My wife and I had been tentatively planning a family trip to Boston, Bar Harbor, and Quebec City (flying into Boston, home from QC) for 10 days in late July, but the Bar Harbor stay with friends has fallen thru and we are thinking of scrapping that whole idea and doing something completely different. We are behind the 8 ball on planning, because of, well, life.
Family likes NYC as an alternative but I'm not sold on it (I'm okay with big city as part of the vacation, but I have to have a mix of nature) and want to go the opposite direction. I need a good plan to sell my family on it.
The kids (teenage boys) have never been west of NM and CO. I'm considering a driving vacation west or Northwest from the promised land, either heading to CA, like Santa Barbara with stops along the way, or heading up to Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain National Park.
I could probably stretch my vacation to 11 days, and might do that because there would be a lot of car time. I'm afraid I'm being overly ambitious, but I only have so many of these vacations left with my kids.
We could fly, but besides the additional expense, we would be bypassing a lot of stuff I want to see. To me the hardest part of driving is the first 12-15 hours or so getting thru either TX and NM, or getting thru TX and OK, which are all areas we've covered before.
If heading west, I'm thinking I want to hit, either there or back, Zion and/or Bryce, Grand Canyon, Vegas, Santa Barbara (not sold on SB necessarily, but want a CA beach scene that is a little less big city and crowded), and maybe up to Big Sur (possible Hearst Castle stop but not sure if worth it).
If heading NW, probably would go up the east side of the Rockies either there or back, or maybe both, because we've done SW Colorado fairly often and will be skiiing in Pagosa this winter, and then over to Rocky Mountain National Park and then Yellowstone. Might come back thru Ouray because I want to fit in some family four-wheeling and I know that area better and don't know the options on the other side of the mountains. I actually need some additional stops on this itinerary, unlike the other option where I'm probably including too much.
I'm usually a planner for vacations, so having a long family vacation completely unplanned has me a little anxious. I'm hoping someone with too much time on their hands can be my vacation hero.
Edited to add: wow that's a lot of text, sorry for the long post and extraneous info, that probably is a sign I'm a little anxious about this.
Family likes NYC as an alternative but I'm not sold on it (I'm okay with big city as part of the vacation, but I have to have a mix of nature) and want to go the opposite direction. I need a good plan to sell my family on it.
The kids (teenage boys) have never been west of NM and CO. I'm considering a driving vacation west or Northwest from the promised land, either heading to CA, like Santa Barbara with stops along the way, or heading up to Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain National Park.
I could probably stretch my vacation to 11 days, and might do that because there would be a lot of car time. I'm afraid I'm being overly ambitious, but I only have so many of these vacations left with my kids.
We could fly, but besides the additional expense, we would be bypassing a lot of stuff I want to see. To me the hardest part of driving is the first 12-15 hours or so getting thru either TX and NM, or getting thru TX and OK, which are all areas we've covered before.
If heading west, I'm thinking I want to hit, either there or back, Zion and/or Bryce, Grand Canyon, Vegas, Santa Barbara (not sold on SB necessarily, but want a CA beach scene that is a little less big city and crowded), and maybe up to Big Sur (possible Hearst Castle stop but not sure if worth it).
If heading NW, probably would go up the east side of the Rockies either there or back, or maybe both, because we've done SW Colorado fairly often and will be skiiing in Pagosa this winter, and then over to Rocky Mountain National Park and then Yellowstone. Might come back thru Ouray because I want to fit in some family four-wheeling and I know that area better and don't know the options on the other side of the mountains. I actually need some additional stops on this itinerary, unlike the other option where I'm probably including too much.
I'm usually a planner for vacations, so having a long family vacation completely unplanned has me a little anxious. I'm hoping someone with too much time on their hands can be my vacation hero.
Edited to add: wow that's a lot of text, sorry for the long post and extraneous info, that probably is a sign I'm a little anxious about this.