Families That Vacation Together Save Bigtime

There are many reasons to rent a vacation home rather than staying at a resort hotel or motel. Relative costs are debatable, but I believe that the vacation home will ultimately be less expensive. But the reasons for staying at a vacation home wrap around the costs.
When you choose a vacation home you pay a flat fee for the entire house instead of a cost per person or per room as you might in a hotel. This is a great option and opportunity to get your family to vacation together, such as grandparents and sisters and brothers and their kids.
So, if it is just you and your spouse and maybe one child you can choose a one bedroom cottage with a pull-out couch to a medium sized villa with 3 or 4 bedrooms or splurge on a 10 bedroom luxury estate. Splitting the costs on larger homes with your extended family is the key. You will all come out ahead of the major resorts just on rent alone and we haven’t even touched on the amenities.
A house will ordinarily come with a full sized refrigerator, stove, microwave oven, washer, dryer and an outdoor gas grill. It will also have its own parking area.
Location is important, and there are many of these homes located on beaches across the United States, be it an ocean or a lake. Some are located on golf courses or outside of resort areas. Our families personal favorite sites have been “off campus”, within 30 miles of resort areas because the prices drop dramatically and you are within a half an hour of restaurants, theme parks and everything else that goes with resorts.
We always stock the refrigerator and pantry with breakfast foods, lunch foods, snacks and sodas. Breakfast is always eaten at the house, sometimes lunch and maybe one or two dinners. Remember, part of the fun of a vacation, at least for this Mom is not having to cook every night. When we have had the whole family vacation with us there has always been at least one grand meal at the dining table. That is a meal that goes on toward midnight; you will never have more fun then the grand meal at a beach house.
The savings on breakfast and lunch are astronomical and one dinner in for a family of four will save you around $100.00.
Take your sodas and snacks to the beach in a cooler or if your home is close enough, leave them there and send one of the kids in to get you a Coke, no tipping, another savings.
So, those are dollars and amenities, now let us discuss comfort and convenience. Okay, you probably should make your bed and you will need to perform general light house-keeping but here are the plusses. You do the math.
There will no be anyone banging on your door saying in broken English at 10:00, “Housekeeping”.
You will not be dodging staff maintenance while walking down the hall in your bathing gear.
You will not get stuck in an elevator on the ten thousandth floor with a screaming infant or worse, some scary looking person who keeps eyeing you.
You can run to the refrigerator to get some ice or sodas and snacks in your pajamas instead of getting dressed and going down a hotel hallway.
So, stay up late and play your music loud. Sleep in and ease yourself into your day. Enjoy the freedom of living home away from home. You will be relaxed and you and your family will have an opportunity to grow closer together.
During these difficult times, it is most important to take some time and get away from it all, and cost sharing can be the most effective method to have a splendid vacation. Please visit some of my blogs such as http://deesfunsites.blogspot.com/ where I share other ideas on cost saving ideas on travel, recipes and pain relief.