Help Plan East Coast Summer Vacation

[gillenkl]

DH has to take his vacation in 2 week increments. This is great for a disney vacation - but we aren't doing that next summer. Where can we spend 2 weeks camping that will be fun but not break the budget? We could do 1 week and then travel to another campground for the 2nd week - no more moving than that because we have a popup.

We have been to the Outerbanks for the past 2 summers so we really don't want to do that again.

We like amusement parks as well as historical places but we have already done Williamsburg before.

Thinking Ohio or Shenandoah Valley - but any suggestions or ideas are greatly appreciated.

 

[DaveInTN]

We spent a week in DC in May as part of a larger 3 week tour of the northeast. There is SO MUCH to do there, and most of it is free! I would highly recommend a vacation there, and you can read about our stay there if you are interested in my travel blog linked below.

From there, it wouldn't be too far to hop up to Gettysburg and Hershey. We hope to get there some day, and I've heard between the history of Gettysburg and the Theme Parks and chocolate related stuff in Hershey you can fill up 5 or 6 days pretty easily.

 

[2goofycampers]

I agree with Dave, Hershey Park is great place to visit and have their own CG.

Carowinds in NC I also hear is a great place to visit, they also have their own CG.

 

[Judy in Texas]

Ohio? Amish country in nice. Berlin, Charm, Kidron... I can spend an entire afternoon in Leyman's Hardware in Kidron. It caters to the Amish and has lots of things that would be useful when camping. It's not too far from there to Cedar Point or King's Island.

 

[Pirate-Jeff]

Memphis Tenn to see Elvis then over to Pigeon forge / Gatlinburg Tenn. Dollywood is there
If you go to Gatlinburg make sure you see the wax museum You can go into the sets for some great pictures.

 

[LarryJ]

DH has to take his vacation in 2 week increments. This is great for a disney vacation - but we aren't doing that next summer. Where can we spend 2 weeks camping that will be fun but not break the budget? We could do 1 week and then travel to another campground for the 2nd week - no more moving than that because we have a popup.

We have been to the Outerbanks for the past 2 summers so we really don't want to do that again.

We like amusement parks as well as historical places but we have already done Williamsburg before.

Thinking Ohio or Shenandoah Valley - but any suggestions or ideas are greatly appreciated.

Gettysburg, National Civil War Museum in Harrisonburg, Pa and Valley Forge. Get the Auto CD tours for Gettysburg and Valley Forge. Total cost for 2 around $55 and that includes $40 for the two CDs. You can also go to the Eisenhower home while at Gettysburg which is 1/2 day and does cost like $6 or so IIRC, but the price is reasonable and I think is just basically the cost of the bus since you can't drive there and it leaves from the Gettysburg visitor center.

You can squeeze in Hershey Park along the way also, if you want.

You can easily spend two to three days at Gettysburg, a full morning/afternoon or maybe a little more at the National Civil War Museum and a full day possibly a day and 1/2 at Valley Forge.

Larry

 

[disney4dan]

I checked the ages of your kids and have two in that range myself. At that age, I'm thinking the Washington DC area would hold a lot of interest, but I've never been.

Another option might be central PA and camping near/at Knoebel's amusement park. We have several friends who highly recommend this park as a throw back to the type of small park in the northeast that used to be so common in the 50's to 80's in our area. I recall that there are several like this in PA, including Dorney Park, Conneaut Lake Park, Bushkill, probably a lot of others. I'd like to hit a few of those myself sometime, because a lot of our older parks in our area have been torn down for new housing or just sit abandoned due to high operating costs and no backers.

We've lost Whalom Park, Mount Tom, Rocky Point etc. They sure weren't Disney, but had their own "charm" and a lot of good memories when growing up.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

The biggest problem I had with PA was the turnpike. IIRC we went 3 yrs ago and it cost me $29 to drive from the Ohio border to just past Carlisle. The road is a throwback antique of the 50's technology at space age prices. Other than that we had fun......

 

[liv luvs disney]

IIRC we went 3 yrs ago and it cost me $29 to drive from the Ohio border to just past Carlisle.

 

[DaveInTN]

The biggest problem I had with PA was the turnpike. IIRC we went 3 yrs ago and it cost me $29 to drive from the Ohio border to just past Carlisle.

Yeah, avoid New York too. In May, I drove from Buffalo to the Mass line and it cost me $54.30 in my MH with toad.

 

[liv luvs disney]

Yeah, avoid New York too. In May, I drove from Buffalo to the Mass line and it cost me $54.30 in my MH with toad.

That's a double !

Could this be considered "highway robbery"????

Yep, I'm thinking so!

 

[gillenkl]

Thanks for all the ideas. I think we've decided on going down the Blue Ridge Parkway, staying in Natural Bridge for a few days then moving to Pigeon Forge for a few more days. On the way home we'll stop for 1-2 days in Front Royal.

 

[Pirate-Jeff]

In Pigeon Forge we stayed at Creekside RV resort the place was spotless.
It's also on the trolley route.

http://www.creeksidervpark.com