Well, our household income is much lower than yours (about $120,000/year) and we have 4 kids...so we have learned to do thrifty vacations.

We don't fly as a family, EVER. We only vacation to places we can drive. Our kids have learned to be patient in the car and of course we bring a lot of entertainment (dvds, hand held video games, etc)

We often camp, or incorporate camping into part of the vacation--for example we did a 10 day road trip to various parts of Canada and camped for one segment of it.

We don't visit attractions that cost a lot of money. Many of our vacations center around National Parks because we can buy an annual pass for $80 (this also usually goes in hand with camping since many National parks have campsites). We only go to amusement parks when we are able to get some type of discount/special.

We don't do "beach vacations" to Rehoboth, etc. Those beaches are only a couple hours drive so we make it a day trip. We pack a picnic lunch so we can save money by not buying expensive (and gross) boardwalk food. Yeah, it's kind of a pain to drive home a little sandy, but it's not the end of the world.

Large cities are usually the toughest to do on a budget, because hotels will be expensive and the attractions tend to be things like museums, and admission fees add up.
We usually stay outside the city and drive in (or public transportation if cheaper/more practical--depends on the city/day). For example, when we went to NYC, we stayed in Jersey city and took the PATH in instead of staying right in the city. We did a long weekend in Philadelphia and stayed in a close by town in New Jersey and drove in for each day. A little bit inconvenient (compared to staying right in the city and just walking out the hotel door to attractions) but saves a TON of money, and frankly, we just couldn't afford to do it any other way.

Not all vacations have to be a week. We go to the beach, stay at a hotel (hampton inn variety, gasp! for a 4 day weekend. we time the drive to maximize the beach time, and book it WAY in advance (last year we saved almost $100/night by booking 9 months in advance).

It's about setting expectations and priorities. If it's important to you and your family, you'll make it work - just like you do for Xmas and Thanksgiving.

Rent a small house or townhouse further inland (ocean view or Millville or fenwick). Check vrbo. We rent a house in Millville (near Bethany) and pay under $100 a night. The neighborhood has a pool and a shuttle to the beach (but we prefer to drive). It's 10 mins to the beach. Because it's so affordable, we can go for two full weeks plus long weekends throughout summer. Check rentals in ocean pines near OC. I'm looking at rentals in NJ that seem to be cheaper than the MD and DE beaches.

Im not sure I could spend a week at the beach living out of a hotel room. We usually rent a house via VRBO.com and seldom pay more,than $2k for a week. We mostly eat at home but have a few nice dinners out during the week. A weekend at a hotel with little kids is more than enough for me. We do a couple of city trips off season and sometimes visit friends in Florida and visit family overseas occasionally.

Anonymous wrote:We don't go to the beach in the summer. We go for a long weekend in the late spring and in the early fall. We drive to a lake or somewhere else less expensive in the summer.

School age kids?

Anonymous wrote:I think you are cheap. I wouldn't stay at a Hampton inn, ever.
We budget 8000 per yr for vacations. We make 210 HHI.

I actually take that as a compliment, as I'm a thrifty New Englander by birth and my spouse is a refugee. Both of us value thrift highly, perhaps too much so (there is nothing more expensive than being poor, and all that).

If you think Hampton Inn is crummy, you really have to check out Econolodge and Super 8; the resorts of our childhood...

But that said, we have to fly to visit family every holiday, easily drop 2k airfare alon at Xmas and 1k for Tgiving, so that weighs heavily on the rest of our discretionary travel/vacation budget.

Vacationing with other families sounds great, but we have a cohort mismatch where none of our close friends have kids and/or funds for a week vacation so logistics is difficult. Have to branch out our friend circle I guess.

I think you'd be very hard pressed to find a decent beach rental for $200/night. I have a rule that I don't stay anywhere that's not almost as nice as my house. I try not to think of the per night amount, but an oceanfront condo with 3br and 2baths usually runs about $3-$4k a week. That's for a newer place with parking and a pool and up to date furniture without floral bedspreads. Food runs another few hundred a day. It's expensive, and it's also why we aren't going this year.

We do rentals-- also you can sometimes find cheaper deals if you go to caribbean bcs. it's off season there, but high season here.

It seems like it would be cheaper to rent a house, possibly with other friends/family, than pay for a hotel room for a night.If you'd prefer a hotel, this is where your loyalty points (accrued with a Marriott credit card, or for work trips) come in to take a significant cut in your hotel expenses.

I do found we can keep beach rental costs down by splitting a house with other families. The cost per family can go down a lot-especially if your kids all get along and can share rooms. I scour rentals carefully to find houses that don't have the oceanfront premium but have close to oceanfront beach access.

Being willing to book last minute can also sometimes get you good price breaks.

I think you are cheap. I wouldn't stay at a Hampton inn, ever.
We budget 8000 per yr for vacations. We make 210 HHI.

We don't go to the beach in the summer. We go for a long weekend in the late spring and in the early fall. We drive to a lake or somewhere else less expensive in the summer.

Anonymous wrote:I think it really depends a lot on the family. I know people who live in smaller houses and really keep down their cost of living in order to afford to travel, bc that's what's important to them.

As for us, I can't imagine paying thousands of dollars for a basically local beach vacation, since we'd be just as happy to fly somewhere and camp for that amount of money.

In terms of cost savings, I think the really popular beaches are the most expensive. If you find a spot that's not as fancy/popular, it will be cheaper. Or if the places that you're looking at cost too much, try something that's not beachfront.

Yeah we are looking for less expensive beach vacations but lots of hassle; for example we discovered that there is no public changing places in Rehoboth and it is against law to change in car.

Where are these less expensive beach places? I figure they would be easy to find since, well, they are boarded by the ocean, this be found and not cheap anymore.

I think it really depends a lot on the family. I know people who live in smaller houses and really keep down their cost of living in order to afford to travel, bc that's what's important to them.

As for us, I can't imagine paying thousands of dollars for a basically local beach vacation, since we'd be just as happy to fly somewhere and camp for that amount of money.

In terms of cost savings, I think the really popular beaches are the most expensive. If you find a spot that's not as fancy/popular, it will be cheaper. Or if the places that you're looking at cost too much, try something that's not beachfront.

We are now confined to school vacation schedule (before we always just traveled off season to avoid crowds etc), and are blown away by prices for hotels or beach rentals in places like Rehoboth or Bethany. Maybe our expectations are skewed bc we grew up lower middle class (road trips to Disney land, econolodge stays, sneaking into hotel room bc parents wouldn't tell them it was 4/room, etc).

So we have some what fancier tastes now, I'll confess, like staying at marriott properties or similar c generally consistently clean and smoke free (we have asthma in family), but hotels in summer seem like $200/night plus and beach rentals are a week commitment for like $2k minimums for an ok place near the beach.

We have a few friends that do these vacations every summer, another recommended a resort in cape may for $400 night, etc. we are blown away by these numbers and end up staying 40 mon from the beach to stay under $200 but in decent hotel (Hampton inn)

So I guess we wonder do people pay these huge vacation costs even for local beaches and weekend getaways, bc time is really the most precious commoditiy?? For reference out HHI is $250k, but we have crazy inside beltway housing costs and expectation of helping out our families as they get older. So $200/night vacations seem very pricey, but in truth we can find the money and not go into debt or anything. But is there something we are missing for how people vacation? Like a priceline for VRBO That we missed the memo for?

Thanks!!