I had a lunch date with some girlfriends a few weeks ago and we were talking about family vacations. One friend is taking her family to Colorado this summer and I gave her the #1 piece of advice I always give vacationing families: Skip the hotel. Rent a house on HomeAway!
If you’ve never stayed in a vacation rental, you seriously need to consider it for your next trip. Our sponsor, HomeAway is the world’s leading online vacation rental marketplace and they have more than one million listings in 190 countries. From something in your neighboring town to a place in Florida or even Paris and Rome, you can get twice the space at half the price of a hotel room.
We went to Breckenridge, Colorado last summer and found a 2 bedroom condo on HomeAway. It was perfect for us. It was central to all the attractions and after we put the kids to bed at night my husband and I sat out on the balcony. We drank wine and people watched on Main Street. Another night we rented a movie. In the mornings, the boys could turn on the TV just like at home. They made themselves cereal and watched a show and mom and dad got to sleep in. This would NEVER happen at a hotel in such a confined space.
This Breckenridge trip wasn’t our first HomeAway experience. My husband’s family often goes skiing and we love to find a huge house on HomeAway. It’s so much more personal than individual hotel rooms. The wives sit up at night playing dominoes and the guys watch whatever sport they can find on TV. We usually take turns cooking dinner because it’s too hard to take a big group out to eat every night. And while we cook, the kids play outside in the snow while we watch from the window. It is such a fun time and having a house altogether really contributes to the overall experience.
So while my girlfriends and I were discussing how much we love having the extra space and flexibility that renting a home or condo allows. We of course had to talk about the kitchen. Because you know when there’s a kitchen you (probably) feel obligated to use it. And frankly, planning a menu while trying to get out of town can be a little terrifying.
So I asked around, polled on Facebook and came up with a 7-day Vacation Menu Plan and Shopping List with some quick, classic, kid-friendly dinners. You can adjust the menu and shopping list as needed depending on your family size and the duration of your trip.
Here are the meals you’ll find on the plan:
- Day 1: Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup – Perfect option after a long day of traveling.
- Day 2: Tacos – Use beef, turkey or chicken. Hard shells or soft. Whatever your family loves.
- Day 3: Spaghetti – Classic easy dinner and family favorite
- Day 4: BBQ Chicken – Bake it in the oven or throw it on the grill. Use any cut of chicken you like.
- Day 5: Baked Potatoes – Cook them in the microwave if you are short on time. Add leftover meat sauce to make them more filling
- Day 6: Italian Sausage Rigatoni – Quick, easy pasta dinner and it’s delish.
- Day 7: Pita Bread Pizzas – Everyone loves pizza and this is a great way to use up leftover meat and veggies. Do classic Italian pizza or BBQ chicken.
This little meal plan should make planning your next vacation a piece of cake. So skip the hotel, rent from HomeAway and take this menu plan with you. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up being the best vacation you’ve ever had.
UPDATE: If you are looking for a Blank Menu Plan, I have one here. This way you can make it work for your family. I also have a post with 7 Steps to Successful Meal Planning you might find helpful!
HomeAway is also hosting the HomeAway Kidfluencers Contest this summer! Kidfluencers have a chance to win a $5,000 vacation rental stay to anywhere in the United States in 2015. Watch their 15 to 60-second videos describing why their family should win a vacation from HomeAway. Then vote on your favorite from June 8 to 12 to determine the winner. For more details on the contest, visit https://bit.ly/1c0IN33.
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of HomeAway.
Love this idea! Any chance you would share a blank sheet. I would love something like this for camping!
Sure! I’ll work on that this week. I’ll post it here when it’s done for anyone else that’s interested and Shannon, I’ll email it to you directly. 🙂
I would love a blank printable too!! Thanks for the wonderful post, we’ve used someway before!
Ohh just saw the blank one…. thanks!!
Hi, I can’t seem to find the printable blank vacation menu//shopping list sheet. Could you please email it to me??
[email protected].
Thank you! 🙂
It’s here: https://simplyshellie.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/MenuPlan2.pdf
Is this taking into account eating lunch out each day? I was hoping for a more robust meal plan to include at least two meals a day. We try to eat at home as much as possible on vacation and not have sandwiches for lunch every day. Any ideas for lunch?
We eat lots of sandwiches on vacation. Different variations of them. Sometimes wraps. Sometimes traditional sandwiches. Sometimes grilled cheese or quesadillas. Also, hotdogs and we eat leftovers too. We try to keep lunch super simple because sometime we have to pack one and sometimes we eat at the house. And sometimes we don’t know where we’ll be for lunch depending on how the day’s activity goes. So lunch is something I try to keep super flexible. And if we eat out, we do tend to eat out at lunch time. It’s cheaper than eating out dinner and sometimes it’s more convenient when you are on-the-go.
Great printable!! I am actually working on a printable right now for travel since we are going to the beach in few weeks.
One of the biggest money-sucks on vacation is food, this is a great plan. Thanks for posting. Hello from Think and Make Thursday.
Thanks so much Shellie! I love this so much!! Love the format, colors, font style, etc.
I see that you provided a blank pdf, which is awesome, but wondering if it is possible to post it as a word.doc also so that we could type directly on to it as well. Not sure if that is a lot of work and a lot to ask, but if not it would be great!! That way we could type the menus and SAVE them in a folder on the computer :)))))
Fabulous ideas! I was wondering if you had a grocery list for this menu plan. That is a big hassle, normally because I tend to buy more than we need for the week and then have to figure out what to do with the stuff when packing up to come home! That would save a few brain cells, if you do!
Thank you for sharing your menu plan! That is very generous of you!