Kid Friendly Vacation Ideas Outside of Florida

The Hyatt Hill Country Resort in San Antonio is GREAT! It's very relaxing and FUN. They have great on-site pools, beaches and activities...and it's close to Sea World and the River Walk. It makes for a nice, fun-filled family vacation. Look into it. :)

San Antonio is always great - there is the Alamo to visit, the Mexican market (great for kids), the San Antonio Zoo, Riverwalk (boat ride for the kids)

Have you ever considered taking an RV into a National Park? A lot of the RV parks have play grounds, swimming pools and other activities. I just found a flex share RV place that is amazing to work with. They are very reasonable with their prices as well. My family is getting ready to head up to Yellowstone National Park in a RV....I can't wait! If you would like more info about the flex share just let me know.

E.

I posted the same thing a few weeks ago and mostly got responses of Florida or Galveston. I think we have decided on Crystal Beach. They have many beach houses to rent and that is so much easier than a hotel. (especially with little ones) There seems to be plenty to do there or just sit at the house or by the beach and relax. Good Luck and let me know if you come up with something good. I am still open for suggestions! Check out the website at www.crystalbeach.com

There are some really great options in Texas. Glen Rose is a great day trip to play in water and see dino tracks. San Antonio is great for history and the river walk is pretty and fun there is also a wonderful mexican market that has everything under the sun. Austin has great art attractions and festivals. The hill country has cold rivers, and is both apple and wine country, as well as having several wild flower farms (great for little girls) and has several working ranches that can be stayed at. You could also treck down to the Gulf and see Galveston with the strand and beach or make the long drive to Corpus and take a day trip across the border as well as the beach and see history along the way. Don't forget the Oklahoma has several offerings that are close by, like Turner Falls and Lake Texoma. Arkansas is close and has great offerings. Hot springs is only about 5 hours and has a pick your own gem field, cute shops, rivers and lakes galor, and even spas for you and the hubby. You can contact the Texas vistors board and each city or area will send you all their info with maps and numbers to call. hope this gives you a jump off point.

my family and I always had fun in Galveston, kema (not sure if that's how to spell it) and Port Aransas. Galveston has the beach, a neat small town area, ferries, and a big indoor rainforst with Imax. I'm sure they have more there, but we only did day trips. Kema is right by that and is a cute little port town. Plus all of that is within an hour of Nasa- very fun for kids!

The Mayan Ranch in Bandera, Texas is tons of fun! It's very family friendly and the cost covers everything (food, lodging, activities). It's really a great vacation! Vist their website at www.mayanranch.com.

Thought I'd give one more suggestion that hasn't been mentioned: Schlitterbahn. We went last summer, and our then four year old loved it. We did have to stick to the areas geared for younger kids, but it was super fun. Nice and close.

For further clarification would you be interested in leaving the country. Because if so you could go to a family resort with children's activities. They even have activities where they take your kids for a couple of hours and do things with them. Or right there in Texas at GrapeVyne mills is the new indoor water park. It's called Great Wolf lodge.

I suggest Great Wolfe Lodge in Grapevine. My little girl and I went, she's 9, but there were a lot of little ones running around. They have in indoor waterpark and they will be opening an outdoor section this summer. You can stay inside when the sun gets to h*** o* your little girls. It was very kid friendly and we had a blast!!! She wants to have her birthday party there this year. Good luck with your search.

In Texas I still like San Antonio. Where there are amusement parks like Fiesta Texas and Sea World (which is a little different with all the shows) there is the river walk, a childrens museum, etc. We visit relatives there with our daughters so I went to the convention and visitors bureau for a travel guide for more ideas when we are there. Just a suggestion!

The Johnson Space Center in Houston is AWESOME!! http://www.spacecenter.org/hours.html and is close enough to San Antonio as well as Corpus Christi that you could do two of them or all three in the same week. Corpus Christi has lots of museums and aquariums, as well as the ocean beaches. You can swim in the ocean, pick up sand dollars and star fish on the beach and go fishing off the piers. We went to Corpus Christi alot when I was a kid, dad loved to go fishing there.
OR, taking a scenic drive to New Mexico's Carlsbad Cavern's is pretty cool. When I was a kid, one week we took a scenic drive from our home in Fort Worth thru Oklahoma, then thru New Mexico (we stopped at Carlsbad Caverns for a day) then on to Colorado where we went to Colorado Springs. We visited the Garden of the Gods and we drove to the top of Pikes Peak and hand fed cookies to the deer that were up there. It was snowing and we were in shorts and not even cold! It was really cool!
Hope this helps!

If you are wanting to go on vacation in Texas, my very favorite place to go in Texas is San Antonio. We love the river walk, alamo, Ripley's Believe It or Not, etc. We have also gone to the San Antonio Zoo and Sea World when we are in town. I know you said you would prefer not to go to an amusement park, but Sea World is more relaxing to me than most amusement parks. We love watching the shows and seeing all of the animals! Another vacation that I would suggest is going to Corpus Christi/Port Aransas. We took our, then 1 1/2 yr. old there last summer and had a blast!! We visited the Aquarium in Corpus and the USS Lexington.

we went to galveston twice last summer. we liked moody gardens a lot. there are tons of restaurants there too-like rainforest cafe as well as city parks and the beach, both are free. :) i think id pick hawthorn suites if i was going to stay on the seawall...

