Where do lower to middle class families go on vacation for the summer?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think how much and where you go is a combination of your values and your income; many LMC and MC families I know may have unusually nice cars or tvs but don't travel. Not everyone cares to and I certainly don't begrudge them their choices. My DH grew up more middle class than me and barely ever traveled beyond his own state until he was in high school and started traveling b/c of his extracurriculars.

This is kind of us. We're in the middle income wise. While we don't do extravagant travel, it's still pretty nice. The tradeoff is our cars. They're functional, but we drive them into the ground and don't make having a nice car a priority.

A lot of people didn’t grow up traveling and as adults they have the means but literally don’t know how. Or they know how to get themselves to a beach and sit on it one week a year. But they don’t know how to plan for a trip to a city or country they’ve never been to. The notion of going somewhere they’ve never been, walking around, becoming part of the local culture temporarily, seeing the interesting unique things every area has to offer never crosses their mind because they never have done it. I am so grateful my dad prioritized that for us growing up. My family takes the coolest trips because I know how to travel. Friends of mine with more money just take cruises or go to OBX despite having the means for way better travel. But it’s a skill they don’t have.

I think it’s more of a generational thing as well. I didn’t grow up going be to lots of places but can plan a trip pretty well. Because you…the internet. It’s not a complicated skill like you make it sound.

Of course it doesn’t seem complicated if you know how to do it and don’t find it intimidating. I am not making this up. There are people I know who DO NOT feel comfortable going a place they have never been and just winging it themselves. So they don’t. They know how to vacation. They do not know how to travel.

Please, just because they have no desire to go to London doesn’t mean they don’t know how or that there is much skill involved. Effort yes, skill no. Some people prefer familiar things and there is nothing wrong with that, nor is there anything inherently virtuous about “cool” or international travel vs OBX.

I think you missed pp’s point. Obviously there are lots of people who are well traveled internationally but would prefer to sit at their beach house in MD. Nothing wrong with that at all. Doesn’t change the fact that planning an international trip is intimidating for those who never traveled farther than the smoky mountains.

Exactly. We are talking about two different groups of people. Yes some people can and know how to travel and don’t by choice. Some people LITERALLY DONT KNOW because they’ve never done it. I have no idea why people are pretending the first group existing means the second doesn’t.

Yup. This is my DH's family to some extent. They talk about wanting to travel but simply don't know how. I have planned and gone on some trips with them and it's hard. Even stuff like "how will I get to and from the airport", they need help with. They worry a lot about money when they travel, even though they have plenty of money for the kinds of trips we take, simply because they are very nervous about the unknown. I think they are also very ripe for getting taken advantage of because of how inexperienced they are -- I think about the grifters who prey on travelers in a lot of popular tourist destinations and how some of my ILs might not understand the grift at all.

My DH is not this naive, but before we met, most of his travel was arranged by other people. He'd been on great trips organized by friends and classmates where his job was to show up on time and book his own air travel, which he can handle. Even now, I definitely do most of the planning because I'm just better at it, though I definitely encourage him to do a lot more of it simply so he understands how it works a bit more. We are absolutely showing our kid how to travel, and that it doesn't have to be expensive or fancy, so that she has more options as an adult.

I just don't know anyone like this, despite growing up poor/LMC. When and if they do decide to do new travel that they have never done before, they book trips and figure out transportation to and from the airports in Disney and Pigeon Forge. I personally have never met an individual who desires a different type of travel but are unable to execute it due to "they LITERALLY DON'T KNOW how to plan for a trip to a city or country they’ve never been to".

Oh well I’d you never met them they must not exist. My husband when we met was able to plan about two types of trips: Disney and a cruise. Why? That’s all he’d ever done. His parents had money when he was growing up but they grew up poor and didn’t know how to travel or plan trips. All they ever did was a cruise and big family trips to Disney. That’s what he knew. The first time he went to New York City he ate in Times Square the whole time because chains were familiar (which is another quirk of people who don’t travel much - even when they do, they stick to restaurants they know and can eat at anywhere). He’s more adventurous now but when it comes to scoping a place out, planning the best itinerary, finding all the various modes of travel (do we fly in here, then overnight train to here or there to fly out?) he still leaves that up to me. The first time I just suggested a city to go to and explore for a trip he was like “why?” I have no clue why some of you insist that EVERYONE just intuitively knows how to travel and can do it and are so irate when others mention no, a lot of people out there never did it growing up and don’t know how as adults.

