Family Vacations - What are your bests?

eliquid

eliquid

Serpwoo.com
May 10, 2007
7,207
205
63
A/B Testing
Thinking up ideas for family vaca's.

Let me know the best places you have been and what you did/cant miss/must do.

I haven't been too many places with my kids, but out of all of them the best so far has been Disney World ( 3x ). You have to stay in the Grand Floridan if you can and must get the Park Hopper pass and Platinum dining plan. ( $$$$ pricey but worth it ).

Ask to stay in one of the "corner" suites in the while at the hotel. Most times these suites are actually 2-3 suites combined together with balconies and great views of the castle. You and spouse get a suite to yourself, while the kids get one to themselves, and all your junk can go in another. Its all combined so its not like your separated.

You must get fastPass for anything Pixar in the parks and you must reserve all dining in advance. Make sure to stop at Downtown Disney and eat at the Crab Boat. Also, make sure that if you have young daughters that you do the princess brunch.
 


I like taking my family over to the Eastern European countries. I can take bids for up to $2 million dollars per child (American Females), for those rich guys to blowtorch their eyeballs out and hang them on meat hooks.
 
No kids for me, but favorite vacation spots include Vegas, camping/hiking in Colorado rockies, and I liked Orlando and the surrounding beaches so much that we moved here.
 
I did Disney World several times as a kid and although my parents thought it was a bit too commercial, I remember loving it.

I think as a kid we also did Universal Studios, Hershey Park, and a bunch of other all inclusive resort type places that I can't remember of the top of my head.
 
SeaWorld was a big hit with my fam. We did the whole deal, park, swim with dolphins, dinner with Shamu (or whichever whale it was), etc. Pretty cool.
 
I'm not a naturalist by any means, but some my fondest childhood memories have to do with Mount Desert Island in Maine, Acadia National Park, and the town of Bar Harbor.

Whale watches, seals, and Mt. Cadillac, the highest point on the eastern seaboard. If you can get up early enough, you can be the first people on the Eastern seaboard to see the sunrise.

I'll be taking the kids up in August.

pic related, it's Acadia.

aca3.jpg
 
Yeah skiing holidays are always awesome.

Florida theme parks in general I thought were awesome when I went when I was about 11.. I thought Disney World was over-rated though, and that the other parks around were much better (Island of Adventure, Universal, Busch Gardens, etc..)
 
I've done disney, I've been on a cruise, I've rented a house boat on a lake in tennessee, and have done a trip to the bahamas all in the past year. I'll put them in this order.

Bahamas - We charter a 40 foot catamaran sail boat in the caribbean. Usually British Virgin Islands, or Abacos in the Bahamas. It's not your typical resort type vacation, sail from island to island, at most you'll encounter 35-100 people on that island you go to, besides the main islands...It's a very laid back trip, nothing like a cruise or disney. The food is excellent, the locals aren't hounding you to buy cheap shit, although they do have stuff to sell. They're not annoying about it. All the local people and nice and friendly to you too, it's different from most tourist attractions.

FqQtl.jpg


House Boat - This was another awesome trip, cheap too, that my friends and I went on. We rented an 80 foot house boat and stayed on there for a week. We brought boats and jet skis with us too, so that kept us entertained. There was almost no interaction with anyone but the 10 of us on the boat. It was similar to a camping style vacation, but instead you have a nice boat to sleep in at night.

Y9JLZ.jpg


Disney - Disney / Universal / SeaWorld is awesome. Keep in mind you have to let your mind free and enjoy all the childish things, I'm only 22 but I had a blast there a couple months ago when I went for my 3rd time, once when I was 4 and once when I was 14, and my girlfriends first time. I had a lot of fun at the parks. They're amazing places and incredible with how everything is built and made. I was more fascinated with how everything was constructed and how disney made it's own highway system and all their parks and transportation works flawlessly than anything. It's something I feel everyone should do at least once, and it's not a very expensive trip if you don't stay in one of the disney resorts.

