Summer vacations with the family are experiences you'll remember for years to come. If you're looking for inspiration on where to go besides your typical beach getaway, check out these family-friendly ideas that both kids and parents will enjoy.

Get Closer to Nature 

Summer is the perfect time to enjoy the great outdoors. Not into camping? Your family can get close to nature while still having creature comforts at Mohonk Mountain House, which is built on a mountaintop among 26,000 acres of preserves in New York State's Catskills.


The all-inclusive resort offers a complimentary Kids Club that is open seven days a week from June through Labor Day. Your kids can also join their Junior Naturalist Program to experience animal tracking, tree identification, fossil hunts, and more.  

Take a Road Trip on the Cheap

Whether you want to drive cross-country or just to a nearby beach, Imoova.com lets you book a car, campervan, RV or motor home one way for as little as one dollar a day. They can offer rentals that are so cheap because they contract with rental companies that prefer to give road trippers really low rates instead of hiring drivers to return their vehicles to their lot after previous customers drove them one way. When booking, ask about the possibility of getting $250 in gas incentives. 

Have a Water Park Adventure

Kids and water parks go together like summer and ice cream. Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains is home to two newly renovated water parks: Camelback Lodge & Aquatopia Indoor Waterpark (which now boasts the title of biggest indoor water park in the northeast) and The Great Wolf Lodge (which just added the Slideboard, a first-of-its-kind interactive waterslide that doubles as a competitive video game for riders).

 

Channel Their Inner Cowboy (And Cowgirl)

Visiting a dude ranch is the stuff of lasting family memories. The Rainbow Trout Ranch in Antonito, Colorado is kid-friendly and parent-approved. Fuel 'em up with a hotdog and s’mores roast and then have some fun with a forest hayride. If your kids are six and older, they'll get their very own horse to ride for the week, while little ones ages three to five are led on short rides around the river by an expert counselor. 

Explore Summer in the City

Have you ever dreamed about taking your family to a Broadway play or biking around Central Park? Summer is a great time to visit New York City because many locals leave for the beach, making those crowded sidewalks a little less, well, crowded and reservations a little easier to get. Kimpton Hotels of New York (Eventi, Ink48, The Muse, 70 Park Avenue) is running a special promotion now through September 10th where they're offering 10 percent off the best available rate Thursdays through Sundays.