New York is not going to be on this list. We live in Connecticut and it’s a 45-60 minutes train ride in to Grand Central. If we go to the City, we go for a day trip and then come home. I grew up here so I spent many, many days and nights with girlfriends and boyfriends out and about in the City. My husband grew up in Manhattan and then the Bronx his whole life. When we first got together I was like “Let’s move to the City!” And he was like “Get me the fuck out of the City!” So we stayed in Connecticut and then ended up buying a house in Norwalk and that’s where we live now. New York is an Awesome city though and there is so much to do there. You can find anything. I was not a big dance club person, I loved the comedy clubs, shopping, museums and shows. I will write another blog about New York and all the things I would recommend.
We are Hilton Honors members so I try to pick Hilton Brand hotels. This past year we stayed at a lot of Hampton Inn’s. Most of the time there is a pool, there is a complimentary breakfast and the beds are pretty comfy. The rooms usually have a microwave and a mini fridge which is really nice so we can keep snacks in the room because the kids are always hungry. The breakfast is nice because we are not big breakfast people and the kids can pick whatever they want.
We have stayed here every year for a weekend in the end of February, beginning of March for the past 5 years. This past year will be our last because my husband has left the job that paid for that! I did like this weekend get away. There is plenty of things to do at this resort! Obviously skiing, snowboarding and tubing. They have a ice skating rink, indoor and outdoor pools and hot tubs. There is a spa that I have never used and a small arcade. There is also a mountain coaster that my kids loved.
We liked the skating rink and the pools. We don’t ski or snowboard, no one in my family really had any interest in learning so I don’t know about that. I heard from my husbands coworkers that it was fun. We did snow tube but two years ago my tube flipped and I ended up in the hospital with a concussion. That was the end of snow tubing for us!
There isn’t a lot of good food that we found around the Resort. Except the Hatchery. You should stop at the Hatchery for breakfast if you go. It is really good. And we would stop at Outback for pizza one night. The pizza is pretty good. Besides that everywhere else we have tried was just alright.
This past year we took a day trip to the Ben and Jerry Factory and that was fun. It was a 3 hour round trip from the resort, but we had fun and stopped at a apple cider place and found some really good burgers by the Ben and Jerry Factory.
For us, we will not be going back simply because we don’t really ski or snowboard and it’s kind of a long way to go and there is nothing much else around during the winter. I wouldn’t mind trying to go back during the summer one year in the future to see how the summer activities are.
Mystic, CT. – We went here in April and it was a little chilly but really nice. We went for a quick overnight and stayed at the Hampton Inn. The first day we went to the seaport and walked around. It was really cool. We went on some boats, and in the little shops. In the shops they have people who are dressed up and tell you all about how they did things back in the day. There is a planetarium that we all really enjoyed. The seaport closed around 5:00 so we went to the hotel and swam until we were hungry. We didn’t go to mystic pizza, we went to a little place across the parking lot at the hotel. It had pretty good pizza and cheap draft beer so that was a nice way for us to unwind and relax. The next day we swam, ate breakfast and checked out. Then we headed to the Aquarium. The aquarium is pretty cool. We all enjoyed it. I highly recommend a trip here if you are looking for something interesting and quick.
If you go to
thisismystic.com there is a package that you can buy for access to the Aquarium and the Seaport. I recommend doing this.
Lake George, NY- We went here in June with some friends and rented a house. I didn’t have fun on this trip but it was more about the people than the things to do. I think I would go back but with my family only and I would want to rent something on the lake which means we would have to book much earlier. We went on the river tubing for 2 hours, that was a blast. And we went to the beach area one day, that was fun too. Walking around town was fun. They also have a arcade with a rollerskating rink and go carts. We went here for a few hours and that was fun! Another day we went paddle boarding for 2 hours, I think I would have been okay with just 1 hour! It was fun though. While we took half the kids to that the other half went on a ropes course and I heard that they had fun. We stayed for 3 nights and honestly, that was enough for me. I do want to come back here, but with just my family, or I would stay in a resort instead of renting a house so that we could have our own space or go do our own things.
Washington DC – I would visit in the Spring or Fall. It was a 5 hours drive from Connecticut. We went for a 2 nights and 3 days. We stayed at the Hampton inn here too because it had the pool and breakfast. I picked the park and stay package because I read that parking In DC is expensive. This hotel was right by China town so we did get some pretty good Ramen while here. My only issue with the hotel was that it was kind of far to walk to see the white house and the Lincoln memorial. To get to the museums though, it wasn’t so bad and they are free. We went to the Spy museum (not free) and all of us really enjoyed that as well. The kids had a blast in the pool. It was on the small side but it was fine for a couple hours!
Cape Cod, Mass- We went here in September for a quick weekend get away for my birthday. I love going to the Cape in September… Okay, this was only my second trip and I have never gone in the summer. I am not a beach person though. Like lay on the beach for hours, that’s not me. I like to walk up and down the beach and look in the tide pools and watch the kites and surfers. We stayed in West Yarmouth and I think we are planning on going back next year again. We stayed at the Hampton inn here too and it was nice. The pool was a good size. I liked the location of this hotel. We were right a main strip. the Pirate Museum was right down the street and I highly recommend visiting that. It was really interesting. We also did a duck boat tour and that was more just for fun.
We also stopped by the cape cod factory which is basically a hallway with some posters up and then a gift shop. If you are in the area and have 20 minutes to burn, I would stop there, But the cape cod factory was a little bit of a disappointment in my honest opinion. We basically went out exploring all day and then went back to the hotel at night and ordered pizza and swam. We had a lot of fun and I feel like there is so much more to do so we need to go back.
I tried to charter a boat to do some fishing and September is not a good time for that I was told. The fish are far out so you have to do the longer day trips, we weren’t interested with 8 hours on a boat, I just wanted to do 2 hours or lobstering. Being that it was the end of the season, a lot of places had already closed up right after Labor day.
This is my list of weekend getaways so far! Next year, I plan on going to Boston, and a couple other places. Maybe New Hampshire. Maybe Pennsylvania. I don’t know. I’m not sure. Any one have any other ideas of great places to visit for a night or two?
Moving forward 