Cruise - I went on a cruise (eastern caribbean) the week after christmas and it was alright. I enjoyed it and had fun, but it wasn't for me. Everything was too organized and planned out. It's like you were a robot on a boat. I hated going ashore, all the locals at the main ports hounded you to buy their shitty products. Most of the attractions were boring, watered down to cater to dumb tourists, or over crowded. On the ship it was great though. They treated you like kings and all the workers were fun to be around and I don't remember encountering one that wasn't extremely happy / nice. The ship itself could keep you entertained for a while, but then it gets boring. It's also very expensive to drink on the ship. I had a lot of fun on the trip, but I'm not sure if I would do it again. If you don't want to do anything exciting or have to think for yourself then a cruise is the perfect thing for you, it's very similar to all inclusive resorts in cancun, another thing I didn't like, and spent most of my time there off the resort.
 
Hawaii is always fun.
But for my next trip were planning to rent a beach front home in Key West (pool, sunsets, fishing on a private dock, kick ass house to sleep in)
I like the keys, its island life. But you feel safe because you're in America. Watch out for gay people on south of duval street.

PierHouse5.JPG
 
cardine said:
I did Disney World several times as a kid and although my parents thought it was a bit too commercial, I remember loving it.

I think as a kid we also did Universal Studios, Hershey Park, and a bunch of other all inclusive resort type places that I can't remember of the top of my head.
Click to expand...

Hershey Park is epic. Did you ever go on the Tsunami ride? Where the boat drops like 100 feet and creates that huge wave that splashes everyone? Sooo much fun, I think I rode that a solid 100 times.
 
Rusky said:
Hawaii is always fun.
But for my next trip were planning to rent a beach front home in Key West (pool, sunsets, fishing on a private dock, kick ass house to sleep in)
I like the keys, its island life. But you feel safe because you're in America. Watch out for gay people on south of duval street.

PierHouse5.JPG
Click to expand...

I did something similar in Destin, FL a few years ago, the back of the house had its own private beachfront and such. I would stand next to the 4th floor pool and look down and see all the huge fish ( and baby sharks ) swimming in the gulf and then later go out on boats in the same water.
 
What ages and genders?

Yellowstone.Tetons is one place everyone should visit once. I can provide some tips if interested. I'd skip disney again since you've been there several times.

We like St. Augustine (Americas oldest city), very laid back, nice beaches. Get a condo at St. Augustine beach, Ocean Gallery has been good. Visit the fort, take a boat tour, go deep sea fishing, etc. St. Pete beach is good if you like a busier area. Go to Caladesi island, one of Americas best beaches. You can only get there by boat (ferry at Honeymoon Island). We stayed at the Tradewinds afew years ago, it's a 5 star, but I wouldn't give it more than 4.

If they aren't to old they might like the Gatlinburg area, lots of mini golf, rides, ripleys, dollywood, etc. GSMNP is right there and there are some really cool waterfalls you can walk to. If you want something a bit different stay at the leconte lodge. Otherwise get a hotel in town, close enough to walk to the stuff. Make sure to check reviews, not all are what they seem. We liked the fairfield. Another great option is to rent a cabin, but they are outside of town. I know someone that owns one and can get you the name. Lots of them have hot tubs, pool tables, decks, etc.

Colorado Estes Park is right at the entrance to RMNP. Lots of stuff to do, raft trips, ATV or jeep rentals, hiking, shopping, etc. Again, check reviews, not everything is as it appears. We rented a cabin on the river on the edge of town a couple of years ago. Or, go down by Durango and go to Mesa Verde, take the Durango Silverton train (very nice), raft, hike, take jeep tour, etc.
 
Just got back from a mini-vacation to Kennerdell PA in a nice cabin my mom's friend has let us stay at the past 2 decades..

