Summer vacation suggestions with college & HS kids (non-Disney)

[anniemae]

Charleston SC. We loved it. Did a bunch of day trips. We went to Myrtle Beach, Savannah, Tybee Island. It was so much fun.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

While we're a lot more limited right now due to travel ball, we are big fans of National Park road trips. I'm not sure about your child's injuries, but we managed a couple of days in Rocky Mountain National Park last summer while our younger one was in a boot for a stress fracture. So, no major hiking during that visit, but there's enough to see off the main roads and more tame trails to make it fun. Also forgot to note that we visited Capulin Volcano NM on our way to Colorado, since finding places along the way helps. We have three ways we've approached parks trips. Just be mindful of parks that are requiring advanced reservations... Acadia, Arches, Glacier, Haleakalā, Rocky Mountain, Shenandoah, Yosemite, and Zion. I believe Muir Woods NM is also requiring reservations. The caves all seem to require some form of extra ticket as well. I know I had to do this for Carlsbad, I'm seeing it in my planning for Wind Cave NP and Jewel Cave NM, and I thought I saw someone saying the name for Mammoth Cave NP. This stuff is all pretty easy to purchase on the Recreation.gov app if timed well. You'll also want an American the Beautiful NP pass if you go this route for travel. So, here's our three methods of approach-

1. Pick a park or one specific area and focus on that. Example: Yellowstone/Grand Teton- fly into Jackson Hole, Cody, etc. - rent a car - and just focus on those two parks/surrounding areas. At this stage of the game, while there may still be some lodging left at Canyon in Yellowstone, your best bet is probably staying outside of the park in West Yellowstone or Gardiner (north entrance should be open).

2. Fly to your parks road trip - we've done a couple of these where we pick a starting/ending point, fly in, rent a car, and make a giant loop to hit an array of parks and monuments. Example: Fly into Denver, acclimate to the elevation for a day or two (explore foothills around Golden), drive to Estes Park for Rocky Mountain NP, drive to Rangely, CO or Vernal, UT to visit Dinosaur NM, drive to Moab, UT to visit Arches NP and Canyonlands NP, drive to Cortez, CO to visit Mesa Verde NP and Canyon of the Ancients NM, drive to Montrose, CO to visit Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP, drive to Alamosa, CO to visit Great Sand Dunes NP, drive to Buena Vista, CO to whitewater raft Browns Canyon NM, then back to Denver to visit the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. We did a couple of other like this that involved Badlands NP, Mount Rushmore NM, Little Bighorn NM, Crazy Horse, Devils Tower NM, Yellowstone NP, and Grand Teton NP. Another had us centered in Las Vegas and we went to Death Valley NP and Grand Canyon NP.

3. Drive from home- This will largely depend on how far you're willing to drive from home, since everyone has a different starting point and personal threshold for time on the road. We did a shorter one where we visited Hot Springs NP, Graceland, and Great Smokey Mountains NP, and then looped around through Atlanta and New Orleans before heading home. The biggest one we've done was about 6,500 miles and took us to the Oklahoma City National Memorial, Pipestone NM, Theodore Roosevelt NP, Glacier NP, Yellowstone NP, Shoshone Falls ID, Capitol Reef NP, Bryce Canyon NP, Grand Staircase Escalante NM, Zion NP, Glen Canyon NRA, Horseshoe Bend, Monument Valley, Mexican Hat, Shiprock, Petroglyph NM, White Sands NP, Carlsbad Caverns NP, and Guadalupe Mountains NP. I have a few others like this in my notes (one that takes us to Olympic and Yosemite...another that takes us to Big Bend, Petrified Forest and Saguaro) that we hope to someday work into our schedules.

 

[Travel60]

Our domestic favorites:
East Coast - If anyone likes baseball and history, try to hit games in Boston, NY, Phil, Baltimore, DC. You could make it a train journey. In between, see the historic sites of each of those cities - Fanueil Hall, Trade Center Memorial, Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell/ Independence Hall, Ft. McHenry. DC Smithsonian museums are free and some other great ones for reasonable fee (Spy Museum a favorite). Can always hop over to Williamsburg for a day or two.

