They have been spending their holidays in the same place for 30 years. They save hundreds of dollars
This tradition began when I was 4 years old. I started the kindergarten and my mother wanted to plan a short trip for the last weekend of summer. She reserved a room in Lake Arrowhead, a small mountain town about an hour from our house in the suburbs of California.
We visited a small village on the lake, jumped into the pool and baked foam in the focus on the beach, until my hands and face were all sticky. The trip was so successful that we decided to repeat it the next summer. And another – we never stopped.
Planning the same holidays every summer has saved the costs and is very relaxing
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Jillian Pretzel / Insider
Planning the same trip every year is relaxing and economical
When we tell people that we go to the same place every year, the reactions are different. Friends ask why we are not going somewhere else. “A yosemite? Or a great canyon?” – I answer that people with summer houses or Timeshare also go to the same place every year, so why can't we?
Our holidays have many advantages. We save time and money – The place is close, and we don't spend money on things that we may not like. It is also a family tradition, which my mother and we are waiting for every year.
Besides, repeating a vacation in the same place can work soothingly. For me, Lake Arrowhead is like a favorite series – pleasant, easy and predictable. A study from 2024 showed that 19 percent Adult Americans consider planning traveling “very stressful”. In the case of people traveling with children, this percentage increases to 26 percent.
I believe it. When as a child we went elsewhere – e.g. in winter to New York or on vacation at Hawaii – my mother was stressed for weeks, looking for attractions and restaurants.
Preparations for Lake Arrowhead are simple: mother calls the hotel and reserves a room. No additional work, no stress.
Of course, getting to know new places is great, but even as an adult, after returning from the New Town, full of new flavors and views, I feel that I need vacation after the holidays. After returning from Lake Arrowhead, I feel relaxed, refreshed and ready for action.
We like activities such as baking foams, visiting the village on the lake and riding on water skis
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Jillian Pretzel / Insider
This is a budget -friendly solution
Last year, when I was checking in a hotel, the receptionist asked if I wanted to buy a foam set for $ 30. Of course, I refused politely. We always stop in the same local grocery store and buy the same ingredients, snacks and drinks. I never do it in other places, but Lake Arrowhead is like a home, so grocery shopping is part of tradition.
Especially now saving matters. Our annual trip is small savings here and there, because we know what to expect. We know which hotel has the best value for money and which dishes are delicious, and they do not cost fortunes. We rarely buy souvenirs – how many magnets with the inscription “Lake Arrowhead” do we really need?
It is difficult to calculate exactly how much we save every year, but a few hundred dollars that we spend on this trip is a fraction of what another vacation would cost.
Now the author goes with her children and mother for the same place in the same place
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Jillian Pretzel / Insider
Our tradition brings us together
As a child, I loved Lake Arrowhead for activities: getting up to water skiing, duck feeding and huge ice cream with balloon gum early.
With time, I began to appreciate this trip even more. When life became intense – work, studies, master's school – I began to count for weeks to a summer trip. There is no better way to break away from adulthood than a pizza with my mother in an unchanged pub and garlic bread that I love from kindergarten.
I know that it also means a lot for mom. He starts packing weeks before leaving, and on the spot she always shows shops or places that remind her of my childhood: a toy store, where I chose creative sets, a playground where I swinged for hours.
Now, when we start the third decade of our trips, I am already a mother, so we take my children on the trip. We still stop at the same hotel, we eat in the same restaurants. But now that we make foams on the beach, my children's hands and faces are all in chocolate.
People often say that they will go back to their favorite vacation place, but they rarely do it. However, we have made this tradition – we have been going there for 30 years and plan to continue for at least another 30.
The article is a translation from the American edition of Business Insider.