Here's my daughter yesterday outside of an old train tunnel built in the 1860's, pretty awesome going through it when it's near pitch black and about a mile+.
481386_10151042832142889_85475855_n.jpg

542289_10151042992407889_947611331_n.jpg


Wish we could have stayed longer, some family members would rather be in the middle of a city though.
 
IceToEskimos said:
Acadia.
Click to expand...

Acadia is awesome, been there a few times. As a kid finding little pools of sealife and walking around the rocks is cool.

Yellowstone and glacier national park are something to see as well and I haven't been to Olympia yet but it's on my list.

Falian said:
Hershey Park is epic. Did you ever go on the Tsunami ride? Where the boat drops like 100 feet and creates that huge wave that splashes everyone? Sooo much fun, I think I rode that a solid 100 times.
Click to expand...

Tidal Force ftw! Hershey park was always a good time. Busch gardens is another cool theme park.

Skiing is a blast as people have mentioned. Killiington and stowe in vermont are good, steamboat/keystone/breckenridge in CO, and lake tahoe(haven't been there yet but heard great things).

The Caribbean is nice for vacations. There are some affordable packages resort wise(lots of all-inclusive ones) and also some secluded places to rent out privately. Domincan republic is fun(punta cana), puerto rico(old san juan), st john, tortola(british virgin islands- you can open a bvi tax shelter corp while you're there too!). On Tortola there is a place called bomba's beach shack which serves mushroom tea and has these full moon parties where people get wild and crazy. Women are constantly taking their tops off there to impress bomba the 300 lb black man who sits by himself in the corner of a donkey stable in the dark. Tortola is probably a little more for grown ups but I still saw lots of kids there. Nevis and st kitts are harder to get to and a little more expensive but it's totally worth it to be on little islands practically all to yourself. Off the beach of Nevis I saw tiger woods and his massive yacht where he was probably running through more trim than I have in my lifespan.

Have fun whatever you decide on.
 
One of my favorite trips was renting a house boat at Lake Powell. We stayed for a week and also rented a jet ski and a boat so we could go skiing and wakeboarding. Like whoever said earlier, like camping, but you have a lot of watersports to do and a nice boat to sleep on.
 
DewChugr said:
If they aren't to old they might like the Gatlinburg area, lots of mini golf, rides, ripleys, dollywood, etc. GSMNP is right there and there are some really cool waterfalls you can walk to. If you want something a bit different stay at the leconte lodge. Otherwise get a hotel in town, close enough to walk to the stuff. Make sure to check reviews, not all are what they seem. We liked the fairfield. Another great option is to rent a cabin, but they are outside of town. I know someone that owns one and can get you the name. Lots of them have hot tubs, pool tables, decks, etc.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we did this a couple years ago too in one of those luxury cabins. I know its unfair to say, but I will prob. never be back. The experience was horrible ( all cabin related ). I planned it out months in advance and the people we used:

1. Did not have the cabin ready for us. We waited an additional 8 hours to get into our cabin.

2. Phone did not work the entire time. We couldnt call out in case of an emergency and the cell phone I brought had 0 service ( fucking ATT )

3. Internet did not work ( one of the sole reasons I chose this cabin )

4. The hotub was slimy and dirty.

5. The washer did not work and leaked all over the place while we were gone ( was on the 2nd floor ) and leaked thru the 1st floor ceiling damaging my cell phone I left on the counter.

6. In the middle of the night, a huge bear was on the front porch eating the trash they have in those special bins there. While this was actually pretty fucking cool, it happened on the first night and thus left us cleaning up the fucking mess later on since no one else was going to.

I think if I would have dealt with a better company, my experience would have been 10x better. One of my fav. restaurants is located there though, the Cherokee Grill. The company I used was highly recommended, so I dont know WTF to say really. I complained about all that went wrong ( except the mess the bear made, who could account for that shit ) and they were not going to refund me or help me out any at all with the issues.

Left a bad taste in my mouth. Gatlinburg though, was pretty fucking fun in itself.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom