Favorite Family Vacation?

[MEM]

Four years ago we used our DVC points to stay for a week at Aulani. Even though I was recovering from a hysterectomy, my surgeon thought it was a great idea to go! And I felt fine but carried no luggage! I had hoarded Hawaiian airlines miles and Alaska airlines miles to cover the flights - we stopped in Seattle both ways as my husband would need at least a 24 hour break. We live in Boston so Hawaii is a very long journey. I had a difficult time actually believing we were in Hawaii! It seemed surreal having lunch on the lanai at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and seeing Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head from our table. And then, of course, the trip to Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona. An upcoming bucket list item is an Alaskan cruise on Princess for my 60th in September - Disney's cruise prices are just ridiculous. We rented out our Saratoga Springs DVC points to cover some of the cruise. So, it can be done on one income - my husband is a SAHD to our disabled adult son. A longer term bucket list is Japan and Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea.

 

[disneycat321]

Glacier National Park. It's my favorite place on the planet.

I also love Olympic National Park.

But really, though I haven't been to many of them yet, I think any national park is amazing.

 

[marthachick]

WE love WDW but we also love a lot of the National Parks and surrounding areas. We have visited: Yellowstone, Grand Tetons,Arches National Park, Mt Rushmore, Custer State Park, Crazy Horse Monument, Bryce Canyon, Badlands and Grand Canyon (North Rim is less crowded and commercial) to name a few. Montana has the most gorgeous sky away from light pollution. Deadwood is a cool town. San Diego is a great big city experience. Pacific Northwest is also beautiful but it's been almost 30 years since we were there so I'm sure the cities are much busier now. We also love east Tennessee.

And of course, you can never go wrong with anywhere in North Carolina! I like calling North Carolina Home!

 

[nhgirl]

My favorite family vacation: Disney Cruise from NYC to Bahamas. It was Halloween on the High Seas. NYC to Castaway Cay to Port Canaveral with a Park Hopper Pass.
Second favorite: Bermuda-very easy island to get around. Very nice people!
Local favorites Cape Cod, Acadia National Park, NH Lakes Region. Lake George NY was nice too.
We are going on an Alaskan Cruise this summer on NCL

Bucket list is Maui. Hoping to go in 2022.

 

[bartleby1]

WE love WDW but we also love a lot of the National Parks and surrounding areas. We have visited: Yellowstone, Grand Tetons,Arches National Park, Mt Rushmore, Custer State Park, Crazy Horse Monument, Bryce Canyon, Badlands and Grand Canyon (North Rim is less crowded and commercial) to name a few. Montana has the most gorgeous sky away from light pollution. Deadwood is a cool town. San Diego is a great big city experience. Pacific Northwest is also beautiful but it's been almost 30 years since we were there so I'm sure the cities are much busier now. We also love east Tennessee.

And of course, you can never go wrong with anywhere in North Carolina! I like calling North Carolina Home!

You have already listed many of my favorite national parks but if you haven't made it up to Glacier National Park yet, it is a definite MUST do! They have a very short season when the Going-to-the-Sun road is open (due to snow cover), but it is honestly one of the most beautiful areas on the planet!

 

[marthachick]

You have already listed many of my favorite national parks but if you haven't made it up to Glacier National Park yet, it is a definite MUST do! They have a very short season when the Going-to-the-Sun road is open (due to snow cover), but it is honestly one of the most beautiful areas on the planet!

It’s on my list!

 

[kymom99]

It’s on my list!

Mine too!

 

[canadianjovigirl]

Grand Cayman............the one trip nobody in the family wanted to to home from.............

 

[PollyannaMom]

Surprisingly inexpensive vacation was Washington DC. Flights and hotels free on points. And all of the museums and monuments we visited were free, including the zoo! We did a couple Free Tours by Foot (tip the guide what you thought it was worth at the end), used Lyft when too far or tired to walk, and paid for food. Awesome budget trip!

Other than Disney, this is what I was going to say too. We threw it together on points last April, and had the best time!

I also enjoy "staycations".... I think we tend to overlook sights and activities in our own backyard -- so for me I have a few backyards including Baltimore (Inner Harbor, Poe's grave, the zoo, the aquarium, etc), Niagara Falls (NY and Ontario), and Buffalo NY.

This is a good point as well. (And if you do it, be sure to check your library for passes!)

