A weeklong family vacation for under $1,000?
It can be done if you stick close to home
The weeklong family vacation is a time-honored American tradition, an annual rite dating back to the birth of the automobile and refined over the years by such notable practitioners as Chevy Chase, John Candy, and my dad. My childhood summers were spent (mostly) happily cruising up and down the East Coast in a succession of monstrous Chevys with my sisters to places like Virginia Beach, Hershey Park, upstate New York, Myrtle Beach, Williamsburg, and someplace in New Jersey that I've blocked out. Every motel or hotel seemed exotic and enormous, with indoor pools, game rooms, and, best of all, room service.
My own two kids, Megan, 6, and Sean, 3, have logged more than their share of miles too. My wife, Tara, and I had planned to subject them to another forced march this summer, but then gas prices went up about 75 percent in the space of a few months and that plan was quickly scrapped. Instead, my wife came up with a scheme that involved a long weekend trip and a number of shorter day trips around Boston, all with the goal of dropping less than $1,000. Good luck, right? Let's see how we did.
STORY LAND On Saturday morning, we packed the kids and the all-important DVD player into my wife's gas-sipping Camry and headed from our house in Plymouth to North Conway, N.H., and Story Land. We had looked around online and found a hotel about 10 minutes from the park with an indoor water park and a big outdoor pool.
After dropping our bags at the Red Jacket Inn, we headed to Story Land just in time to snag half-day passes, which let you explore the park from 3 p.m. to closing time and then come back any other day that season. Inside, Sean and Megan sprinted from one attraction to the next, tearing through the teacups, the carousel, the flying fish, and a dozen others in the three hours we had before the park closed. Their favorite ride that day was the Polar Coaster, a steel roller coaster with just enough zip and dip to give the kids a thrill without scaring them.
We stopped for dinner at the Muddy Moose Pub, a pleasant restaurant with big portions and fair prices.
Up early the next day, we spent the morning at Story Land hitting the water rides, circus, and favorites from the day before. After a quick lunch in the park, it was time for the hotel's water park. Sean was too small for the larger water slides, which were several stories tall, and Megan didn't want any part of them either, so they ended up splashing around in the kiddie area and the outdoor pool while I tried to get our money's worth on the slides. We grabbed dinner at Delaney's Hole in the Wall and then made ice cream sundaes at a shop across the street from our hotel.
Story Land, Route 16, Glen, N.H. 603-383-4186. www.story landnh.com; Red Jacket Mountain View Resort, 2251 White Mountain Highway, North Conway, N.H. 866-889-8089. www.redjacketresorts.com
Hotel (two nights, plus water park fee): $410.
Story Land admission: $96. Food: $160. Gas: $52.
On the drive home from New Hampshire we got a vivid reminder of why family car trips can be so much fun. About 20 miles north of Boston, we got stuck in a huge backup caused by a truck fire. About 15 minutes into this hourlong ordeal, Sean announced he had to go potty. We were in the far left of four lanes with no hope of making it to the right shoulder and the shelter of the trees. So I pulled to the left shoulder, opened both driver's side doors, and told Sean to hurry. Of course he was more interested in watching the big trucks zooming by.
Boston Children's Museum, 300 Congress St., Boston. 617-426-6500. www.bostonkids.org
Museum admission: $36. Gas: $8. Parking: $12.
Total so far: $774
Living in Plymouth gives us easy access to a great town beach, so on Wednesday we went early, getting there just at low tide, perfect for shell collecting and foot-numbing expeditions in the shallow (but miserably cold) water. Megan is completely immune to the water temperature, and as she and I wandered through the knee-deep water, we came across two small dead sharks. Both had been munched on by seagulls, but Sean was still begging to take one home. We settled for a few hermit crab shells instead.
Long Beach, Route 3A, Plymouth.
Beach: free
Tara had planned another beach outing for Thursday with a girlfriend and her two boys, and I was supposed to play golf. My golf game fell through, so I relaxed at home while Tara and the kids trooped back to the beach with their friends.
On Friday afternoon, we headed down to the Plymouth waterfront to battle the tourists and head out into the harbor for a pirate cruise. Sean is obsessed with pirates, so this was the highlight of the week for him. The hourlong trip included pirate hats and painted-on tattoos and scars for the kids. But the main attraction was the battle with another pirate boat and the chance to hose it with a water cannon. Sean was a holy terror with the water cannon, spending half the time shooting the pirate and the other half trying to soak Megan.
Pirate Cruise, Town Wharf, Plymouth. 508-746-5342. www.lobstertalesinc.com
Pirate cruise tickets: $72. Dinner afterward: $40.
Total so far: $886
Roger Williams Park Zoo, 1000 Elmwood Ave., Providence, R.I. 401-785-3510. www.rogerwilliamspark zoo.org Zoo admission: $36. Gas: $16.
Total for the week: $938
Happily exhausted, we made our way home. After so many days of togetherness, I realized why my parents always seemed to need another vacation after one of our family trips was over.
