We are looking for a place to vacation next year with the kids (ages 7 & 4). We've just about ruled out Disney World because we want the kids to be old enough to really enjoy everything. We're in Southern Illinois and will probably drive wherever we go. We like doing family stuff, i.e. theme parks, water parks, shopping, historical stuff, EATING, etc.

Where does your family vacation? Any suggestions?

Well, I think 7 and 4 are PERFECT ages for Disney World! However, I grew up in Orlando so that isn't my favorite vacation spot, but if you like theme parks, I would suggest rethinking Disney World. It is the ultimate in theme parks, that is for sure!!!

We usually go to Tennessee now that my parents live there. We do fun stuff around there, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, that area. It seems our vacations always center around family right now, which is ok. We always make it fun!

After saving for 2 years our family went to the Outer Banks for a week and rented a house,my DH DS DD went my parents,my sister and her family, and my brother and his family all went, it was the vacation of a lifetime. We did nothing but hang out all week, we cooked in 5 of the 7 nights we were there. The beaches are not crowded since where we stayed (Duck) is all homes and no hotels or motels. Anyone I have talked to who went there loved it. I would move there in a second, I live in PA and always said that I was a displaced beachbum. Something to think about if the beach is your sort of thing.

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We always stay close to home. We live in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It is really beautiful here. We do about 3-4 weekend getaways with the kids (5, 4, 21 months old) There is so much to see and do here:
Mt. Rushmore
Bear Country
1880 Train
Flintstone Village
water park
Storybook Island-its a park, FREE!!
Reptile Gardens
lots of camping, hiking stuff

I would be more than happy to get and send you a travel guide.

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There is St. Louis, which I think has a 6 Flags and Busch Gardens. That wouldn't be too far away and Jesse James' hideout isn't too far away from there either. That's really cool, it's a huge cave you can tour. Also the Ozark mountains either in Missouri or Arkansas is plum gorgeous and alot of outdoor things to do. ALOT of people from Illinois go there to vacation and end up moving there in retirement. Branson is fun too for the whole family, they have a small theme park, go-carts, The Ducks (amphibian vehicles that go down in the water), a water park, Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, helicopter rides, and of course the Dixie Stampede.

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I think it's really hard to get ideas from others because everyone is so very different...what might be fun to one person is like "thumbtacks in the eyes" to someone else - kwim? LOL

Our old standby is Cape Cod MA because we have a lot of family history there. The kids love it, we love it...it's very familiar. We rent a house, go to the beach...take walks and bike rides, it's just a very slow moving kinda place that we enjoy but yet we're close enough to big cities (Providence RI and Boston MA) to do things there as well. We do go to FL, not because we like it so much but more because we have family there and we always love to get together with family.

We also like to go to new cities, visit places we've already been...all kinds of things. We don't do amusement/them parks and we don't camp.

You just have to figure out what kind of vacation you want, are you going to drive or fly, how long you're going to be gone, where you're going stay etc

Good lucK!

I have to ditto all that. I grew up in Keystone and I loved it. The hiking alone is wonderful. The 1880 train used to run right past our property. There are two sounds that really make me nostalgic. The sound of a train whistle and the sound of a helicopter overhead. The Keystone/Mount Rushmore helicopter tours would fly right over our house. Other than those two sounds, all I could hear was the wind in the pine trees.

The Black Hills has so much family friendly stuff to do. When our kidlets get a little older, I'm going to look for a small house or some property up there so we'll have a permanent vacation place.

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I agree, we just got back from there over labor day weekend(we live in MN). It is gorgeous. I have been there for the Sturgis Rally and 2 other times on motorcycle. My DH loves the black hills and would live there if he could(I wont let him). Make sure you dont go during the Rally, it is TOO BuSY!
There is water parks, Mammoth Site(Hot Springs), Real Hot springs you can sit in, Evan's Plunge, Tons of History, great camping(Custer's Gulch is where we just stayed and it is so clean and newer), great rock picking. If you want you can take a day trip out to Devils Tower. My daugher(4 years old) loved it and did not want to come back!
We budgeted about $1000 dollars for 3 over 6 days. Most of that went to gas for the RV we took out there. Plus we came home with about $180 dollars! :happy dance:
Good Luck!

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Jenifer M

Like another posted said it depends on what you guys want to do.

But please do not rule out disney. 7 and 4 are perfect becuase they still beleive and it make it more magical when you still believe.

We go to Disney World every year, we have done it for the last 5 years. But if we ever do decide to go someplace else it would probably be somewhere around Williamsburg, VA. Lots of histrorical stuff around that area.

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