Vacation Close to Home

Vacations can be expensive. And although everyone enjoys a long trip to a new place far away, our budgets usually cannot handle many vacations such as these. You don't have to travel far to have fun though. Often you can find creative and inexpensive ways to spend your vacation close to home. Try these close to home travel ideas and save some of your hard-earned money this year.

Explore Your Neighborhood
Use your time off from work to visit those places that you never seem to have enough time for at other times of the year. Take a trip to the library and talk to a librarian about programs they offer. These are usually completely free. You will find book clubs for adults, and children's programs that often include free activities like puppet shows, story times, summer book reading programs, and more. Check around for local pools, mini-golf courses, and playgrounds that you've never visited. Have picnics in the park, tour a fire station, or fly kites. Use this time to take things easy. Read a long novel, rent old movies, and catch up on your letter writing. Take time to get a massage and catch up on your sleep.

Explore Your Community
This is also the perfect time to visit all of those tourist attractions in your own backyard. Call your local Chamber of Commerce or Visitors Information Board and ask for information on local tourist sites. If there are any on the list you haven't been to, take time this summer. Visit a museum, go to the zoo, or catch a play put on by a local production company.

Explore Your State
Look into visiting a town just a gas tank away from you. There are usually spots near where you live that you have never had a chance to visit, even if you have been living there for a while. Stay at a bed and breakfast or a small hotel and take in the local sites. The benefit of this type of traveling is that you will only be gone overnight, saving you money. But you can still feel like you've gotten away from it all. If an overnight stay is not in your budget, consider driving a couple of hours in the morning to a place near you. Try visiting a national park, enjoying a day at an amusement or water park, or shopping in a nearby community. To save even more money, bring a picnic lunch, and stop at a park to have lunch.

Vacations close to home can not only save you money, they can also give you a new appreciation for the community you live in. You will probably find that you can't fit all of your plans into a week or two, and the ideas you get from your mini-vacation will last the whole year. Often people come back from a long trip tired and exhausted from all the traveling. When you vacation close to home, you'll end up refreshed and relaxed.

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