1. Go Cruising
When thinking of affordable family vacation ideas, cruises may not be the first thing to pop into your head. Sure, you can go bonkers and book a penthouse suite for an 87 day cruise around the world, but there are so many other options too! Last year, we took our family of four on a week-long Western Caribbean cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line for under $3k all-inclusive. We were able to book a large family suite complete with a butler, large bathroom and balcony. Promos being offered at the time gave us unlimited beverages and unlimited visits to the premium restaurants on board. Not only that, but we had free childcare every night on the ship! You can find some similar Cruise Deals on Expedia.com or sometimes directly from the cruise lines as well.
2. All-Inclusive Resorts
If cruises aren’t your jam, how about a land-based all-inclusive? It’s easy to get sticker shock when checking rates at all-inclusive resorts, but when you consider that ALL of your food, ALL of your drinks and things like water activities, childcare and theme nights are also included, it’s really not so bad. Keep an eye out for deals from top-notch places like the uber kid-friendly Beaches Resorts. For instance, right now they’re offering deals of up to 65% off on stays on 3 or more nights. Occasionally they will offer free flights too!
3. Vegas Baby
Vegas isn’t typically a place that comes to mind when you’re planning a family vacation, but it can be a really fun and extremely affordable option! I can’t think of many places where you can actually find countless hotel rooms for under $100 these days, but Vegas has tons of options, some even under $50! If you’re a Hilton Honors member, there are several Hilton Grand Vacations and other Hilton properties on the Las Vegas Strip too. With fun family activities like water parks, shark reefs, volcano eruptions and a giant M&M store, the kids are guaranteed to have a blast. Bring along a sitter so mom & dad can hit the casino at night and have their own fun!
4. South of the Border
If you live in Southern California like we do, Mexico is always a great affordable option for a family vacation. We’ve been flying out of the Tijuana airport lately via the CBX cross-border bridge, where you park in the US and walk over a bridge into the Tijuana airport. We found extremely cheap flights to Cabo last year for only $111/person roundtrip and have seen Cancun flights for as low as $200. For lodging in Cabo, we’ve had great success booking timeshare rentals on VRBO or there is also a gorgeous oceanfront Hilton property for my fellow Hilton Honors members!
5. Staycation
When you’re on an extreme budget, sometimes a staycation is the way to go. Here in SoCal, we frequent Harrah’s Resort Southern California and play in their amazing lazy river all day long. Or, if we want to cross the border sans plane tickets, we head down to Valle de Guadalupe in Baja California and live the low-key glamping life for the weekend. For a great theme park option, we’ll visit Knott’s Berry Farm and stay overnight in the Knott’s Hotel. When you book your room, you can add on theme park tickets for only $35-$40/person, not bad! Wherever you might be located, I’m sure you have some great options nearby too!
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