Money Talks News suggests visiting your state capitol as a great way to take an inexpensive summer vacation. It’s not a tip I’ve thought of, but now that they mention it, it might be worth it for us to take a day-trip to Lansing to see what the capitol building has to offer.This post got me thinking — what else could we do if we had to cut vacation costs (within reason) this year/ Here’s my list:

• Go to the beach. Lake Michigan is only 45 minutes away and for a few dollars to park (or free if you want to walk a bit), it’s a very cheap “vacation.”
• Hit the pool. It costs $2 per adult and $1.25 for a student to visit our local pool. Not real vacation stuff, but better than sitting at home.
• Trips around the state. We’ve done this everywhere we’ve lived — Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Michigan. Every state has something close that is interesting and can be a fairly cheap one- to three-day vacation.
• Amusement parks. If you have one close and can control the food/other spending, these are not bad options for saving money. We have Michigan’s Adventure not that far away.
• Botanical gardens and the like. Many places have “free days” in the summer. Or if you belong to one as a member (which we do), you can stop by to see the new exhibits.
• Free concerts. Seems like the summers bring these out in droves. Not close to a vacation, though, but could be combined with a couple other things for a fun day or two.
• Nearby cities. For us, Chicago and Detroit are both three hours away, so they are easily within driving distance. Visiting them is more expensive than hanging around home, but less expensive (of course) than a big trip across the country.
• Visiting family. This is our cheap vacation favorite. We go see each side of the family at least once every year (and then some come to visit us too.) Yes, we pay for gas, but room and board (mostly) is free or only part of the cost, so it makes for a very inexpensive vacation.

Here’s what we’re planning vacation-wise in the next year:

• Visiting family in Pennsylvania at the start of August.
• Potentially taking a trip to Chicago in the fall — if it works out with some work travel I have planned.
• Our big Caribbean cruise sometime in January. I’ll keep you posted as we get more details.

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