Plan a Jamaica Family Vacation Without Breaking the Bank
Category: Cheap Family Vacation | Nov 29, 2009 |
Isn’t it time that you rewarded yourself? You work hard so now it’s time to play hard. Get away from the stress and hassle of your job for awhile and take the whole family on a vacation to Jamaica, which is the closest thing to paradise on the planet. And you can do this without breaking the bank in the process.
Jamaica was the first place to offer the all-inclusive resort idea. Instead of being nickel and dimed to death for everything, how about a luxury vacation where virtually everything is included at a single price after you arrive? In fact, these types of resorts, which are plentiful in Jamaica, are huge and offer almost anything you could want right on the resort property, so you do not even need to leave the resort after you arrive, and could leave your wallet in your room or in a safety deposit box at the front desk if you want to.
Many of these resorts also cater to the family vacation, and not just to the business traveler or the honeymoon couple. Many of these resorts offer babysitting services with certified and qualified babysitters who can entertain your kids for hours while you and your significant other enjoy some time together just getting to know each other again. Your kids will have the best time they have ever had, exploring the beaches, searching for treasure, and learning more about the culture of Jamaica and what makes Jamaica a premiere vacation spot.
If shopping is your thing, you will not be disappointed there either. Virtually all the area of Jamaica offer shopping in very unique gift shops, most of which offer items that are not available anywhere else in the world. And if you enjoy haggling, you will find that the typical Jamaican shop owner will be disappointed if you do not haggle with him to get a better price on that item that you have been looking at. This type of haggling is something that you have to become skilled at, and it only adds excitement and a bit of adventure to the task of shopping.
If you plan ahead, even a few weeks, you can usually find great deals on airfare. The Jamaican airports are served by many commercial airlines, and cheap seats can usually be found with a bit of digging and planning. If your travel schedule is flexible at all, the cheapest seats are usually flights on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
If a luxury resort is just outside of your budget right now, do not let that disappoint you because you have a lot of other lodging and hotel possibilities. There are many upper end and middle rated hotels available at very competitive prices, and many of these also provide special interests for the kids as well as the whole family. If you are feeling particularly adventurous, there are also several bed and breakfast options available to you, where you can really get a chance to mingle with the locals and learn more about the Jamaica history and culture.
Your choices within Jamaica are plentiful. You can choose the bigger cities of Jamaica for your vacation, or you can opt for a bit more quiet time with quieter and less crowded beaches at other areas of Jamaica, like St Thomas, St Lucia, and Montego Bay, each of which offer their very own unique flavor of relaxation, sight seeing, and yes of course, as much night life and dancing as you may care to do.
If you have never been to Jamaica, make a point to plan a vacation there in the near future. You will wonder why you never vacationed there before, and it will almost certainly become a part of your regular vacation planning.
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"Cheap" and "beach" go together like oil and vinegar. They tend to be mutually exclusive. If you like camping, try getting reservations at Carpinteria State Beach, Leo Carillo, or Doheny. http://www.reserveamerica.com.
Ocracoke island
Honestly, the 10 and 5 year olds would love anything you can think of to do in Florida. The 1 year old is too young to enjoy a lot of Disney and the associated whirlwind of activity.
You can rent a condo or a private house with a pool in Orlando or close for a reasonable amount. That will save you some bucks, you can plan to eat breakfast and dinner at home. The trade-off is getting back and forth to the parks. Disney often runs a special, usually in September, to get free meals with your park tickets and hotel stay on property. That plan was going to cost our family of 6 (4 adults, 2 kids) about $2800 for this September. That was for 2 rooms at the Pop Century resort. As it happens, our grand children decided they wanted to go to Washington DC instead. So we aren't doing Disney this year after all.
Other parts of Florida have things to offer if you aren't planning to do theme parks every day.
If you've never been to Florida, I will warn you that it is hot, sticky, buggy, and miserable from June through mid-September.
There are alot of Festivals in the summer at the Beach for free.
You can make trips to D.C. (about 4 hours) Charlottsville, Jamestown or Williamsburg, even to the Outer Banks. Virginia Beach has a large Beach, Aquarium,Zoo or you can take a boat trip to watch dolphins.
http://www.vbfun.com/visitors/default.as... Virginia Beach
http://www.norfolk.gov/visitors... Norfolk
http://www.history.org/ Williamsburg
http://www.apva.org/history/index.html... Jamestown
http://www.apva.org/history/index.html... Charlottsvile
http://www.apva.org/history/index.html... Washington DC
Little Rock has a great kids museum by River Market (and if you go on Tues or Sat the Farmer's Market is there and fun to walk around). Down in Hot Springs there's a ton of stuff to do for kids from playing in the streams around there to the Mid America Science Museum to walking around downtown to mini golf.
If you are thinking AR around the LR and HS area I would suggest staying in Benton, it is 1/2 way between both cities and not crowded at all. Have fun!
Branson Missouri? Me and my family love going there:)
I was surprised myself to find that LA could actually be done on a budget. I've been hoping to go a while and now I'm quite tempted to actually do it. I did a quick search and found an article… Apparently you don't need a boatload of money to visit Los Angeles. I'm more interested in the city itself, but my guess is that other than the stuff in the city it might be even cheaper to stay outside the city. Maybe try going to some of the parks in the area, like Universal and such. I'm not sure how much admission is, considering you're looking for a cheap vacation…
I would have to say that it really does depend on where you live. If you are near or live in driving distance to Orlando you can easily stay at the Tropical Palms Resort each studio comfortable holds up to 8 people, it's 59-79 a night depending on when you want to vacation. And the Tickets to Universal Studios are only 99 dollars for 5 days and a free kids ticket for each adult one purchased (3-9 years old).
If you live in or around New Jersey you can do the same thing for Six Flags Great Adventure.
When we were young my mom really couldn't afford a traditional vacations so we would go to local hotels and live it up tourist style for a few days.
Find the nicest hotel within 50 miles of your home, call for rates and visit the websites (sometimes they have internet specials). You can get 2 or 3 rooms for a few days, enjoy the pools, go to the malls and movie theatres and restuarants.
Another option would be to rent a cabin near any body of water in driving distance. You can stay at a hotel near the Turning Stone Casino.
Have you thought about Virginia Beach?
Below is a link to help coordinating family vacations on the cheap. Best of luck and I hope, no metter were you end up, that you have a great time.
Asheville is the hub of the mountain and can be cheap but it really depends on what you want to see (Biltmore House), where you want to stay (Grove Park Inn), and what you want to eat.
There are tons of websites with information on the North Carolina Mountains.
Once you decide what you want to do, then call the hotels/motels and ask for a deal.
Let me know if you have other NC questions.
Mike Honeycutt
honeycutt@unca.edu