Seven Budget-Friendly Lake Towns

Spend summer by retreating to an easygoing, affordable lake town, where you can embrace simple pleasures: fishing with kids, picking the huckleberries or enjoying a stroll along lakeside. Here is a list of some affordable lake towns for a great family-fun:

Priest Lake, Idaho

PRIEST LAKE, IDAHO

In Idaho’s remote northern panhandle, evergreen trees blanket the Selkirk Mountains, extending all the way to the edge of Priest Lake.

LAKE CATHERINE, ARKANSAS

The 11-mile-long Lake Catherine is a great source for bass and crappie fish. Fishing boats, canoes, kayaks, and party barges can be rented through the state park.

LAKE CHARLEVOIX AND LAKE MICHIGAN, MICHIGAN

Picture postcard-perfect Charlevoix is located where Lake Charlevoix drains through Round Lake into Lake Michigan.

Lake Champlain, Vermont

LAKE CHAMPLAIN, VERMONT

The quaint village of Shelburne is one of the most appealing communities strung along skinny Lake Champlain. You can explore the southern area of the lake on a Carillon cruise.

LAKE OF THE OZARKS, MO.

The man-made Lake of the Ozarks has more than 1,000 miles of shoreline skirted by boat docks and forests of oak and hickory trees.

LAKE ARROWHEAD, CALIFORNIA

A ride on The Lake Arrowhead Queen, a charming paddlewheel boat, delivers panoramic views of upscale waterfront homes and the dense San Bernardino National Forest.

LAKE PLACID, FLORIDA

Lake Placid, south central Florida is another amazing place to spend your vacation. The lake is a convenient jumping-off point for exploring wildlife preserves and state parks.

Travel Tips: Salvaging a Miserable Summer

For folks who have scaled back or have dropped the idea of taking a vacation, it’s already a miserable summer. But for those still holding some hope for some sort of summer vacation, there’s still time to have fun. So, take out that “souvenir” pen you took home from that last hotel stay and take down some tips and ideas to pull off a vacation:

Re-evaluate expectations

First, ditch those images of two-week beachfront vacations and lavish month-long tours of Europe. There’s not much time left for that sort of thing this summer. Rather it’s time to head out to nearby destinations. Because of the ongoing Fall season, you can still grab some affordable travel deals online.

Fly anyway — and start your vacation at the airport

If you were hoping to fly somewhere this summer, do check the airline websites and as the experts predict some airlines will still roll out end-of-summer sales. Once at the airport, remember that you’re likely to encounter long lines and plenty of delays. That’s why, along with your boarding pass and other necessities, it’s a good idea to pack a printout of the shops, restaurants and amenities at each airport you’re scheduled to visit.

Be a guest — not a pest

One upside of rising gas prices and a down economy is your friends may offer you their guestroom or couch when you tell them how hard you’re working to stretch your vacation budget. But what’s important is to learn how to be a well-mannered houseguest — especially if you want to be invited back.

Vacation, staycation or daycation?

With rising costs “staycations,” (the new term for spending your vacation days at home) are no longer something to be embarrassed about. Visiting places nearby or around the city is a good idea of spending a vacation. Visit museums during Bank of America’s monthly Museums on Us weekend, buy a CityPass (they’re on sale in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Hollywood, Houston, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Southern California and Toronto), and hit a bunch of the popular high-ticket attractions in my city at a big discount or hike through a few city parks.

Sound like fun? Give it a try. If you string enough of these low-cost “daycations” together, you may actually end up with something we used to call … a vacation.

source: msnbc.com