The “staycation” may have been created by children.

Traveling with kids is no fun, at least not to me. Call me inflexible, but to me, a vacation has always been an experience that’s more fun and pleasure than work, and traveling with kids flips that equation.

I adore my 4-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son, and want them to be happy. But their idea of a good time is as simple as going to the park for an open-ended afternoon, having my full attention while I sprawl on the floor and show some interest in what they’re doing, or going to the local diner for their favorite foods and people-watching. And when they’re happy, it makes my husband and me happy. So we may as well stay home!

After reading my colleague Tod Marks’ excellent Money blog on how to take advantage of staycations, I ran home full of ideas to start planning my family’s next one in August. Hope it offers you as many good ideas as it did me. And check out blogs like this one from Informers Corner for more local, low-cost activities. If you have other ideas, share them here!—Artemis DiBenedetto