Where would you go, as a family of four, with a budget of CDN$4000 total?

[lisalonglash]

My dh and I celebrated our 15th anniversary last weekend and he surprised me big-time! I woke up to a bottle of my preferred champagne and a chocolate rose, all surrounded by cash! :banana: Turns out that me whining about needing another vacation worked :lmao: Oh, how I love that man! :lovestruc

So, now I have CDN$4,000 to work with and I'm looking for your opinions. We are in Vancouver and are a family of four (2 adults, 2 children - 10yo and 7yo at time of travel if we go after mid-June next year). Everything included has to total CDN$4,000 or less (travel, hotel, food, etc.). The destinations on my list are (these are in no particular order):

~ WDW (value resort - we really enjoyed ASSp, but would be open to Pop too)
~ DLR (this destination would negate the necessity of plane tickets, but gas would have to be factored in and would also include a 2-3 night stop in San Francisco (hotel costs, food, etc.))
~ Dominican Republic or some other Caribbean all-inclusive
~ Montreal
~ Hawaii
~ Somewhere else LOL

We're open in terms of when next year, except that dh asked that it not be September or October, as his work is very busy at that time. Perhaps November or June would be good?

Also, my husband does not want to do a cruise and we do not want to go to Mexico. I know it's pretty cheap to take a Mexican vacation from Vancouver, but we're just not interested in visiting there.

I look forward to your input! Thanks! :flower3:

[misslissa]

I think I wouldn't go to Disney! LOL... How could I say that?

I think I'd be heading down to Sandals in Jamaica!

[DearDaisyinDurham]

Montreal is pretty amazing but when would you go? It's so cold right now!!!!

I think I would go with a warm weather spot. TBH it would be WDW as my #1but then that's me.

[photomama]

Maui :thumbsup2

[lisalonglash]

Thank you for your responses! :goodvibes

So, we have one vote for Jamaica, one for Montreal and one for Maui...

Daisy, we haven't decided on when yet, but I do know it won't be in September or October, as dh is very busy at work then. I'm thinking November or possibly June.

Keep those suggestions coming please :banana:

[angela1044]

I vote for Maui.

[Sheribo]

If you're looking for something Canadian, I would say Quebec Winter Carnival. Yes, it's cold but there is so much to do and it's not your typical hot holiday. My kids have traveled to many places but one of their favourite memories is of Carnival. They sat at a cafe table made of ice and had a hot chocolate! They did tubing, watched the canoe races, and loved the snow sculptures. We ate poutine, the real stuff, and met people from all over. And dogsled racing too.

Also, Montreal is just a couple hours away and Ottawa is not out of range either. Skating on the world's longest skating rink is very cool.

If you want hot, Maui gets my vote.

[minniesnana]

Oh this a hard one - but I would likely pick Hawaii - only because you came back - but can 4 of you reasonably enjoy a Hawaii vacation on $4,000? Let's hope our exchange rates goes up some!

My second choice would be Disneyland. There is a lot of things to see along the way if you are driving.

November would be my choice of times to go.

[lisalonglash]

Oh this a hard one - but I would likely pick Hawaii - only because you came back - but can 4 of you reasonably enjoy a Hawaii vacation on $4,000? Let's hope our exchange rates goes up some!

My second choice would be Disneyland. There is a lot of things to see along the way if you are driving.

November would be my choice of times to go.

Yes, that's the question - can our family really vacation in Hawaii for under CDN$4000?

I looked up weather history for Anaheim in November and it says a high of 22C (not quite as warm as I'd like lol).

Oh, what to do?!

Thanks for your input, everyone - I really appreciate your thoughts! :flower3:

[drag n' fly]

I vote AI. Everything is covered....easier to budget:thumbsup2

[Shir Kahn]

I would choose WDW but I really can't see how you could do it for under $4000 for 4 people. Hmmm, probably go with a Caribean all-inclusive as my next choice. You can get some really good deals, especially if you buy the plane tickets and then wait until it's close to your vacation time to book the actual trip. Some of the last minute deals are slashed by an amazing amount and in the research I've been doing, the packages aren't just "what's left over after all the good places are booked". The only problem is, you're definitely taking a chance that the place you want is going to be available.

