Recommended day trips for toddlers

abcdefghi

AC Members
Jun 6, 2007
1,331
5
38
I have a week of vacation booked in May, and we are trying to decide whether to take our 2 boys (one is 2, the other will be almost 4) to Disneyworld for 5 days, or to instead take day trips to various places.

Any suggestions on places to visit around Virginia? we live about an hour west of D.C. (have been to the zoo/museums/sites already). We don't mind driving somewhere and staying overnight, pretty open to suggestions really the only main criteria is that kids will enjoy it as well.

Thanks.
 
I think with kids that young, day trips to various places would be more enjoyable to everyone. I would personally wait til they both got older to go to disneyworld so they would remember it.

Im not from the VA area so I cant really help with suggestions there..
 
i would wait 2 years before you do the disney thing....it is a bit expensive (although they currently have darn good deals) and i know that i went at a very young age and odnt remember it and my parents said it wanst really worth it because i was little.

day trips can be hard on little kids too...but if i were you i'd go to the local book store and grab a {insert state/city name] for dummies book and they have great day trips all layed out for you. i used those books for san francisco and seattle and it worked out great!
 
Dutch wonderland in Lancaster, strausburg railroad (they have a thomas town), in NJ is fairytale land (great for little kids). None of these are in VA, but they would be within a few hours of you. I would also consider Philadelphia zoo and the Franklin Institute as well as the please touch museum in center city. If you went to Lancaster for Dutch Wonderland and Strausburg, there is a Holiday Inn across the street from dutch wonderland with an indoor water park, kids love it and there are very reasonable weekday rates.
 
I'm from VA, and I can definitely help with this.

VA Beach is pretty cool, they have a great pet shop called Animal Jungle which is the most amazing LPS I've ever seen!!!!! 40,000 square feet!!!! The VA Living Museum is pretty cool too (Newport News).
Natural Bridge is pretty cool too. Williamsburg is pretty interesting, lots of stuff there.
 
Dutch wonderland in Lancaster, strausburg railroad (they have a thomas town)

Thanks, my wife loves the Lancaster area, so these are ideal. So far it looks like we are going to head from home to Lancaster, spend a day at Dutch Wonderland, then a day on the railroad, from there we plan to drive over to Baltimore to visit the aquarium, then down to Mount Vernon, and then down to Williamsburg.

Just need to figure out some hotels and should be all set.
 
AquariaCentral.com