How To Plan For Your Family Home Vacation

The most important step to having a successful home vacation is balance. Schedule a mix of activities and/or home projects so your time off spent at home doesn’t feel like your normal time spent at home. Mix in days of sleeping in and relaxing with days spent going out and visiting local attractions, or a day trip.

It doesn’t have to necessarily be right in your back yard either, if you live relativley close to a major city, it’s worth the drive to spend a nice relaxing day enjoying spots that most tourists would kill to see. Most of the time we are not able to fully enjoy these local treasures because either a.) we live close to them or b.) we’re just too busy to visit them.

Here is a great site that allows you to look for any local attractions in your area that you may have missed: Find Local Attractions In Every City In The U.S

Plan Meals That Are Special

Get creative with your meals, you don’t need to eat out to do this. Have themed dinner nights, stay in and make Chinese that tastes as good as your local take out. You can even get more exotic and cook Spanish food one night, make tapas and paellas with drinks that are enjoyed in spain.  Bring the culture into your own home, you will have a blast learning how to cook new things, and it’s great to share with your family.

Accomplish Something While You’re Off

It may sound strange to pursue that home improvement project you’ve been putting off during your vacation time, but commonly these projects can be stress relievers. You don’t have to worry about getting the job done within a tight time frame, you will have other fun activities surrounding your project and you can feel a great sense of accomplishment on your own terms.

This time off can be great to start a garden, organizing and cleaning your house, or even having a garage sale to make some money.

8 Ideas To Enjoy Your Home Vacation

• Borrow or Rent a Movie - Don’t be afraid to go against the norm on this one. Go out and rent an old black and white movie and introduce the kids to the glory days of the silver screen. Or, find a new release that you know the whole family will enjoy. Put in some popcorn, dim the lights and treat it like your own in-house movie theater.
• Turn off the Outside World - Treat it as if it were a real vacation. Don’t check your e-mail and let most friends and co-workers know that you will be pretty much “unavailable” during this time.
• Try Backyard Camping – Set up a tent and campfire in your backyard (if permissible) and enjoy the comfort of your own home right next to you! Do all the things you would normally do on a camping trip, roast marshmallows, playing songs, tell ghost stories by the fire, etc.
• Have a Game Day – Pull out your trusty card and board games. It’s relaxing and brings your family closer together. Even introduce new games that you think your kids will enjoy, a great chance for the whole family to connect.
• Take a Free Tour – If you have any historic sites near your house, chances are, they offer free (or very inexpensive tours.) Take this opportunity to educate you and your children on the local attractions your town or city has to offer.
• Put Yourself In The Mindset of a Tourist – This really helps, especially in the planning stages. Create a list of local places you’d like to visit with an objective point of view. Visit some of the links below for great sites to help plan your trip.
• Take Advantage of Any Special Deals – Keep your eyes peeled for local promotions and deals that might be going on. Some tourist attractions will lower their prices during the off-season, this would be a great time for you to take advantage of a family home vacation.
• Visit The Beach – This tip will only work if you’re coastal, but the beach is one of the best free vacation spots to visit it, and if you live near one, take advantage of it! Plan a BBQ, play frisbee, show the kids how to boogie board. There is plenty of free fun to be had at the beach.

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Rand McNally – Plan A Road Trip

If you’re planning on taking a road trip, this is the place to start. You can name your roadtrip, save it, and use it as a great organizational tool. Once you’ve planned your trip and saved it, you can access directions, weather predictions and even write your own notes!

Info Hub – Specialty Travel Guide

Get inspired to travel places here. You can choose a destination based on a category (i.e Hiking, Hunting, Arts & Crafts), and plan your whole vacation around it. Also, check out their great article section for information you won’t find anywhere else when it comes to travel.

Frugal RV Travel

For all things RV Travel. If you’re planning on driving your RV across country, this is not a site you want to miss. Tons of free information on where to find camping spots, how to choose an RV and even tips for how to repair your RV. Not to be missed.

National Park Service

The official website for everything national parks. If you plan on going for a more outdoors orienting vacation, this is a great place to start. Find national parks near you and learn their history. When you’ve chosen a park you’d like to visit, you can even plan your visit through this site.

Bidding For Travel

I found this site through clarkhoward.com, this is a website who’s primary goal is to promote informaed bidding when using priceline.com’s Travel products. I’ve had a lot of luck using this website, and it’s helped save me up to half of what i’d normally spent.

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