(This Southeast Bargain Loop post is a guest contribution by budget travel expert Tim Leffel; he’s a Nashville resident when he’s not traveling with his family in Mexico and Belize.)
In these tight economic times, here’s a one-gas-tank family road trip loop that won’t break the bank.
As the author of the books The World’s Cheapest Destinations and Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune, I get a lot of calls from reporters and readers asking for cheap family travel ideas. My main advice for domestic travel is to spend time outside the big cities and major tourist draws.
Smaller towns and cities are frequently half the cost when it comes to lodging and attractions.
The following loop takes place around my home town of Nashville, Tennessee, and has some great travel spots with kids.
Start in any of the destinations covered below if arriving by car or plane, or arrive in Atlanta and get out of town, driving the two hours to Chattanooga.
Chattanooga, Tennessee
This is, hands down, one of my favorite small cities in the U.S. for family travel. The revitalized downtown is a case study in how to create a pedestrian-friendly and bike-friendly central core on two sides of a river.
There are quite a few hotels in the thick of things, or stay at the Holiday Inn Chattanooga Choo-choo (where I recently scored a Priceline deal under $50 a night) and take the frequent electric shuttle bus to downtown. The excellent fresh and salt water Tennessee Aquarium here is $22 adults/$15 kids compared to $5 more each at Atlanta’s Georgia Aquarium. Or you can spend a bit more and get a combo ticket with the IMAX theater. Don’t bother printing out the fake coupons on the Chattanooga tourism site though: it’s the same price if you just walk up to the window.
There are plenty of other attractions you can drop money on here, so pick carefully between famous Rock City, Ruby Falls, the Incline Railway, a minor league baseball stadium, and the Children’s Discovery Center. On the north side of the river there’s a great restored carousel (50 cents a ride for kids 12 & under), a theater, an attractive park, funky shops, and reasonable restaurants.
From Chattanooga you can head two hours northwest to Nashville or southwest to the Unclaimed Baggage Center on the way to Huntsville.
Unclaimed Baggage Center, Alabama
Nearly equidistant from Chattanooga and Huntsville, Alabama’s Unclaimed Baggage Center is where homeless bags and their contents end up. Imagine a giant Goodwill store filled with things you actually want to buy. People tend to take their best stuff on vacation, so clothes are often near-new and I bought two shirts that actually still had tags on them. Naturally there are lots of sun hats, snorkels, MP3 players, and suitcases, but also a wide range of other items, from books to golf clubs to unopened cosmetics. I scored about $200 worth of stuff for $60 and I saw some families filling up entire shopping carts.
There’s no cost to look around and there’s a cafe on site if you need to rest up for a second round.
There’s no real reason to stick around this area for the night, so move on to Huntsville, but stop by Cathedral Caverns on the way and take in an impressive cave complex for $10 adults, $5 kids.
Huntsville, AL
Huntsville‘s main claim to fame is the National Space and Rocket Center. At $25 for adults and $20 for kids (combo ticket with a movie), this is not a cheap stop, but the center packs a lot into that admission charge.