Where to Vacation - Naperville,IL

I'm not familiar with Florida, but San Diego has a bunch of places you can go without going to Disneyland. Here is a link that lists all the attractions. I've never bought a Go San Diego card but you can at least see all the great places to go. The weather is usually good and mild too.

http://www.smartdestinations.com/san-diego-attractions-an...

If you want to save money and do something close my parents took us to Sister Bay in Wisconsin. It's a part of Door County and you can visit small and fun things for your kids. When I was a kid we stayed at Little Sister Resort and our family loved it because other family's with kids also came up every year. They cook awesome home meals for breakfast and dinner. So your on your own for lunch. They have a fish fry on friday nights. Our family loves it up there so much my mom bought a vacation house and we go up on the weekends. Sometimes I miss just the surroundings of little sister resort and the people that work there so we go and eat at the restaurant they have on the water called fred and fuzzy's. Just to catch up:)

I have a 16 year old step son and a 2 1/2 year old daughter with one on the way. My step son loves to go biking, hiking, miniature golfing, go karting, fishing, and in the winter they have this crazy high hill to go sledding down and his buddies love it! Then with our little girl we have a couple small zoo like farms to meet and feed the animals that are run by local families. You can milk cows to feeding ponies (which most little girls love ponies!) They also have an amazing Art place called "hands on" it has so much for everyone in the family to do. My daughter likes to do clay or painting pottery as best that she can! My step son and his friends made some really cool signs for there bedrooms in the metal barn. You can do painting and glass making etc. I could go on and on!! If you need any info please let me know:)

I love San Diego and if you go a few miles up the beach to La Jolla they have an awesome beach. Cornado Island off of San Diego has a great hotel it was even on Baywatch several times (sorry can't think of the name, but it is the main hotel and awesome). They also have music in the park on weekends I believe it is on Sunday nights and everyone from the entire island goes. It is a GREAT free family outting. The beach there isn't so great it is kind of dirty, but they do clean the sand on a daily basis. I think your kids would love it. There is also a zoo and an animal park that are within a reasonable price or at least they were. The naval base is also there so there are all kinds of planes flying over the beach and all kinds of ships to look at. From the Cornado Island beach if you look to the right you can see the big light house up on the cliffs (which you can also visit and see). There is just so much fun, cheap and free things to do there.

We love the gulf side of Florida! We vacation there 1-2 times a year. Check into South Seas Resort on Captiva Island. It is a nice family friendly resort, lots of pools, dolphin and manatee's come right up to the shore, and lots of beach area to relax and explore. Marco Island is nice too, but is more like a bigger town than traditional island. I have stayed at the Marriot Resort there and had a good experience. Good luck, check trip advisor for reviews, I have found that they are very helpful and accurate.

My son had a blast when we went with friends/family to Hilton Head and rented beach houses. We took our bikes, we had direct access to the beach, we had lots of people around to enjoy, there was a pool. With the baby it's nice to have access to be close to "home" for napping, feeding, etc. My son still asks when we could go back. By splitting the cost we paid a whole lot less for a really nice property. Check out VRBO.com
Have a great vacation,
S.

marco island is beautiful.......north or south carolina......san diego....have fun

Last year we rented a condo in the Tampa Bay area that was actually on the bay. The condo had a pool and then we could walk to the ocean and could actually enjoy the ocean from our balcony. There was a botanical garden nearby and we also went to Bush Gardens one day, which was really fun. But mostly we just hung out at the condo and went swimming. It was very convenient for naps, and cheaper because we were able to buy and prepare all of our own food. I think there was an aquarium nearby, too, but we didn't go there. The water was really warm when we went in April. And if you go, remember your sunblock. The first day there we all got sunburns--even my 2 year old. Didn't think it would be a problem in April, but it was. Good luck!

I just saw an awesome kid friendly all inclusive resort in Puerto Vallarta, MX. It has kids clubs for both age groups, a water park in the resort with a pirate ship, water slides, etc. It's on the beach, and there are excursions you can go on as well. We were looking into going with our two children and the website is bookit.com and they are having a 99 hour sale with really good rates, like $99/night, up to 3 kids free, and remember it's all inclusive which means all meals and drinks for everyone are included the entire trip. I don't think it could get much better than that in my opinion!!

I agree with Sandy. We also get a beach house. Three years now. First in NC at Corolla, awesome. The next year we voted for the mountains, got half off through my sisters work on a cabin in the north Georgia mountains. Not as fun as the beach. This year back to the beach. We are going to FL, Seaside or Destin area or Hilton Head. We also use VRBO.com We love Seaside, Destin area. Lots of parks, beaches. But we have not been there with the children so we will have to learn of things to do. I do know they have a lot of free activities in the town squares. Music at night, movie on the greens, etc...We have not at all been to Hilton Head so that will be new for all of us.
We have five kids with the whole family, so we take all kinds of kids stuff, plus two dogs and do all of our own cooking.