10 Must-Ride Theme-Park Attractions

Memories from your beach vacation should involve the breeze in your hair and the sand in your toes—not the bill at the front desk. Our challenge? To find 10 getaways under $150 that are less than a five-minute walk to the ocean's edge—a tall order for summer's peak season, when the average price of a waterfront hotel starts around $250 per night. We steered clear of the Caribbean (hurricanes) and Southeast Asia (monsoons) to focus only on the most desirable summer destinations in places that don't strand you in the middle of nowhere (unless that's the point). The resulting collection of hotels and resorts, from the family-friendly mainstay of Myrtle Beach to Barcelona's sizzling shoreline, proves that wherever you want to go this summer, you can be right on the shore without breaking the bank. SEE THE PLACES: 10 BEST AFFORDABLE BEACHFRONT HOTELS Azul del Mar Key Largo, Fla. Retro-glam rooms next to turquoise waters.Near the top of the arc that forms the Florida Keys sits Key Largo, long celebrated for its glamorous watering holes and unspoiled beaches. In 1948, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall shone a spotlight on the town with a film of the same name. Today, about 200 feet away from where the stars cracked wise at the Caribbean Club, stands Azul del Mar. Thanks to husband-and-wife proprietors Karol and Dominic Marsden, the eight-year-old hotel evokes the island's heyday. Facing Blackwater Sound and Florida Bay, guest rooms feature round porthole windows, faux Ionic columns, and colorful accents throughout. Lounge on the lawn amid tropical trees, key-lime bushes, and frangipani, or oceanside on the private, man-made shale beach. The hotel can also arrange excursions, including sunset cruises, snorkeling adventures, and fishing trips (if you'd like, you can choose to bring back your catch and cook it on Azul's grill). 104300 Overseas Hwy., 305/451-0337, azulkeylargo.com, from $139.MAP IT! Best Western Plus Beach Resort Monterey Monterey, Calif. The scenic Pacific Coast and classic American attractions.Finding affordable waterfront digs in coastal California can be a daunting task—which makes this spot right on the beach such a pleasant surprise. Here, you're also adjacent to the 18-mile-long Monterey Bay Coastal Recreation Trail, which leads right to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, San Carlos beach (popular with divers), and Fisherman's Wharf. This is a "Best Western Plus" (as opposed to a straightforward "Best Western"), which means perks like free Wi-Fi. The 196 rooms are painted in sweet, muted tones of cream with cranberry accents and are furnished simply with wicker furniture. Floor-to-ceiling windows maximize the star attraction—the view of Monterey Bay. The restaurant prepares local seafood, such as clams and sand dabs, to order. 2600 Sand Dunes Dr., 831/394-3321, montereybeachresort.com, from $150.MAP IT!       Caribbean Resort & Villas Myrtle Beach, S.C. A water-park resort near America's newest boardwalk.This summer, the year-old Myrtle Beach boardwalk has added a 187-foot-tall Ferris wheel to its already long list of attractions (cafes, street performers, fireworks displays). Just 16 blocks north is a stretch of beach that's sugary white, with shallow waters and low waves that are perfect for beginning swimmers. The Caribbean Resort & Villas is strung along the shore, with 438 rooms and suites spread across four beachfront buildings: the Cayman and the Dominican Towers, the Chelsea House Villas, and the Jamaican Motor Inn—which is where you can still find mid-summer bargains. (Bonus: Guests here have access to the inn's own pool and beach deck.) The Cayman and Dominican Towers are both geared toward families with small children—they have indoor and outdoor tubing pools, a lazy river, and hot tubs, plus an outdoor waterslide area on the north side of Cayman. The hotel is also popular with duffers, given that the town has 115 golf courses, including stately Pine Lakes (tee times from $79 if you book online). 3000 N. Ocean Blvd., 800/552-8509, caribbeanresort.com, from $125.MAP IT! The Chelsea Atlantic City, N.J. A second act for America's iconic boardwalk town.The Chelsea lit up its retro neon sign in July 2008 along the southern end of Atlantic City's salt-and-pepper shoreline. With a distinctly Rat Pack vibe, the Chelsea channels the easy glamour of a bygone era with its poolside cabanas, fireplace lounges, and in-house supper club, the Chelsea Prime, which serves classics like duck ragout and homemade pappardelle. Each of the 331 rooms and suites has boutique touches, like parrot-shaped white lamps, blue velvet curtains, and upscale FACE Stockholm toiletries, and the hotel's expansive spa includes a seasonally heated saltwater pool. All guests have access to the Cabana Club, a 15,000-square-foot deck on the fifth floor, whose outdoor swimming pool and indoor lounge provide ocean views. The hotel itself is free of game tables, but if you are in need of some action, the Tropicana casino resort is just a block away. 111 S. Chelsea Ave., 800/548-3030, thechelsea-ac.com, from $129; valet parking from $10 daily.MAP IT! El Encanto de Cabo Pulmo Baja California Sur, Mexico Artful casitas at a diver's paradise.Though it's only about 60 miles northeast from the well-known resort community of Cabo San Lucas, the village of Cabo Pulmo has a rustic vibe that makes it feel a world away. A two-minute walk down a sandy path from the town's beach brings you to El Encanto de Cabo Pulmo, an inn comprised of three private suites with palm-thatch roofs, rattan chairs, vintage Oriental carpets, and Mexican artwork. Opened in 2008, the solar-powered inn is hemmed by bountiful gardens designed and maintained by owners Robert Lerner and Diane Varney, who, now retired, both hold graduate degrees in botany. Set inside the eponymous national park, the town of about 100 residents has long been a haven for divers seeking out rare living coral reefs in some of the world's clearest waters. At night, the skies are nearly free of ambient electric light, presenting spectacularly clear views of constellations. Take in the view from your private patio before settling into your four-poster bed. Lot 5, Phase II, Cabo Pulmo Beach Resort, 619/618-1248, encantopulmo.com, from $90, three-night-minimum stay. MAP IT! GBB Hotel Front Marítim Barcelona, Spain The beach-vacation trifecta—culture, cuisine, and coastline.Barcelona has it all, so why not drop your bags at the beach to ensure your downtime here is well spent? Across the street from La Nova Mar Bella Beach—where you can rent sun beds and umbrellas and stroll the boardwalk—the four-star Hotel Front Marítim's 177 earth-toned guest rooms feel like they could have come straight out of an Ikea catalogue, with clean lines, big windows, and parquet floors. A night in means dining on Mediterranean cuisine such as grilled tuna topped with tomato and fried fillet of monkfish served with crisped garlic (a Catalonian specialty) at the house restaurant, Forum, which changes its menu weekly. The nearby metro will get you into the heart of the city in 20 minutes. Paseo García Faria, 69, 011-34/933-034-440, hotelfrontmaritim.com, from $129.MAP IT! Hotel Napoleon Menton, France An affordable corner of the French Riviera. On the bright blue Bay of Garavan, about a 10-minute walk from the center of town, this chic retreat is just across the street from the beach—and less than a mile from the Italian border. (You can jog there on your morning run.) The 44-room hotel features light colors, airy rooms, and soft, square armchairs in the lounge, which is right next to a small pool. It's worth spending extra for a room facing the sea—you'll be rewarded with a great view and a wooden balcony with a table and chairs. A road lines the entire seafront of Menton, but once the double-paned windows are closed, the whoosh of traffic is gone. Breakfast is served on the downstairs patio, under the banana trees. For the true Riviera experience, rent a lounge chair and umbrella (about $18 per day) on the private beach and have a waiter from the beach restaurant bring you a drink. The hotel even has its own ice cream parlor next to the beach. 29 Porte de France, 011-33/4-93-35-89-50, napoleon-menton.com, doubles from $149.MAP IT! Pacific Shores Resort & Spa Vancouver Island, British Columbia A waterfront escape in one of the world's most diverse ecosystems.Vancouver Island is a nature-enthusiast's paradise. Not only is the region one of the best places in the world for birding and whale-watching, but it's also comprised of a surprising number of ecosystems, including rain forest, mountains, and beaches. The Pacific Shores Resort & Spa makes it easy to take full advantage of the location, with a beach and 15 acres of nature trails and botanic gardens right outside your doorstep. Head out on your own or let guest services point you to one of the hotel's popular nature walks (if you want to head off-site, they can recommend full- or half-day forest hikes, wine tours, or boat trips). The 64 suites all have balconies, and select rooms also feature fireplaces, washer/dryers, and Jacuzzi tubs. There is a spa on the property, and families will appreciate the playground, kid-friendly pools, and barbecues. 1-1600 Stroulger Rd., 866/468-7121, pacific-shores.com, from $119.MAP IT! Postcard Inn St. Pete Beach, Fla. Surfer chic and BBQ on a quiet coastline.Not to be confused with St. Petersburg, six-mile-long St. Pete Beach is an island off the coast of Florida. With flour-fine white sand and shallow Gulf of Mexico waters, the coastline is graced with mellow swells that are excellent for beginner surfers learning to ride. When Stephen Hanson upgraded a 1950s motel into the Postcard Inn in 2009, he played off the local surf vibe: The 196 rooms feature a mix of vintage longboards, surfing-themed photo murals, retro light fixtures, and flea market finds, ensuring that no two are alike. As if the ocean weren't enough, the hotel has a beachfront pool, shady courtyard, and shuffleboard and volleyball courts. The Beachwood BBQ & Burger restaurant is notable for the gourmet spin it puts on grilled comfort food, with specials like smoked chicken glazed with apricot barbecue sauce and sprinkled with pickled jalapeños. 