Good summer vacation locations?

[MaggieTheCat]

My husband and I have been throwing around the idea of going on vacation this summer. He's got a bunch of paid time off saved up, and we've both been working a lot so we have enough money for plane tickets and hotels and whatnot. The question is, where to go?

We're considering going up to Wisconsin to see my family, but honestly, we find it kind of boring up there, especially if we were to stay with any of our family (which we would if we do go to Wisconsin) since none of them live in or near any major cities.

We did Disney Land a couple of summers ago. I would love to go back sometime, but maybe not quite yet.

We would really like to go somewhere cooler than where we are now. We thought it'd be really nice to get out of the Texas heat for a week in the middle of August, when the thermometer is over 100 almost every day of the month.

So, we're taking suggestions. We don't really like camping, but we're not against doing some outdoor walking around at, say, a national park or amusement park.

[chikenlady]

I am not sure of your means of transportation but the Rockies are beautiful in the summer.

[42_42_42]

I highly recommend Prince Edward Island. It's absolutely gorgeous, the food is fabulous and the people are all extremely friendly.

[trailerparkmedic]

I went to Chicago last summer. It was gorgeous, had tons of fun stuff to do, and didn't hit 90 the entire time we were there. If you go, get the City Pass. Even if you don't use all of the tickets in it, it is totally worth it for the ability to skip lines. In addition to stuff on the City Pass, we went to the Navy Pier, Second City, a modern art museum (there are several art museums in the city), the zoo, Millennium Park and we walked around a few cool neighborhoods. There's also shopping, lots of sports, historical tours, theater and a zillion other things to do.

[Barefootgirl]

I really, really want to go to Dollywood, but its probably not high on most people's ideal vacation lists! I would second the suggestion of Chicago, its a really nice city, and as TPM says, there is absolutely loads to do.

[Sandman]

I highly recommend Prince Edward Island. It's absolutely gorgeous, the food is fabulous and the people are all extremely friendly.

Ditto that.. I have friends who live up there and I'm always welcome to stay a week with them

[Antisocial_Worker]

I live in a tourist town. Send me a pm if you like and maybe we can figure out if it might be the right tourist town for you.

[Sapphire Silk]

Look at the DC area. DC has all the various Smithsonian's, plus all the public monuments, the Capitol, White House, etc. All great places to go and see. You can spend all day in just ONE museum. There are wonderful restaurants. The Metro is clean and easy to get around town in. Stick to the Mall area and NW (NE and SE are bad parts of town). Plus, you've got a number of Civil War battlefields (like Manassas or Bull Run to the Yankees) within an easy drive. Harper's Ferry is about a 1 1/2 hr drive (depending on time of day and traffic), but well worth the trip--the view is one Jefferson called worth a trip across the Atlantic to see.

The DC heat can get pretty bad in summer though, mostly due to humidity, but it is no worse than Houston.

Another suggestion would be Big Sur in California. Beautiful park to just walk around in, great views on the drive along the coast, little places to shop, and some really nice places to eat. It's fairly cool in the summer, especially in the mornings. Monterrey is not far, and has a great aquatics museum. If you're a Steinbeck fan, Salinas is not far either . . . that's where he wrote Grapes of Wrath (I don't like Salinas much, having lived there briefly). Gilroy's Garlic Festival is kinda neat.

Yet another suggestion for a day trip in Northern California would be Mount Lassen. The whole area is still actively volcanic: sulfur springs, lava tubes you can explore, and you can climb the summit of the volcano (it's a bit strenuous though). That's way north of the Big Sur area, though, by about a 5-6 hour drive.

Happy journeys!

[Sliceanddice]

it depends on how long you plan on traveling and the type of budget you wanna stick with also what kind of vacation you want.

If you want a relaxing retreat and special time with the hubby and ware looking to stay in i don't know no more than 2500 price range you should consider a cruise cause it would be less stress great time and you can do a disney one (and you can even do less than that price of course just giving that number at random).

if you want an adventure you seriously consider Chicago, DC or some place like Seattle a big city would allow you see a lot and have a lot of energy in your trip and each would have their own draws form the historical to the weird.

if you wanna go really crazy, cheap, fun or just don't want to plan to much Vegas. Vegas is awesome and every trip is different.

And if all you want is to spend time with hubby with out planning or crazy or anything go to one of those travel sites and just start looking for rates you can go to deals and offers and make a descion were to go based off what deal you like and then plan around that.

[Elspeth]

Vegas is very fun, plus you can do day trips. Red Rock Canyon, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon.

Tahoe is very nice

Alaska is wonderful, added bonus in the summer is doesn't get dark until 2am.

Chicago, DC would be cool.

Seattle is also very nice and with the added bonus of being a day trip to the coast or the mountains.

[Sliceanddice]

oh i forgot something, since im pretty sure your american you can go do a real adventure a go to Puerto Rico though i have no idea about any thing Puerto Rician...

[Mikkel]

Vacation_rentals_suck's resort? You could come home with a few stories of your own .

[MaggieTheCat]

Vacation_rentals_suck's resort? You could come home with a few stories of your own .

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. I would really like to go to Vegas someday, but DH isn't all that thrilled on the idea. Maybe someday. Chicago and especially DC sound intriguing, but I think we might pass DC until we want to do a winter vacation...we live in San Antonio, so Houston-like heat & humidity would actually be worse for us, which is not what we're looking for.

Hubby's been to Alaska, not sure if he wants to go back. Prince Edward Island looks beautiful from some of the info I looked up on it, although neither of us have passports. It's early enough though that we could probably get them by this summer if we wanted to.

A cruise is a definite possibility. We've talked about it before and said we want to do one someday. Does anyone have any experience or recommendations?

[blas]

If you guys do consider Wisconsin, why not go to Wisconsin Dells or somewhere other than your hometown?

I mean, you know, I could always save up a little dough to meet up with you guys for some fun at Noah's Ark or the Kalahari

[BarbieGirl]

We did a 4 day carnival cruise to baja mexico out of Los Angeles. It was SOOOOOO nice! I cannot wait until I can go again. Disney also just opened their cruise line out of LA and it's a bit cheaper than the east coast.

Food is delicious and it's nice to go to bed and wake up in a different port. The nightly shows are great and will give your husband a little taste of vegas to try it out. The shore excursions are great too!