Mini Vacay: A Tutorial

Since becoming the mother of many small children, I have found myself more and more attracted by mini vacations.  Mini vacations, not to be confused with stay-cations or real vacations, are 24-36 hour periods of time when you leave your home for a brief overnight visit to somewhere relatively close to your home.  There are many advantages to mini vacations:
1.  No one has to miss school or work.
2.  Packing is much easier.
3.  They can be taken any time of the year.
4.  Travel is much less extensive.
5.  They are much cheaper than real vacations.

I hope you will all try to schedule a mini vacation in your family's near future.  Here are a few tips I would recommend to make the most of your vacation.

First,  remember that about 1/2 of the time you will be on your vacation will be spent in the hotel you choose.  Be sure to choose wisely!  I always require a minimum of an indoor swimming pool plus free breakfast.  It's a total bonus if the hotel you choose has more to offer than that.

Next, budget your vacation and then be sure to include plenty of free activities to supplement anything that may cost money.  Meals, for instance, can be a huge cost. Decide ahead of time how many of those meals you will be eating out.  Again, it's great to have free breakfast at the hotel.  Also, if you happen to have a mini fridge in your hotel you can bring along the supplies for a picnic lunch and/or dinner.

Another way to save money is to include a visit to the park or other outdoor activities (those tend to be free).  Ideally, choosing a location where your only real expense is the hotel is the goal.

Finally, be sure to choose a location that is 4 hours or less from your home.  If you are driving farther than that, you will not want to turn around and head home the next day. 

And now for an example:

This weekend, we took the kids and headed 2 1/2 hours east to Hershey, PA.  Matt gets off work at 3pm on Fridays and the kids had the day off, so it was the perfect weekend for a mini vacation!  Also, the weather was forecast to be as perfect as February can be.  It was sunny and high 40's all weekend.

The drive wasn't bad and we arrived at the hotel right at dinner time.  We had decided that Friday night would be our "eat out" night.  There was a sweet little local Italian restaurant right next to our hotel that was perfect for what we needed.  And we had plenty of leftovers for a midnight snack!

Our hotel was perfect.  Aside from a free breakfast and enough beds for our family, the hotel offered a nice indoor pool complete with kids' playland and waterslide.  Also included were a miniature golf course on the second floor, an arcade and a basketball court.  We checked in and headed straight to the pool.  We stayed until the kids were thoroughly soaked and wasted.  Everyone was tucked in to bed with the added luxury of a few minutes of watching the Disney channel before bed.

The next morning we were up early and out for our free breakfast of sausage, eggs, pancakes, bagels, muffins, and juice.  We let the kids eat all they wanted because we didn't want to be buying snacks later.  After breakfast, we headed upstairs for some mini golf!  Even Norah loved it!  I snuck away early to pack up the room and get us all ready to leave the hotel.

Our first stop was the Hershey's Chocolate Factory.  I have a serious aversion to crowded tourist-y places where they're pushing you to buy overpriced branded items.  That's what this was, no doubt, and I was determined that our one "money" activity would not be at Hershey.  We managed to find a very interesting free cooking demonstration.  Jack won a cupcake!

Hershey also offers a really cool riding tour on a train through the factory.  It was also free, so we took it and the kids loved it! 
P.S.  Why is it so hard for random strangers to take our family's picture?  After three failed attempts with my camera, this is the best we got with Merr's camera.  Bummer.

We left Hershey quickly after the tour, as our kids were whining their heads off for stuffed hershey's kiss dolls and other junk.

By this time it was lunchtime.  I had packed all the makings for a nice lunch and the weather was just right for a picnic.  We found ourselves a great school playground with picnic tables and the kids had a nice time playing and eating our picnic lunch. 

Matt and I debated a lot about whether to take the kids to the local zoo or to Indian Echo Caverns, both "money" activities, both about the same price.  We finally settled on the caverns.  Our kids have been to millions of zoos and none of them have been to a cave.

Merrody was in hog heaven!  She kept getting mad at me for asking her to stop so I could take pictures.  She needed to be right by the tour guide so as not to miss one word of her lecture on stalagtites and stalagmites.  We all learned a lot.  Even Norah loved it.

When we came out, we let the kids pause for a moment and feed the chickens outside.

...And then I made them pose for a couple more pics because I didn't like anything I had yet. :)

We were on the road home by 3:00 and home by dinnertime!  Believe it or not, we were all glad to be home!  It was just the right amount of time, money and effort.  We feel like we've been on a little vacation, and we're back to life a little refreshed from our short break.