How to plan family adventure and save money

ellasmoth

New member
I cant agree more that family adventure is a good way to express ur love and ur power to members.And i want to have an effecient adventure,also the money take into consideration.How can i save money and at the same time we experience the unforgetable family adventure?
 

nwoods

Expedition Leader
Camping, not hoteling. Driving, not flying. Cooking, not eating out. Hiking, not riding. Avoid horses, avoid sailing. Avoid spending money on gear you don't need. Focus on keeping Mom warm and the kids dry, buy gear related to that, and you will be golden.
 

Honu

lost on the mainland
even if its just a overnight and close to home somewhere is a fun adventure in my kids eyes :)
 

nwoods

Expedition Leader
even if its just a overnight and close to home somewhere is a fun adventure in my kids eyes :)

Right. All you need is sticks, rocks, sand, water or mud, and the kids will be entertained.

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GDSQDCR

Adventurer
Every summer we take off on a road trip. We are leaving Friday morning. We will be gone 18 days and will have travelled around 5500 miles with 3500 of that towing a trailer.

Money saved via lunch on road. That's right kids, sandwiches again!

Of our 18 days, 3 will be spent in a hotel. Day 1 is a 800 mile drive and I will not be wanting to set up a tent!

We bring snacks with us to last 8-10 days, so we are not buying stuff at gas stations.

The memories are priceless. The kids talk about the trip all the time and love the travel. We explore as we go and make it up on a daily basis.
 

EMrider

Explorer
Ditto on the importance of keeping everyone, especially my wife, comfortable.

Aside from that, the two best investments I made for better family travel were an on board fridge and a porta potti.

The fridge makes for higher quality means/snacks/drinks and minimizes restaurant costs.

The porta potti enables us to avoid gross bathrooms while on the road.

Good luck.

R
 

NatersXJ6

Explorer
Let it go wrong

Trying to "plan" the entire trip will set you up to fail. As an engineer, I used to flip out when things went "wrong"...

That works out relatively poorly in social and family situations.

I've since learned that "make it up as you go along" is a valid plan as long as everyone agrees to it.


When we take trips, they have broad goals and not every day is scheduled activity, and not every night stay has a reservation. This gives us flexibility to suit changing moods on the road.

Remember, it is supposed to be fun!
 

zoom17

Zoom
Prepare in advance

I travel a lot with my wife and boys. One thing is that I pack treat bags for ever day (it's just some candy and such). They get one a day. We usually pull over and have a sandwich from the cooler for lunch. Aside from be cheap it gives the boys time to run. I switch up the menu for lunch with wraps, bagel sandwiches and sometimes I pull the stove out and make quesadillas. It provides a little variety. Also, I spend the time to make healthy snacks instead of sugary ones. Mainly just cut up veggies which they supplement with the candy from the treat bag. I don't bring pop instead I pack powdered drinks that they can add to their water.
 

sblanken

New member
to the OP: I'm not sure how specific your question is. But, after mulling a version of it over myself for many months I came up with using a minivan (because we can't afford to have a dedicated camping vehicle) as a vehicle to take many short and long trips with my two boys in. Here are the details of my endlessly evolving plot to drag two small children all over the americas. It's good to remember that no matter what, no matter how spare your camping set up or how cheap your digs, kids love being out and about and they delight in simple things. Yesterday I spent half an hour jumping in and out of a stream with my three year old. Priceless.

http://findingikaria.com/2015/05/15/cant-afford-a-vw-camper-van/

http://findingikaria.com/2015/07/06/minimizing-the-schlep-yet-another-camper-van-setup/
 

calicamper

Expedition Leader
I cant agree more that family adventure is a good way to express ur love and ur power to members.And i want to have an effecient adventure,also the money take into consideration.How can i save money and at the same time we experience the unforgetable family adventure?

We just spent 6 days just outside of Yosemite. Two parents, Two kids under 6yrs and one grandparent. All our dinners were prepped and frozen before hand. Lunches and Breakfast were simple nothing fancy. We took lots of fruit type stuff and cut up the water mellon on day 3. We ate like kings, did lots of hiking, stayed away from Yosemite for the most part we spent one afternoon in the valley caught a kids theater show at Curry Village kids loved it. Then got the heck out, Yosemite is just too full of crazy tourists. Nearly got in an accident on 120 when we came around a corner to find cars driving backwards and cars parked in the middle of the damn road with doors open and crazy people wearing flip flops running through the brush chasing a damn bear along a remote stretch of the highway where speeds were 45-50mph! I laid on the horn and found a path through the madness to avoid getting hit by the truck coming up behind me and hoping the horn would get the bear running for cover so the brainless tourists would get the hell out of the road before someone got killed.

Anyway not counting our dog at dog camp while we were on our trip it cost us about $400 for 5 people and 6 days of adventure and fun. I could do without the Yosemite Tourists though.
 

coolfeet

Mark Keeler
I bought an old Ford E150 Club wagon for a $1000. We felt too cramped in our Subaru Outback. My friend and mechanic suggested that we buy a heavy duty vehicle as we were killing the Subie.

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The Ford van had only a 85k on the clock, but I am assuming that it got some heavy use as I had to replace the ball joints, tie rods, and drag link. We have drove over 26k on since we bought the van in 2012 and it's only had 1 break down-a cracked radiator that I mis-diagnosed as a leaky hose. It set up back only $250 to have it repaired on the road on the 4th of July weekend near Glacier National Park.