 

[ellencaerter]

I am very inspired by travel, new people and emotions that we exchange with the world. My last trip to St. Petersburg was amazing, I was able to watch the white nights over the Neva

 

[AndreaDM]

DCL definitely ranks up there, have been on 2 of them. However, it's out of my budget now. Still love cruising, going to Cuba on Carnival in Oct. LOVE the ease of not having to make dining reservations, packing any food, worrying about the check at the end of the meal, and ordering whatever we want, dessert included! For adults only, I love an all-inclusive for the same reasons. On the other hand, I loved our trip to Maine where we rented a lake house and cooked over half our meals there. My brother lives about an hour from Denver so whenever we go to visit there is no shortage of things to do and see! We are going for a long weekend in June and he's taking us to our first Rockies game. We love to hike and go white-water rafting there as well. As much as I love WDW, there are SO many other things to experience. There have been places I thought I had no interest in visiting, but once there I definitely changed my mind! I had never thought I'd want to visit Asia at all, too many people and I have anxiety, but just did a 10 day trip to China and LOVED it! Wouldn't call it a vacation though lol, no relaxing on that trip, it was go, go, go! But, my daughter and I love visiting museums and cultural sites, so much history there.

 

[bdiddy]

We love traveling, especially long road trips! There’s very few states left our kids haven’t been to. We try to intersperse the trips in with Disney visits. We also love going to music festivals as well! I’m an army brat and growing up we never went on vacations. Our vacations were always going back to our home state to visit family. So I think I am over compensating now! Lol....We used to be one of those beach trip families before we had kids and when they were pretty small but once we took our first big road trip. And ourDisney trip - we were hooked! We also really love national parks and hiking. It’s one of our favorite things to do! Hopefully now that I’m going full-time again that we’ll be able to venture to Europe and to more pricey destinations.

Out of all of these places my favorites were Key West, Montreal, and Glacier National Park. And Disney of course!

In the last 10 yrs we’ve done:
2008- 1st Disney Trip
2009- 2nd Disney Trip
2010 - Myrtle Beach
2011 - Beach vacation with family and Bonnaroo Music Festival
2012 - Florida vacation, Disney, Legoland, Seaworld & Clearwater and Bonnaroo Music Festival
2013 - Trip to Grand Canyon and back from Ohio, spent time in Denver, Arches NP, Grand Canyon, Albuquerque, OKC also Floydfest Music Fest
2014 - Canada/New England trip - Niagara Falls, Toronto, Adirondacks, Montreal, Acadia NP, Portland, Boston and NYC, also Nelsonville Music Fest
2015 - Disney Trip and girls 40th birthday weekend to Disney, also Toronto Music Fest
2016 - Disney, Universal, Key West, camping Dry Tortugas NP
2017 - Southern CA, LA, San Diego & Disneyland, also Pilgrimage Music Fest
2018 - western road trip - Mall of Marcia, Teddy Roosevelt NP, Billings, MT, Glacier NP, Yellowstone NP, Cody, WY, Mt Rushmore, Badlands, Sioux Falls, SD
2019 - Disney Spring Break (daughter performed with band) and Royal Caribbean cruise in June

Next year I think we are going to do the Pacific Northwest and Vancouver. And the year after that will probably be Disney. And hopefully a quick trip to New Orleans and Chicago in there.

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

I am enjoying reading these! Trying to get ideas

 

[katie111]

Just asked my 3 kids. For once they actually agreed on something. Their top 3 trips ever were:

1) Costa Rica- zip lining, waterfall rappelling, hiking, hanging bridges, animal rescues, snorkeling, beaches. It truly has everything for an adventurous family.

2) Grand Canyon and Sedona- definitely stay IN the park if you go and make sure you hike at least partly down into the canyon. Rented bikes on the rim and it was so much fun.

3). All-inclusive in Mexico. We’ve done this 5 times and always stayed at a different resort. They were all great with so much for all of us to do.

I guess number 4 would be our many, many trips to Disney and Universal.

 

[have2getaway]

The only family vacations we have taken are Wisconsins Dells, Branson MO, and Disneyworld.

I hated Branson, MO. But if you like country music and/or unheard of musical groups/cover groups putting on shows you might love it. We do Wisconsin Dells with my husband's family and we usually do it once a year or so. We all stay together in a HUGE house. It's not ALWAYS the Dells, but it's always Wisconsin and it's always on water. It's a good time usually.

Disney World though really was my favorite. We went for the first time in 2016. We went with my husband's parents, sisters and their families. Thought I like local trips with them, we won't ever spend big, expensive vacations with them ever again. We're going back on our own in December of this year.



I think this will be our next vacation. I have found so many beautiful rental homes on VRBO and HomeAway with beautiful mountain views. I have never seen the Eastern mountains. I am thinking 2021 for this trip!