Hi!

I understand the San Antonio Hyatt Hill Country Resort, is a great place to take kids. Or the Westin La Cantera. I haven't been to either, but my kids (grown) have. Go to their websites and look at each hotel. Hyatt has Camp Hyatt for kids, but I'm not sure what Westin hotels have that is similar. Good luck! D. G.

There is moody gardens in galveston texas and this year my whole family including neices and nephews which all range from the age of 10-2 will be going to the wolf mountain lodge on grapevine texas, it is not that far and there is alot of stuff to do there. just thought I would throw some ideas out there to you, hope they help, oh and I have a 3 year old daughter and she loved moody gardens.

Try the Hill Country Hyatt outside of San Antonio. The resort has so many activities, that you could easily stay entertained there for a week, if not longer.

Last summer we drove to the Westin La Cantera in San Antonio. They have several pools and a nice setting. They cater to families. At check in our kids (1 and 3 got care packages that included plastic guards for the plugs, a visor, crayons, a coloring book, a toy, etc. At night, they had a big screen movie (Toy Story) outside on the lawn. We could have enjoyed our entire weekend there swimming and eating, but forced ourself to go to Sea World. It was so different than I remember it as a kid. We had a blast. There was a lot to do. There is even a water element to that park. While you are in San Antonio, you could also visit the Riverwalk and ride the little barges or have dinner there.

What about The Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, kid friendly and is suppose to be alot of fun.

The Great Wolf Lodge is awesome. We found it when we went on a business trip with my husband in Kansas. The price is a little on the high side for a hotel(199.99) but it has sooo much to offer. There is an indoor water park with lots of different slides. It really is like a mini NRH20. There is also an outside pool with slides as well. There is an area for crafts and games for the kids to do. They have story time every night in front of the huge animated clock in the lobby. There is a game room where the kids can play. And the food is awesome. It is located in Grapevine out by the Gaylord. The room are set up to be kid friendly. They have ones that have a cabin feel complete with a log cabin bunk bed area for the kids. They have their own tv and game system in the bunk bed area. MY girls were 6,5 and 2 when we went and they loved it. They recently saw the commercial for it and now have been begging to go since there is one so close now. We had a wonderful time there. I hope this helps.

Have you thought about San Antonio? I went there for a short weekend when my husband went for a work conference and brought my son who was not even 2 years old yet at that time. We stayed on a hotel near the riverwalk (it was the Omni hotel, which is a very nice hotel but also kid friendly- they had a little kid's goodie bag that they gave us). We ate dinner off the riverwalk, and my son loved watching the water and the ducks in the river. They have a rainforest cafe restaurant which he enjoyed one day for lunch as well. Very close to the riverwalk is a children's museum that is FANTASTIC. 3 levels of activities that all three of your kids would love. We spent the whole day there one day (full scale airplane cockpits, a trolley car he sat/drove, many play centers, a water/bubble area, a play area, an arts/craft area, and tons more). There's Sea World as well, but that may fall too much under your amusement park thing. I got online and looked up stuff in San Antonio, and they had a botanical garden that sounded neat, and of course there's the Alamo. The kids may not get as much out of that, but it's free so you could stay as long or short as you want. Anyway, lots of options in that area; don't know if it's enough for a full week (it probably would if you did Sea World for a day), but definitely for a long 4 day weekend, and pretty affordable for a vacation. Just an idea!

If you would like to keep it close to home, try Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Texas.

We are looking at renting a house or condo down in Galveston this year. The prices seem very reasonable and a lot of them have play areas and pools for the kids. There is a lot to do in Galveston these days and we are looking at going with my mom and dad and brothers and their girlfriends. We decided that the beach had the most for everyone. If you don't want to do anything then you can relax by the beach if you do there is everything from fishing to amusement parks. Hope this gives you another idea.
H. M.

Hi, I am a mom of 3 girls also, almost 5, 3, and 1. We live in Fort Worth too. We often go to South Padre Island for vacation. My mom lives there now and runs the movie theater, but I've been vacationing there my whole life. The beach is really nice and there are some great restaurants. We usually fly because you can get good prices to fly on Southwest but we used to drive all the time. The only downside to driving is that it takes 9 or 10 hours. Not too bad if you spend the night in Austin or San Antonio. I'd be glad to tell you more if you have any questions.

We love the Hyatt Hill Country resort in San Antonio.

I would suggest San Antonio, the coast or the resort they just opened in Grapevine, Great Wolf

Have you ever been to Austin, TX? It is absolutely beautiful! Or there is dinosaur park in glen rose, tx. Lake tawakani is SOOOO gorgeous...that is right outside canton, tx. Me and my family like to camp and be by the water so, that is why I suggest those! Plus you will save a ton of money compared to disneyland or something like that.

Thw Wildcatter Ranch in Graham, TX is great. They have a pool, hiking trails, fishing, archery, skeet shooting, canoing, horseback riding, etc. They have refrigerators in the rooms. Grills are also available if you don't want to eat at their restaurant all the time. The staff is terrific! The Grey Wolf Lodge is also fun for a few nights. They have an indoor water park and lots of kid friendly activities.