I have said that the best vacation package is cruising. If you were to ask me the second best, that would most definitely be renting a unit at a resort. My family enjoyed a great cruise in February, and we recently spent a week at a resort in Myrtle Beach. We used our timeshare week, so the cost worked out to be "less" for us than for a family booking a resort. However, I want to show you how you can you spend a great vacation without breaking the bank.

You can generally rent a 1 bedroom unit (holds 4) for $300 - $500 for 7 days at a resort. Having a resort unit is wonderful for what it offers - a kitchenette, microwave, refrigerator - perfect to save on food expenses. When we arrived on Sunday, we picked up breakfast items and dinner for 1 evening at the local grocery store. We made breakfast every morning before leaving the room.

In addition to the savings on food, the resort comes with pools, tennis courts, basketball courts, kiddie centers, game rooms, and more. The family will have a blast. You can decide to spend 2 or 3 days around the resort and that takes care of entertainment at a very minimal cost. My family spent 2 days on the pool, some time playing miniature golf and yet more time just lazing about. We spent $0 at the resort. Since we had bought groceries earlier, we had no need to buy lunch on the grounds. Trudging back to the room was an easy walk.

We did get off the resort. When we checked in, we were invited to sit in a "resort update" for a prize of dinner tickets to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. If you haven't attended this dinner-show, you must. It is great family fun! The tickets for a family of 5 run about $140. We paid only $20. Dinner and entertainment was taken care for one evening. Great!

In addition to the dinner show, we selected 2 other reasonably priced forms of activities. 1. We visited the Waccatee Zoo - a family run farm/zoo with multiple animals including bears, lions, peacocks and even a zonkey (cross between a donkey and a zebra). Tickets for all of us cost $28. We all had a good time. 2. We visited Ripley's Aquarium for a cost of less than $50. That also was a good trip.

Now, I could not end without talking about the beach. If you vacation in Myrtle Beach, you get the beach thrown in for free. We went to the beach and just laid there, splashed some and had a great time - for free.

Finally, If you are wondering what we did for dinner on the other evenings, here's the breakdown - pizza and wings one evening, fast food one, we cooked one, and ate out twice. The fact is, we spent under $400 on dinner and entertainment for 5 people over 7 days. Can you believe that? What's more amazing is that we had a great time and we rested. Four years ago we took a Disney vacation and at the end of the trip we were broke and very exhausted.

This vacation was the opposite - restful, fun-filled, economical - even better as my wife lost her job the Friday before vacation. Note: It is imperative that you budget ahead of time how much you will spend on food and entertainment.

Happy vacationing!