Non-Dis Extended Family Vacation challange!

[semo233]

Our family has decided to explore the idea of an extended family vacation.\

Cast of Characters include 4 families ranging in age from 2-77.

All living in Connecticut.

Target Date: August 2013

Budget: There is no way for me to describe the wide range: One family has an annual income of well over a million a year, while one other barely scrapes by and will have 2 children in college in Sept. 2012. The other two families fall in between. We are trying to make the family with limited budget comfortable with the plan. Therefore, air travel is probably not in the budget.

Current thoughts: We are currently looking at lake George, but don't know if accomodations are in the lowest income family's budget. We don't all need to be at the same resort/condo/house. Just close by. We would at least like to have one large "homebase" with a kitchen.
(One family member stayed on Lake George and likes the vast choices in activities)

Do you have any location and/or accomodation suggestions?

 

[disneygal2007]

Our family has decided to explore the idea of an extended family vacation.\

Cast of Characters include 4 families ranging in age from 2-77.

All living in Connecticut.

Target Date: August 2013

Budget: There is no way for me to describe the wide range: One family has an annual income of well over a million a year, while one other barely scrapes by and will have 2 children in college in Sept. 2012. The other two families fall in between. We are trying to make the family with limited budget comfortable with the plan. Therefore, air travel is probably not in the budget.

Current thoughts: We are currently looking at lake George, but don't know if accomodations are in the lowest income family's budget. We don't all need to be at the same resort/condo/house. Just close by. We would at least like to have one large "homebase" with a kitchen.
(One family member stayed on Lake George and likes the vast choices in activities)

Do you have any location and/or accomodation suggestions?

This is kinda the same thing with my family and my sister and her kids. We researched family vacation homes. We found one with 6 bedrooms. We split the cost with her with us taking most of the cost. try doing that. Look up vacation homes and if anyone doesn't mind sharing the house with the family member who's funds aren't like everyone's elses vacation budget then it may work. Then everyone can split food cost and still have a wonderful vacation.

 

[semo233]

Will definately suggest this!
Any ideas for destinations or recommendations for accomodations?

 

[brekin67]

We just stayed at a rental home in North Captiva Islands, Florida. Our home accomodated 12 people, but lots of rental homes on island. Mid August, most rates go way down.
There are no cars on the island so the homes come with golf carts. We were right on the beach and we loved shelling and looking for sand dollars. We also went sharking and my son caught 3 sharks with tenacity fishing guide, Bo.


http://www.windsweptnorthcaptiva.com/

 

[Jules123]

We just stayed at a rental home in North Captiva Islands, Florida. Our home accomodated 12 people, but lots of rental homes on island. Mid August, most rates go way down.
There are no cars on the island so the homes come with golf carts. We were right on the beach and we loved shelling and looking for sand dollars. We also went sharking and my son caught 3 sharks with tenacity fishing guide, Bo.

http://www.windsweptnorthcaptiva.com/

This house is amazing? How much did it cost to rent? I didn't see any prices on their website.

 

[eliza61]

Our family has decided to explore the idea of an extended family vacation.\

Cast of Characters include 4 families ranging in age from 2-77.

All living in Connecticut.

Target Date: August 2013

Budget: There is no way for me to describe the wide range: One family has an annual income of well over a million a year, while one other barely scrapes by and will have 2 children in college in Sept. 2012. The other two families fall in between. We are trying to make the family with limited budget comfortable with the plan. Therefore, air travel is probably not in the budget.

Current thoughts: We are currently looking at lake George, but don't know if accomodations are in the lowest income family's budget. We don't all need to be at the same resort/condo/house. Just close by. We would at least like to have one large "homebase" with a kitchen.
(One family member stayed on Lake George and likes the vast choices in activities)

Do you have any location and/or accomodation suggestions?

truthfully we did this and found the best place was Disney.

We too had family budgets all over the place. We had a family reunion at the world and family stayed at every resort level from value to concierge deluxe.
We had all the "organized activities" on two days so folks could determine how long they wanted to stay.

The problem with us with trying to do Lake George or South Carolina is that the price of the house was fixed and we divided the total amount amongst the families but if one family pulled out the price of the house doesn't decrease and the cost goes up for the remaining folks.

We were from NY so most folks drove down.

 

[hsmamato2]

outer banks rental home?

 

[brekin67]

This house is amazing? How much did it cost to rent? I didn't see any prices on their website.

We stayed 7 nights with another family and I think we each paid about one thousand dollars. That included the groceries we had delivered to the home for the week. I know the price went down about 40% had we waited until August. The owners, Mark and Wendy Muller, were very kind and accomodating. I think you have to email them directly to get a quote.
We have no regrets about trading Disney for Windswept this year.

 

[mdsouth]

We have gone to the Myrtle Beach area several times and rented a four bedroom condo at Litchfield Beach and Golf Resort in Pawley's Island. You might need to rent separate 2 bedroom condos or even rooms in the resort itself. We rented to condos on the golf course because they were significantly cheaper than the ones on the oceanfront. We had a full kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry, and three bathrooms. We paid around 900 total for the 4 bedroom condo for a week. The resort is on the beach and has a Starbucks, restarurant, pools, there. You can rent bikes, or just hang out at the beach or pool. We liked it and have been at the same resort with extended family three times. There are other restarants close by and if you want more action you can drive up the beach to Myrtle Beach and there are lots of golf courses and mini-golf courses.

 

[brymolmom]

We have done Lake George with similar numbers and let me tell you the biggest 'con' to it: You have to drive everywhere. At least that's what it was like where we stayed. If we wanted to all go out to dinner - it was loading up 4 cars and driving there, etc. For our dinners in our own kitchen - it was a LOT of work, even for simple dinners, just because of the number of people (lots of prep, lots of cleanup). We decided not to do that again.

How about a Dude Range or Family Resort? There are a bunch in NY and PA - both easy driving for you. Dude Ranch will likely be a lot more expensive - but you could do a long weekend instead of a full week to keep costs lower. Many of these place DO THE COOKING FOR YOU - which, IMO adds a HUGE benefit to the vacation as a whole (as I likely would be the one plannign the meals, making sure all the stuff was purchased, doing a lot of the prep, etc.).

We do a family vacation to a resort in the Poconos every summer. It is called Daniels:
http://www.danielsresort.com/

Plusses are that it includes breakfast and dinners every day (basic but decent) and NO CLEANUP. Also everything you might want to do is right there - 3 swimming pools, basketball, bocce, shuffleboard, horseshoes, bingo every night, entertainment nightly, karaoke at the bar at happy hour, hayride one night, pony rides for kids one day, other kids activities (hikes, games, etc.). There are tournaments every day that are a lot of fun and you win Award T-shirts at the end of the week. Even my mother who has MS has no problem walking to the baseball field to watch the game and then heading into Bingo because it's all right there.

Downside is that this particular resort likely won't work for your million dollar family - LOL! It is VERY RUSTIC. But also very inexpensive (when you consider entertainment and most meals included). The rooms are not 4 star (maybe 1.5 or 2??).

Another plus is the people there are often great. I met one of my best friends in the world there when we were kids - and I still travel to Connecticut every other year with my family to visit his.

Anyway - even though this one won't work for you - something similar but more upscale to appeal to all in your group would be ideal, IMO, with that large a group of people.

Good luck.