Planning a vacation with extended family members is not always that easy or that inexpensive. You need rooms for everyone and transportation to figure out and food to consider. My daughter and her family are about to move from the east coast to the west coast and we have been spending as much time as possible with them. We are really going to miss our daughter, her husband and our two grandchildren!
In the last few months my daughter made plans do things they had been putting off and one of her ideas was a weekend trip to Montreal! That sounded like fun, but how to plan such an adventure without it costing a lot of money?
First some sleuthing on Vacation Rental By Owners (VRBO.com) and HomeAway.com and AirBNB. My daughter found a wonderful four bedroom apartment within walking distance to Old Montreal. We invited my sister and her youngest daughter and made plans for a fun family weekend. When you have a place to stay with a kitchen you can create your own meals and not have to eat out at an expensive restaurant.
My husband and I drove up in a minivan with my daughter and her family. I made dinner and we had a cooler with various food items. After experiencing rush hour traffic Friday night we arrived in our apartment at dinnertime. The accommodations were perfect. The apartment was clean and although not well equipped with an abundance of cooking utensils we had enough to get by.
Saturday we were up early and decided to explore the city without a car. First we walked to a little café for breakfast, after all this was a vacation weekend and we didn’t want to eat all our meals in the apartment!
After a delicious breakfast and the fun of figuring out what to order in French we set off for further exploring. It was wonderful to see the various city gardens with flowers and vegetables growing everywhere!
We explored the largest park in Montreal and then continued our walking adventure and explored Old Montreal. We walked over 10 miles that day before finally taking a taxi back to the apartment. Yes we spent some money but not nearly what it would have cost if we had stayed in a hotel. We enjoyed time with my daughter and her family and my sister and niece. We all had such a good time that we are already talking about the next family vacation! Next time we want to include our other three grown children!
Linked To: WWHOP, PennyPinchingParty, FabulouslyFrugalThursday, ThursdayFavoriteThings, ThinkTankThursday
Nancy on the Home Front 