The other night I woke up at 2:20 and just could not fall back asleep! So around 3:30, I got up, poured and iced coffee, and sat at the island in my kitchen and started vacation planning.
Note: I saw two thousand leggers scurry through my kitchen! IT WAS TERRIBLE! They went under the oven.
This year, Paul and I are thinking about doing vacations closer to home. Living in Pennsylvania, there are not only lots awesome places to do day trips (Baltimore, Philly, DC, Pittsburgh, NYC) but there are also lots of places that are a 6-10 hour drive that would be good for a 4-5 day trip.
Driving to our destinations will save us a lot of money. Plane tickets and rentals cars cost A LOT when we go to Colorado and California. It's worth it, but it's expensive!
My ideas for this summer is 4-5 days in Cape Cod and 4-5 days in The Great Smoky Mountains! I don't know much about either place, so I am doing a ton of research.
Look what I came across while I was looking for places to stay in Tennessee...
Wow, dreams really do come true!
While we are in Tennessee, I want to do lots of outdoor activities and I want to go to Dollywood. I'm also looking for places to stop on our ride down. So far, I was thinking a night in Charlottesville because we really want to tour Monticello.
I wish Nashville was closer to the Gatlinburg Area, but it's not. Oh well, we will have to go to Nashville some other time!
Are there any good vacation spots that are less than a 10 hour drive for you?
This is a great idea! I love living on the East coast because there are so many opportunities for great vacations with in driving distance (cus you know I hate to fly). Our family is also looking to do a trip to the Gaitlinburg/Pigeon forge area. It's something we talked about doing when my dad retires which will be next year hopefully. Oh, and they have pet friendly cabins there too!
ReplyDeleteOh I am sure they will have pet friendly cabins. That's awesome you plan to go there with your fam. I'll share any tips I encounter on our trip!
DeleteOh wow Inn at Christmas Place looks beautiful!
ReplyDeleteNext year is an international trip year for us which I am very excited for. We only do international trips every other year, so it's always hard to choose which place to go since the world is so large and we want to go to so many places. We are doing Greece next year though: Santorini and possibly Mykonos too. I planned out our to do list months ago because I am so excited haha!
Right now I'm rush planning our Christmas trip since we decided to go to north georgia for a few days to experience cold weather and to finally get to hike part of the AT trail. Of course that's all provided I actually get cleared to do activity when I see my doctor on the 11th but I am very hopeful!
That is exciting you are going to Greece! Will you do a cruise?
DeleteYay you will get to hike the AT!!! Remember, if you ever come to PA I will show you all the beautiful AT places here. :)
No, we're going to fly there that way we can plan our own itinerary! I am excited because there is a famous hike from Fira to Oia that is supposed to have incredible views of the med the whole time. I think it takes about 4 to 5 hours to complete the hike but it's supposed to be worth spending a whole day on. I hope by the time we go my endurance is back up so that a long hike like that doesn't kill me haha!
DeleteThat sounds AWESOME!!!! Paul and I do stuff like that on our vacations. Hikes are the HIGHLIGHTS of our vacations!
DeleteWhen driving to the Cape in the summer, don't do it on Fridays. All the people around Boston with homes on the Cape drive there on summer Friday afternoons and the traffic is awful! It's great for the suburbs because everything would be quiet and it would take very little time to drive and do errands.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip! I envision us going like Mon-Thurs or something.
DeleteDo you have a list of all the states you have visited? do you have a goal?
ReplyDeleteI'm likely alone on this, but being away from my home for more than 3 days gives me anxiety. like this year, I'm trying to schedule our Christmas Trip to my family's place... which could potentially have us away from home for 3 straight nights and I get anxious and my heart starts to jump and I distract myself with something else before I have a panic attack.
I do not have a list of states and I don't think I have a goal. It would be cool to go to all states but... I mean, do I need to go to Mississippi?
DeleteI don't get panic attack territory, but I get very homesick, I miss my cats, and I worry about my cats a lot when I am away from home. When I went to Baltimore and CrimeCon, it wasn't bad because I knew Paul was home with the cats.
These sound like great places to visit! I don't think I would want to drive more than 6 hours for a vacation. Flying is expensive but driving can be stressful and tiring! I love Cape Cod- they have a great brewery there!
ReplyDeleteI will have to look up that brewery! We don't mind driving. When we go to CO or CA we end up driving a lot anyway.
DeleteWe went to Gatlinburg last year for vacation and loved it. We stayed in a small cabin in the mountains. Remote but still close to everything, we even brought the dog along. :)
ReplyDeleteWe went hiking, white water rafting, horseback riding, Dixie Stampede, it was a ton of fun, and was great to settle in for the evenings in the hot tub with a glass of wine!! Happy planning!
Also - check out Groupon - we used that quite a bit on our trip to Gatlinburg!
DeleteThis all sounds awesome! Everything you said sounds like it's right up my husband's ally.
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