Summer Vacation Ideas

Great B&B's: If your image of "bed and breakfast" is a Victorian home full of antiques, think again. Some very different styles of B&B's (and lodges and inns) welcome families; and Sometimes price covers all meals and some very fun activities.

For example, at Earthshine Mountain Lodge, in North Carolina, kids can be apprentice pioneers: help in the blacksmith shop, ride horses, go gem mining, press apple cider, feed barnyard animals. Or travel back in time to a Cherokee Village; or visit a nearby waterfall. Kids 10 and up can take a high ropes or Zip Line course. Price includes all meals and activities; and fruit and drinks all day.

See lots more Trippy Ideas for Family Trips, for summer vacation: Wisconsin Dells waterparks; horse-drawn caravans in Ireland; Cape Cod; Napa Valley; and more.