For a more distant trip - Washington State and Oregon. Fly into Seattle, explore a day or two. Drive down to Oregon (Mt. St. Helens on the way). Down Oregon coast to Canon Beach (beautiful!). Then up Columbia river girge past breathtaking waterfalls, down to Bend, Oregon (charming funky town) to Crater Lake. Then, depending on time, either down to Redwoods Parks in NoCal or fly home.

In the middle - fly into Denver - spend a couple of days at RM national park and Boulder area. Then drive down to Colorado Springs area and see Air Force Academy, Garden of the Gods, Arkansas River train ride, Pikes Peak.

Others- San Antonio, San Diego (then drive up coast), New Orleans -hot, humid, ...Savannah and Charleston are off the charts charming.

Have fun and enjoy time with kids. Once they start working it's hard to find time with them.

 

[TheIncredibles!]

We did two Amtrak vacations and will be doing a third to Glacier Natioinal Park this June. I highly recommend. It had a great mixture of sightseeing and downtime while on the train etc.

 

[Hopscotch]

OP here- so many great suggestions! Thanks so much! Going to start doing some research. On top of issues with dates, we're not sure about my D's injury. It may require surgery so not sure of the recovery. Son goes to college in Colorado so he doesn't want to vacation there. I do like the Alaska and Canada ideas and so many other ones that people mentioned.

 

[AndreaDM]

I would second the cruise suggestion especially with an injury, your daughter can do as much or as little as she wants/can.

I have been to Iceland and wouldn't go unless everyone was able to walk/hike or you'll miss out on a lot. Plus it's crazy expensive too!

 

[Frwinkley]

We did two Amtrak vacations and will be doing a third to Glacier Natioinal Park this June. I highly recommend. It had a great mixture of sightseeing and downtime while on the train etc.

This is interesting. Where did your train originate? What other Amtrak vacations have you done?

 

[TheIncredibles!]

This is interesting. Where did your train originate? What other Amtrak vacations have you done?

Our first big trip we left from NYC overnight on the Lakeshore Limited to Chicago in a sleeper car. After a few hours we boarded the California Zephyr overnight and got off on the westerns side of Colorado in Grand Junction. We grabbed a rental from there and spent a few days driving through Utah, Bryce, Zion, Capitol Reef. Then we turned in the car in Flagstaff AZ and did the Grand Canyon Railroad to the Grand Canyon etc then the Southwest Chief Train from Flagstaff to Chicago and then we flew home. . That was our 25th anniversary planes, trains, planes and automobile vacation.

This past winter we just pieced together a key west trip flying down and taking the Silver Meteor train back to NYC.


I have not decided what we are doing this summer. We may fly to Seattle, take the Empire Builder from there, stop at Glacier National park , get back on the train to Chicago then fly home from Chicago.

We love Amtrak but fair warning…it’s not cheap in the sleeper cars but it is an adventure.

 

[Magical2017]

Our kids helped us select Puerto Rico for this summer. They want to visit the rain forest and do the bio bay tour. They enjoyed cruising but that was pre-pandemic (we have not cruised since). National parks, lakes, and beaches are always popular with our two.

 

[Living42Day]

We did two Amtrak vacations and will be doing a third to Glacier Natioinal Park this June. I highly recommend. It had a great mixture of sightseeing and downtime while on the train etc.

We've been wanting to do Amtrak again instead of a road trip but the prices have been outrageous! We would only want to do a room and a one-way fare would be $2,200....for only two beds!!! I would rather fly first class for that much, but the train was fun the one time we got to do it a few years ago.

 

[TheIncredibles!]

We've been wanting to do Amtrak again instead of a road trip but the prices have been outrageous! We would only want to do a room and a one-way fare would be $2,200....for only two beds!!! I would rather fly first class for that much, but the train was fun the one time we got to do it a few years ago.

