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While planning your family vacation this summer, avoid reading about the jet-set lifestyle of the Brangelina brood. Like comparing post-baby bodies with Madame Jolie-Pitt, it's an exercise in futility.
Back in the real world, when a globe-trotting twosome multiplies into a family of three or more, vacations are no longer about chilling out on exotic beaches drinking fruity cocktails. Along with your burgeoning luggage of extra diapers, travel crib, and car seat, there are also the increased costs to contend with.
So, what are your options? Well, you could stay at home with a large glass of wine in hand and travel vicariously via sites like this one, but even we want you and your little ones to get out there and see the world.
And keep this in mind: If your 401(k) is shrinking, the world is, too—expensive destinations and snazzy resorts that were beyond your means last summer might have dropped prices low enough to become affordable in 2009. Plan wisely, and this year you and your clan could be exploring the souks in Marrakesh, tubing through caves in Central America, or even going on that once-in-a-lifetime trip to Africa.
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Spain's Paradores
Don Quixote never managed to become a knight and move into a castle, but visitors to Spain these days may have better luck. Nearly 100 of the country's palaces, monasteries and historic buildings have been turned into hotel-like paradores run by the government.
These Paradores de Turismo are the kind of properties where sliding on time-worn flagstone floors, hiding behind tapestries, and exploring Gothic towers comes as standard—perfect for the Harry Potter generation as well as the Cervantes set.
Don't expect across-the-board five-star service, but do expect amazing locations and good-size rooms and bathrooms. Costs depend on setting and season, but the majority of these lodgings are extremely affordable—from as low as $60 for adults.
The Parador de Baiona is a medieval fortress in Galicia overlooking the Atlantic with a huge stone staircase, swimming pool, kids' play area, tennis courts, and 122 comfy rooms starting at $105 a night, while Parador de Zamora is a 15th-century Renaissance palace on the banks of the Duero River with 52 rooms—some with canopied beds—and a swimming pool; rates start around $200 in high season.
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Family villa rentals
Chances are, if you've started reproducing, your friends have, too. Join forces to rent a villa, and what can initially seem like a splurge starts to sound cost-effective.
Consider that you'll split the rental and grocery costs, cook some of your own meals, and—huge added bonus—share babysitting duties, too.
To track down affordable vacation rentals, try sites like Zonder.com (U.S. only) and HomeAway.com (worldwide); for specific destinations, check out Condé Nast Traveler's villa tips and agency recommendations.
Urbano Rentals offers a selection of very cool and affordable properties around Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, a region that checks all the boxes for a family vacation, with beaches, snorkeling, Mayan pyramids (culture for you, a giant jungle gym for kids), and those all-important affordable nonstop flights.
Hacienda Sac Chich is a sprawling property with a pool on the edge of a Mayan village, a half hour from Mérida, in the center of the peninsula. From $500 a night in high season ($400 low season), it's spacious enough to accommodate a few families without people getting under each other's feet, with five bedrooms, four bathrooms, and a dining table that seats 12.
In the early evenings, the kids can run free in the tropical garden while the grown-ups kick back with a margarita on the vine-covered portico and reminisce about late nights and sleeping past 7 a.m.
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Where kids go free
The travel industry is working harder than ever to bag your vacation dollars this summer, and there's a slew of family-targeted offers to be had worldwide. It's a sign of the times that a brand-new five-star resort in South Africa announced a kids-stay-free deal before the paint was even dry.
The One&Only Cape Town—a top-notch 131-room resort that opened in April 2009 on the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront—keeps the youngsters occupied with beaches, pools, and nearby Table Mountain, plus a movie and video game lounge and a huge arts-and-crafts space.
While it's not exactly budget—rates start at $540—the under-12's–gratis deal (which goes through September 2009) does bring a family trip of a lifetime to Africa into the realm of possibility. When you factor in the dollar's strength against South Africa's currency—as of this writing, $1 buys 9 rand—the deal is even sweeter.
Closer to home and easier on the wallet, the white sands and clear waters of the Cayman Islands make for the perfect beach holiday; this is also the unlikely location for the world's second-largest skateboarding park, Black Pearl (it holds a skateboarding camp every summer).
Thanks to the Cayman Summer Splash offer, kids under 12 eat, stay, and play for free from June 1 through September 7, 2009, at some of the Caymans' best hotels, restaurants, and attractions; participating properties include the Grand Cayman Marriott Beach Resort, Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman, and Westin Casuarina Resort & Spa. If you travel with Cayman Airways, your little ones fly gratis, too.
Some places never charge for youngsters, so there's no need to scrounge around for deals that might expire. Book a standard family plan at the Outrigger Waipouli Beach Resort & Spa on Kauai, for example, and kids 17 and under stay for free with their parents in an Indonesian-style condo (starting at $225) that includes a kitchen and washer/dryer. We only hope you've managed to shake off the kids by the time they're 17.
