Traveling To A City This Summer?

I’m from the New York metropolitan area. A small, beautiful town about ten miles from Manhattan called Montclair, NJ. Now I live in the suburbs of a major city in Nevada. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?  So I love traveling to a city for vacation. Many different activities in a smaller, condensed area. What isn’t to love?

Let’s talk about the ins and outs of planning a trip to a city within the beautiful United States this summer, and maybe you’ll get inspired!

Pick an area, any area

In our last travel blog, we discussed building a beach vacation. In that post, I mentioned that many people will simply go wherever is within driving distance.

That is true with city travels, too, even with gas prices at a record high. Flying might just be too cost prohibitive for you and your family this year, and that totally makes sense. There is no reason you can’t explore—or re-explore—a city within a few hundred miles of your home. Some of the greatest American cities—New York, Washington DC, San Francisco, Chicago, San Antonio—are within driving distance to millions of people. They also have international airports, too…just saying.

Benefits Of Traveling To A City

In case you didn’t realize it, I only blog about things I am personally familiar with, so, yup, I’m going to brag about several of the cities I enjoy the most! There are absolutely some things that are common among all large metropolitan areas. Let’s get them out of the way:

Planes, Trains, And Automobiles

There are a wide variety of transportation options associated with major cities, and these can impact your budget in several ways.

For example, parking at our latest Chicago hotel was $55 per day. That makes a strong case for flying in and using public transportation, as our recent flight Vegas to Midway was $99 each way. However, parking was abundant—and cheap—several years ago in Atlanta, and having a car was a must to get from place to place. So, you need to research all of your transportation options, before you choose what you might think is the best and cheapest alternative.

Cultural Events

We love to explore museums, aquariums, anything with cultural significance or value in the city we explore. Sometimes that is the (free) Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the San Diego Zoo, Colonial Williamsburg, or even the Shedd Aquarium (Chicago). But, that also includes the Coke Experience (Atlanta) or Ripley’s Museum (Orlando), which are nothing but a ton of fun.

Make sure you are planning activities that will appeal to all of the members of your travel party. This summer in Chicago, for example, my student group voted unanimously for the aquarium instead of the museum—fine by me! They are both wonderful and will give them an awesome experience. 

Outdoor Spaces

Visiting The Alamo (San Antonio) is top on the list, as is the 911 Memorial in NYC. Don’t forget Pier 39 in San Francisco or the Washington Memorial in DC. All of these activities share several things: They are culturally significant, they are outdoors and they are FREE. What could be better in your city vacation than taking advantage of what’s in the area and spending time walking outside.

College

You read that right. College.

It was our habit, when traveling as a family with younger children, to visit a college in every city we went to. In addition to the colleges Sweet Husband and I attended, we thought it was important for our kids to get a feeling for a wide variety of schools in different parts of the country. We weren’t pushing them into any particular college, as much as “pushing them” to see that they had options available to them in different parts of the country.

We like to think these visits helped our oldest choose North Carolina and our youngest California. Our middle stayed in Nevada, and it was the right choice for all three of them. None of them went to colleges we visited when they were younger, but maybe, just maybe, it opened their eyes a little wider to the alternatives.

Where Should You Stay? In The City?

Many of the alternatives I highlighted above are inexpensive or free for a reason: Traveling to a city is budget-crushing in the hotel area.

While I can control hotel costs in a beach vacation—just stay further from the ocean, it isn’t as easy with a city vacation when I am relying on public transportation. This is an area that requires careful research and considerable thought.

Near The City Center

This will cost you in hotel price, but will save you valuable travel time within the city. Well-positioned hotels can be lifesavers when your team is tired from walking the city streets and looking for a nice and comfortable place to lay their heads. 

Near Your Top Destination

If you are going to LA to visit The Getty Museum, for example, your closest hotel is well outside the city center. You will stay far less expensively, and be near your primary destination, but will have further to travel on very busy freeways to get to anything else.

Outside The City

Parking is at a premium—in terms of availability and price—in most major cities, so I would be very careful staying outside of the city itself. The worst part about staying outside of the city is the amount of time it will take you to travel to and from the city to do absolutely anything. What could be a two-block walk to a museum could easily become a 90-minute commute each way if you choose to stay in New Jersey for a NYC vacation, for example.

It always comes down to what Pop said: “Time or money. Which one can you afford.”

How Food Effects Your Hotel Decision

What am I going to eat? The perfect hotel will have a wide variety of eating establishments in walking distance at a variety of price points. After a long day of touring the San Diego Zoo, for example, your people might only want some fast food in the hotel room. Before a show, however, you might be all dressed up looking for a fine dining establishment on your walking route to the theater. Be sure that the hotel you choose has all of these options readily available, so you can avoid a hangry crowd.

You Made It! So, What should you do?

You’re in a new city! Get out and DO!!! What? That’s up to you and your travel team.

In my experience, preparing an itinerary with a variety of different plans and activities worked the best when we traveled as a family and now as a couple. We would switch off between a touring-heavy day and a more relaxing visit to a local park.

There are, however, several things that should make it on your agenda, regardless of where you are going:

See A Show

Obviously, Broadway was a huge draw for me growing up outside of NYC, but there are alternatives. On a trip to Washington DC, we had a picnic on the lawn of the Capitol Building while the Army Band played at sunset, and it’s one of my family’s favorite memories.

Sporting Events

Particularly if you are in an area with significant historical significance in it’s sports teams, take in a game! Cheap seats are usually available at many events, and it will be a great evening for everyone.

Get Local

Your hotel will be happy to make recommendations about local, nearby restaurants that you could try. This is a great time to sample cuisine not readily available where you live, and give your kids a new experience. That first street taco or elotes or deep dish pizza will be something they remember always! 

Comparing the experience

We’ve asked our kids their favorite city vacation we’ve done, and the results are always mixed. They talk about Honolulu vs. DC or Atlanta vs. San Francisco with no clear winners or losers. They talk about the different things we’ve done in different cities, and the memories we have made. Every experience has been valuable, and we haven’t had a bad time in any city or state we have ever visited.

What these vacations do is offer alternatives. A different perspective. That is what makes them so much fun, and so incredibly valuable for our growing children. They know firsthand what it is like growing up in Las Vegas, NV, and it’s very different from what the tourists think it is for us. By traveling around the country and exposing our kids to different areas, cultural centers and ways of thinking, we are broadening not only their perspective, but their respect for differences. 

So take that vacation. Visit that city. And broaden yourself and your family. It’s worth it at any price.

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS FAR

Thank you for reading all about traveling to a city!!

Hey, since you’re here! You may as well check out some other tips, like how to get on a cruise this summer, here, or how to get to Disney this summer, here! Or, check out our other topics here! Either way, I appreciate you!

Please leave a COMMENT about any tips you may have!! Or comment with YOUR story! Where’re your next trip going to be? Let me know!

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