Anonymous wrote:How about just Chicago for 5 days? Plenty to do for museums/culture, will be hot so you could get in some Lake MIchigan beach time (i know, no waves, but still a beach!), airfare might be reasonable if you are flexible on what days you can fly, hotels will be reasonably priced.

Biggest downside is HEAT!

Similarly - any Midwestern lake town (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, etc).

There would be nice weather (heat less problematic the further north you went) and could drive or do a flight and car rental.

How about just Chicago for 5 days? Plenty to do for museums/culture, will be hot so you could get in some Lake MIchigan beach time (i know, no waves, but still a beach!), airfare might be reasonable if you are flexible on what days you can fly, hotels will be reasonably priced.

Biggest downside is HEAT!

Anonymous wrote:can i just say same over here? i don't know why its been so hard to plan our vacation this year. so many places are not great in August and buying 5 plane tickets is such a budget killer. My DH likes to get VRBO type beach houses which I HATE--I can sit around and do nothing at home for free.
https://www.theonion.com/mom-spends-beach-vacation-assuming-all-household-duties-1819575406

I like hotels but its hard to find a good one for 5 people. Blerg.

Op here. I feel your pain.

I floated Toronto and Niagara to the family, but they're not interested. We've already done Montreal and Quebec. I'm stumped. I wish I had a bigger budget--I think it would be much easier to find something if I didn't have to worry about $$$. Booking travel for a family of 6 is tough.

I'll let you know if I find anything interesting and affordable, pp.

can i just say same over here? i don't know why its been so hard to plan our vacation this year. so many places are not great in August and buying 5 plane tickets is such a budget killer. My DH likes to get VRBO type beach houses which I HATE--I can sit around and do nothing at home for free.
https://www.theonion.com/mom-spends-beach-vacation-assuming-all-household-duties-1819575406

I like hotels but its hard to find a good one for 5 people. Blerg.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alaska cruise on Royal Caribbean. Spend a week in Jackson WY, where you can also hit Yellowstone and Grand Tetons Nat Parks.

For $6-8k for a family of 6 including flights and excursions? I'm dubious.

airfare alone will be 2400$, two cabins would be at least 7000$ maybe--(we had a balcony and it was 7000$ for 4 of us in 1 room). Excursions in ALaska are probably 1000-2000$ for 6 people.

Anonymous wrote:Alaska cruise on Royal Caribbean. Spend a week in Jackson WY, where you can also hit Yellowstone and Grand Tetons Nat Parks.

For $6-8k for a family of 6 including flights and excursions? I'm dubious.

Anonymous wrote:London
Ireland
San Francisco and other parts of CA

For $6-8k for a family of 6??? Really??? How?

Alaska cruise on Royal Caribbean. Spend a week in Jackson WY, where you can also hit Yellowstone and Grand Tetons Nat Parks.

Quebec - like Europe, but closer and on the St. Lawrence River.
Thousand Islands, NY
One of the many lakes in the Adirondacks, but you won't be near any big cities
Vancouver
San Juan Islands, WA

We have loved lake vacations. Finger Lakes are great and there are lots of other things you could do nearby as well. I would just plan a driving vacation north. What about Canada? Nova Scotia was great in August.

OP, mid-August is a good time to vacation bc lots of other areas head back to school then.

We had a great time on the West Coast a few years back. Flew into San Diego, did the zoo and safari park, a day on the beach (brrr!), Sea World, and then worked our way up to Los Angeles. We stopped at Legoland and then Disney. (My kids were 7 and 4 at the time.) Lots of fun, and way less humidity than DC in August. Yes, it was still crowded, but not with locals.

We had a great trip in Utah and Colorado last year - flew into Salt Lake and flew out of Denver. I could imagine another great trip would be flying into Salt Lake and flying out of Las Vegas.

I suspect airfare in August anywhere to Europe will be very expensive for a family of 6, eating away at least half the budget. Even airfare to the west coast of the US may run 400-600 a person depending on the location.

What about a house on the Finger Lakes? Or, with 2 weeks, road trip to Boston and Maine-or fly to Boston, sightsee, drive to Acadia. You could fly to Michigan and road trip around-house on a lake, visit Mackiinac Island, Warren Dunes, etc. Could also get Chicago in there with the right itinerary.

London
Ireland
San Francisco and other parts of CA

We dropped the ball and never got around to planning anything for this August (for the two weeks when we don't send the kids to camp and typically go to beach or do a road trip). I'm not panicking, but I'm also not feeling inspired. I know that we don't want to go to our regular DE beach, and I suspect we've missed the boat on snagging a condo or house at another beach within driving distance, right?

I guess I'm looking for inspiration from others who recently planned their summer vacation.

Where should I research for a weeklong trip for our family of 6?

Budget: $6-8k (but cheaper would obviously be fine, and we are willing to scale back to 5 nights if necessary to keep it affordable).

Road trip or willing to fly (we have passports)

We love beaches, cities, sightseeing, fishing, etc. (Need not check all the boxes)

Kids are school-aged (no babies or toddlers; all good travelers)

We aren't travel snobs, but I don't think we can handle the heat in Disney in August. We enjoy cruises. We've avoided AIs in Mexico and the DR since friends who've traveled there tend to stay put at the resort, and I'm fairly confident my family would get bored staying on property 24/7.

We don't have camping gear, but I think we would enjoy a cabin on a lake.

Zero interest in NYC, Philly, Hershey or Williamsburg since we tend to hit those places annually or every other year.

Thoughts?