Summer Travel for Pennies

Our Memorial Day get- away set us back under $200 for a family of four. That includes gas, tolls, recreation and dinner out each night. Oh, and lodging of course. We had a five bedroom Victorian house in a quaint Pennsylvania town.

The home exchange's neighbors are Mennonite. They dress in plain clothes and avoid modern technology. They bicycled over to make sure we had everything we needed and generously answered questions we had about the Amish families we had seen trotting by in buggies pulled by horses. Try that in a chain hotel.