Ideas for a mini-trip to take with older dd?

mrudman

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 3, 2008
Messages
1,560
Last month, I went on my very first mother-daughter trip with my younger dd, and had a blast, so was thinking maybe I'd make it a yearly tradition, and alternate taking each dd separately on a mini-vacation. We live in Northeast Ohio, just to give you an idea of location.

For younger dd, she is absolutely in love with horses, so I had read about a mother-daughter horse-riding camp down close to Columbus (at a horse farm). We drove down there, which is about 3 hrs away, spent the night there, then ended up spending the night at a hotel down in the area, and the following day went to some caverns in the area and visited an old "castle", then came home. So all in all, we were gone from about 4pm Friday evening to about 4pm Sunday. All in all, cost was approx. $300-350.

Would like to do a similar timeframe (and approx. cost) for older dd, but unsure exactly what to do. Would probably have to be within driving distance, cause if we had to factor in airfare, that could really get expensive.
As much as I'd love to fly into Chicago and take her to the Shedd Aquarium (she LOVES sharks).

Any ideas on what I could do? She's my more "boyish" girl.. kinda likes sports, likes more "boy"-type things.. although she does like dolls and stuff too.

Had thought about doing a trip down to Mohican and going canoeing and letting her ride the Go-Karts (she's been wanting to go back ever since she turned 10 since that's the minimum age to ride alone, lol).

Also, had thought about doing Put-In-Bay.. think they have a new amusement-park thing up there they built recently.. although not positive what it's all about..

The only thing is, we've been to both of those places couple times with the family in the last several years, and was sort of hoping to go someplace we hadn't ever been (like I had done with younger dd) to make it more special.

Any ideas? :)
Thanks!
 
I was going to suggest Chicago...Where are you in Ohio? I'm thinking the drive to Chicago can't be so far that you need to fly? My DH and I have driven from the Philly area to South Bend, IN for a weekend on several occasions. (So, I think the roadtrip might be half the fun for you!) If it's too far, Ohio has tons of sports teams....what about a baseball or football game, since it sounds like she is a bit of a tomboy? I was definitely NOT a tomboy, but used to love, love, love going to baseball, football, and hockey games w/ my dad. (If for no other reason, than I had him all to myself for a few hours!)
 
What about the Laural Highlands area of Pennsylvania??

There's Idlewild Amusement Park (which includes a water park too), the Laurel Caverns, Falling Water, Ohiopyle which has some great hiking and white water rafting if you're up for adventure, plus you can hit some more urban/city stuff in Pittsburgh on your way to & back.

I'm fairly certain I'm forgetting other things in the area... we're planning a trip there this summer too. DD is 2 and Idlewild has a GREAT toddler/preschooler park for her.

We live in NE Ohio too (hi neighbor!!) and if I remember right (I'm actually from western PA) it's a 3-ish hour drive.
 

Thanks for the replies, :)

The sports game suggestion is a good one, but wouldn't really make for a very long trip.. we live about 30 minutes from where all the cleveland teams play, and wouldn't be too fun to just go that far away, lol!

Chicago would definitely be too far to drive.. at least for me.. it's a 6-hr drive if we don't make any stops, and I really don't want to be on the road for that long just for a 2-3 day trip.

Would like to stick to 2-hr, maybe 3-hr tops.

I'll have to look into Idlewild.. had heard about it, but never really looked to see what it offered.

I also looked into Columbus.. could do Zoombezi Bay, the Columbus Zoo, and COSI.. bet dd would like those.. but...

Open to any other suggestions!

Thanks again!
 
I'm not sure where you are in Ohio, but if you're in the southern part you could go to Carter Caves in Kentucky and do some hiking.
 
Howdy neighbor! What about Pittsburgh? We love going there for the weekend. There's an Ikea there which is so much fun to browse through even if you don't buy anything. Riding the incline is fun too and the Pittsburgh Zoo is really nice. We are members at Akron zoo so Pittsburgh is free to us as well. Lots of good restaurants in the area.
 
Cosi and Columbus Zoo are both great choices. If you're close to Cincinnati there is King's Island and Great Wolf, Riverboats and lots of other things. Depends on age of your DD and location. We are near Dayton so Chicago was only a 4 hour drive and we had a great time.
 
My first thought was Cedar Point, but I'll assume you have already been there... or hershey park, but that is about 6 hour drive...

football hall of fame in Akron - if she likes NFL

Niagara Falls -
 
Howdy neighbor! What about Pittsburgh? We love going there for the weekend. There's an Ikea there which is so much fun to browse through even if you don't buy anything. Riding the incline is fun too and the Pittsburgh Zoo is really nice. We are members at Akron zoo so Pittsburgh is free to us as well. Lots of good restaurants in the area.

