For us, small get-a-ways over the years have so far outnumbered our large vacations, that we've gone pro. As a cancer survivor, I visit my surgeon for a checkup every few months in a big city several hours away. Even those visits are special for us. Just getting in the car and driving it past the normal daily routes can be a vacation if you let it. But the advice here doesn't only work for small get-a-ways. It's a handful of tips that will help make the most of any vacation.

1. The Best Things are Free

That advice is a cliche, and frankly it's not always true. Live shows, expensive amusement parks, pricey restaurants - these things are wonderful and often the reason we go on vacation at all. So not all of the best things are free. But there is something so satisfying about the free things. It does not take a life savings to appreciate a new place. Being in the new place at all is something to appreciate. Even in our own city, we like to take a drive down back roads we have yet to discover. In an unfamiliar city, every street is that. Everything is new and different and holds amazing possibility.

Lately just getting somewhere can be expensive. Finding a place to stay can be costly as well. Once those things are accomplished, do you really need much more? Especially if you're in an amazing location. Ocean-side destinations are full of beach after beach after beach. All different, all amazing - all a completely free day at the ocean - something most of us don't experience every day. In large cities, there are amazing parks, busy city streets, statues full of history and artistry, window shopping, local residents by their store fronts and sidewalks just waiting to unearth local treasure for you.

Don't fill a vacation so full of expensive attractions that you can't sit back and just take in the view. It's actually the best way to confidently state, "I've been there."

2. Relax

Don't we take vacations to relieve stress? Yet so often we pack our itineraries, stay up too late, get up too early, rush from one thing to the next, and come home feeling more exhausted than when we left.

If you're staying at a beautiful resort, remember that you're staying at a beautiful resort. You don't need to leave it every day and find something busier to do - something that will cost you more money and for which you'll have to wait in line. Consider a vacation that truly is a vacation. Sit in the sun, read a great book without wondering if you should load the dishwasher soon, and just truly relax.

Keep this advice in mind at the attractions too. If you're at an amusement park and it starts to rain, don't stress! Step inside to the gift shop for a time, use those moments for a snack or lunch. Wait it out, watch the crowd thin, end up in line first for the next run on the roller coaster, and you'll be thankful you went with the flow.

Another stressor on vacation can be the children. This is another area where you really have to take things in stride. My toddler still naps 2-3 hours every afternoon. But you can imagine how fun it sounded to the rest of the family to sit in a hotel room for that amount of time - and frankly, he wouldn't have fallen asleep there anyway. When he got sleepy on our recent get-a-way, I just took him for a walk in the stroller. I used that time just to explore the park and not look for so many things to do. Older children can get irritable in the early to late afternoon as well. Maybe that's a good time to go for that drive. You will all be happier if everyone gives a little as far as what has to get done in a day.

Ideally, a vacation is a wonderful escape from the daily grind but refreshing as well - so that when you return to the daily grind, you're ready for it.

3. Eat Smart

That's not an admonition to eat healthy. Are you kidding? It's hard enough to do that from your own refrigerator. Throw in the Arches every 500 feet, and you're bound to cheat on that diet a time or two. No, this number is once again about the money. One of my favorite things about vacation is eating at restaurants we do not have at home. I love good food. And it's worth spending money on if you plan it well. One day we slept in, ate a large meal at a breakfast buffet, spent several hours in a water park without snacking, and then ate a nice supper outside of the park. The food in amusement parks will max out your credit card before you can say funnel cake with powdered sugar please. But by all means, GET the funnel cake. Just pick your battles on this one. Get up in time for the free breakfast at your hotel, eat a light snack for lunch, share a funnel cake in the afternoon, and fill up again at supper. Snack when you can. Like real life, if you can keep from getting too hungry on a vacation day, you're less likely to make decisions with your stomach instead of your budget.

Also, share meals when possible. The portions at restaurants send red alert images to my brain of starving children in impoverished nations. Menu items are usually far too big for an adult, let alone a child. And doggie bags are simply not practical on vacation. Savor the food; don't waste it.

4. Cushion It

In keeping with the theme of avoiding exhaustion, consider the first and last day of your vacation carefully. If you get home early on a weekend day, you can take that time to rest and fully prepare for the return to your normal routines. Maybe take off an extra eight hours of work. Use four of them for laundry and packing the day before your trip. Then pad the day after your vacation with sleeping in followed by a half-day of work. I always plan for the transition to and from a vacation even more thoroghly than I plan the vacation itself. It's one of the best ways to get the most from the trip. Remember, you go away to rejuvenate, not to drain.

5. Get Everything Home

Now, a sad story. We went to Disney World on our honeymoon. We were too busy enjoying the different parks and the grand resort to take very many pictures. There was only one of us together, taken by a park attendant, put in a fancy cardboard souvenir frame and paid for by us as we left the park. It sat on our night stand in the hotel room all week, and we left it there. I wasn't smart enough to just call the hotel when I realized this. Not until exactly one day after the point at which they give up and throw things away. I can still see that picture sitting happily on the nightstand, and it kind of breaks my heart that we forgot it! Don't even get my husband started on these souvenir pictures though. Take it from us: Just use your own camera and a kind stranger. It's free that way!

We also forgot my son's favorite blanket in a hotel room once. This time I had learned my lesson and called the hotel immediately. Unfortunately, the blanket had not been recovered. Days later, I got a phone call that it was found in the laundry as it must have gotten tangled in the sheets when the bed was stripped after checkout. Thank goodness I made that call.

But on my most recent trip, I learned a trick. Gather all of your suitcases and laundry bags and souvenir items, and leave the hotel room with them. Then, actually carry them to the car. Put them in the trunk, load and buckle the children, take a moment to make sure everything is settled. Then, just before actually checking out send one or two family members back into the hotel room. You'll look at it with fresh eyes when none of your items are supposed to be there, and therefore you'll be more likely to see them. Check the shower, the closet, and the drawers. Also, don't forget to turn back the covers to make sure no one left a special blanket, stuffed animal, or dirty sock - because frankly, that last one would just be embarrassing.

With this trick, I can't imagine leaving that twenty-dollar souvenir photo on the nightstand or your only black skirt in the closet. You won't have to pay the hotel to ship your lost things, and you won't have crying children when you get home without their favorite stuff! As I mentioned in the Cusion It advice, how you get home from a vacation can make or break how wonderful the vacation was in the first place.

For another Hub about children and travel, try this one on Travel as a Learning Experience. This Hub written after our recent trip to Branson, Missouri, talks more about making the most out of the free parts of a travel experience.

For more of my writing, check out my blog, Serenity Now.