All right, you’ve got a place, a place to stay, and a way to get there. What the heck are you going to do there? The first thing I think about is what we can do for free. While there are prominent beautiful places to see, typically, they are similar versions of what you have locally. This is my, do as the locals do, moment. When we drove to Myrtle Beach, and when we are in Texas, the first place we go is to a park. Here is what is great about local parks; they are never the same. Kids love parks no matter where they are; it is new and different equipment, so the imagination starts running again. Once we have tried a few, we try to mark out some time to go to the one they liked the best every day. It is a guaranteed energy release, something that you know you can do for free, and the kids will crave it because you only have it a few times. If we are on the ocean, I start to research what is popular at that main beach. Are there kids activities already available? Can I rent a cabana? What kind of pool is at my hotel?
Myrtle Beach was right out of our doorstep. We had an ocean view, and we had a pool and a small walkway to the beach. I knew that the kids would love it because it wasn’t an everyday thing, and so we make sure we get that in first. Kids will never get sick of the first time you get to that beach and look for shells. Free take-homes that you were able to find, and the kiddos LOVE all the shapes and colors and, of course, the challenge. We had driven here, and so we brought a small castle-making kit. And so we challenge to do that. You can swim, shell, run, play, and it is all FREE. Now, keep in mind if you aren’t staying on the beach, you may have parking fees but keep that in mind when you are picking a hotel.
Further away and saving money or having to load up the car, drive all that way, pay for parking, not have a potty right on sight for the younger kids, and be limited to how long I can park there. Load back up the car. See where I am going with this? Maybe it is $50 less but is that $50 worth the extra work that comes into it? I also googled the “favorite local spots for shelling” or “best family entertainment in,” and don’t forget about the Chamber of Commerce for that city, the cities webpage, local tourist advertisements. This is their bread and butter. These are only going to be the best and most well-known places. These places invest in those opportunities because they know that it will pay off. Check their calendars for city events or festivals. Who is doing advertising and why? Check for local newspapers online, see what they are showing. Please make a list, get as much as you can on pricing and map it out. Okay, this event is X miles away and costs Z. and so planning on time there and drive we could do this on this day and then pick one or two smaller things to do and then use up that free entertainment. The new park, different time of the day at the beach, make a picnic in the hotel room and eat it at the beach. Myrtle Beach has a cute boardwalk. We had looked in advance and saw they have a Sky Wheel (enclosed, slower, Farris wheel, a lot safer) and budgeted for the ticket and the photo at the end as a memento. This was a great option; I believe it was about $50 for all of us to go, but it was beautiful, and we have such a fun picture to look back and remember that trip. The kids loved the beach, though, so much, we didn’t get to do everything we wanted to, and remember, if you are worried about a budget, and that is why you are here? It’s okay! Good, let them only want to go to the beach or the park. This is free entertainment that your children love, and you can get that “Get Away” feeling without feeling like you have to claim bankruptcy to afford it. It’s supposed to be a vacation; it’s supposed to be relaxed. And Yes, I do have OCD, but I feel like if I have done enough of my homework before the trip, we will have too many options of things to do and not enough time to do it, but it’s never a good “lets look and see what it costs and where it is.” You will spend half your vacation picking a place to go, researching the area, fighting over who wants to go there or not, and it’s not worth it. With the kids, we have talked about many of these places that we want to go to and get them both excited too because they are totally fine agreeing with the other. After all, that means you will have a backing on the next pick. And we all get to pick. Honestly, why I ever did vacations differently, I will never understand. It is a lot more relaxing. Try it.
We honestly thought that driving several states away for the first road trip out of the state was absolutely crazy! But we were prepared. We borrowed my in-law’s cooler on the Myrtle Beach specific trip but have since invested in our own. This cooler was terrific, and if you travel by car and go far, it’s worth every penny. It plugs into your car charger/” Cigarette Lighter” for you, my age folk. This allowed us to stock up on groceries for our trip and would only have to stop for Coffee and snacks because we did not get good enough stuff to begin with ;). We had bread, lunch meat, cheese, a gallon of milk for the kids Sip cups back then, and it all stayed cold without needing ice. I know; my mind was blown too. It took up no more than a standard cooler; it was easy to get to at rest stops off the hwy. And we never had the water mess. The only thing we forgot to do was unplug it at our first overnight stop, and it killed our battery.
We looked along the route and then calculated out places that we knew we wanted to stop and stretch and or sleep. We were very blessed. Please remember this was pre-covid; we had family along the route, so we made this a double vacation. We could split up our drive, visit with family, and have a safe place to stay overnight that we knew was full of love and fun. On this particular trip, we stopped on the way down and on the way home to break it up for the kiddos, and the amount of things the kids remember most from this trip is all the fun they had at their cousin’s house. The way they talk, we stayed at their home in Myrtle Beach, Indiana; they were none the wiser. If we have learned anything the last year, spend the time with those we love and fill our hearts with good the most. So check your friends and family, enjoy that time together when you can.
We will guess where half of the trip will be on the trip and see where that lands us on other drives. We try to stay just off the interstate and in a larger city when possible because then the hotel prices are more competitive, and so you can typically get a better rate. You will also be closer to some of those more significant city spots, children’s museums, mini-museums, to allow the kids to stretch their legs before you cram their legs back in the car. Please make the most of this stop and the investment it is for you. It’s also a great option because if you have a smaller cooler, you can clean out the car garbage and restock at a local grocery store and save some money for the next leg of the trip.
But what are the kids going to do? They will be soooooo bored. Good, that was the grandma I had in me. While we live in it’s okay to be a boring world, they will be fine looking out of the windows, but let’s be honest, the only person looking out the window is the driver. You are bored too. We were ready. We had an excellent DVD player for the car that we got off Amazon. Yes, we still use DVDs. It has the option to play the same DVD on both screens or two different. (You will also want to invest in a multi-vehicle charger port. It has one to go into the plug and has 2-4 slots for devices.
I do not in any way endorse anything that would overrun your battery or electrical system, so you need to research what your car can take and proper device wiring.
So for us, this allowed the kids to watch a DVD without holding it, wink wink, around the time they will fall asleep, so they don’t drop it and then wake up and only want that one thing that fell on the floor when they fell asleep and is of course out of my reach. Sorry, moving on, and then we also have the infamous Tablet. If you don’t pay for internet on the device, look at the jetpacks/hot spots from cellular companies as options to take in the car for you. We have used both Cricket prepaid hot spot and Verizon Jet pack and loved both of them. The prepaid was nice when we weren’t traveling anywhere without wifi access the whole way; we could pick up unlimited data for the entire trip for $60 bucks as needed. Now that we are traveling more via vehicle, we have a monthly one that we love because we always have it in the car and a different provider than our cell phones, so that way if one doesn’t have reception, the other usually does. But many times, the kids will ask about where we are and what we are seeing. Because we always make them curious and want to learn more, they love hearing about the places we go. We have also known then ahead of time of where we are driving through and to so that when they ask, we look pretty darn smart 😉
Just remember the relaxation is the goal. Be realistic but be a bit spontaneous. Relax and Carpe diem. The memories that are the best are what you let life make them. Enjoy!
Xoxo Katie ❤
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