6300 Gulf Blvd., 800/237-8918, postcardinn.com, from $89.MAP IT! Thalassa Seaside Resort & Suites Santorini, Greece Blue skies and black sand on one of Greece's most enchanting islands.Thalassa Seaside Resort & Suites is right on the shore in Santorini and draws both couples and families looking to relax. The 60 simply furnished, comfortable rooms, each with a private balcony or veranda, are housed within a postcard-perfect white exterior. Two pools, a beach bar, and a spa offer plenty to occupy your time on and off the sand, and the on-site restaurant's Mediterranean options range from steak frites to safridi (a local fish) and, of course, Greek salad. To get here, you could fly, but most of Thalassa's guests come via a five-hour, high-speed ferry from Athens to the port of Thira. From the port, it's worth renting a car if you'd like to explore farther afield—the brilliant blue water in the island's caldera (the result of an ancient volcanic explosion) is a popular stop, as is Port Athinios, where you can take a five-hour sunset tour on one of two replica 19th-century Greek schooners (from $45 per person). Episkopi Gonias, 011-30/22860-32688, thalassa-santorini.com, from $129, breakfast included.MAP IT!   SEE MORE POPULAR CONTENT 10 Beach Products You Never Knew You Needed 25 Most Photographed Places on Earth\ America's Best Food Regions 8 Record-Breaking Theme Park Thrills 7 Most Common Gas-Guzzling Mistakes  

Great local meal...The Kingham Plough. This is a must stop for foodies! At lunch, my husband, Bryant, and I had a pork pie with chutney. At dinner, I had a tomato tart with Cerney goat cheese and Bryant had asparagus soup—from asparagus that were picked that very morning! I had a cheese soufflé as my main course, and he had mutton—the meal was incredible. They also had the local Oxfordshire brewery's Hook Norton beer on cask. Our favorite part...Walking from the Swan Inn in Swinbrook to Burford and back. It was only about four miles round trip, and the setting was lush green and bucolic. There were plenty of farm animals to see on our walk, including the little newborn lambs because it was "lambing" season! Wish we'd known that...We should have stayed near Oxford our last three nights. We wanted to have flexibility to spend more time in the country or in town and in the end had to stay at a Holiday Inn Express. It was fine, and on a bus line, but not nearly as charming as the inns we enjoyed earlier on our journey. What we should have packed...Sunblock! We had no idea that it would be so warm and sunny in England in early April. Maybe we were lucky? We got sunburns one day and realized the error of our ways! Worth every penny...Touring the Bodleian Library. It's not that expensive, but you do have to pay and should sign up in advance. I recommend the one-hour tour—it's amazing and fascinating! Never again...Will I plan a trip where we stay only one or two nights and then move on to the next location. Since our whole journey was perhaps 100 miles in total, we could have easily stayed at two inns for our entire stay and used our rental car to have our day trips. We also rented our car for too long. We should have returned it as soon as we got to Oxford, but we kept it on hand just in case and then never used it since we could take the bus into the city. Total rip-off...Early in our journey, we didn't realize that tipping was more optional than not. A bartender finally told us that tipping in many bars just means that the tips go to the sponsoring breweries. We figured this out after tipping considerably for almost the entire trip, and the dollar is weak compared to the pound, so the cost really added up. Fun surprise...The Cotswold Falconry Center. We watched the handler's show, which included flying demonstrations of a Harris's hawk, a golden eagle, and a falcon, who rose to heights of several thousand feet and was barely a discernible speck in the sky until the handler held out a piece of meat on his glove—and the falcon plummeted at amazing speeds to snatch up his treat! Overrated...The strange upstairs tour at Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston Churchill and currently the home of the 11th Duke of Marlborough. The palace and grounds are amazing—I definitely recommend taking the grounds tour—but you can skip the hokey automated tour that's upstairs. Moment when things got tense...Walking back from Burford to Swinbrook, our footpath went through someone's fields. (It is very common that the public is allowed to travel through farmland, and there are great markers to point you in the right direction to stay on the path.) We reached a point where we were completely blocked by cows. Not being used to herd animals made us wonder...will they simply move when we approach? Will we be trampled? Obviously, we survived. Hotel we liked...The Swan Inn in Swinbrook. Signage at the inn says "Dogs on Leads. Bantams on Loose." They have chickens walking around the grounds; the restaurant uses the chickens' eggs. We also loved the Falkland Arms in Great Tew—it had the best pub atmosphere of our trip.