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Marrakesh for families
Some destinations are magical enough to appeal to all ages, which pretty much sums up Marrakesh.
The low costs of traveling to Morocco are equally bewitching right now. Airfare can get up there, but the on-the-ground costs for food, shopping, and accommodation are where you'll make your savings.
For parents, the maze of souks is a place to hone bartering skills; for youngsters, it's a mysterious labyrinth of (inexpensive) treasures, exotic aromas, and glowing lanterns. Early evening is when the main square, the Jemaa El Fna, comes alive with gnawa musicians, tumbling acrobats, snake charmers, and the infamous \"dentists\" who proudly display the rotting fangs they've hauled out—tooth brushing may never be an issue again.
Eat at one of the hundreds of smoky open kitchens, where tasty chicken kebabs (under a dollar apiece) and desserts drizzled in honey will satisfy even the most finicky eaters—although it's probably best not to point out the cooked sheep heads until the kids have finished their food.
Stay in a riad—a traditional Moroccan house-turned-hotel with a central courtyard—for an authentic experience; the Zamzam is a beautifully restored seven-room riad in the Medina. Room start at $173 a night in low season; the child-friendly amenities range from babysitting services and high chairs to kids' meals and extra cots (youngsters under 10 can stay in their parents' room for free). There's also a pool and a hammam where even kids can benefit from a jet lag–relief massage.
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Belize on a budget
When your kids are little balls of energy, the words \"school's out\" can mark the beginning of a very long summer. An adventure destination like Belize might be the answer to your prayers.
It's affordable, accessible, and, for such a small country, a family can certainly pack in a lot of activity there: zip-lining through tree canopies, snorkeling with sharks and manta rays, cave tubing beneath weird and wonderful rock formations, and spotting wildlife on a jungle tour.
There are also plenty of inexpensive family-friendly lodges to stay in. The best time to go is the dry season, from late November through May, but there are hotel discounts of around 30 percent during the June–October rainy season—also known euphemistically as the \"green season\" (we're talking showers rather than a monsoon drenching).
Youngsters will love the tree house suites 20 feet above the ground at the Caves Branch Jungle Lodge in the center of the country. Surrounded by tropical jungle, the resort sits on the Caves Branch River, which is great for kayaking.
The 21 bungalows, cabanas, suites, and tree houses start at $98; kids 16 and under stay free. Packages can combine adventure tours such as night safaris and exploring Mayan ruins (for children 9 and under, on-property tours are free and off-site activities are discounted 20 percent). Our main recommendation about jungle accommodation? Take earplugs: Belizean wildlife parties into the night and wakes up early.
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Family road trips
That \"savecation\" word being bandied about? RV-ing could very well be one of the best ways to achieve it. Simply rent a motor home, work out your route, and save a bundle by eating and sleeping on the road—hey, the Partridge Family did it!
We suggest you rent something big enough to provide some personal space (a 26- to 30-foot motor home should be big enough for a family of four)—otherwise it could very well be the last family vacation you ever take.
Investing in a few lessons on how to drive a behemoth vehicle is probably a good idea, too. According to GoRVing.com, the average rental price of a 26- to 30-foot motor home is $150 a day; even when you add in fuel costs, it's possible to save a bundle on transportation, hotel, and food costs when you travel this way.
Slow down a little by choosing a route from the National Scenic Byways Program. For an iconic trip, consider Route 66 from Illinois through New Mexico and finishing in Arizona (give yourself at least six days).
Make sure you stop off at the Ted Drewes frozen custard stand in St. Louis—it's been in business since 1929—and when you and the kids are gazing at Sedona's Red Rocks (instead of the TV) as the sun goes down, remind yourself that this is what family holidays are all about.
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Kids' museums that aren't kids' museums
You've wangled good deals on flights and accommodations, but you still need to keep the kids occupied.
One week of coughing up for the latest/loudest/sparkliest attractions will drain your bank account and possibly rot your little darlin's brain.
Consider a visit to a free museum—seriously, they've come a long way from moth-eaten taxidermy.
Interactive exhibits are all the rage, and museums are also safe spaces where younger kids can toddle around (tired critters \+ early bedtime = large glass of wine for parents on hotel balcony).
London's Tate Modern entertains from the get-go: To reach the museum, you can cross the cool Y-shaped Millennium Footbridge over the Thames; inside, there's a family zone on the third floor, but the big draw is the enormous Turbine Hall, where you'll find parents slumped on the floor as their hyperactive kids glide around on their Heelys or participate in the huge installations; for example, Carsten Holler's 2006–07 Test Site was a tangled series of five-story-high slides that made kids of everyone who slid down them.
