Likewise here. Camping was certainly the cheap way to go, especially if the alternative included the cost of restaurant food on top of lodging. Now that I'm grown up with kids, we still camp, though we've also done a number of vacations where we rent an apartment for a week, with a kitchen.

But there were other benefits to camping as well. Small kids don't belong in hotels and restaurants -- it's a nightmare for everybody. And the process of getting them in and out of those accommodations eats up half the day.

And if you're camping, that itself becomes the entertainment, so the sightseeing side of it doesn't have to be as spectacular. Last summer we made our way across the northern shore of Lake Superior -- possibly one of my favorite places in the world. There are no bucket-list tourist destinations unless you count the Wawa Goose, yet it was just a blast and quite relaxing.