[ronandannette]

Cruise the Mexican Riviera on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas - you'll be amazed at how much there is to do on the ship and you get to visit 3 Mexican destinations as well. If you're driving to L.A. you can easily do it on your budget.

Happy Sails,

Annette

[mkmommy]

Cruise the Mexican Riviera on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas - you'll be amazed at how much there is to do on the ship and you get to visit 3 Mexican destinations as well. If you're driving to L.A. you can easily do it on your budget.

Happy Sails,

Annette

I agree on the cruise, it is a great vacation when travelling with kids, I have read some great trip reports on the Mariner sounds like a wonderful ship. If you want a short vacation Disney Cruise Line has that promotion for kids sail free this winter and spring and there are some great rates if you are willing to book an inside CAT 12.

[lisalonglash]

Thanks everyone - I'm loving all your input! :goodvibes

I should have added something in my original post though - my husband does not want to do a cruise and we do not want to go to Mexico. I know it's pretty cheap to take a Mexican vacation from Vancouver, but we're just not interested in visiting there.

Sorry for not mentioning that in my first post :sad2:

I've edited my original post to put the information in - thanks for your help!

[bbangel]

I would go to California. Depending on how you budget you could include San Diego as well. There is so much to do there and the weather is drier than WDW.

Second choice would be the all inclusive, but I would look at Cuba as an option as they have some great deals.

[motherof4]

Cuba's food isn't very good, we have been a few times without the kids and although it was fine for us my kids would definetly starve! Curious at why you don't want to go to mexico? We love the Mayan Rivera (sorry spelling!) so beautiful and lots to do, food is awsome! The last resort we stayed at had a lazy river, a few pools, the ocean, ice cream bar, close to Tulum (Mayan ruins) the people were great! If not mexico definetly all inclusive in the Carribean!

[bbangel]

I am a very picky eater and I found the food in Cuba to be fine. Lots of fruit, chicken and pasta so hard to go wrong.

[mom2faith]

Not trying to be a "Debbie-Downer" but Hawaii is really expensive. I think I would take that off of the list. I went in 2006 and was shocked. Aside from extra for air and hotel, once you are there everything is really expensive (I am talking McDonalds beakfast for 1 is $9.00, dinner out at a casual restaurant and getting a burger and fries $18.00 for 1, etc). You could easily spend $200+ on food for the 4 of you per day.

All inclusives would be nice, but my vote is still for Disney. I am already an addict!!

Let us know what you decide!!

Amy

[DisneyRookie2007]

If I could actually vacation in Hawaii with a family of 4 for $4000 I would certainly do it. But as we live on the East Coast that is not possible. My wife and I went to Maui back in November 2002 and had a great time, but out we flew on passes (my wife's friend works for Air Canada) and we stayed at their timeshare. Our total cost for flights was only $800 return for the both of us from Halifax and the timeshare was free - so that was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

I'm in the same predicament about where to vacation next. I'm really the only one from the family who would like to go back to WDW in 2009 as I want to go back during free dining in August and my wife refuses to go because of the extreme heat and humidity. The kids (15 and 13) tell me the excitement is gone as we have gone to WDW 3 times in the past 2 years.

They mention a cruise as the next likely vacation, but seeing as we'd have to depart from Florida, I can't see why we wouldn't want to do some WDW time as well - but the budget is always an issue.

I can't see doing an AI as I just don't think the kids will enjoy the "laying around" and I can't see spending a fortune for all the possible day excursions they have available. PLUS....I don't see anything for $4000 for a damily of 4 anyways!

[Ham Ham]

7 day Disney Cruise with a double dip at Castaway Cay.

[Mrs. M. Mouse]

It's hard to say stay in our own country when we can go almost anywhere else for a cheaper and hotter vacation. We as a family of four took advantage of the big air canada/west jet 50% off sale last month and booked our trip to Nova Scotia and PEI for 2100 instead of 4000 just air fare. If we hadn't a trip there would be way too expensive.

