Affordable vacation strategy

Lantley wrote:

Shoot for Pizza or Mc D's vs. the museum cafeteria.

I would say this depends on your preferences and kids. With my nieces, I wouldn't taken them to fast food places because they never ate the food, but just played with the toys. I took them to places like the museum cafeteria so I could be sure they ate while on my watch. Then I didn't spend the next 4 hours listening to them whine about being hungry after I spent $20 at McD's.

Lantley wrote:
Yes they can be expensive places however you are better off cutting back on the scope of the trip vs. starving, eating peanuts, or not participating.

I absolutely agree with this. When I make plans, I take each desired destination and make a list of all the things I want to see/do there. Then I calculated 2 sights/activities per day (if the sight/activity will take 4 hours or longer, it gets a full day for itself). That gave me a good idea of how long I needed to visit each destination, leaving enough time for unknowns and surprises, but not having to rush through. Prioritize the destinations and start adding up the days and anticipated budget. When I run out of time or money, that's the trip. If I can only get 1/2 of a destination to fit, I remove it and add a lower priority destination that will fully fit. This way I never have to rush through a place trying to fit everything in, but I also don't spend too long in a destination that doesn't hold much interest.