I am in the process of trying to plan a vacation for my family while I am on break this holidays. It is great to be in school at the same time as the kids this way we are all off at the same time and we can do things together. It is difficult to find a vacation destination that won't cost too much and will provide a fun time for the whole family. Having 4 children makes it difficult to stay in an average sized hotel room. Finding accommodations can be a difficult task. When our family was smaller, my husband and I used to fly off to different places, but now even cheap flights get expensive when you need 6 round trip fares. It is just too expensive so we must drive to wherever we will be vacationing. My limit is about 6 hours in the car, if you have ridden in the car with four children, you understand my limits. In any case, I have been considering a trip to either the Great Wolf Lodge in VA or to Virginia Beach. Both of these locations are within a reasonable driving distance for us, and I think they will provide enough entertainment for the younger ones 7 & 9 and the older ones 12 & 14. Both have accommodations that will provide us enough room for the whole family to stay in one room.
The Great Wolf Lodge offers a full indoor water park, right in the hotel. It also offers an interactive game that the kids can play. The water park admission is included in the price of the room and you can go there everyday for as long as you are at the hotel. They have several hotels right on the premises which makes this very attractive as we won't have to keep the kids entertained, there will be plenty of stuff right on site to keep them entertained. Also, since the whole place is geared towards kids, they won't have to be quite or worry about disturbing others, which can be a big problem when you are traveling to grownup hotels with 4 children. It becomes very uncomfortable for us to stay in hotels where the kids are expected to be quiet all the time. It starts to be a lot of pressure for the parents, which means no relaxation for my husband and I.
Virginia Beach also offers some larger family accommodations and of course the beach is always fun for all. The only thing is that VA Beach will be little further of a drive for us, and also it is obviously the type of vacation that could be a disaster if the weather is bad. I mean does anyone really want to spend a vacation with 4 kids locked in a hotel room? Not me, that is for sure.
I think that maybe we will go with the Great Wolf Lodge and see how that goes. It will be less traveling and will not be weather dependent which is a big plus. We will go for a week at the end of June and we'll see if it really is all they say it is!
Posted on Thursday, March 06, 2008 9:36 PM by Carol Ann