Where can I vacation for $500 and a 6 yr old?

[Anonymous]

Camping off of skyline drive for a couple of days.

[Anonymous]

Lancaster PA. We camped. My six year old asked when we could return!

[Anonymous]

Ocean City - hotel with an indoor pool. You can hit the kid-friendly stuff at the boardwalk, swim, walk on the beach a few times, play mini golf, eat at cheap places (we recommend Bad Monkey for a nice kid and adult friendly burger place) and get a treat at Candy Kitchen before watching a movie in your hotel room. Assuming $90/night and $100 a day for food and a treat you could stay 2 nights and 2-3 days. Look on hotels.com for 3 and 4 stars this week - rates are insanely low. Holiday Inn in the low hundreds address is nice. Carousel is kid friendly. The 4 stars are very nice.


Bring bottled water, bananas or another fruit, milk boxes and cereal, and a few snacks and you'll spend even less on food. If you look online for coupons and deals for things like mini golf you can probably plan your days to save even more. We did this once in the late fall and it was fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the $500 for everything. Food and lodging and entertainment?
Dutch wonderland is having a pre sale right now. $55 for 2 days (and 2 days in the summer) or $32 for one day.
That's $110. Maybe see if you can rent a cheap hotel or a room? Then do that for two days and drive around Lancaster and do a farmers market and I'm sure there are petting zoos etc.

Take a looks at the Lancaster Science Factory while you're there. I forget the entry cost by my kids loved it as much or more than the amusement park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ocean City - hotel with an indoor pool. You can hit the kid-friendly stuff at the boardwalk, swim, walk on the beach a few times, play mini golf, eat at cheap places (we recommend Bad Monkey for a nice kid and adult friendly burger place) and get a treat at Candy Kitchen before watching a movie in your hotel room. Assuming $90/night and $100 a day for food and a treat you could stay 2 nights and 2-3 days. Look on hotels.com for 3 and 4 stars this week - rates are insanely low. Holiday Inn in the low hundreds address is nice. Carousel is kid friendly. The 4 stars are very nice.


Bring bottled water, bananas or another fruit, milk boxes and cereal, and a few snacks and you'll spend even less on food. If you look online for coupons and deals for things like mini golf you can probably plan your days to save even more. We did this once in the late fall and it was fun.

+1. DD and I did exactly this. The most expensive thing was the hotel. We stayed at the Holiday Inn and DD was thrilled with it, declared it the fanciest hotel ever. Breakfast was included and they have a pancake machine. We walked the beach, went to Candy Kitchen, played some arcade games on the board walk. She had a blast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ocean City - hotel with an indoor pool. You can hit the kid-friendly stuff at the boardwalk, swim, walk on the beach a few times, play mini golf, eat at cheap places (we recommend Bad Monkey for a nice kid and adult friendly burger place) and get a treat at Candy Kitchen before watching a movie in your hotel room. Assuming $90/night and $100 a day for food and a treat you could stay 2 nights and 2-3 days. Look on hotels.com for 3 and 4 stars this week - rates are insanely low. Holiday Inn in the low hundreds address is nice. Carousel is kid friendly. The 4 stars are very nice.


Bring bottled water, bananas or another fruit, milk boxes and cereal, and a few snacks and you'll spend even less on food. If you look online for coupons and deals for things like mini golf you can probably plan your days to save even more. We did this once in the late fall and it was fun.

+1. DD and I did exactly this. The most expensive thing was the hotel. We stayed at the Holiday Inn and DD was thrilled with it, declared it the fanciest hotel ever. Breakfast was included and they have a pancake machine. We walked the beach, went to Candy Kitchen, played some arcade games on the board walk. She had a blast.

First PP here. Just to be clear this is the Holiday Inn I mean. There are several. It's $79/night right now (in Summer's it's $300)!
http://www.holidayinnoceanfront.com

[Anonymous]

Great Wolf Lodge, including the wands.

[Anonymous]

Hyatt chesepeake bay

Great indoor pool with movies at night and outdoor pool tiny beach on river and s'mores

Could stretch 2 2 nights but even one would be great

[Anonymous]

Travelzoo has a hyatt in dewey for $99 per night through the end of June. You could stay for a couple days and have some beach time.

[Anonymous]

It will depend in how you like to vacation, what you've already done, and whether you want to repeat it. $500 won't go far if you add in hotels, so I'd probably turn it into day trip adventures, using the money on gas, admission, factory tour, and maybe a daily treat. I'd pack food and plan things like a camping, fishing, free museums/zoo, hiking, etc. if you both have a week off, I'd try to make it adventurous and stretched out.

[Anonymous]

What about Adventures on the Gorge or ACE Adventure Resort?

Adventures on the Gorge has cabins to rent, nice pool area, obstacle course, etc. ACE has a lake with lots of games and water sports. Whitewater rafting would be an option at either place although I'm too much of a chicken to do it myself.

[Anonymous]

Philly has a great aquarium and zoo, the aquarium is having a deal right now called Fish and Ships: http://www.adventureaquarium.com/Aquarium-admission/Special-Offers/Fish-and-Ship-Package

$39 for your ticket, $32 for his gets you one day at the aquarium and a tour on a battleship.

Tickets to the zoo are $23 for you, $19 for him. Thus far that $113 for 2 days worth of tickets. The Hotel Monaco Philadelphia is only $99/night. Get that for 2 nights, spend a day sight seeing free things and you should be under your $500 (with food and what not).

[Anonymous]

I would not rule out Disney. You could fly really cheap on Frontier Airlines out of IAD. Get a really cheap hotel in Orlando on Hotwire and get discount tickets to Disney.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would not rule out Disney. You could fly really cheap on Frontier Airlines out of IAD. Get a really cheap hotel in Orlando on Hotwire and get discount tickets to Disney.

Not likely. One day tickets will run $200 for adult/child. A cheap hotel adds $100 a night. That only leaves $200 for airfare, food and incidentals. It's crazy expensive and there are no real discounts unless you stay 4 days plus or attend a timeshare.

I agree with the Philly suggestion. A few places to add to your visit are the Franklin Institute (my kids have now been 3 times) and Valley Forge (free!). There was also a fountain near the Franklin Institute that kids were splashing in. Mine joined in and played for an hour. They loved it. Hotels in the suburbs are very affordable.

[Anonymous]

Dutch Wonderland and Sesame Place definitely accommodate kids all the way to 10 years old. 6 would be a perfect age to go to either of these.