Thumbs up to Pittsburgh! Also, Ross Park Mall has a Disney Store... from where I am in the Akron-ish area, it's just about as close as the 2 lonely stores in NE Ohio. PLUS, I get to make an Ikea trip and eat at Primanti Bros. :thumbsup2

We took DD to the Pittsburgh Zoo last summer (we're members at the Akron Zoo too so like PP said, it's free) and she really loved it. Especially the aquarium, which is something you can't find ANYWHERE around here & the polar bear exhibit where you can walk uner the tank.

On an unrelated note: I'm bummed Cleveland Zoo changed their reciprocity level this year and we can't get in free anymore. :(
 
On an unrelated note: I'm bummed Cleveland Zoo changed their reciprocity level this year and we can't get in free anymore.

Me too!! It was bad enough having to pay 50% at Columbus, but now Cleveland as well. Toledo is still free and if you've never been, it's worth a trip! We went to a wedding in MI last year so stopped there on the way back. Liked it so much we're going again this year.
 
Not sure what kind of drive it would be for you, but maybe check out Holiday World and Splashin Safari in Santa Claus Indiana?
 
Me too!! It was bad enough having to pay 50% at Columbus, but now Cleveland as well. Toledo is still free and if you've never been, it's worth a trip! We went to a wedding in MI last year so stopped there on the way back. Liked it so much we're going again this year.

We are members of Cleveland Zoo and I'm bummed about the changes too. Toledo is 50% for us now instead of free. :sad2:
 
I don't know what the cost would be, or how far you are from there...but since you said your DD is sporty, I've read about white water rafting in West Virginia and I think that would be super fun. I don't know WHERE in WV that goes on though, so it might be too far for you.
 
I used to live in NE OH before moving to FL. My husband and I used to camp in PA by the Allegheny River. We would canoe there. They offer 2 day canoeing trips along with camping. If your into camping in a tent, etc... We had loads of fun.
 
Have you heard about The Wilds (http://http://www.thewilds.org/)? It's near Zanesville OH. It would be a great weekend trip!

We just did this for the first time last summer. It was so much fun and so interesting. My DD has already requested to do it this year also. We live in Cincy so it was about a 2 hour drive adn we did it in one day but its close enough to Columbus to make a weekend out of it which is what we will do next time.
 
Last month, I went on my very first mother-daughter trip with my younger dd, and had a blast, so was thinking maybe I'd make it a yearly tradition, and alternate taking each dd separately on a mini-vacation. We live in Northeast Ohio, just to give you an idea of location.

For younger dd, she is absolutely in love with horses, so I had read about a mother-daughter horse-riding camp down close to Columbus (at a horse farm). We drove down there, which is about 3 hrs away, spent the night there, then ended up spending the night at a hotel down in the area, and the following day went to some caverns in the area and visited an old "castle", then came home. So all in all, we were gone from about 4pm Friday evening to about 4pm Sunday. All in all, cost was approx. $300-350.

Would like to do a similar timeframe (and approx. cost) for older dd, but unsure exactly what to do. Would probably have to be within driving distance, cause if we had to factor in airfare, that could really get expensive.
As much as I'd love to fly into Chicago and take her to the Shedd Aquarium (she LOVES sharks).

Any ideas on what I could do? She's my more "boyish" girl.. kinda likes sports, likes more "boy"-type things.. although she does like dolls and stuff too.

Had thought about doing a trip down to Mohican and going canoeing and letting her ride the Go-Karts (she's been wanting to go back ever since she turned 10 since that's the minimum age to ride alone, lol).

Also, had thought about doing Put-In-Bay.. think they have a new amusement-park thing up there they built recently.. although not positive what it's all about..

The only thing is, we've been to both of those places couple times with the family in the last several years, and was sort of hoping to go someplace we hadn't ever been (like I had done with younger dd) to make it more special.

Any ideas? :)
Thanks!
Honestly if you think Shedd Aquarium is what she'd truly like to do then have you thought about checking into Southwest's fares? It looks like flying out of either of their Ohio hubs into Chicago Midwest is regular priced $74-89 each way which means if you keep your eyes out and sign up to get alerted when they have a special going on you can probably get roundtrip airfare for $100 or under. Not a bad price at all espeically if you didn't want to drive 6 hours.
 
Be careful about Idelwild. It's geared for younger kids. My DD8 is almost too old for the park.

If looking for amusement park/waterpark - try KEnnywood and Sandcastle in Pittsburgh. Much better for older kids.
 














Save Up to 30% on Rooms at Walt Disney World!

Save up to 30% on rooms at select Disney Resorts Collection hotels when you stay 5 consecutive nights or longer in late summer and early fall. Plus, enjoy other savings for shorter stays.This offer is valid for stays most nights from August 1 to October 11, 2025.
CLICK HERE













DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest

Back
Top