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We set it up as a sleeper van with platform bed in the rear cargo area and another platform bed that folds over rear bench seat. I used electrical conduit piping for the legs.

Being a former engineer, I like to plan the details of the trip and then bounce ideas off the family while traveling. I used to reserve camping sites and cabins months in advance and my wife said to scrap all the planning and enjoy the trip moment by moment.

This summer, while on a trip to Canada, my boys said they wanted to see the 4th of July fireworks in the States. This was not part of my plan as I planned on entering Victoria Island in Canada around July 1. I did a few mental calculations and decided to drive all the way to Glacier National Park in Montana instead. My wife never bothers to read a map or concern herself with the details. This probably added another 1000 miles to the trip. She sleeps half the time while driving, so no worries.

After the radiator failure in Kalispell, Montana, we were informed that all the fireworks shows west of Glacier National Park were suspended. I called around and found out that the KOA campground on the west side of the park was still having a show. We drover over Road Going To Sun Road and enjoyed a beautiful fireworks show in the comforts of our camper van.

I let my kids bring nerf guns, biodegradable AirSoft BBs, card games, books, and a bunch of other junk to make the trip fun.

My wife loves visiting thrift stores in small towns. We usually spend an hour or two every day shopping at thrift stores and my 2 boys just love it! It's cheap entertainment on the road and we sometimes come back with some good bargains. I found an almost new Champion Juicer for $40 on our last camping trip.

We also enjoying visiting and exploring old historic towns. My route planning takes us through remote little villages. We often find farm fresh eggs, raw milk, and fruit picking by taking the Road Less Traveled.

How We Save Money On Camping Trips

We love to cook and eat on the road. We carry stacking RubberMaid bins filled with rice, spices, sauces, and eating utensils.

I bought a 62 liter ARB Fridge/Freezer and connected it to a separate battery. We filled it with frozen burger, cheese, steaks, tortillas, and a whole lot more before our 3 1/2 week camping trip. We hardly had to buy food on our trip and we ate well. We spent $800 for the fridge and use it at home as a second deep freezer. It will take a few years to justify the cost of not having to buy ice every 5 days. It's hard to count the cost of all the food that went bad because the ice melted. We save money by not eating out.

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We cook on a Coleman 2 burner dual fuel stove. Our go to cooking gear is are a cast iron griddle, stainless steel wok, and a 12 quart stainless steel pressure cooker.

We enjoy dispersed camping in the national forests. It's easy to find free campsites by pulling off well maintained national forest roads. We find sites that look previously occupied. Sometimes we find campsites that are larger than most national park campgrounds.

When we want to drive some miles to our next destination, we pull into Walmart for the night. This is not my favorite method. It's a means to end and more comfortable than a cheap hotel as we sleep on luxury foam and air mattresses.

My wife still enjoys the creature comforts of flush toilets and hot showers every few days. We look for inexpensive public or private campgrounds that offer showers. The best campground that we found for $10 a night including hot showers is the Oregon State Parks Deshutes River Recreation Area. You drive your vehicle on lush grass and camp right next to the Deschutes River. Some folks complain about the trains running periodically all night. I like the sound of the trains rumbling on the tracks and the beeping horn.

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While car camping in Canada this summer, I bought a book titled "Camp For Free in BC". It's a detailed book detailing free Ministry Of Forest Campgrounds. The descriptions and directions to the campsites were a little outdated as many of the roads lacked signs. The author makes up for this by giving you miles/km to guide you to the campgrounds. The book told us how to take our vehicle on British Columbia's free ferry across Arrow Head Lake. There is also a free ferry that crosses Kootenay Lake.

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Since we wanted to make the most of Canada's national park system, we used this book for camping while on our way to the parks. The exchange rate was so favorable this year that we willingly shelled out $15 for amazing campgrounds that included cooking shelters larger than most cabins. Sometimes the cooking shelters included electricity.
 

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Richietherocket

Adventurer
We just got home from a 15 day PNW trip from Colorado. We camped 10 of those nights, 1 night of hotel and stayed with family on the other 4. We stayed in state parks and national parks.
In the spring we invested in a 43qt fridge and it has been the best purchase in years. Cold drinks, food every night that is not water logged and we can pick up ice cream when shopping and it is still frozen after dinner.
My 2 boys have really gotten in the Jr Ranger badge programs at the national parks. 21 and counting over the past 2 years. We can check them off the map and plan more trips at the same time.

Momma is happy with the camp setup, kids are happy with electronics on the road but they must be shut off once we get to the parks. I'm happy since we get to be out on an adventure and away from daily life.
 

coolfeet

Mark Keeler
We recently acquired an Extended E350 passenger van. I am in the process of building a folding camping bed made with hard wood plywood. For the legs, I cut electrical conduit piping and welding the clamps to some scrap metal. I will varnish it this week. It folds on to the first bench seat in the van.

My wife and I sleep comfortably on it. During the day, my kids use it for a game table. We store food and camping gear below. I will spend about $200 on the bed when finished. I should have used some cheap 1/2" plywood and saved $50 on the hardwood veneer. I thought I was buying a top quality grade plywood. I found better US made pine plywood than this imported plywood. It sure looks nice.

We pay for campsites half the time on the road because my kids like to find other kids to play with. We stay in Walmarts, BLM land, national forest land, casinos, and small turn outs off country roads. The van looks like a church van. It's oxford white and hides in plain view.

I have a 62 quart ARB fridge freezer. Lifeline 80 ah battery powers the fridge. I charge the battery with a CTEK D250 charger.

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