Road trip: bungalow colony to Midwest!

amother

Turquoise

Sun, Jul 02 2023, 10:55 am

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

Dayton is considerably south of the route to Chicago.

Dvom,

You said you have 10 days. What does that mean?

Are you okay with veering a few hours off the "best path" to see something more cool or are you looking to fill your time between here and there.

For example, we have done niagra "on the way" to Detroit.
And Pittsburgh "on the way" to Cincinnati. (Someine mentioned above the great museums and inclines there).

A couple ideas:

- you might want to buy a science museum membership. Tons of great museums "on the way"

Pittsburgh, Columbus, Chicago all really good.

Then you'll have for the rest of the year chol hamoed.

- We take our grill and grill at rest areas. The ones in off toll roads in Ohio and PA have grills and we just stand ours on top.

- if you're. "Just trying to get there" and want cheap we like to drive as long as we can, about an hour before we're ready to turn in guesstimate where we'll be when we want to turn in, and find a motel on a highway where the door opens right to the parking lot and your car. You need to ask. The we carry the sleeping kids in and unload what we need from car and haul them out quickly in morning.

If you want to take it more easy you can look for the cheapest nicer hotel, like Hilton garden Inn, nearish the frum community and your boys can daven and pick up or you go out for breakfast in the community. Kuds can swim a bit as hotel pool almost always empty......Warning. Takes much longer to get out this way.

- pa has cave tours in random places, but you'll be veering off the road. Also they are a bit close so better on the way back.

- once you have teens you can make a list off all the things you're considering, get a map (from aaa or print) and have them mark off what theyre intetested in and where things are. Then you can figure out what you have time to veer off for.

amother

Turquoise

Sun, Jul 02 2023, 11:10 am

Also, someone mentioned cedar point. It is very special and unique and worth a day if you do amusement parks.

Pittsburgh and Cleveland are very close to eachother. Only really worth both if you're spending a day in each city / cedar point.

Like you can get to Pittsburgh at night. In morning do activities there then go to Cleveland for the night. Then spend day in Cleveland or go right to cedar point on morning. Cedar Point about 5 hours to Chicago so you probably don't want to go straight after a day in the amusement park.

Depends how much you want minyan and takeout.
Depends how you feel about arriving and leaving hotels and hosts very early or late.

10 days sounds fun! If you have a lot that can be used for traveling there so much to do.

amother

Heather

Sun, Jul 02 2023, 11:15 am

DVOM wrote:

Thanks! I'd love your help!

Dutch wonderland is a great idea!

My kids are 15,12,11,9 and almost 2.

Your kids are WAY to old for Dutch Wonderland. It basically is good until 8.
I would either do Hershey Park or Lancaster for a day (candle making/pretzel making…. Are you CY/PY? If so it cut out a lot of the activities. But it is sort of boring if you are not into historical fiction kind of stuff) but if you do Lancaster, do the amusement park in Cleveland (I have never been to Cleveland and have not heard of it).

Would your kids want to go berry/tomato/peach picking?
Spelunking in a cave and see stalagmites?
On a ferry ride?

amother

Turquoise

Sun, Jul 02 2023, 12:20 pm

amother Heather wrote:

To be clear of you're referring to cedar point. It's not in Cleveland. It's in the middle of no where half way between Cleveland and Detroit. So a couple hours from Cleveland.

But no where else is like it.