I went on fabulous camping vacations as a child. At least, they seemed pretty great to me. Now I look back on them and think about all the work my parents did on those trips. We went primitive camping in a 1963 Chrysler station wagon with a canoe on top and pulling a Uhaul. Two adults and four kids driving cross country – we went to Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, to name a few places. I remember that sometimes we kids would want to go to an “attraction” that we saw advertised on a billboard, and my father would start ranting that it was a Tourist Trap and a waste of time and money.

I’ve never been to Disneyland or Disneyworld, probably two of the biggest tourist traps in the country. I did take some of my kids to more minor attractions, the biggest one I remember was the Hershey Chocolate Factory but we avoided the amusement park. I much prefer nature. As an adult I’ve been to a resort one time and it was a good time, but for future travels I plan to rent rustic places and have more adventure for less money.

No tourist traps for me, please!