I Need Vacation Help!

magenta321 · #1 02-13-2002, 01:34 PM

I want desperately to go on vacation. Desperately.

I haven't been on vacation in years. I think three years to be exact. And I don't take time off from work, ever.

The thing is, I have no money. And neither does the friend who I would like to go with. I am searching Orbitz right now for low price vacations, but I really don't know what I am doing

It's because I don't know where to go. I'd like to escape the bitter cold. Is SC warm enough? I know I like SC, and if I had to, I could drive there.

And I know airfares are low, but I was hoping they would be as low as they were after Sept 11. They have started to go right back up to where they were, unfortunately.

I would rather go some place interesting even more than I want something warmish. Some place with lots of shopping, and possibly even (gasp) historical/cultural interest. I think I am old enough not to be bored on a boring vacation now. I could put up with some place as cold as NYC, if the city was interesting enough.

NYC is out -- I go there like once a month on days off, and the rotten hotels I've stayed in (Marriott Marquis and Milford Plaza, yech) ran me $250 a night, and that was years ago.

Boston -- I'm not fond of Boston. I don't know why, but I hate the city. Everyone loves it. I guess I believed all the hype. I was let down when I got there, and their trains are down-right scary. I'll take a NYC train any day over Boston ones.

I like Charleston as a city very much. Last time I went to SC we stayed in Kiawah, and went to Charleston at night to party, and stayed on the beautiful litter-free beaches all day. It was great. I definately don't have the money to stay in Kiawah right now though. Charleston might not be a bad idea.

Any other city suggestions? Ones I could fly to are ok, but only if I find a really cheap flight

Ones I can drive to (from CT) are good. But, I probably won't take many days off, so driving will eat up my days. Sigh. Vacation searching is sooo hard when you have no money and no time off.

**taurusmoon** · #2 02-13-2002, 01:59 PM

I know someone who just booked a flight from NYC to Norfolk VA on AirTrans. The fare was $39.

Can't get much cheaper than that.

Sara

theeye · #3 02-13-2002, 02:18 PM

How about Philly? Lots of cultural/historical interest there and I imagine you could find some reasonably priced accomodations. You could even do a day trip to Amish country.

quasar · #4 02-13-2002, 02:27 PM

Several thoughts:

1) Lancaster/Pennsylvania Dutch country. Not sure how much lodging goes for as I always went as a day trip, but there is enough interesting stuff to do to fill 4-5 days easily. A sampling of things to do from memory (not comprehensive):

Snyder Pretzel Factory
Choo Choo Barn (really large working miniature train panorama)
Strasberg Railroad (old steam trains)
The Amish Village (guided tour of old Amish village)
Lancaster Wax Museum
Kitchen Kettle Village (vintage/local shops incl. the best homemade jams and jellies in the world)
The People's Place (Amish heritage museum)

Also, the whole area has yummy food. It's also close enough to Philly where you could maybe spend one day there or a day there in each direction without difficulty

2) Mystic

I don't know how much time you spend there as it can't be far from where you live, but it's definitely worthy of a 2-3 day vacation at least. Sights include:

Mystic Seaport (must see, full day)
Mystic Aquarium (one of the nicest I've visited)
lots of outlet shopping
Seaman's Inne - one of the best restaurants I've ever eaten at

3) Charlotteville/Fredericksberg VA

It's been close to 20 years since my last visit, so bear with me:

Monicello (Jefferson's house)
James Madison's home
several Civil War battlefields
there were several other historic homes in the area and it was a simply lovely place

Right off of I-95, Washington DC is on the way as are Philly and Baltimore. If you went a bit out of the way you could also hit Williamsburg/Jamestown.

I don't know how you feel about cities, but Baltimore and Philly are both great cities. Baltimore has the National Aquarium, the USS Constellation, a nice science museum, a nice zoo, Fort McHenry, and the harbor area. Philly has Independence Mall/Liberty Bell, Franklin Court, one of the best art museum/science museum/zoo in the country, Penns Landing (a truly delightful waterfrint area with historic ships and a WWII submarine), and much much more particularly colonial/revolutionary war stuff.

Janice

vania · #5 02-13-2002, 02:41 PM

If you like Charleston, you're sure to like Savannah, GA. Lots of historical stuff there, plus warm weather and beaches!

v.

theeye · #6 02-13-2002, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by quasar
I don't know how you feel about cities, but Baltimore and Philly are both great cities. Baltimore has the National Aquarium, the USS Constellation, a nice science museum, a nice zoo, Fort McHenry, and the harbor area

If you go to Baltimore you absolutely must visit The American Visionary Art Museum. It's right in the Inner Harbor area, near the aquarium.