I would choose an all inclusive in bahamas for that price. Hopefully you get good airfare, other than that the rest should be fairly reasonably priced!

Good luck and happy planning!

[Ham Ham]

Did you mean 2010?

PEI is nice but I would rather head somewhere where it is warm and you can swim in the water.

[ferris198]

With 2 other Canadians being shot in Mexico, I would rethink that.

[Mrs. M. Mouse]

Did you mean 2010?

PEI is nice but I would rather head somewhere where it is warm and you can swim in the water.

no for $2100 and PEI has the beautiful beaches and warm water to swim in in the summer!

[michelle1]

We are in the same situation...trying to find something new to do...but I find a WDW vacation to be so reasonable for what you get especially now with all of the promos and the 40% pin code I have. Seeing as you are in BC maybe flights aren't as cheap for you as us so it might not be your best choice. I have looked into Hawaii and for us, being on the east coast, it would be very expensive because with the length of flight we couldn't just do a week there. We did a 2 week California trip last summer which was amazing and I would highly recommend. I used hotwire for most of the rooms, we had a great deal on a van rental and we used 3 days from our WDW passes for DL so I found the trip to be very reasonable. Good luck deciding!

[Disney_Mama]

I voted for other. I don't think that you can do Hawaii on $4000 CDN. I have heard lots of good things about Cuba. We are thinking of Cuba for our next family trip. Disney would be about $3400 with dining and park tickets included. So you still need to add transportation and fun $$. Good luck with your choice. :goodvibes

[ABCanada]

With the ages of your children and your budget DL would be great. In many ways we prefer DL to WDW. You can walk every where in DL. At WDW you need to use the bus system, which is amazing but requires planning and time.
We prefer the DL version of many of the rides. You do not have AK or Epcot or the other activities at WDW but you will have a more relaxing time.
Passes for DL are considerably less expensive than WDW. There is also a Southern California Pass that includes other activities that may make sense for you.

[chimo2u]

I agree, I think Disney Land would be a great family vacation. In fact, we may even look at booking there one year in the near future! I haven't been since 1990 when my now-hubby (then boyfriend), took me on my first vacation outside of Canada! We had a wonderful time.:love:

[squirrel]

*** Walt Disney World ***

Look in April for the Free Dining Offer. You should be able to stay 14 nights at a Value Resort with your budget.

I would pick dates at the end of Sept. unless you are worried about taking the kids out of school.

Drive down to Seattle and then stay in a Park n' Fly - you should save a lot of money doing this. You can even get direct flights from Seattle on Delta or Alaska Airlines.

The free dining will save you a lot of money on food and then you can afford to stay longer. You will have enough time at WDW with a 10-day park pass that you won't have to rush. If you stay 14 nights you will still have another 3 days to go to Downtown Disney and to rest at the resort.

Go onto the Budget Board and reserve a Fridge during your stay-freeze water bottles for the parks and keep milk for cereal in the morning.

Lots of time for the kids to save money for their souviners.

[alohamom]

Well I totally disagree about Hawaii, especially from your west coast location. As you may have gathered from my name I am a bit of a Hawaii nut. We go every second year for at least two weeks and do so from the Toronto area for around 5000 to 6500, depending on the airfare, exchange, length of and place of stay etc...(We do Disney on the off years)Now is probably the best time ever to go because with American economy doing what it is doing, travel is way down. We just spent 2 weeks on Oahu and the Big Island in December and it was really quiet. There are sooooooo many specials to be had you just gotta know where to look. Set yourself up on Kayak.com for the daily fare emails, and on Travelocity.ca for farewatcher. We usually fly from Buffalo to save the enormous taxes out of Toronto, I dont know if flying from the US is an option for you. Check out www.biddingfortravel.com and www.betterbidding.com which are are both info sites for Priceline and Hotwire. The true secret to an affordable and relaxing Hawaii vacation is renting a condo. We rented for the first time from www.vrbo.com which links owners with renters. I happened to look the same day the person we rented from had discounted her Dec prices so we paid 115/night for an incredible 2 bedroom 1000 square foot condo on the Big Island with 3 flat screen tvs, granite and stainless in the kitchen, a Thermidor bbq on the patio(it was one heck of a bbq!) the list goes on and because it was so quiet we had the pool all to ourselves with the exception of once. We rented an suv for 25/day from Priceline but you can get convertibles around that price too, smaller cars for less. I know I am going on and on but the point is you can do it. We have been enough times that we dont do the Luaus (which to me are total tourist traps)and we try to tour on our own as much as possible. If you want any help, pm me and I can guide you thru it...The bottom line is, you have 4grand and a chance to be together as a family so no matter what you choose you are winning-Have fun planning!!!!:cheer2:

