海角大神

Over the past two weeks, Sarah and I combined a tenth anniversary getaway for the two of us along with a family vacation for ourselves, our children, and Sarah鈥檚 parents and youngest sister. This meant almost two full weeks of traveling.

Along the way, I kept taking notes on the inexpensive and free stuff I discovered along the way, but when I came home and actually evaluated the list, one giant theme kept coming through.

The National Park Service (and, similarly, the U.S. Forest Service) provide tremendous value for the traveler within the United States.

My list of 鈥渇rugal tips鈥� from our travels of the past two weeks was simply loaded with references to these two services, particularly the National Park Service. If you鈥檙e going anywhere, look into what these two services have to offer in the area to which you鈥檙e traveling.

Here are some specific highlights from our recent travels.

In Boston,聽the Freedom Trail was an amazing day-long highlight. Most of聽historic Boston聽is maintained by the Park Service, the highlight of which is the Freedom Trail, which is a clearly marked route about three miles in length through Boston and Charlestown, which takes you by dozens of different landmarks relevant to the start of the American Revolution.

Not only did they provide us with free maps along the way, they also provided a聽聽that provided a step-by-step guide to the trail. In addition, there were guided tours of the trail led by NPS employees and several regular talks at various points along the trail. We toured the聽USS Constitution (鈥淥ld Ironsides鈥�)聽for free with a tour guide as part of this day-long excursion, as well as the wonderful Bunker Hill Monument which provided a great view of the city.

In Salem,聽the Park Service provided a free guided tour of the harbor along with the Customs House.聽This was a roughly hour-long tour that highlighted the history of maritime trade in New England as well as highlighting the Customs House where Nathaniel Hawthore worked while writing聽The Scarlet Letter. If you miss the tour guide, the Park Service offers a聽.

During our drive through rural New England, we came upon聽the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. Not knowing much about the area, we stopped at a U.S. Forest Service station near North Conway, where a ranger spent half an hour telling us about the White Mountains, providing us with a bunch of printed maps, and several specific trail recommendations and how to find those trails. We ended up going on three of those trails, all of which were (depending on the trail difficulty and style) maintained by the Forest Service with trail clearing, informative signs, and other efforts. Again, all of this was free.

Later on, in Kentucky with our full family, we visited聽Mammoth Cave National Park. There were聽many different guided tours聽available there, some free and some requiring a small fee, along with an abundance of聽trails, a museum, and several talks, all of which were free.

Near the end of the trip, we also visited the聽Jefferson National Expansion Memorial听(迟丑别 Gateway Arch in Saint Louis), which, much like Mammoth Cave, offered several free things to do (in particular, a museum) along with a relatively low cost tour of the Arch itself. My children particularly enjoyed this museum and kept wanting to stay here and look around at more and more things.

(Another note: if you鈥檙e in Saint Louis and have children, both the聽Science Center聽and the聽Zoo聽are free.)

In the end,聽we spent perhaps half of our recreational time on the entire vacation using services from the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service and the vast majority of it was free.聽What few things were not free were priced very sensibly, too.

If you鈥檙e planning a family summer vacation,聽keep our national parks and national forests in mind.听厂别补谤肠丑听迟丑别颈谤听聽to see what they offer in whatever area you鈥檙e traveling to and take advantage of the many free and low-cost things they have to offer.

I will say, without a doubt, these services saved us significant money and time on our vacation as well as provided us with enriching information and experiences. They have been and will continue to be key parts of our summer travel planning.