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<p>My DH and I went to Scottsdale once in the first week of June. Big mistake. We came out of the airport and were literally blasted with 109 degree air. It took my breath away for a moment, and coming from Texas, it’s not like I’m not accustomed to dealing with oppressive heat. But that was insane. We get heat like that occasionally, but not usually until August. I cannot imagine how anyone lives in that part of Arizona in late summer.</p>
<p>You also meet people all over the world at the national parks who are admiring our lovely country. There are many options that are not as pricey as you might think, especially if you’re all willing to share a room. We have had two double beds for the four of us. Our kids have also developed a tremendous love for the out-of-doors and the glories of nature from our many trips to national parks. Try to spend at least a few days at each location so you’re not constantly packing and moving all the time.</p>
<p>My S has developed a love of rock-climbing and camps with his college friends, which is a nice low cost way for them to do & see a lot inexpensively. Our D is also comfortable with whatever accommodations she ends up with, as long as it’s relatively clean.</p>
<p>I agree that it would be best to keep weather and heat and humidity in mind when making your plans. Hawaii is still one of the most amazing places on earth!</p>
<p>The National Park trips have been some of my families favorite trips.
One year we flew to Seattle, rented a mini van and went to Orcas Island and on to Canada including heading over to Lake Louise and Banff. It was a wonderful trip. The year we did Zion, Bryce, Arches and Mesa Verde and Grand Canyon was a great trip. We left early June and it was good weather till we hit Grand Canyon on the way home. I don’t know if it was the heat or that my kids were tired but it is the least favorite park for my kids.
Also Monterrey Ca is great. You could do San Francisco and a coastal Ca trip. After Big Sur you can continue down to Cambria and visit Hearst Castle if that interests you. The plus for some and minus for others is that Ca coast can be cool in early summer.</p>
<p>So many great suggestions especially all the National Park ideas - love it!</p>
<p>Just wanted to say that even though the US Virgin Islands (St. John, St. Thomas, St. Croix) are US you still need a passport. I can’t remember why right now but a passport is definitely required. St. John is almost all National Park, btw.</p>
<ul>
<li>San Diego - beaches, surf, boogie board, sail, kayak, dinner cruise on the bay, SD zoo, Sea World, Wild Animal Park, Coronado Island, Palomar Telescope, Torrey Pines state park, hiking, mt biking, snorkeling in La Jolla cove (but colder water than Fla/Hi), see seals in Childrens Pool in La Jolla, lots of golf courses, Birch Aquarium, etc. Can do a day trip to Disneyland, Universal Studios, boat trip to Catalina Island, Queen Mary, etc.</li>
<li>Hawaii - always good - snorkeling, scuba, other water sports, hiking, golfing, etc.</li>
<li>National Parks in the Utah area - Zion, Bruce, Arches, Canyonlands, Captial Reef, Grand Canyon</li>
<li>National/State Parks, etc. in California - Sequoia, Yosemite, Death Valley (too hot in summer to do too much), Bodie ghost town, Lake Tahoe, Lassen NP, more…</li>
<li>NW - Oregon/Washington</li>
<li>Colorado - Ouray area - looks like it s/b in Switzerland, rent a jeep and go 4-wheeling, hikes, mt biking, etc., Durango area - train between Durango/Silverton, head to Mesa verde NP, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, river rafting, you could head past 4 corners to monument valley but it’ll be hot.</li>
<li>Wyoming - Yellowstone, Grand teton</li>
<li>Florida - still lots of nice beaches (forget the news hype) but hot and humid.</li>
<li>Lots of other places - depends on what you like to do.</li>
</ul>
<p>(Last summer we went on vacation in the NE but you’re already there)</p>
<p>Last summer we visited SF and Yosemite, it was great. A few years ago we went to Carmel CA (as said above Monterey Peninsula), and it is just breathtakingly beautiful. You can drive from SF if you want to take a lovely drive too. Tickets last summer and this past spring break were fairly cheap to CA from EWR our airport of choice (less than to FL). We are not fans of hot hot hot temps, so CA is better than FL for us, and I think there is more to do there.</p>
<p>I also love the Maine Coast. If you drive from southern ME to Bar Harbor you can see some really beautiful things. We took the boat ride out of Booth Bay Harbor years ago, and that is a great ride since you see things for most of the trip (not just miles out to see like a whale watch.)</p>
<p>Thanks for all of our great suggestions. In response to one of your questions, our vacation will probably be for about a week. We’ve burned through our vacation days with graduation, party, school visits and events, etc. Plus we still need some to take our son to college.</p>
<p>I’m thinking CA might be the way to go. We were there last summer to visit schools and didn’t have nearly enough time to sight see. My son kept saying he wanted to swim in the Pacific but we never did. </p>
<p>Thanks for your ideas.</p>
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<p>That’s incorrect. Those territories even advertise to US citizens highlighting this issue. No passport required. And while much of St. John is National Park, there are plenty of places to stay-hotels and many private villas for rent, restaurants, plenty of beaches, etc… We’ve done St. John and loved it.</p>
<p>[Western</a> Hemisphere Travel Initiative](<a href=“404 - Page Not Found”>404 - Page Not Found)</p>
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<p>I don’t know if you are thinking southern or northern CA., but I’ve done both and enjoyed them immensely. I did particularly love Monterrey/Carmel/Big Sur. That region is beautiful and still cool. The water is pretty rough and cold as I remember it, but I think Carmel was pretty manageable. Lots to see and do, beautiful scenery, lovely restaurants, etc.; you can’t go wrong.</p>
<p>Your son can swim in the Pacific in CA, but to *enjoy *swimming in the Pacific, you have to be in San Diego. The ocean north of San Diego is too cold. San Diego is a fabulous place to visit!</p>
<p>(You know where you can really enjoy swimming in the Pacific Ocean - in Hawaii :))</p>