Closer to home, all 19 of Washington's Smithsonian museums are free. At the Air and Space Museum, youngsters enjoy climbing into the nose of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, or touching a piece of the moon—okay, it's a lunar rock, but you get the picture.
The five world-class museums known as Museums Island in Berlin are free on Thursdays. In the Pergamon Museum, highlights include reconstructions of the vibrant blue Ishtar Gate, which was the entrance to Babylon around 575 B.C., and the Great Altar of Pergamon; kids can climb the steps to eyeball a frieze of brawling gods and giants. And when little Johnny is making a six-figure salary doing something extremely smart thanks to all the stuff he learned on holiday, then he can cough up for your vacation.
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Home exchanges
This isn't the best option if you live overlooking a railway track or under a busy flight path.
But if your home is in a desirable location, chances are you can swap it with another family's property for a vacation without accommodation costs.
It works by registering with an agency—check out HomeExchange.com, HomeLink International, and Intervac—that charges a registration fee, usually in the region of $100, then gives you access to a list of quality properties to barter for here or abroad.
After seeing the concept in the movie \"The Holiday\" two years ago, Doug Leibinger and his family signed up with HomeExchange.com. They swapped their four-bedroom, three-bath property near Aspen with a similar-size home on Bainbridge Island, just offshore from Seattle. Six e-mails and one call sealed the deal.
It's a good idea to swap with families of a comparable size—that way there are likely to be suitable bedrooms, toys, transport, and child-friendly pets that won't bite off inquisitive little fingers. Hooked, the Leibingers are now planning a two-week exchange over the summer with a house in Florida that includes a boat and access to a private beach club.
Not all property-swap agencies provide insurance, so check that your own home policy covers an invited guest. Members are also encouraged to ask for references from prior exchanges and to prepare a written agreement (including finer points like whether you should refill your host's fridge or gas tank at the end of the swap). Leibeinger also thinks you have to go into an exchange with the right attitude.
\"Friends have asked, wasn't it weird to have total strangers sleeping in your bed? We never once thought about what might go wrong, but just committed to the concept. We would have missed out on an extraordinary experience otherwise.\"
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Lassen Volcanic National Park
The great outdoors is not so great when it's crammed full of other people. That's one reason why it's worth seeking out a lesser-known park; another is that these spots tend to be more affordable than the Yellowstones and Yosemites.
Lassen National Park is one of our favorites. Located in California, about five hours north of San Francisco, the park has steaming fumaroles, boiling pools, and plopping mud pots with the kind of snigger-inducing names (Bumpass Hell, Fart Gulch) that kids love. Other activities include horseback riding, fishing, boating, kayaking, and hiking to take in spectacular views of the Cascade and High Sierra mountains.
Eight campgrounds dot the park, but for those of us who just can't give up clean sheets, hot showers, and bug-free nights, the Drakesbad Guest Ranch offers rustic accommodation in its 13 cabins and six lodge rooms; there's also a restaurant, horseback riding, and a hot spring–fed swimming pool.
The rates—from $155 for adults, $85 for kids 2 to 11—include three daily meals; for extra savings, the ranch has shoulder season specials (June 4–19, August 24–September 3, September 7–October 12). There are plenty of other lodges, cabins, and B&Bs for all budgets in the vicinity. So it's time to pry that Nintendo DS out of your child's grubby little hands and force him to commune with nature.
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Houseboat rentals
If you're planning a getaway to a city with canals—one of the Industrial Revolution's happier outcomes—consider a houseboat as a colorful and fairly priced alternative to a hotel.
Most houseboats have similar facilities to rental apartments—plus, the idea of messing about on the river is much more exciting to kids than staying on land. (Swimming lessons, of course, are a prerequisite.)
In addition to windmills, wooden shoes, and the Anne Frank House, the canals of Amsterdam make this city a great place to take the kids. Houseboat Hotel has a selection of properties in and around the city.
Houseboat B039, berthed five minutes from the central Munttoren, is a modern, surprisingly airy boat that costs just over $300 a night. It's got two bedrooms, a bathroom with tub, fully equipped kitchen, and washer/dryer, plus a cool deck to hang out on. When you're researching houseboat rentals, it's a good idea to mention you're bringing kids, so the agency can rule out any moorings near noisy, late-night bars.
Another city that might float your boat is London: The Bush Houseboat is moored on the Thames in Kew, only 15 minutes by train from Waterloo Station, and can cost as little as $200 a night for five people.
Don't want to go overseas? Tobiko is an impressive two-level houseboat in Sausalito with views of San Francisco Bay. It sleeps six and costs $300 a night.
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// END editorial data