<p>I would like to take a nice family vacation this summer before our son leaves for college. Of course we’re a little late planning it, but we’ve been busy! Anyway, we live on the east coast but I wouldn’t mind flying if necessary. I’m assuming Florida is out because of the beach situation. We normally go to a beach, but I think a week of that gets a little boring so it would be nice to mix it up a little. We live in the NJ/DE area if that matters.</p>
<p>We also don’t have passports (shame on us) so it has to be in the US.</p>
<p>So, tell me about some great vacations you’ve taken - I need ideas.</p>
<p>What about a cruise to Alaska? We have done this on three times. All three out of Vancouver,(Celebrity cruises) a great city to be in during the summer months.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>New York/Boston/Maine (or just Boston/Maine, or just Maine or just Boston)</p></li>
<li><p>San Diego</p></li>
<li><p>Chicago</p></li>
<li><p>Seattle/Mt. Ranier Our trip also included the Olympia (Olympic?) National Park/Forest, but it might be difficult to find accomodations there at this late date (we had to book way in advance even before the Twilight books/movies)</p></li>
<li><p>Washington DC</p></li>
<li><p>Boulder, Colorado</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The best vacation we’ve taken as a family was Cali. Some beach time, went to a Dodgers game, Disneyland, Universal Studios, drove up to Monterey Bay.</p>
<p>How about the wonderful state of Hawaii? There are a lot of deals and many of the hotels are even offering discounts. You honestly would have a hard time finding better beaches than here. Each island offers its own charms as well. Check around to see what’s available.</p>
<p>We also loved the national parks of the west coast, Mt. Rainier, Crater Lake, Coastal Redwoods, Kings Canyon & Sequoia National Park. We just finished a one month road trip & created incredible memories!</p>
<p>Glad you had a great visit to HI! We are fortunate to have such a gorgeous place to live. Each island has its own charms and even within each island there are microclimates and so much to see/do.</p>
<p>Seattle was also lovely–we loved the Underground Seattle tour and Pike Street Market. We had dinner at your lovely Museum of Modern Art–yum! For some reason, we’ve had a lot of interesting meals at lots of different museums in various cities. When the kids see a museum, they always think of great food. :)</p>
<p>Black Hills of South Dakota with the Badlands nearby. You can see Mt. Rushmore, wild bison (Custer State Park), and go in caves (Jewel Cave N.P. & Wind Cave N.P.)</p>
<p>1) Florida - only a very small percent of Florida’s beach and tourism areas are in any way affected by the oil spill. Here’s a partial list of Florida vacation locales that are 100% unaffected:</p>
<p>Tampa/St. Pete, Naples, Sanibel, Everglades, Key West, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Orlando, Melbourne, St. Augustine. The oil spill is a terrible disaster and will have a major and long-lasting impact on marshes and bayous on the Gulf Coast of La, Ms and Al. The Panhandle beaches of Fl and Al are affected by the oil this season and will probably be cleaned up by next year. In short, if you were thinking of vacationing in Florida, there’s plenty of unaffected Florida available. (Florida in the summer is not my cup of tea, but that’s got nothing to do with the oil. If I had to choose one place in Fl - definitely the Keys.)</p>
<p>2) Family vacation starting from NJ/MD - I’d go to the Cape or to Mt. Desert in Maine. If you’re primarily beach people - then the Cape or Martha’s Vineyard. If you’re more biking/hiking - then Mt. Desert (or maybe Adirondacks/Lake Champlain). If you’re more dance/theatre/music, then the Berkshires. If you’re more shopping-as-entertainment, then I’m not sure – all of these places have too much shopping for my taste!</p>
<p>Tell us more about what you’re looking for, and how long you want to be away.</p>
