Last minute to Arches and Canyonlands NPs. Wanted to fly into SLC but tix too expensive so flew to Denver instead. Drove over the beautiful pass, stopped at Vail for lunch, and stayed in Moab. Had so much fun exploring!

We did a last-minute trip to Atlanta a few years back. Warm weather, easy flight, no issue booking hotels. Mostly went for the aquarium and a couple Braves games. It was very lowkey and fun.

I do this every year. I am not a planner.
We’ve gone to Orlando JW grande lakes (plenty of rooms left) which has an awesome pool and resort feel. They probably have a shuttle to the parks, but we just drive.
Sandpearl Clearwater fly to tampa. Busch gardens nearby, lots of baseball, safe cute town for them to walk around, beautiful beaches, singer is and Marriott. Not as much for them to do, but relaxing, ritz Amelia island. Tons of nature type stuff to do on the island. Maybe not that warm. Flights as the same all the time.

Did a last minute trip to Japan. Put in tickers for a bunch of flights to a bunch of destinations and got an alert that it was $500. I grabbed them. It was cherry blossom season, so we could only get one night in Kyoto, but we made that a super long couple days and we got a ton out of it. Tokyo was easy.

Anonymous wrote:I have sometimes checked the search engines (like google flights) with destination set to “anywhere” to see where I could get cheap flights and worked from there.

+1

Anonymous wrote:We had fun in Chicago with teens, but it was freezing. Cheap, though.

We’ve considered this. Did you spend a whole week in Chicago? Rent a car & explore some?

Thanks for all the ideas/reports, everyone!

Margaritaville in Hollywood, FL. Flights into FLL are always cheap!

Last minute discount rental at DE beach

Last minute road-trip to SC (Charleston and the beach)

Last minute road-trip to Orlando

Last minute trip to PR (found cheap flights and hotel)

Cheap cruise out of FL

Fwiw I routinely search last minute deals, and if I had more flexibility outside of school schedules we take advantage of all the cheap flights to Europe and the Caribbean I’ve seen in recent weeks.

We had fun in Chicago with teens, but it was freezing. Cheap, though.

Cruise out of Baltimore.

One year we flew to little rock Arkansas and drove to Dallas and flew home. Spent a day at the children's science museum outside little rock (captivated 10 year old for half a day), drove to Hot Springs and hiked and did history stuff for 2-3 days, drove south to "mine" for diamonds in diamond crater and stayed in a cabin from the 1800s, and then drove to Dallas via Oklahoma (to check off another state on our 50 states goal) and flew home. It was legitimately a fabulous vacation, even though I never would have picked it (kid saw diamond crater on youtube and wanted to go, I booked the trip around that).

Easier is Pigeon forge area. It has a billion rentals and is popular at spring break.

one year we got last minute tix to ft lauderdale and rented a condo in lauderdale by the sea.

One yer we got relatively last minute tickets to cancun and stayed at an all inclusive. The kids were little, we were tired of the cold (lived in mass at the time), had a very stressful year, and honestly just wanted to go somewhere warm where we didn't have to make too many decisions. It was perfect.

this year we are just spending a few days in NYC, a couple museums, restaurants, bway shows, etc.

I have sometimes checked the search engines (like google flights) with destination set to “anywhere” to see where I could get cheap flights and worked from there.

We did this a couple of years ago with our then 13 and 16 year olds.
About a week before the trip, decided to go to the beach. We didn't have a whole week (kids had different spring breaks) so we only had 5 days.
I looked for a beach near an airport since we wanted to minimize travel time.

We flew into Jacksonville and went to Amelia Island. we were able to rent an air bnb.
Air flight was reasonable and we paid a bit more than normal for the air bnb but it didn't break the bank.

Kids loved the vacation and so did my husband and I.
Lots to do in addition to going to the beach.

Let’s say you only planned the trip 2-4 weeks in advance. Where did you go where you found lodging still available, plane ticket prices not crazy (if you flew), and that you enjoyed with tweens/teens? Did you take a road trip?

For a few reasons, we aren’t sure if we can travel for spring break this year, but want to have some options.