Semi Staycation

For families with younger kids especially, travel can be more demanding than rewarding. If the thought of trekking from monument to monument to sounds more like work than a vacation, consider the time-honored tradition of renting a cottage for a week and staying put. Find a place in a part of the country that offers something for every member of your family within an hour's drive. You'll have a great home base from which to venture out to museums, golf, shopping, theme parks, nature walks. And with a home base, the entire family doesn't have to stick together for every outing.