Where to Go on Vacation

We went to Santa Clause Indiana and had one of the best family vacations ever!!! It was simple, inexpensive and just wholesome family fun! What there is to do is a camp ground where you can rent cabins (with electricity and bathrooms!) or an trailer/mobile home at their campground. Or you can RV or tent camp (I'm not a tent camper - Holiday Inn is my type of camping!!!LOL!) Next to is is an amusement park called Holiday World which is meant for smaller children. It is only about $20 a day to get in and if you go back the next day it is free. You can buy discount reduced tickets at the little grocery store/gas station in town. The amusement park also has a water park that is made for smaller children. We spent one day on the rides and one day at the water park. The campground also has a lake where you can go swimming, fishing and boating. At night we built a bonfire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. We went about 4 years ago and the kids still talk about it. At that time my kids were 1,5,6 and 8.

It sounds a little Chevy Chase Vacation like but it was fun and really inexpensive!!

S.

If you don't want to be in the car too long, you might want to consider St. Louis. From this area, it is about 4 1/2 hours. They have quite a bit of free things to do...the St. Louis Zoo is really nice and free. You can go to the top of the arch for a small amount of money. they have a nice museum at the base of the arch..the museum is free. There is Grant's farm..free. There is a children's Science museum..I can't remember if it is free or not. There is also Purina Farms a bit west of the city. Since your kids are young, I would skip the art museum in Forest Park, but it is free too! Forest Park is a beautiful park, larger than Central Park in New York. you can check out most of this stuff online. There is also a place called the Magic House(we have not gone to that) but have heard about it. I don't know the cost however.

St Luis is alot of fun. they have alot to do, just like the other post said about St Louis, we went about 3 yrs ago and my boys loved it ( they are now 8 and 7) they were about 5 and 4. We actually did a whole big trip and that was on the way back. We drove to Denver and stopped a bunch places and came back through st louis. We did a big circle. Mount Rushmore was cool, but its a drive. The dells tend to be expensive. The post about Indiana sounds alot fun, my boys are scared of dress up characters too so Disney is out for us too, for now. I might check into the place in Indiana. ( glad to see my boys are not the only ones scared.

Good Luck
C. Petras
AVON REP

If you are going to look into the Dells, look at the Wilderness Resort, too. They have several different pool with areas for toddlers, too. They have hotel rooms with mini fridges or many different villas and homes to rent with full kitchens. I like that aspect when traveling with the little ones. Have fun!

You are only a couple hours away from the Wisconsin Dells. Some of the resorts up there have indoor water parks and kid activities. I took my kids 2 years ago and my at the time 5 year old was in heaven!

I agree with the Dells idea. There's so much to do there for both kids & adults both. I know that Noah's Ark is tons of fun at that age--there's a toddler section as well as older kids stuff too.

I don't know if the other moms would agree with me but I've been to Disney many many times, and also had a child who didn't like dressed-up characters. And we never had a problem with it because most times the characters were actually scarce. And if you do see them, you can steer clear because the place is so big. Just a thought. I wouldn't want someone to "not" go because of that.

That said, I second the suggestions on the Dells. There are great places to stay and play there.