[Anonymous]

Growing up, we were Upwardly mobile mc, so When I was little, we stayed at an RV park in myrtle beach for one week per summer. My grandparents paid. Sometimes we would stay at their beach condo. When we got a bit older, we had more money, so we went to Mexico and Hawaii one each, but as cheap as possible. We went in off season and hardly ate out. Those were still amazing vaccinations. Now my parents have bought a beach house, and they let us use it for free. We really prioritize vacations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was a kid, Deep Creek Lake, Myrtle Beach, Ocean City.

I would say this still applies today. Although eastern MD/DE/VA beaches can get expensive...esp for what you get...

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Camping, closest beaches, theme parks (smaller ones like Six Flags, Hershey and Lake Compounce, not Disney)

There are TONS of LMC families at Disney. Not sure how. I’m guessing they save for years as a dream vacation.

The LMC at Disney are almost all from Florida or driving distance. They don't pay for air or hotel and they pay instate rates and/or get a pass.

I would guess, on average, out of state visitors have at least twice hte income of the typical instate visitor.

This, the "locals' at Disney are totally different from the non locals.

Yeah, I agree with this. My brother is a gay doctor from NYC and he does fancy gay Disney and it's a world away from the way locals do disney lol.

I want to hear more about fancy gay Disney!

There are gay days. He likes to do princess brunches. The princesses LOVE dealing with the gays after dealing with families all the time lol.

My guess is that even worse than the families are all the Hetero guys without kids who want pictures with the princesses. This seems to be a thing for some guys from other countries. I thought it was super creepy and felt bad for the actresses.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Millions of possibilities. Sounds like you’re fixated on what you don’t have.

I feel like people who say this usually have plenty or at least enough. It’s like saying money doesn’t buy happiness while living in a McMansion and being well off…

I disagree. We are firmly middle class (HHI last year was 121k) and I definitely don't feel restricted to Ocean City and staying in Econolodges. We don't eat at 5 star restaurants or stay in $300/night hotels, either, but we do lots of things. In the last few years, we've done:

NYC (stayed in AirBnB, hung out with friends, did some Central Park, the Highline, the Met, and the ferry)
Nashville (AirBnB, saw live music at the honkeytonks during the day, visited the big gardens outside of town, hit up western and consignment stores, ate amazing food)
Outer Banks, twice (group house rentals with friends)
Montreal (crazy affordable, including cheap short flights)
New Mexico (ABQ, Santa Fe, hiking in the mountains, great food)
Charleston (weirdly the least kid-friendly of the places we've been recently, but we did like the beach and Fort Sumter)
Florida multiple times, typical Florida stuff but not Disney because kids are still a bit young to enjoy it
New Orleans (more live music, lots of walking around, eating crawfish and jambalaya, etc.)

Just wanted to say that I love this!

Plus weekends in Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia, as well as visits to family. None of this stuff is that expensive if you know how to scout cheap flights, go outside of peak times of year, and don't get sucked in for pricy tours or do lots of shopping. We like sightseeing, walking/hiking, seeing gardens and museums, and so our kids have grown up doing and enjoying those things to. None of them are pricy. Some of our favorite family memories are things like having a picnic on Mont Real or eating beignets in the park in NoLa. My DD still talks about sitting on the beach with me early in the morning and letting the tide roll up and slowly bury us in the wet sand as we sang songs in the Outer Banks.

Planning vacations on a budget is not even a particularly unique skill and I am super grateful to live in a place so convenient to so many neat, affordable places. I grew up in a remote town out west with no local airport and all our vacations involved like 12 hours of driving each way. Meanwhile, we can save money and do a trip to London with our family for under 5k, and be there in less time than it used to take my family to drive to the nearest major city. Everything is relative.

[Anonymous]

The DE coast is where we went when I was growing up. We were on the lower end of MC and my grandparents paid for a lot of the vacations.

[Anonymous]

box

[Anonymous]

Florida, Myrtle Beach, Virginia Beach,

We drove and camped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think how much and where you go is a combination of your values and your income; many LMC and MC families I know may have unusually nice cars or tvs but don't travel. Not everyone cares to and I certainly don't begrudge them their choices. My DH grew up more middle class than me and barely ever traveled beyond his own state until he was in high school and started traveling b/c of his extracurriculars.

This is kind of us. We're in the middle income wise. While we don't do extravagant travel, it's still pretty nice. The tradeoff is our cars. They're functional, but we drive them into the ground and don't make having a nice car a priority.

A lot of people didn’t grow up traveling and as adults they have the means but literally don’t know how. Or they know how to get themselves to a beach and sit on it one week a year. But they don’t know how to plan for a trip to a city or country they’ve never been to. The notion of going somewhere they’ve never been, walking around, becoming part of the local culture temporarily, seeing the interesting unique things every area has to offer never crosses their mind because they never have done it. I am so grateful my dad prioritized that for us growing up. My family takes the coolest trips because I know how to travel. Friends of mine with more money just take cruises or go to OBX despite having the means for way better travel. But it’s a skill they don’t have.