Do it! You will love it. We went last April and stayed 4 nights at a 3 bedroom at Riverstone Resort and Spa and 2 nights at DreamMore, for when we went to Dollywood. DreamMore resort is comparable to any Disney hotel and it even offers a separate entrance to Dollywood for its guests. Dollywood isn’t Disney, but it is a beautiful park and well themed. We also enjoyed Gatlinburg and hiking.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

Since DH & Kids favorite trips are cruises, one of our favorite trips was a cruise to Bermuda. Out of NYC. It just went to Bermuda and we had 2 1/2 days there (stayed at same dock both nights). I really am no sure why this was one of our favorite trips because it wasn't anything overly OMG to see. The ship was NCL Escape and it had a nice ropes course and water slides. We've also cruised all over the Caribbean, Western Med and Norway and this one still ranks the highest.

Another one of our favorite trips was a road trip to Yellowstone. I think it ranks really high because it is just relaxing and we don't do road trips often. But if you aren't into hiking and seeing animals this isn't for you.

 

[kathy884]

My favorite that I have repeated a few times is staying in Estes Park and visiting Rocky Mountain National park for the week. In my younger days, we camped in the National Park. Now we stay in a hotel or cabin in nearby Estes Park. I love the family friendly hikes, alpine lakes, ranger guided programs, wildlife viewing, wonderful scenic drive with stops along the way up Trail Ridge Road. RMNP is heaven on earth to me. I've been to lots of other national parks and scenic destinations too, but this is a favorite as on this particular trip it seems that I am in my car less and out with nature more. In reality, though, I don't think there are any national parks that I haven't loved.


We do change things up quite a bit and like to go new places and do different types of vacations.
-- In a week and 1/2 we will be out in South Dakota for a week: visit friends and do Bear Country USA and the Repile Gardens in Rapid City, spend a day at the Badlands National Park, check out Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse, spend some time at Custer State park -- wildlife loop, scenic drives, horseback riding, and chilling out around a fire pit in the evenings.
-- For 2020 we are doing a RCCL cruise on one of the mega ships. This is a great trip for us to do with my dad who loves cruising. DS 23 is in love with cruising too. With all the food, etc. included, it makes for super easy planning.
-- We also are doing DS's bucket list trip -- spending five nights in Paris and three in Belfast. This is more of a once in a lifetime trip for us. This is a specially funded trip (outside and above what our normal annual vacation budget is)

 

[Deffenm]

My favorite that I have repeated a few times is staying in Estes Park and visiting Rocky Mountain National park for the week. In my younger days, we camped in the National Park. Now we stay in a hotel or cabin in nearby Estes Park. I love the family friendly hikes, alpine lakes, ranger guided programs, wildlife viewing, wonderful scenic drive with stops along the way up Trail Ridge Road. RMNP is heaven on earth to me. I've been to lots of other national parks and scenic destinations too, but this is a favorite as on this particular trip it seems that I am in my car less and out with nature more. In reality, though, I don't think there are any national parks that I haven't loved.


We do change things up quite a bit and like to go new places and do different types of vacations.
-- In a week and 1/2 we will be out in South Dakota for a week: visit friends and do Bear Country USA and the Repile Gardens in Rapid City, spend a day at the Badlands National Park, check out Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse, spend some time at Custer State park -- wildlife loop, scenic drives, horseback riding, and chilling out around a fire pit in the evenings.
-- For 2020 we are doing a RCCL cruise on one of the mega ships. This is a great trip for us to do with my dad who loves cruising. DS 23 is in love with cruising too. With all the food, etc. included, it makes for super easy planning.
-- We also are doing DS's bucket list trip -- spending five nights in Paris and three in Belfast. This is more of a once in a lifetime trip for us. This is a specially funded trip (outside and above what our normal annual vacation budget is)

We too are heading to SD in about 2 weeks! Plan to see Devils Tower in WY, Badlands, Wind Cave, Custer, Mount Rushmore and ride the full length of the Mickelson trail from Deadwood to Edgemont. This is just a trip for DH and I.

We love all vacations, Cruises, WDW, Roadtrips to see National Parks, and Beach Houses. We try to mix it up and do different things.

 

[neatokimmo]

Best trip was Venice, Rome, and Milan. Same price as a mod with a meal plan for a week.
Best vacation (vacations require beach or pool) is a Carnival Cruise. It’s a great value for the experience. It can be less that a value resort with free dining for a week.

 

[Runnergal]

Favorite family vacations with my 4 boys:

Disney Cruise
Washington, DC
Niagara Falls
Bermuda (one of my favorites-so easy to get there, been numerous times with and without kids)
Italy - Rome and Amalfi Coast
Catamaran charter in BVI’s (with a captain and cook so it was truly a vacation!)
Ireland - west coast. Have family there so I’m biased but kids really love it.
Skiing in Colorado
LA/Disneyland
Vermont, in both winter and summer



Vacations I want to take in next few yrs:

Alaska
Hawaii
Galapagos
France - Normandy in particular
River Cruise
Northern CA-loved it with DH and would like to take dc