<p>Cozumel, but not in a summer. I do not go anywhere in a summer, it is just too hot in most places. More concerns in regard to Cozumel - oil spill and Mexican problems. We are planning to go in December. Have been there about 14 or so times. Sometime we go somewhere else to check it out, nothing is measuring up for us. Cayman got too commercial, Jamaica lack of shore snorkeling, Disney is too crowded, never liked Florida. None of these places are goo in a summer anyway.</p>
<p>San Diego is a great place to vacation in the summer. You have the beach plus lots of other stuff you can do. Disneyland is only 1 1/2 hours away and LA is 2 hours.</p>
<p>I would have suggested Bermuda as it is beautiful this time of year, but you don’t have passports.</p>
<p>I second Himom’s suggestion of a west coast trip. Our family did a similar trip to hers and it was one of our most memorable family vacations ever. We flew into Seattle, rented a car, and made a big circle around Seattle. We visited Vancouver, San Juan Islands, Mt. Ranier, Crater Lake, Oregon coast, and the coastal redwood parks in northern California. My twenty-something kids say this trip was one of the top two vacations we took together when they were younger (the other was Maui.)</p>
<p>Our family just returned from a wonderful trip to the southwest, where we visited Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Sedona, and Las Vegas. We had a fabulous time. The kids on the trip (all in their 20s) all agreed the Angels Landing hike at Zion NP was one of the top experiences of their (young) lives. I would highly recommend this trip at other times of the year, but I’m afraid some of the areas might be too hot in summer.</p>
<p>Seattle & Mt. Rainier & Crater Lake still had snow & were nice & cool. Rainier was running a special in the park–stay one night at Paradise & get one night free! It was a good savings!
It was getting a LOT warmer 80s-90s (t-shirt, shorts & lots of BUGS) down at Kings Canyon & Sequoia–they were having flooding because of all the snow melt.</p>
<p>I would save Arizona for a spring break vacation…Phoenix, Sedona, Flagstaff, GC - love them all, but not when it’s 100+.</p>
<p>For the possiblity of more pleasant weather, I’d try Seattle/Pac NW, Chicago, Boston or Maine. Maybe San Diego. Lots of people really enjoy central Minnesota…it would be idyllic ECEPT for the biting flies and giant mosquitoes.</p>
<p>We started to do National Park vacations every other year with our boys when they were 5 and 7. We have seen a lot of places, most have already been mentioned on this thread. Our first trip was to Yellowstone. It is so huge, you don’t need to go anywhere else, but Jackson Hole, Wyoming isn’t too far away. </p>
<p>We did a Yosemite trip next - We started in San Francisco, went inland to Yosemite, then Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park, then back to the coast at Big Sur, up the coast on Rt. 1 to Monterey, the 17 mile drive at Pebble Beach, and back to San Francisco.</p>
<p>My husband and I did a different Yosemite trip when we went before we had children. We also went from Yosemite to Lake Tahoe, headed up to Oregon, camped at a couple of lesser known parks (one was called Lava Beds and the bat caves there were very cool), we went to Crater Lake and then back down the coast heading back to San Francisco. You pass the wine country that way, which is always nice. One of our favorite things was camping at a California State Park called Gold Bluff, We were right at the beach and when we woke up in the morning there was a huge herd of Elk grazing in the field right next to us. It was amazing.</p>
<p>The last trip we did with the National Park theme was going to Las Vegas, then heading to Utah to see Bryce and Zion (my husband and my oldest child did Angels Landing; I was too chicken). Next stop was the Grand Canyon. At the Grand Canyon we did a rafting trip on the Colorado River. It was run by a local native american tribe, the Hualapai. It was a day trip (most of the other rafting trips down the canyon are overnight trips) and it was great - air temp of 110 and water temp of 40. After that we had a quick stop at the Hoover Dam and then another day in Vegas.</p>
<p>As you can see, I would definitely vote for a National Park trip to the west. The parks are all amazing. I love sharing our country with my kids. We did a lot camping and cabins to save money. We had a wonderful time on all of our trips.</p>