I think it’s more of a generational thing as well. I didn’t grow up going be to lots of places but can plan a trip pretty well. Because you…the internet. It’s not a complicated skill like you make it sound.

Of course it doesn’t seem complicated if you know how to do it and don’t find it intimidating. I am not making this up. There are people I know who DO NOT feel comfortable going a place they have never been and just winging it themselves. So they don’t. They know how to vacation. They do not know how to travel.

Please, just because they have no desire to go to London doesn’t mean they don’t know how or that there is much skill involved. Effort yes, skill no. Some people prefer familiar things and there is nothing wrong with that, nor is there anything inherently virtuous about “cool” or international travel vs OBX.

I think you missed pp’s point. Obviously there are lots of people who are well traveled internationally but would prefer to sit at their beach house in MD. Nothing wrong with that at all. Doesn’t change the fact that planning an international trip is intimidating for those who never traveled farther than the smoky mountains.

Exactly. We are talking about two different groups of people. Yes some people can and know how to travel and don’t by choice. Some people LITERALLY DONT KNOW because they’ve never done it. I have no idea why people are pretending the first group existing means the second doesn’t.

Yup. This is my DH's family to some extent. They talk about wanting to travel but simply don't know how. I have planned and gone on some trips with them and it's hard. Even stuff like "how will I get to and from the airport", they need help with. They worry a lot about money when they travel, even though they have plenty of money for the kinds of trips we take, simply because they are very nervous about the unknown. I think they are also very ripe for getting taken advantage of because of how inexperienced they are -- I think about the grifters who prey on travelers in a lot of popular tourist destinations and how some of my ILs might not understand the grift at all.

My DH is not this naive, but before we met, most of his travel was arranged by other people. He'd been on great trips organized by friends and classmates where his job was to show up on time and book his own air travel, which he can handle. Even now, I definitely do most of the planning because I'm just better at it, though I definitely encourage him to do a lot more of it simply so he understands how it works a bit more. We are absolutely showing our kid how to travel, and that it doesn't have to be expensive or fancy, so that she has more options as an adult.

I just don't know anyone like this, despite growing up poor/LMC. When and if they do decide to do new travel that they have never done before, they book trips and figure out transportation to and from the airports in Disney and Pigeon Forge. I personally have never met an individual who desires a different type of travel but are unable to execute it due to "they LITERALLY DON'T KNOW how to plan for a trip to a city or country they’ve never been to".

Oh well I’d you never met them they must not exist. My husband when we met was able to plan about two types of trips: Disney and a cruise. Why? That’s all he’d ever done. His parents had money when he was growing up but they grew up poor and didn’t know how to travel or plan trips. All they ever did was a cruise and big family trips to Disney. That’s what he knew. The first time he went to New York City he ate in Times Square the whole time because chains were familiar (which is another quirk of people who don’t travel much - even when they do, they stick to restaurants they know and can eat at anywhere). He’s more adventurous now but when it comes to scoping a place out, planning the best itinerary, finding all the various modes of travel (do we fly in here, then overnight train to here or there to fly out?) he still leaves that up to me. The first time I just suggested a city to go to and explore for a trip he was like “why?” I have no clue why some of you insist that EVERYONE just intuitively knows how to travel and can do it and are so irate when others mention no, a lot of people out there never did it growing up and don’t know how as adults.

I never did it growing up, and I just figured it out as an adult. I figured it out because I like to have good travel experiences. I really love travel planning, always plan "the best" itineraries, optimize transport, etc. etc. etc

I think it is much more about personality than "knowing how" to do it. Choosing to eat at a chain in times square is a certain personality type, someone who knows what they like and don't crave variety/adventure. Even with zero research, your husband could certainly walk into a non-chain new untested restaurant and figure out how to eat a meal.

[Anonymous]

I grew up much poorer than I currently am and what’s funny about this question is that I only wish I could give my kids the same vacations I had. With smaller families these days, my kids don’t yet have cousins - I had dozens and our vacation was at a local lake every year and it was glorious. I’m quite certain there’s nothing in the world I could do to make up for my kids not having similarly aged cousins. Our society puts waaay too much emphasis on wealth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Camping, closest beaches, theme parks (smaller ones like Six Flags, Hershey and Lake Compounce, not Disney)

There are TONS of LMC families at Disney. Not sure how. I’m guessing they save for years as a dream vacation.

Lots of people who live in Florida or Georgia buy yearly passes and only go to Disney for vacation and stay in cheap hotels. Source: used to live in Georgia.