[Ham Ham]

no for $2100 and PEI has the beautiful beaches and warm water to swim in in the summer!
My bad on that one.

We were there in PEI during mid- August one year and the water was no warmer than Maine in the Summer

Beaches are nice, no crowds but I didn't find the water warm at 20C. Days were cool with a nice breeze.

We also visited the Potato museum in O'Leary. Had dinner at St. Ann's Parish, saw Rainbow Valley(RIP),Ann of Green Gable's place,Cavendish & saw the wind farm.

Nice relaxing time but I would prefer my vacations to have warmer weather and water.:thumbsup2

http://www.rainbowvalley.pe.ca/RainbowSite/gallery/images/CHARLIE%20BY%20SAUCER_png.jpg

[mom2faith]

*** Walt Disney World ***

Look in April for the Free Dining Offer. You should be able to stay 14 nights at a Value Resort with your budget.

I would pick dates at the end of Sept. unless you are worried about taking the kids out of school.

Drive down to Seattle and then stay in a Park n' Fly - you should save a lot of money doing this. You can even get direct flights from Seattle on Delta or Alaska Airlines.

The free dining will save you a lot of money on food and then you can afford to stay longer. You will have enough time at WDW with a 10-day park pass that you won't have to rush. If you stay 14 nights you will still have another 3 days to go to Downtown Disney and to rest at the resort.

Go onto the Budget Board and reserve a Fridge during your stay-freeze water bottles for the parks and keep milk for cereal in the morning.

Lots of time for the kids to save money for their souviners.

Squrrel you are officially planning my next trip - LOL!!

Great advice.

We went last September for $5500 total for 12 days.

This includedL

11 nights at ASMo
10 day park hopper (2 adults, 1 child)
free dining
2 day pass to US and IoA
1 day pass to Seaworld
BBB - full package
Prebook photopass
rental car
Extra meals: Bubba Gumps, Planet Hollywood
Tips (not incl. in dining)
Spending money and souveniers
PAL Mickey
One ride photo (Splash)
A couple of trips to Target and Joanns


I am sure there was more, but can't think of it now.

This time we are skipping US, IoA and SW, and we will not have any "extra" meals as we did not end up using all of our CS while we were there. DD will not do BBB again (kind of a one time thing). We are hoping to go for less than $3500 this time, but since the dollar has changed so much that may not happen (it was par in Sept). I think you can do an awful lot in Disney for $4000!!

[lisalonglash]

Thank you so much for all your input - we really appreciate your help! :flower3:

We have asked our wickedly awesome Disney expert TA to run WDW and DLR packages for early to mid-November and are spending time running our own packages for Hawaii, all-inclusives in Bahama/Jamaica/Dominican Republic, etc.

I think we've narrowed down the time to sometime in November - yay for one thing "decided" LOL

My dh :love: and I are reading all the responses and keeping an eye on the poll results - WDW is clearly winning the poll :rotfl:

Thanks again - keep your advice coming! :goodvibes

[mermaid&cinderella]

I love Hawaii so I have to say HAWAII!!!!:)

[squirrel]

The Free Dining will save you a lot of money and will allow you to eat at some really nice restaurants. You would have to go at the end of September or very beginning of October. Also you could spend some money and attend Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Pary. I went in September and it is a lot of fun, more fun than Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

PS-I love to plan trips to WDW, I have offered to help family and friends. If I could afford to go more often I would. Now that I have my own business, I'm trying to go every year.

