OT - Where else do you travel with kids?

[mdurette]

We know the major places: Disneyworld, DisneyLand, Sea World, Universal....but what are some of the other great places to travel with PreSchoolers? I found Seasame Place in Pensylvania and New Hampshire has Story Land, Santa's Village and Clarks.

What other places are good for say a long weekend?????

 

[Aunt Flancy]

Branson, Mo- Silver Dollar City
Saint Loius- Zoo and Grants Farm
Chicago- Shedd Aquarium, Museum of Science and Industry, Brookfield Zoo

 

[sk!mom]

Beach- sandcastles, hunting for seashells, relaxing.

 

[Lucky'sMom]

Hershey Park is great for little kids, too. You could do a trip from near Philly at Sesame Place, visit Lancaster, Pa, and do Dutch Wonderland and then go to Hershey. Not sure where you're coming from, but another "classic" amusement park that has a wonderful "kiddie" area is Idlewild Park near Ligonier, Pa. It is a beautiful park with many children's rides, a Storybook Forest, play areas, a waterpark with a kids area and even has a ride on Mr. Rogers' trolley.

 

[holly7347]

My co-worker just went to Indianapolis with her 6 and 3 year olds. She said they have a great children's museum. I had heard it was the biggest in the US maybe. And they went to the Indy zoo while there. We hope to go there one of these days since it is just a 2 hr drive for us.

We have also been to Gatlinburg TN with our DD's. The last trip was a huge extended family trip with great grandparents all the way down to the great grand kids. At least 40 people. We rented a huge challet and since there were so many people it wasn't that expensive. There are lots of minature carnivals that we went to for the kids to ride rids, we did some outlet shopping, we went to a great petting zoo with some exotic animals. We rode a big enclosed ski lift kind of thing to the top of the mountains to a small theme park. We are planning on repeating the trip again next year. One of these trips I hope I can actually talk someone into taking a mountain hike with me. Who drives 5 hours to get to the mountains and then doesn't do anything in the mountains

 

[5 for WDW]

We go to Lancaster PA too. We love Hershey. We take long weekend trips to Mystic CT quite often. We love Lake George, NY. We usually like to spend at least a week there. We are heading to Cooperstown to go to the Baseball Hal Of Fame in May. We have a 5 day break for Memorial Day with unused snow days. We are really excited about this trip! My 4 year old is as much of a baseball fan as her older brothers are.
We went to the Boston Aquarium and Childrens Museum (I can't remember the name of it now) when my boys were a little younger. They loved it.

 

[mcqueengroupie]

We have been to Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach, and we are heading to Atlantis this summer. I can't wait!!!!

 

[poshspice94]

Hershey Park is great for little kids, too. You could do a trip from near Philly at Sesame Place, visit Lancaster, Pa, and do Dutch Wonderland and then go to Hershey. Not sure where you're coming from, but another "classic" amusement park that has a wonderful "kiddie" area is Idlewild Park near Ligonier, Pa. It is a beautiful park with many children's rides, a Storybook Forest, play areas, a waterpark with a kids area and even has a ride on Mr. Rogers' trolley.

We live on Long Island, and we make the trip to Lancaster P.A every summer because of all the amazing things to do for the kids, it does keep growing each year! And now with Sesame Place's new rides as well as Hershey, there isnt enough time. Hershey has bulk packages with Dutch Wonderland to save money if you go to both. The best part, if you got after 5pm the day before your ticket the whole night is free! Also in P.A the Crayola Factory which is such a nice treat for the kids!

[/QUOTE]

 

[PrincessRora]

One of my favorite trips when I was younger was the weekend to NYC. We did the Bronx zoo and the Museum of Natural History (yes, the same one from the movie Night at the Museum).

 

[SharpMomOfTwo]

I thought Hershey park was closing??? Am I wrong???

 

[Fantasmic23]

Some of the places we've gone to in the past (sometimes a bit longer than the weekend):

Cape Cod - Martha's Vineyard

Hershey Park

The Jersey Shore

Sesame Place

Dutch Wonderland

 

[GraysMom]

I thought Hershey park was closing??? Am I wrong???

I haven't heard anything about that. I think HP opens this weekend. Do you remember where you got this info?

 

[GraysMom]

We LOVE to go to Knoebels Amusement Resort in Elysburg, PA. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, but it's definitely worth the trip, IMO. They have free admission, free parking, picnic tables if you bring your own food, reasonable prices on delicious food (and quite a variety), and you can either buy a one-price handstamp or books of tickets to use as you ride (the tickets don't expire). They also have a really large pool with a few waterslides. There is a campground right next to the park as well as an affiliated campground nearby (with a free shuttle to the park). Just a nice, shady old-fashioned kind of park.

We also like to go to Lancaster as others have mentioned. We do the outlets (Rockvale and Tanger) as well as the railroad stuff in Strasburg. The Strasburg General Store has yummy homemade ice cream and penny candy.

 

[Goofy'slady]

We do Hershey just about every year too. Since we're here in MD it's just a short drive, about 1 1/2. We also love Busch Gardens, VA and this year we're doing BG's and Williamsburg too.

We also do Cape Code every summer. Long drive but the kids love the beaches and I love the sightseeing, dining and shopping; we even try to squeeze in a day trip to Boston if there's time. MA is full of educational things for kids that are actually fun.

T.

 

[TinaLala]

I heard the manufacturing portion of Hershey is closing, the park is staying open.



We go to Cape Cod, NH - storyland, santa's village, camping in general all over. sesame place is great. This year on the way back from FLa we stopped in VA and did some mining for gems!! Lots of fun - at Lucky Lake! They actually had gems in dirt that you had to swish in water to find the gems.

 

[jenb1023]

Hersheypark is not closing - I have my season passes and their new roller coaster opens at the end of May! HERCO (Hershey Entertainment and Resorts) is totally separate from Hershey Foods and its subsidiaries. I believe some of the candy manufacturing plants are closing.

As a side note, we love Hersheypark! I would recommend it over Dutch Wonderland and Sesame Place. We will be there on Sunday - it opens Friday.

Good luck deciding where to go!

 

[_queenie_]

We just got back last night from Naples, FL. We rented a three bedroom condo at Naples Bay Resort (highly recommended), it wasn't on the beach but offered a shuttle and had a great pool. The beach is great, Naples is on the gulf so the water's calm and warm and there are lots of shells. We had a lot of fun, staying there allowed us to really feel locals (while still feeling like we were on vacation), So much in fact the kids are complaining that the want to go "home" back in Florida!

 

[Rylee]

We know the major places: Disneyworld, DisneyLand, Sea World, Universal....but what are some of the other great places to travel with PreSchoolers? I found Seasame Place in Pensylvania and New Hampshire has Story Land, Santa's Village and Clarks.

What other places are good for say a long weekend?????

Niagara Falls, both sides
Hershey Park... (going July 16, 17, 18)
Wildwood Crest, Cape May, Myrtle Beach, Ocean City... ANY BEACH, ANYWHERE!
New York City... (going June 4 & 5, Yankee game and Mary Poppins)
Lake George, NY
Toronto
Knoebels
Boston
Cape Cod
Virginia Beach
Grand Canyon


General - Camping

 

[SharpMomOfTwo]

I haven't heard anything about that. I think HP opens this weekend. Do you remember where you got this info?

I have no idea! I'm probally wrong, just call before you go!

 

[ReadingMama]

Depends where you are coming from... Land of Make Believe in NJ is nice also...but not worth a long drive and is only a day trip.

I agree with the others about Hershey Park too.