When we were stationed in Germany with the military our military neighbors took all their vacations at euro Disney. Saw nothing else in Europe. Strange.

Enlisted?

Nope. Fairly senior level officers.

My mom loved Disney when we were growing up (so did we). We lived in Florida one year and went and she was hooked. She saved money in envelopes and we could go once every three years. I remember once sharing a trailer with another family, and later times we’d buy the 5 day park hoppers that’s didn’t expire - go 2 days + water park in one year, go back later fir the last 3 days. It took saving but I probably went 5-6 times as a kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mostly we visited family. Otherwise, we liked to rent the rustic cabins that the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club rents. They are really cheap and in beautiful spots and a step up from camping.

Omg, we just vacationed at one of the cabins there! 😃

We stayed in the Catoctin Hollow Lodge and it was beautiful... we loved it.

There's a cabin for everyone's taste preference -- from primitive & rustic, to modern and luxury.
There are cabins to suit every different taste & need.

For those interested, you can see all of the cabins at the below link (the Catoctin Hollow Lodge that we rented is listed under Maryland).

https://www.patc.net/PATC/Cabins/Geo_Cabin_List.aspx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mostly we visited family. Otherwise, we liked to rent the rustic cabins that the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club rents. They are really cheap and in beautiful spots and a step up from camping.

Omg, we just vacationed at one of the cabins there! 😃

We stayed in the Catoctin Hollow Lodge and it was beautiful... we loved it.

There's a cabin for everyone's taste preference -- from primitive & rustic, to modern and luxury.
There are cabins to suit every different taste & need.

For those interested, you can see all of the cabins at the below link (the Catoctin Hollow Lodge that we rented is listed under Maryland).

https://www.patc.net/PATC/Cabins/Geo_Cabin_List.aspx

Oops, forgot to add the price list.

There's a cabin for every price range too -- from $25 per night on up!

http://www.patc.net/PATC/Cabins/Cabin_Rates.aspx

[Anonymous]

bumping this thread for ideas/for folks who cannot afford luxury vacations

[Anonymous]

I just ran an income calculator and my income still falls within the middle class in my area, though a little more upper middle than lower middle with 127k for a family of 4 (not dc area).

I travel to lots of places as I've shared and they aren't luxurious at all but we find moments that feel luxurious and special to US. It often involves a very simple, outdated airbnb that has a nice VIEW that i've booked 6+ months in advance with the kids in a little loft with a little room for us.

Scott's cheap flights is awesome to follow, booking.com, airbnb, getting a travel credit card such as a chase sapphire preferred card (I have put my childcare, gas & groceries on it and earned tons of points!!) and then becoming very familiar with camping and camping gear! I'm not doing ultra low-budget this year, it's more mid-range so I'm happy to share if those want it but I will hold off for now.

I'm not sure this will be helpful for this summer but here my favorite ULTRA LOW budget vacations which are all camping or camping cabins.

1) Maine. Skip Portland (super expensive) but drive up to Mount Desert Island and either tent camp or rent a little camping cottage for about $700 a week at Bass Harbor Campground. Has a pool, next to the beautiful lighthouse with INCREDIBLE sunsets and near a few great/cheap places to eat/enjoy the sunset uncrowded. You can buy fresh lobster $5/lb on a good year and $8/lb last year...mac n'cheese/hotdogs for kids. Hiking and beaches are free with the national park pass and it truly is beautiful!! Gas is way up this year but I think we did this for about $1,300 one year??

2) Adirondacks: tent camp or rent a cottage. There are lots of little cottages within walking distance of awesome lake beaches and terrific hiking. I've seen some older cottages for like $600-$800 a week (tiny but workable!!)

3) Visit Quebec and get a lower cost airbnb or hotel in the old city for maybe 2-3 nights (this is your splurge) and then either tent camp or rent a little cabin in the provincial parks---they look BEAUTIFUL, clean, and modern and are very cheap. Absolutely beautiful area and you can grab some delicious treats. Depending on the season, I've found better lodging that is CHEAPER than staying at relatively nearby lake placid. summer probably isn't as bad.

4) Week at a VA or WV state park. Some of the cabins are outdated but pleasant. Douthat state park is one of my favorites in VA, Black water falls state park in WV is great (also just rent a cottage in the canaan valley, preferably with a pool). First Landing state park (VA beach) is also awesome but is extremely popular so you really have to book ahead even for tent sites!! I'm saying 6 months ahead or more! There's also a few state park beaches delaware and MD that I've not been to but I don't think they have cabins and you must reserve ahead of time.

5)Camping road-trip: this is pricier with gas right now but doing some dispersed camping and visiting national parks out west...driving out there. It also requires significant planning.