I definitely agree with you however...We had the most amazing experience with Amtrak and especially the Amtrak employees. Our big trip was in 2021 during the pandemic. Lots of things we missed as far as food and perks but the people... the staff were just so amazing and appreciative.

No it's not cost effective, yes you can fly faster first class and be spoiled but Amtrak is just something totally different as you already know. To "ride the rails" and see the basic infrastructure of our country in that way and REALLY interact for hours and hours with staff. It's just a different(NOT FIRST CLASS even though they charge for it ) experience.

 

[TheIncredibles!]

And I'll forever laugh that I live in NJ, in one of the most heavily populated areas of our country and I need to drive an hour to get to an Amtrak Station. On one leg of our huge Amtrak trip I was laughing/offended when we stopped in some noname town in Iowa and some guy got off with his suitcase and backpack, walked across the street and into his house! I would LOVE that. He can literally walk outside his door and hop on the Amtrak route that goes from Chicago to San Francisco. Go Iowa

 

[AndreaDM]

Our kids helped us select Puerto Rico for this summer. They want to visit the rain forest and do the bio bay tour. They enjoyed cruising but that was pre-pandemic (we have not cruised since). National parks, lakes, and beaches are always popular with our two.

We did this trip 10+ years ago with one college kid, one high school kid and one elementary kid and it was enjoyed by all and still talked about all the time! The bio bay is a really cool experience!

 

[Frwinkley]

Our first big trip we left from NYC overnight on the Lakeshore Limited to Chicago in a sleeper car. After a few hours we boarded the California Zephyr overnight and got off on the westerns side of Colorado in Grand Junction. We grabbed a rental from there and spent a few days driving through Utah, Bryce, Zion, Capitol Reef. Then we turned in the car in Flagstaff AZ and did the Grand Canyon Railroad to the Grand Canyon etc then the Southwest Chief Train from Flagstaff to Chicago and then we flew home. . That was our 25th anniversary planes, trains, planes and automobile vacation.

This past winter we just pieced together a key west trip flying down and taking the Silver Meteor train back to NYC.


I have not decided what we are doing this summer. We may fly to Seattle, take the Empire Builder from there, stop at Glacier National park , get back on the train to Chicago then fly home from Chicago.

We love Amtrak but fair warning…it’s not cheap in the sleeper cars but it is an adventure.

Sounds like so much fun! We've never done any big train travel, but will be going by Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver this summer. It's only about a 4 hour ride though!

 

[TheIncredibles!]

Sounds like so much fun! We've never done any big train travel, but will be going by Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver this summer. It's only about a 4 hour ride though!

That’s still a nice ride. Prior to our big trip we had only been on the Disney monorail and the NYC subway when I was a child . It was 100% a new experience for us.

 

[DanBoris]

Sounds like so much fun! We've never done any big train travel, but will be going by Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver this summer. It's only about a 4 hour ride though!

Me and my wife did an Amtrak trip from Philadelphia to Fullerton CA (Disneyland). Three days each way but it was an amazing trip, go to see so much of the country.

 

[greeneyedchick]

Sounds like so much fun! We've never done any big train travel, but will be going by Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver this summer. It's only about a 4 hour ride though!

Have you gone on your train trip? I was looking into taking the CA Zephyr ride in a few weeks. I read so many bad reviews about the train and the staff, but the views are supposed to be spectacular.

 

[Frwinkley]

We did! It was wonderful. Very relaxing and scenic. It was great leaving the driving to somebody else.

 

[TheIncredibles!]

Have you gone on your train trip? I was looking into taking the CA Zephyr ride in a few weeks. I read so many bad reviews about the train and the staff, but the views are supposed to be spectacular.

I have ridden the Zephyr twice from Chicago to Grand Junction, CO. Also the Lakeshore Limited twice as well as the Silver Meteor all in the last 3 years. Staff is amazing views are UNBEATABLE

ETA: Forgot we have ridden the Southwest Chief from Flagstaff to Chicago also.