About a year ago, Steven and I started looking into taking a vacation just the two of us. The longer we searched we both felt like we would be missing out if we left the kids at home. Our main goal right now is raising our kids and building a strong family. Even though a solo trip would have been nice, it just didn't fit our goals. I'm so glad we made the decision to take the little munchins because they are the ones who made the trip. Seeing them learn about a new part of the world through all new experiences was simply awesome. We loved every minute of watching them.
Getting back on track, here's how we saved...
Our Lodging:
We knew we wanted to beach it for the week so once we found a perfect little condo on the beach we took it. The price was just right at $1350 for the entire week, and my mom and her husband asked if they could join us. Uh, YES PLEASE! Who can turn down an extra set of hands and splitting the costs? Not me! Since we booked early we received a discount that brought the condo down to $1050. There were a few extra costs associated like tax, cleaning fee, and damage deposit (which we will get back), but that's it. Not to mention the condo supplied all the necessary beach items...towels, umbrellas, chairs, toys, wakeboards, boogie boards, etc. That saved us on renting or purchasing new.
{Little, but cozy}
Our Meals:My mom and I both like to cook so we got together and made a menu for the entire week. We pulled together what we already had and took most of our own groceries instead of purchasing once we arrived. I'm glad we did, because like we suspected, the grocery prices were outrageous. We only ate out 3 times. Mainly because we stayed on the beach all day and didn't leave time to clean up and go into town for dinner. This saved us also. The restaurants aren't exactly inexpensive. One meal of burgers and fries was $60. Not what I'm used to paying. We even had 3 ice cream cones that cost $24. Worth the experience, but I had to resist asking if they had any available coupons ;)
Our Entertainment:
Did I mention we were on the beach? I realize some people can't do the beach thing all day every day, and my husband is one of them so we rented bikes for 2 full days. This proved to be the smartest thing we ever did. We had a blast, got in some much needed exercise, and saw many gated communities that we couldn't just drive through. It was nice to see how the millionaires live!
{Me, Little Man, Steven, Little Miss, and Michael checking out a new beach after a ride}
{The coolest little wooden plank riding area. It was like going on a roller coaster.
Well at least on the way down. The way up was a bit more challenging}
Our Travels:
Brace yourself, folks...we drove! Yes, we drove the full 15 hours, and it wasn't bad at all. We broke the trip down to two days down and back. The kids were mini rock stars during the drive. Our only stops were for gas and food. No extra pee stops...except once. Flying all four of us down to FL would have cost us a little over $2000, plus a rental once we arrived. Our fuel and hotel (for two nights) cost for driving was only $500.
{Now that's some good car sleeping}
{Little Man a little tired}
That's it. I don't have any other secrets or tips. Most of the stuff is common knowledge, but it's nice to know you can still take a family of four on vacation for under 2 G's (another Steven-ism...it means 2 grand or $2,000).
3 comments:
a few thoughts from Michael...
First, thanks to Amanda and her mom for setting this whole vacation up. Their pre-trip planning and hard work really made it nice. Thanks girls!
Here are some things I learned about these folks after spending a week with them.
Little Miss: she's the star of the show wherever she goes. At the beach, in town, doesn't matter. She can stop traffic.
Little Man: he's a warm and thoughtful little fellow and he likes to build stuff in the sand and hunt for sea creatures. He's a deep thinker.
Steven Torres: this guy can pack his entire wardrobe into his suitcase...and did. I think he had different swimwear for each day. And he likes to drive fast, really fast.
Amanda Torres: she is funny and smart. She beat all of us at every board game we played while dishing out comments to the losers. You play ball with her and you wind up with the bat up your wazoo.
Me: long road trips are tougher than they used to be. After sitting for more than 6 hours my feet go to sleep and I can no longer feel my legs. But I had a real good time with this group!
We were able to eat out a little more when we went because Alan's dad paid for our condo. So we ate out for breakfast once, lunch twice and dinner 4 times. I think it is so nice that the condos have all the stuff you mentioned. We did end up buying groceries for some of our other meals and snacks. We also drove but we took a different route and went to New Orleans. We did not stay in a hotel but we slept for about 4 hours at a rest stop...scary! I'm glad you had so much fun!!! Keep posting more pics please!!!
What a fun time!! I bet priceless to see your kids on the beach! Something I would like to do before mine get much older. =)
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