Williamsburg for Less: Trip Ideas for Under Ten Bucks

Name of activity: Colonial Williamsburg Museums
Location: Williamsburg, Virginia
Price: Adults are $9.95, youths (age 6-17) are $4.95; covers admission to all three museums when used on the same day.
Description:
DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum – This museum is home to an extensive collection of American and British antiques. See furniture, metals, ceramics, glass, paintings, prints, firearms, and textiles from the 17th-19th centuries.
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum – Colonial and contemporary artists and craftspeople work outside the mainstream of academic art to record aspects of everyday life, making novel use of the materials at hand.
Basset Hall – A two-story, 18th-century frame house located on 585 acres of gardens and rolling woodlands, Bassett Hall tells part of the story of the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg.
Dates open/available: Year-round. Check individual websites for museum hours.
Website: www.history.org

Top 4 Nature-Loving Family Road Trips

Spring is in the air, which means it's time to get outside! Scenery and back-to-basics family fun take center stage on these cheap, outdoorsy family road trips:

Skyline Drive, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Amid the backdrop of the breathtaking Blue Ridge Mountains, this 105-mile stretch of highway (itself a section of the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway) is dotted with exits to kid-friendly hiking trails. Inexpensive campgrounds and cabin-style resorts make for a budget-friendly family vacation.

Asheville, North Carolina, to Gatlinburg, Tennessee
This beautiful two-hour drive passes right through Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Campgrounds are plentiful in the area, as are laid-back lodging options like cabin rentals and motels.