Hellobee Boards

What about Outer Banks, NC? Not a resort or planned activities but you can get amazing huge houses with a pool and beach right out front. We’ve done trips there with 14-20 people and the houses are so big it feels fine!

@bakingdoodle: I agree that a house will be a better option with a tiny baby. Staying at a resort with little little kids is a challenge because you can’t really feed them, put them to bed, and then hang out in common spaces—someone has to stay back in the room from like 7:00 on, which is a bummer.

If it were me, I would lean towards planning something driving distance for anyone with kids who can’t be vaxxed yet unless you know they’re comfortable committing now to flying with unvaccinated babies just in case. Most beach towns up and down the East coast will have the types of houses you’re looking for though. The outer banks is great. I love downeast Maine, too. Personally I don’t love the cape, because of how crowded it is, but there are some amazing rentals there if you’ve got the budget.

@Jess1483: You are going to have the best time! DH and I went to CR in 2016 and spent a week in the Manuel Antonio area and it is the most beautiful beach with SO much wildlife all around. Watch out for the raccoons and capuchins though, they can and do open tourists’ bags, not ours thankfully but we saw it happen multiple times.

@bakingdoodle: don’t know if Hawaii is on your list to consider but we went to Maui last summer and stayed at the Honua Kai. They have new “Garden Villas” in the back of the property that looked great for a larger family group. I think for that many people you could rent two sides so you would have the whole villa with a kitchen, outdoor grill, living room etc. You can walk to the beach, there is a restaurant on site and multiple pools. We would love to go back with extended family someday:

https://www.honuakai.com/accommodations/luana-garden-villas

Look into Punta Mita. Get a house with a staff. You will never consider vacationing with family any other way again.

Sunriver, Oregon might work!

@bakingdoodle: the big homes to rent near Zion (St George) are really affordable! My speculation is that the whole area is family friendly bc of the LDS population

@bakingdoodle: There are some good VRBO houses like this in Costa Rica too! Have you looked there for VRBO?

This has availability in late April/early May. Not staffed but so gorgeous! https://www.vrbo.com/1419659?adultsCount=14&noDates=true&unitId=1978141

@bakingdoodle: Costa Rica is very safe. When we were there we rented a car and drove ourselves, stopped a few places on the side of the road, etc. and had no problems. Especially if you stick to tourist areas you’ll be fine.

The level of wildlife depends on where you are. Near Manuel Antonio National Park the animals are everywhere so much that the hotel we stayed at warned us to lock our balcony doors so that the capuchin monkeys wouldn’t come in to steal food. They never went on the balcony when we were out there, but they were definitely there when we were inside. But it also means you may have a beach day with a sloth in the tree right above your beach chair, which happened to me. Outside of that specific area, though, the wildlife was much more similar to a US National Park, in that you can see animals but you usually have to look for them and/or have helpful locals point them out.

Palmetto Bluff South Carolina? You may be able to find something throughout the Carolina’s. Good luck!

@agold: I swear I wrote about it on here somewhere but it's buried and I have no idea where

We went in July of 2018 - my kids were 6 & 3. We did 2 weeks - first week we just just outside of Lisbon in Cascais - a smaller coastal town with a train right into downtown Lisbon that we could walk to. We stayed in an AirBnB overlooking the ocean and there was a boardwalk and the condo had a garage as we rented a car for our entire 2 weeks. We did a day trip to Sintra to see the moorish castles which was amazing. We actually hiked up and the kids loved it... Could've done 2 days there. We took the train into Lisbon & explored, did 1 or 2 full days and some quicker trips - the kids didn't love the city as much as we did - the aquarium there was amazing and that was a big hit. Then we drove out and did separate beach trips along the western coast - so stunningly beautiful.

Week 2 we packed up and drove down south (maybe 4 hours?) and that was a more typical beach vacation week. We stayed at a fantastic hotel (Alba Suites) that was secluded but right on the cliffs by all of the famous beaches. Not a good spot if you don't have a car. We did a day boat trip out to see the Benagil Caves, and we hiked the coast, found hidden beaches, hung by the pool at the hotel (lots of pool time), drank smoothies, drove go carts, shopping, exploring the smaller less touristy towns, and out to dinner.

Week 1 was a bit more culture and historic Portugal, Week 2 was more touristy beach vacation - BUT the beaches there are unlike here, huge massive cliffs, lots of caves. It's really so stunning.

Ahh, that was fun re-living that trip. That was one of our favorite vacations ever and we are 100% going back to explore more of the country. It was very affordable, wonderful food, lovely people.