From D.C. to Disney, Families Share Their Top Spots

You may recall the “stumped” New Zealand mom who e-mailed me asking for help planning a long winter trip to the United States. Money was no object.

I knew readers of this column would know best the places for this family and others to go--those spots that still make you smile at the retelling, even years later.

Ten-year-old Sarah Noah wrote that her family members loved the St. Louis Zoo so much that they went twice on their recent trip. An Oklahoma mom urged family travelers to get off the tourist track and go to a small-town high school football game. A Wisconsin family thought a Christmas visit to Washington, D.C., would be especially beautiful, not to mention less crowded. “There’s so much to do, the kids won’t get bored,” she promised. “And the museums are free.”

“The Lincoln Memorial is my boys’ favorite of all monuments. I love the Jefferson, and my husband, FDR’s,” another mom wrote from Baltimore. In winter, Washington Hotel rooms can be had for about $100 in many cases. Call (800) 635-6338 or https://www.washington.org.

“My parents believed that vacations should teach as well as bring the family together. And it worked,” said Lisa Sears-Vosburgh, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and fondly remembers the car trips her dad, a Civil War buff, organized to battlefields.

“Every year Dad would start off by telling us about different chapters in the War Between the States. The first day, we probably would rather have been at Disney World,” she acknowledged. “But after that it was great. He gave us history that schools don’t have time to teach us, and we could go back to school and argue with the teachers because we’d been there. Now I’m doing the same thing with my stepchildren.” Besides, she added, “there’s only so much Mickey Mouse you can take.”

That’s not to say you should skip Orlando when touring the United States this winter. Disney’s new Tapestry of Nations millennium parade and fireworks at Epcot are first rate, and thrill seekers won’t want to miss the heart-stopping roller coasters at Universal’s new Islands of Adventure. It’s value season then too, and as one reader wrote from Indianapolis: “It’s impossible to mess up a Disney World vacation because they’ve thought of everything.” For general Orlando information, call (800) 551-0181 or visit https://www.go2orlando.com.

Other readers think you shouldn’t miss our national parks, even if it’s cold and snowy. “You won’t have the crowds,” says Sherri Camperchioli of Cleveland.

Many of your ideas not only were memory builders but bona fide bargains. That’s certainly true for national parks, where rooms often are less than $65 a night in winter. Besides Yellowstone--most of which is accessible only by snow vehicle in winter--readers suggested the Grand Canyon, where crowds are one-fifth as large in January as in June, park officials say, and California’s Montecito-Sequoia National Forest. Families there can sign on for a few days of fun in the snow at the newly expanded Family Winter Sports Center, complete with skating, snowshoeing, sledding and cross-country skiing. Even better, there’s someone else to do the cooking and watch the kids part of the time so you get a break.

Contact the Montecito-Sequoia winter sports resort at (800) 227-9900 or Internet https://www.montecitosequoia.com. All-inclusive rates for adults start at $99 per day and $49 for kids 5-11. Rates are $8 a night for younger children. Contact Yellowstone at (307) 344-7381, Internet https://www.nps.gov/yell. Contact the Grand Canyon at (520) 638-7888 or https://www.thecanyon.com/nps.

Many of you put Colonial Williamsburg, Va., at the top of your list. “ ‘No more museums!’ is my daughters’ battle cry,” wrote Lisa Chattler, a Southern California speech pathologist. “But the girls loved Williamsburg,” a place where kids can chat up George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or a young slave on her way to the market. Admission is $35 for adults, $20 for kids. Call (800) HISTORY (447-8679) or visit https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org.

Taking the Kids appears the first and third week of every month.