' house in Maine for a week or two every simmer, but that was it.  Similarly, the vacations my husband and I have taken with our kids have all been camping in state parks.  Our favorite excursions were to living history places (Colonial Williamsburg and the like).

But my father was and my husband is a professor, so thanks to sabbaticals and research grants we have several times lived overseas for extended periods, 6 months to a year.  IMO, the particular destination doesn't matter; what makes a difference is for the kids to have some interest or knowledge beforehand. I made a point of having the kids read books related to places we would be.  For instance, the 5yos knew "Madeline" by heart before we visited Paris, and they loved seeing IRL the places in the book.  We read "The Eagle of the Ninth," then visited Roman ruins and in a museum saw the different decorations on weapons like Esca's and Marcus's.

[chouchouu]

My mother took us skiing throughout our childhood and trips to a farm each year but international travel was just Thailand every summer since that is where she is from. She only ever came for a week or so and the rest of the time we were with our cousins. Our cousin was lots of fun but he's Thai so it's not easy to do the stuff we did. I did have fond memories of banana boats along the beach and feeding monkeys. I also took my kids to Thailand when they were ten months, it was pretty hot and uncomfortable and we couldn't use the stroller because of lack of footpaths.

My kids are three, they've been to Poland twice to visit relatives and travelling with twins wasn't exactly relaxing. Last year we went from Australia to Europe with a one week stop over in Vietnam. Vietnam was nice but a bit difficult by myself as random strangers kept touching and grabbing my kids for photos. So I had to stick to places that didn't have much people and I missed out on stuff I would normally do sans kids. They really liked the food though and it's not spicy like Thai food. In Europe we visited Paris, Brussels and Gdansk, Poland. They are all very child friendly and we didn't need to buy tickets for the kids on the Thalys. There are just so many things for kids in Paris, wonderful parks, yummy food, the boats on the seine and canals. There were many things we didn't have time for, such as a 19th century fun ground and the cite d'enfants which is supposed to be a lot of fun. We used to live in Brussels so I just took them to all the old parks and ate food. In Poland we spent most of the time in the countryside picking berries and exploring. I was really afraid of taking them on such a long trip by myself but they managed to keep occupied with the entertainment units on the flights so were no problem at all. I also bought colouring books and a etch a sketch for them. When we flew from Europe when the girls were ten months there was a couple travelling around the world with their ten month old daughter, they said they had a great time.

[Cognitive Miser]

Omaha to spend a week at The Omaha zoo when she was 5,

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo is fantastic!  It alternates with San Diego as the best zoo in the U.S., and it's a lot cheaper to stay in Omaha than in San Diego.  I'd argue that this is the most Mustachian "destination zoo" choice.

My childhood vacations were spent on road trips to the Ozarks (my parents had some wealthy friends with a cabin that had tons of bedrooms) and weekend trips to Kansas City (Adventureland and the Hallmark corporate headquarters).  My favorite was when the people we bought our puppy from invited us out to stay at their ranch in western Nebraska.  We stayed in one of their unoccupied ranch hand cabins, rode horses, played with the dogs, went to the Sand Hills, and just generally did nothing.

[tonysemail]

This summer, I think we are going to head to Southern California, (not going for Disney and theme parks).  It does not seem like a vacation destination to me, but I have been out-voted 3 to 1. 

If you haven't seen it already, I would recommend hitting the california science center.  We went this past Xmas and the kids loved it.  If you're into space shuttles, the endeavour has a permanent home there.  My kids had a great time in the kelp forest exhibit.  Also, it's cool that it's free. 
also, the natural history museum sits across the street and has a good dinosaur exhibit.


This year, my family is planning trips to fort bragg during spring break and europe during summer break.
We'd eventually like to see arches NP, washington DS, and crater lake, but that's probably for next year or beyond.