[Mrs. M. Mouse]

LOL no worries! we're excited to go on this one as it's dh's home, if we hadn't gotten in on the sale with air canada we couldn't justify spending $4000 on just flights when we spent less than that on our whole WDW vacay :scared1:

we have almost all those things on our list of must see's while there too. thanks for the tips!

My bad on that one.

We were there in PEI during mid- August one year and the water was no warmer than Maine in the Summer

Beaches are nice, no crowds but I didn't find the water warm at 20C. Days were cool with a nice breeze.

We also visited the Potato museum in O'Leary. Had dinner at St. Ann's Parish, saw Rainbow Valley(RIP),Ann of Green Gable's place,Cavendish & saw the wind farm.

Nice relaxing time but I would prefer my vacations to have warmer weather and water.:thumbsup2

http://www.rainbowvalley.pe.ca/RainbowSite/gallery/images/CHARLIE%20BY%20SAUCER_png.jpg

[Mrs. M. Mouse]

Good for you on narrowing it down! you'll have your answer soon! Happy Planning!

Thank you so much for all your input - we really appreciate your help! :flower3:

We have asked our wickedly awesome Disney expert TA to run WDW and DLR packages for early to mid-November and are spending time running our own packages for Hawaii, all-inclusives in Bahama/Jamaica/Dominican Republic, etc.

I think we've narrowed down the time to sometime in November - yay for one thing "decided" LOL

My dh :love: and I are reading all the responses and keeping an eye on the poll results - WDW is clearly winning the poll :rotfl:

Thanks again - keep your advice coming! :goodvibes

[c&m]

I agree with alohamom. From the west coast, you can do Maui for under $4000. We did that in August 2007. We flew out of Seattle. Each ticket on Hawaiian Airlines cost $330 USD. We used Priceline.com and got the Westin Maui for $125 USD per night. Kids ate free at this resort, which was great. This resort's pool and slides were fantastic for school aged kids. We were a 5minute walk to Black Rock which was great for snorkelling. We had a fantastic time.

[Sillyminny40]

Maui is probably the best option for 4 from Vancouver. We were there in Jan 2008. We booked through Travel agent and it cost us a fortune. We loved the beaches and SO much to do.

Mexico AI doesn't differ much from Jamaica or other AI in the Caribbean. We have been to many of them with our kids and without. You just can't beat Mexican prices and the kids' clubs are the best for 3-12 yr olds.

After 10 years of annual holidays (sometimes an extra one without kids) our favorite place is MAUI with a condo doing all our own cooking, with washer dryer etc. Wow.

[lisalonglash]

What a wonderful response :goodvibes Thanks for helping us to choose! This isn't written in stone yet, but we're leaning towards either Orlando or Maui, for Nov. 12-22/09. If we do choose WDW, then I'll have to post another post about which resort to choose :lmao:

Thank you and keep that good advice coming - we're still open to everything, really!

:flower3:

[mermaid&cinderella]

What a wonderful response :goodvibes Thanks for helping us to choose! This isn't written in stone yet, but we're leaning towards either Orlando or Maui, for Nov. 12-22/09. If we do choose WDW, then I'll have to post another post about which resort to choose :lmao:

Thank you and keep that good advice coming - we're still open to everything, really!

:flower3:

Well if you've narrowed it down to Orlando and Maui and if you end up doing to WDW you just have to stay at POLY:lmao: You would get your two trips in one:rotfl2:

[Cinderella]

Tough choice. If you could do Hawaii for that price though, I would go for it. Also try timeshare users group to see if you can rent a condo there. I think it is www.tug2.net

[dvcdisney]

If you can vacation in Hawaii or WDW for $4000, then I say go for it.:thumbsup2

[squirrel]

Forgot to mention before, we did both an early flight out of Seattle one trip and a late night flight the next year. We much prefered the late night one.

We didn't get much sleep, but we didn't get much the previous year either (arriving at the park n fly, dinner, up early). We arrived at the resort much earlier and had more time to get settled in. I found that we adjusted to the time better having arrived at Orlando in the morning.