<p>All good suggestions… but, the Southwest Parks (GC, Bryce, Arches, Zion, etc…) are uber-HOT in the summertime. Sometimes so hot that it really keeps you from doing some of the hiking and things you’d want to do.</p>
<p>If you want something truly special, I vote for the Alaska trip. I’ve been there several times and love it. I’ve never done a cruise (at least on a cruise ship), but I have taken the Alaska Marine Highway ferry from Belleview, WA to Haines AK (and we also took our truck/camper-trailer on board). The scenery is beyond spectacular. Not the amenities of a cruise ship (think cafeteria instead of fabulous cruise-meals), but we did have a tiny cabin for the three-days journey.</p>
<p>If you do the Alaska cruise, I HIGHLY recommend making advance arrangements for one of the flight-seeing tours over the Misty Fjords National Monument (out of Ketchikan). It’s expensive, but a memory for life. And they can schedule around the hours that the ship is in port in Ketchikan. Look at the website for Island Wings: [Misty</a> Fjords Flightseeing Tours Ketchikan Alaska](<a href=“http://www.islandwings.com%5DMisty”>http://www.islandwings.com) We’ve used them twice - once for the fly-over and once to take us and equipment deep into the wilderness, drop us off, and pick us up 4 days later.</p>
<p>Digmedia, I have often wondered about the Alaska Marine Highway ferry. Though (thanks to generous retired parents) we have done the regular cruise, we felt that the AMH ferry would be a great way to go. Did you take your own camper trailer, or rent that as well?</p>
<p>For swimming in the Pacific in Northern CA, I’d suggest Santa Cruz where the water is a little warmer. Carmel is just a little too cold for prolonged swimming.</p>
<p>In addition, the Beach Boardwalk has a great roller coaster and a fun beach scene.</p>
<p>Montery/Yosimite/San Fransisco makes a nice loop - small cute town with scenery, National Park, cool (even literally) city. But if you go to Yosimite, plan accomodations in advance-probably too late to get into the national park lodging unless there are cancellations (which there could be in this economy).</p>
<p>You all have such great ideas. I have a horrible feeling we’re going to end up in Ocean City - again, just for lack of desire to plan. I’m so burned out after after all of the senior year, college search, graduation party planning. I could really use some fun in the sun, but I need it to just happen…I don’t want to have to think about it!</p>
<p>How about just getting a flight to San Diego and booking one hotel for the entire trip. relax and if they want to see anything or go anywhere they can arrange it. You can do a ton in San Diego or you can just sit by the pool or lay out on the sand.
Santa Monica you could do the same thing.</p>
<p>Tiredalready, here’s what to do:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Settle on your dates.</p>
<p>a. Do you have time to visit multiple cities in the vacation region?
b. If so, do you want to visit multiple cities in the vacatoin region?</p></li>
<li><p>Decide on San Diego area, or Monterey/San Fransisco area.</p></li>
<li><p>Price plane tickets to make sure flights are in budget.</p></li>
<li><p>Go to Tripadvisor.com to find your hotel.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>after steps 1-4, the stuff that has to be done fairly quickly is done</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Go to fodors.com and post on the US Forum. Post, “Please suggest an itinerary for a San Diego area vacation” or “Please suggest an itinerary for a Montery/SF Vacation.”</p></li>
<li><p>As the time of the trip approaches, post more specific questions on fodors.com re restaurants, etc. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>OR, would someone else in your family want to take over the trip planning details?</p>
<p>I know that tired feeling. Why does trip planning usually fall on the Mom?
I am going on a trip this summer that I basically know nothing about. We are going with extended family. They planned and paid for the entire trip. I barely know what day I need to be at the airport. It is so unlike me, the master planner. But I am happy to be a guest and as a guest my job is to have a good time and not question the planning of someone else.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4 - we have property on St. John and are building a house there and all I know is that every time we fly in (3-4 times so far this year) we need to show our passport, not drivers license. As a matter of fact about 2 years ago when we first ran into this rule change it was within the grace period so we were allowed through with a warning. If it’s changed again, I am unaware, but better safe than sorry!</p>
<p>And, yes, there are three or four full resorts, many house rentals and two or three campgrounds. That doesn’t change the fact that most of the island is National Park which, in my opinion, is the reason it is so nice and not nearly as crowded as many other islands. And, yes, some of the most beautiful, and empty, beaches in the world.</p>
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I used to scuba dive all around that area and the water is quite cold in that entire area. I wore a full 1/4" farmer john style wetsuit with hood, gloves, booties and it was still cold getting in. There’s no way one can really enjoy the water there as a ‘swimmer’ in a similar manner to southern cal (although for scuba it was nice). Some of the areas in Monterey/Carmel are pretty rough, for example Carmel River beach, but other areas are very calm, for example Pt. Lobos, which is pretty nice for scuba diving with its kelp forest - but again, very cold water. The water at Santa Cruz is cold also. The San Diego water temps are usually best around the latter half of July through the beginning of October when it’s usually between 70-75 with 71-73 being more typical. One can go in the water for hours without any wetsuit (but not scuba - still need a wetsuit for that). The other thing is that Monterey/Carmel is frequently overcast with low hanging clouds and cold air all summer long whereas San Diego is typically sunny although it can have some similar low clouds in the beach area in May/June. If someone wants to play in the ocean boogie boarding, body surfing, surfing, etc. Southern Cal is the place for it. For viewing scenic, rugged, coastline, central/northern Cal has a lot of it although southern Cal has its share as well but is more populated.</p>