5.20.2008

Planning for a Kids destination for Memorial Day?

If you are planning a vacation or get away this memorial day, you may want to look in your backyard! Its expected that fewer Americans will drive far this memorial day amidst high gas prices and the economy on the rocks. I have already been getting fliers and booklets from my local state tourism department telling me about what's local and interesting.

Anyway, I live in Maryland and my two year old is fond of animals and getting near water. I took him to the DC National Zoo last weekend and he wouldn't stop gazing at the water streams and ponds there. Same at Reston Zoo, which is another great place for kids this age.

This memorial day I am planning to go to the Natural Bridge area in Virginia. Nestled somewhere in Blue Ridge mountains near Roanoke and about 2 hours drive from Luray Caverns, it offers quite a few interesting things. I haven't been there, but if you haven't finalized your plans yet, you may want to take a look at it. For 2-3 year olds, the Virgina Safari Park appears to be very interesting. Prof Cline's haunted monster museum and Dino Kingdom appear to be interesting as well. There is also a Natural Bridge Zoo in case you don't get tired of all those animals ;) I have been to Natural Bridge and the night show there and that is pretty decent as well. If you don't know, its one of the natural wonders of the world.

Another interesting destination for kids is Luray Caverns, but it has lesser attractions and the caverns themselves may be interesting for bigger kids.

If you want to browse the full set of attractions, click here.

I also found the following two sites extremely useful in planning the trip:

TripAdvisor and Wyndham Rewards Booking site for Hotels. TripAdvisor's reviews were very helpful in terms of picking attractions and the Wyndham Rewards site had the lowest hotel rates (lower than Orbitz and Hotels.com).

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