My husband and I visited there about five years ago and it's one of our favorite museums ever. It's quite small -- you can "do" the whole museum in an afternoon, but uniformly fascinating. They specialize in "self-taught" artists, many of whom were inmates of one sort or another (mental patients or convicted criminals). The art itself is fantastic and the stories behind the pieces are all fascinating.

It was really the highlight of our visit to Baltimore. We'd love to go there again.

magenta321 · #7 02-13-2002, 03:17 PM

Thanks for the great ideas guys

And keep 'em coming too

I really like the Savannah idea for some reason, but the cheapest flight I could find was over $250 one-way (so far anyway, I'm going to keep looking though). So then I thought about driving, but that's a looooong drive that I'd rather not do. So then I thought ... last resort... train (ick!). I went to Amtrak's website to see what it would cost and it came to $450, and I think that was one way. Are they kidding me? No wonder why no one takes the train any more. Ack!

I'm off to look some more, now that I've completely ruled out the train.

Edited to add that I just found LGA to Savannah for $311, includes round-trip airfare, hotel stay and rental car for a 3 night package on Orbitz. I'm still searching though -- I'm pretty poor, and even though that's a fantastic deal, I keep thinking I can do better

vania · #8 02-13-2002, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by magenta321

Edited to add that I just found LGA to Savannah for $311, includes round-trip airfare, hotel stay and rental car for a 3 night package on Orbitz. I'm still searching though -- I'm pretty poor, and even though that's a fantastic deal, I keep thinking I can do better

Wow. $300 is still a lot of money, but if you're talking airfare plus hotel (plus car), that's pretty dang good for Savannah! I've been helping a friend look up rooms there for a conference she's attending-- you can hardly find any good rooms there for less than $100 a night!

v.

magenta321 · #9 02-13-2002, 03:59 PM

Yes, it's good, and yes, I probably need the car rental, but you need to be at least 25 to rent a car

So I don't know if I would be charged the fee for the car and not be able to rent it, or if they would just happen to miss the fact that we are both under 25.

I have rented cars before when mine were being repaired, when I was as young as 18 years old, but I don't want to take my chances that Hertz in GA is as lax as Tony's in New Haven, if you know what I mean.

poseidon · #10 02-13-2002, 04:02 PM

Travelocity and Expedia both have vacation finders. One of the two of them will actually allow you to put in your budget and it'll find a vacation for you based on where you are and your budget.

You might also want to look at bestfares.com.

Orbitz is a good site as well, but doesn't seem to be as helpful as Travelocity and Expedia. However, Orbitz prices come in cheaper time after time after time when compared to the other two.

If you really know where you want to go, consider www.hotwire.com. I have found their prices can't be beat, even by Orbitz. The problem is that all they do is tell you the price, you have to agree to it within an hour, and then they tell you what airline you're flying when, will tell you what hotel you're staying at (you can say how many stars you are willing to consider for hotels), will tell you what rental car company, etc. you'll get. So, you know your price up front.

Then, of course, there's Priceline.com. I'm not a fan of this service, but it does come in handy for very last-minute stuff. If you're planning for anytime in the future, however, forget it. Priceline is, IMO, strictly a site for "I just found out I need to be in ___________ tomorrow."

Jeff
who has asked the PTB at EA for a Travel Forum before

vania · #11 02-13-2002, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by magenta321
Yes, it's good, and yes, I probably need the car rental, but you need to be at least 25 to rent a car So I don't know if I would be charged the fee for the car and not be able to rent it, or if they would just happen to miss the fact that we are both under 25.

I have rented cars before when mine were being repaired, when I was as young as 18 years old, but I don't want to take my chances that Hertz in GA is as lax as Tony's in New Haven, if you know what I mean.

Hmmmm... that's a tough one. I never had to rent a car before I was 25, so I'm not sure what you could get away with.

It's been years since I've been to Savannah, but if you plan on staying in the Historic District, you don't really need a car so much. Most of the stuff is within walking distance, and they do have trolleys tours during the day. I guess it would be hard to get to Tybee Island (the closest beach-- about 10-15 miles) without the rental car, though.

I've always thought that 25 year rule was dumb, anyway.

valerie