vacation on the cheap

[ctseawa]

I have a lot of saved up vacation I should use and not a lot of money I can use to do so. Staycations just don't work for me, I need to be away from the house (and preferably away from the city) because otherwise I get bord, log in, and start doing work.

I'm looking for inexpensive travel options. Doesn't have to be right now but sometime in 2013 would be good.

Ordinarily this would be a year I'd go to Australia for a SAGE-AU conference but they're not doing those anymore (sadness). Last time I had this much vacation banked I went to Oslo for 6 weeks as a visitor at Oslo University College's masters in system administration program (an option I'm considering again). It would be interesting to do something I haven't done before, though.

Any suggestions?

Comments

[ursula]

What do you like to do on vacation (besides go to interesting restaurants, which I'm taking as a given)? Do you want to use one big block of time, or several smaller blocks?

[ctseawa]

Hmm. Good questions. For the most part food and photography are pretty high on my list. I'm not a big arts museum kind of person but I do love artifact/history museums.

My boss probably wants me to take short trips but I find those less fulfilling in terms of actually being a vacation - if I'm not gone long enough to not think about work for a few days there's not a lot of point. 1-2 weeks is probably ideal.

[ursula]

I spent a couple of weeks in Toronto for work a few summers back, and really enjoyed it. I was hanging around the university, which is pretty much downtown. There was lots of good food (especially Asian: authentic ramen, izakaya), and I had fun touring the Bata Shoe Museum. Not sure about other museum options, but in my experience Canadian museums have really neat Native American collections. It looks like the train between Toronto and Montreal is quite inexpensive, too. The downside would almost certainly be the cost of lodging-- I stayed in a campus dorm, which was cheap but noisy and bleak.

Based on random work trips, I can also tell you that Athens, Georgia has amazing food and lovely magnolias, as well as a pretty good music scene. I can't see actively planning a vacation there without a university-related reason to visit, but it does make me wonder whether there's someplace else in the southeast with an equally vibrant local food scene and a bit more going on in the vicinity.

[ctseawa]

Toronto is an excellent suggestion. I'll add that to my list. Maybe a nice train ride across Canada to get there, too.

After my experiences living in Savannah, GA, I've not really excited about spending any time in that part of the country. :)