traveling on a budget

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My family has been big on taking day trips this year. We do things that are cheap or free. Some of the best advice I can give is to take advantage of reciprocals for passes. Local science museums typically have decent reciprocal benefits. We bought a pass for the science museum closest to us, and it has gotten us into so many amazing science museums around us. It offers us free admission into most science museums for two adults and two children. We have done the Cincinnati History and Science Museum with this pass, which is an amazing museum because it's in a train station rich with history, and has a lot of interesting exhibits. The pass also got us into Cosi in Columbus, the science museum in Dayton, the science museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and it also covers the children's museum and the Carnegie Science Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We also have an Ohio History Connections pass that gets us into several history-related museums around Ohio, and it's a fairly inexpensive pass. Whenever we go anywhere, I research what places offer free or cheap admission. I also look into places I know my family likes checking out. We love markets, candy stores, toy stores, book stores (well, I love book stores), and retro stores. I try to find places like that wherever we go. I also always look into places that offer history and science experiences. I always look for the best affordable places to eat, and check prices and times before we go. I have also learned that reservations to some places can be key. You would be surprised what some cities offer for free. Cincinnati offers free passes for various museums around the city for Ohio citizens with a library card through them, but you have to look at the dates the passes are available and try to get the pass a few days before you go if you actually find one available, because they have a limited number of passes per day. I got a Cincinnati library card just for the free museums. Dayton, Ohio, has the Air Force Museum, which is HUGE, and it's completely free. There are a few smaller towns/cities we enjoyed going to that offer some interesting shops and some free museums. Urbana Ohio, has a bunch of fun shops and offers a few free museums. They have a flight museum there too, but it's very small, but still interesting to go to, and it's near their airport, which has a small cafe/diner near it, and you can watch planes land or take off while eating lunch, and the food is delicious. Urbana also has the Johnny Appleseed museum, but we haven't gotten to go to it because it isn't open on weekends. They also have a free county museum. County museums are another free/cheap thing you can do around the state. While in Cleveland, we checked out the Lakeview Cemetery, which is huge and has a lot of history. We climbed to the top of the Garfield mausoleum, which offers a great view of the Cleveland Skyline. If you go down the stairs of the mausoleum, you can see the caskets of Garfield and his wife. Ohio has had 8 presidents hail from here. We have been to the Garfield Mausoleum, the Rutherford B. Hayes Home/museum, and the Harding home/museum. All were very interesting to learn about. The two places we did spend money to see were the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame and the Mansfield Prison. We loved both, well my husband and I loved both, our son wasn't a huge fan of the Rock n' Roll hall of Fame, despite his love of music, because he was way too overstimulated. It was very overwhelming but worth it in my opinion, but I've heard other people say it was overrated, so it really depends on the person. The Mansfield Prison will remain one of my top favorite places. It was creepy but super interesting. My son loved every second of it, after we went to Bellville, Ohio, to eat at the Buckeye Express Diner, which is on a train. It remains one of our favorite experiences. My mom's family hails from Athens, Ohio, so we have been there, and we went to Hocking Hills, which is not far down the road, before doing my family research. This remains one of my son's favorite experiences. He loves hiking and fishing, and he enjoyed the hike. We have done the Marblehead lighthouse and climbed the stairs. I was gifted a pass to go to the Ohio Caverns, which was another one of my son's favorite trips. We do a lot of trips around NW Ohio, where I'm from, because they can be done without as much time in the car. We love Fort Meigs, and we have loved our trips to nearby parks and museums. We aren't far from the Michigan or Indiana border, so we do on occasion, make trips to those states. Fort Wayne has a free Veterans museum, and it's where Johnny Appleseed's grave is, which we now have photos of. We do a lot of outdoor stuff when it's warmer out, which is usually free. I research things to do and different shops and restaurants before we go, and include times they're open and if there is an admission cost. I map it out, and more often than not, we have a fun time without spending a lot of money.