Winter break plans might fall through - help us plan a backup trip

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, check out this thread: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1243142.page

East coast skiing over winter break can be good but is often not. Even when it's good, skiing is REALLY expensive. For lift ticket, lessons, and rental equipment at the lowest cost setups in VT, you're probably looking at $200 per person per day. Then you also have to eat and sleep. So it may be technically doable in your budget (assuming you already have most of the right gear)... but tight.

This. It's true even at Liberty and Whitetail. When we were at Disney a few years ago I saw a dad wearing a "Most Expensive Day Ever" t-shirt and I laughed and said to DH that guy clearly hasn't taken his family skiing.

Agree. We had some family members who wanted to learn to ski, so they're meeting us at a CO resort for Christmas. Even with all the lodging and most of the meals on us, they were shocked at how expensive it is going to be. There might be somewhere cheaper in VT, but I just checked Stowe, and a lift ticket alone is $200 a day. A one day lift ticket where we go in CO is $260. Adult group lessons + lift ticket is $350 & that doesn't include equipment rental. The upside is that, at least in Colorado, there are still lots of lodging options available. I think with inflation etc a lot of people are opting out of skiing this year. When my family member was shocked at the cost, they asked a friend who is a skier if that was in line with what they pay, and they said yes and that's why they had decided not to go this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the Vermont idea (we drove there this summer and enjoyed it and NH).

Do you have recommendations for where a family of teens and adults can go to learn how to ski? We will all need to rent equipment and take lessons.

I really want to learn to ski cross-country, not down some huge slope. My teens have also expressed interest in snowboarding, too, so that would be a plus.

Canaan Valley, West Virginia has cross country skiing plus two ski fields.

I agree with this. If everyone is just starting out on the slopes, Canaan Valley is perfect. It’s early, but winter is starting out pretty good for them. In addition to downhill skiing at Canaan and Timberline, Whitegrass and the park offer great cross country skiing.

[Anonymous]

Williamsburg Richmond and Charlottesville ?

You could do colonialWilliamsburg, Jamestown, vmfa and Poe house or other in Richmond, Monticello, wineries, etc. if keeping kosher you could go to Jewfro in Richmond (Jewish African fusion).

[Anonymous]

Pittsburgh has plenty to do. Warhol museum is fun, as is Carnegie natural science and the science center. The zoo is nice, the aviary surprisingly fun (do the virtual flying), go indoor bouldering one day in point breeze (everyone can do that - super fun), and do day trip to Falling Water.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The weeks of Christmas break and spring break are the most expensive travel times during the year. I don't think you can do much with $5000 for 5 people.

Typical out of touch DCUM. You can do plenty for 5k if you think hard enough.

Give us some ideas. On another tread it was over $1500 per person just to fly somewhere warm.

Just drive to Florida. With 4 drivers, it’s totally doable.

[Anonymous]

A couple of years ago (thanks to the Omicron variant) our winter break plans fell apart in early December. We ended up finding an AirBnB on Saranac Lake and driving up to the Adirondacks. We went cross-country skiing, did some low-key hiking, and went to the Olympic ski jumping trials in Lake Placid on Christmas Day. There is also downhill skiing at Whiteface and ice skating on the Olympic rink in the town of Lake Placid. It was very relaxed and snowy and fun.

Or what about driving to Montreal/Quebec?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were supposed to go to Florida with my mom (so not a vacation, but a family trip, but whatever), but now it looks like my mom is not feeling well enough to go. That trip was going to be out of our price range, so we won't be able to pay my mom for the hotel and plane tickets and go ourselves (and she hasn't offered to give everything to us, which I wouldn't want her to do anyway).

Now we're looking for something else that's no more than $5K total. We have 3 kids, 12-18 years old. Everyone has said that they would be happy to learn to ski (but apparently that's not going to be a possibility in the ski resorts near the DMV). We're happy to fly or drive (if we drive, we'll have 4 drivers between us and our older kids, and we have credit on Southwest).

Any suggestions for a winter break trip that won't cost more than $5K?

We have religious dietary preferences, so food will not be our top concern wherever we go.

Thanks!

How about a staycation or short range driving trip focused on escape rooms, VR places and laser tag places?

[Anonymous]

Try Orlando. If you fly on Christmas Day and home New Year’s Eve, flights look pretty cheap. And hotels are are inexpensive in Orlando, with many different condos in the broader area.

Going to any parks will be expensive, but you don’t have to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were supposed to go to Florida with my mom (so not a vacation, but a family trip, but whatever), but now it looks like my mom is not feeling well enough to go. That trip was going to be out of our price range, so we won't be able to pay my mom for the hotel and plane tickets and go ourselves (and she hasn't offered to give everything to us, which I wouldn't want her to do anyway).

Now we're looking for something else that's no more than $5K total. We have 3 kids, 12-18 years old. Everyone has said that they would be happy to learn to ski (but apparently that's not going to be a possibility in the ski resorts near the DMV). We're happy to fly or drive (if we drive, we'll have 4 drivers between us and our older kids, and we have credit on Southwest).

Any suggestions for a winter break trip that won't cost more than $5K?

We have religious dietary preferences, so food will not be our top concern wherever we go.

Thanks!

How about a staycation or short range driving trip focused on escape rooms, VR places and laser tag places?

Oh god. This is my idea of hell.

[Anonymous]

We did a learn to ski vacation one Christmas at WISP and even that was quite expensive. $500 per kid per day in ski school. It was worth it (they learned to ski after only one day) but not cheap. It booked up pretty quickly around the holidays tho. We stayed at an Airbnb in a nearby town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were supposed to go to Florida with my mom (so not a vacation, but a family trip, but whatever), but now it looks like my mom is not feeling well enough to go. That trip was going to be out of our price range, so we won't be able to pay my mom for the hotel and plane tickets and go ourselves (and she hasn't offered to give everything to us, which I wouldn't want her to do anyway).

Now we're looking for something else that's no more than $5K total. We have 3 kids, 12-18 years old. Everyone has said that they would be happy to learn to ski (but apparently that's not going to be a possibility in the ski resorts near the DMV). We're happy to fly or drive (if we drive, we'll have 4 drivers between us and our older kids, and we have credit on Southwest).

Any suggestions for a winter break trip that won't cost more than $5K?

We have religious dietary preferences, so food will not be our top concern wherever we go.

Thanks!

How about a staycation or short range driving trip focused on escape rooms, VR places and laser tag places?

Oh god. This is my idea of hell.

NP - Thanks for adding so much to this thread.

My kids would call this the best idea ever, it would cost <$1000 leaving money for a bigger spring break or summer vacation, and it would be a reasonable option. I didn't suggest it, but I might consider it since our plans also fell through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did a learn to ski vacation one Christmas at WISP and even that was quite expensive. $500 per kid per day in ski school. It was worth it (they learned to ski after only one day) but not cheap. It booked up pretty quickly around the holidays tho. We stayed at an Airbnb in a nearby town.

Holy cow. we haven't been in a couple years, but we used to go to Wisp on their Monday deals and it was soooo cheap. Pretty sure they don't have those anymore though.