Besides Disney...where do you vacation?

[hlkeck]

We don't have our own "vacation" place that we go every year besides Disney! I'm hoping to find a place that we can go every year for Spring Break. My kids (7 and 5) will eventually want to do something during that week besides go to a sitters - and I'd love to have our own place that we love and get to know and can't wait to go back to every year. I'd also like it to be within 12 hours or so of Central Ohio...if you have any ideas!

We are looking for that 'secret gem' that only a few people know about and we can make affordable.

Thanks for any thoughts you have - even if you reply privately to keep your secret gem, well, secret!

 

[dburg30]

We goto Emerald Isle, NC every fall for a family trip. Nice beach, nice houses, not as popular as like Myrtle Beach and others..

 

[KELLY]

I know this is sad but no where. We go to Disney once a year and that is it. Last year we took 2 trips. This year we are only taking one so we may be upgrading to deluxe. And also buying season passes to our local water/amusment park.

 

[KELLY]

Forgot to mention I live in a Beach town so there is no reason for me to go on a beach type vacation.

 

[NancyIL]

There is no one place I always visit, other than WDW, but I do enjoy going to new places. I'm going on a Mexican Riviera cruise in April, a British Isles cruise in June (possibly followed by a cruise to Norway in July), and possibly a Transatlantic cruise in late November with my in-laws.

 

[dansamy]

There's somewhwere else to go?

Truthfully, we also camp at Gulf Shores for a weekend or two. A long weekend is my tolerance for tent camping complete with bath houses and bugs!

 

[Eeyore's Wife]

There are other places to visit and spend money, but no other place to VACATION! Each time we head somewhere else we always say, "I would have rather gone to Disney!"

 

[vandyke]

We have a Pop up camper we use once or twice a year for 5-6 days each time up North at one private campground or another. Not really roughing it, but it's hella cheaper than a cross country trip to WDW.

 

[Swimalie]

We go on short trips all over this area for vacations. We just went to Gettysburg last weekend and Richmond, VA the weekend before. This May I'm going to Atlanta to compete at swimming Nationals. Last year we went to Oregon. At the end of this year we'll be spending a weekend in VA Beach. A lot of these trips revolve around swim meets of mine and my husband and son come along and we make a family trip out of them. We're also planning a non-swimming trip to Williamsbug this summer when my parents come up to visit.

 

[mom2val]

We go every Spring Break to Arkansas. We stay in a state park in a cabin. It is beautiful and we love it!

Look into state parks near you.

 

[mrudman]

We hitch up our camper (little T/T), and go for long weekends at a lot of the state parks (i'm in ohio as well)...

So far have done canoeing trips to Mohican, trips to salt fork, punderson, west branch, etc. (just relaxing), and planning on going up to probably east harbor this summer when we go to cedar point.

Love the little trips cause it's cheap, and come back home feeling refreshed from all the relaxing,

 

[mrsklamc]

Driving time would depend on where in central ohio you are but ideas that come to mind are:

Mackinac Island, MI
Kure Beach NC
Wisconsin Dells? (questionable on the drive time)
Gatlinburg area of TN

 

[Thumperr]

We don't have a specific place, but living in Europe it's easy to just take a train to Paris, London, Berlin or some other place. We love to do that and explore cities.

 

[dansamy]

I want a camper so bad, but DH says it isn't camping. It's living in a trailer for a week.

 

[NancyIL]

We don't have a specific place, but living in Europe it's easy to just take a train to Paris, London, Berlin or some other place. We love to do that and explore cities.

Lucky you! Where do you live?

 

[Thumperr]

Lucky you! Where do you live?

The Netherlands, so pretty close to everything!

 

[Jennia]

We try and do Disney plus a "new" place (to at least one of us) every year. This year we're going to Deadwood, SD in May since DH and I both love the show/history of the area, then we'll also see Mount Rushmore. There aren't any other places we go to on a regular basis, though, except maybe for some local areas and Victoria, BC every few years.

 

[NancyIL]

The Netherlands, so pretty close to everything!

Excellent!

 

[Colleen27]

Have y'all ever been anywhere in Michigan? There are a lot of fun destinations "up north"! Mackinac Island, Traverse City, the Soo Locks, Whitefish Point, Sleeping Bear, etc. Most of our smaller trips are to northern Michigan, and in years when Easter falls later that can be a really nice time to head up there. Not so much when Easter is in March, though!

Chicago is a really fun town too. Get the CityPass and look for a great hotel deal on Hotwire or Priceline and it can be surprisingly budget-friendly. The Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium were both hits with my kids, and DD loved the American Girl store.

A little tougher to do now that the passport rules have changed, but Toronto and the Niagara area are a lot of fun with kids. Toronto offers a CityPass too, and my kids just love Casa Loma and the science center.

One place we go back to time and again for short trips is actually in Ohio - Kalahari Resort in Sandusky. It isn't someplace I'd want to spend a full week, but for one or two weekends a year it is a really fun waterpark. Lots of slides and splash space for the kids, and a swim-up bar in the hot tub for the adults. We go down to Toledo pretty frequently too; the zoo there is so much better than the Detroit zoo that it is worth the extra hour's drive, and we have a membership there so it works out to be a rather affordable overnight getaway.

Going a little further, more than 12 hours for us but maybe not for you depending on where in OH you're from, DC is very pretty in the spring and at least a little warmer than home. Lodging can be expensive, but the huge number of free attractions offsets that pretty nicely.

The rest of our trips down the east coast are to more summery destinations - VA Beach, Ocean City, the Outer Banks, Myrtle Beach, etc. - and I don't know how much would be open outside of tourist season. The drive down is half the fun on those kinds of trips. We've taken side trips to battlefields and caverns and all sorts of odd little stops along the way, in the tradition of the quintessential American road trip.

 

[NancyIL]

Have y'all ever been anywhere in Michigan? There are a lot of fun destinations "up north"! Mackinac Island, Traverse City, the Soo Locks, Whitefish Point, Sleeping Bear, etc. Most of our smaller trips are to northern Michigan, and in years when Easter falls later that can be a really nice time to head up there. Not so much when Easter is in March, though!

I grew up in SW Michigan (Kalamazoo) - but we never vacationed there when I was a kid! Our vacations were to Florida, California, New York. I finally went to Mackinac Island for the first (and only) time in high school for a youth retreat! It's too bad I didn't explore my own state when I lived there.