MEGABUSMidwest & NortheastCities Served: 50+Everything about Megabus is mega. The British brand's blue double-decker fleet (each emblazoned with a smiling cartoon of a driver) now serves over 50 cities in the United States and Canada, making it the biggest player on the block. If it were an airline, it would be: United Airlines Contact Info: 877/462-6342, us.megabus.com BOLTBUSNortheastCities Served: 8BoltBus is operated jointly by old-school Greyhound and Peter Pan, but it's much hipper than its parents. For example, send a complaint via Twitter, and the issue will often be addressed by the techie team before you step off the bus. If it were an airline, it would be: JetBlue Airlines  Contact Info: 877/265-8287, boltbus.com LUX BUS AMERICAL.A., San Diego & VegasCities Served: 4Sure, Lux Bus offers door-to-door service between Southern California hotels. But the line's bread and butter is its cushy L.A.–Vegas route: leather seats, free snacks, and free beer and wine so you can start the sin before you hit Sin City.If it were an airline, it would be: Singapore AirlinesContact Info: 877/610-7870, luxbusamerica.com VAMOOSENortheastCities Served: 4With service between New York and the D.C. metro area, Vamoose has options for any capital commuter. Senators can choose the $50-each-way Gold Bus (which has added legroom), while interns can pay with campus cash from local colleges. If it were an airline, it would be: Delta ShuttleContact Info: 212/695-6766, vamoosebus.com TRIPPER BUSNortheastCities Served: 3Tripper Bus, which runs between New York and the D.C. area, values loyalty: after buying 8 one-way trips, you'll pick up a one-way for free. In addition, each ride includes one $1, one $5, and one $10 ticket—a steal for frequent buyers.If it were an airline, it would be: Southwest AirlinesContact Info: 877/826-3874, tripperbus.com REDCOACHGeorgia & FloridaCities Served: 16Debuting last spring, RedCoach still has that new bus smell. And with only 27 business-class leather seats per coach—each reclines to 140 degrees—you'll be relaxing in style. Consider it training for those sunny Florida beaches.  If it were an airline, it would be: Virgin AmericaContact Info: 877/733-0724, redcoachusa.com   SEE MORE POPULAR CONTENT: 10 Coolest Small Towns in America 4 Most Common Reasons Airlines Lose Luggage Confessions of an Oktoberfest Waiter North America's Most Charming Fall Islands 8 Foreign Fast-Food Chains You Need to Know

Quite a trick my mother pulled off, getting all three generations of our family out camping miles in the mountains, far from the nearest road, cabin, or outhouse. My wife, Liz, had spent years quietly undermining my every effort to get her to spend a night outdoors. She was perhaps most effective a couple of years back when we drove to Yosemite for a kids-free getaway, pitched our tent in my favorite campground, drove off to the nearby California mountain town of Mammoth Lakes to buy camping food, and somehow—I honestly don't know how Liz made this happen—ended up sipping wine over sea scallops in a white-tablecloth restaurant and sleeping between high-thread-count sheets at the Westin Monarche Resort. The tent, meanwhile, spent the night empty, in the cold. Then there were the girls. When we told Audrey, our brown-eyed youngest at age 5, about Grandma's camping plans, she looked up from her stuffed animals before drifting off to sleep and said, "Daddy, I have something I can tell you that you should know about." Even in the darkness, I could tell Audrey had put on her This Is Really Serious face. "Why I'm scared of going to the camping, Daddy, is I'm scared of bears." I can't say that she or her older sister, Hannah, 7, took comfort in my explanation that Sierra bears only want to steal food, not eat children. Dad was an easier sell; he actually loved the High Sierra. He was the heart and soul of our family mountain trips when I was a kid, but he'd had a bad accident in his late 60s, falling off a rock-climbing wall and breaking two vertebrae. Ever since then, he's had balance problems and lingering nerve pain, and the rehab had been so long and slow that he'd lost a lot of his strength. He hadn't slept on the ground since. Despite the all-around reluctance, Mom was determined. She loved my father, and she knew he needed the mountains more than he realized. She had an almost instinctual hunger to make sure that her granddaughters grew up into strong Western women, just like she did. And she knew that families too easily allow work and logistics to prevent the precious vacations that can stitch them together. For our maiden multigenerational camping trip, she picked California's Chickenfoot Lake (named for its curious shape-apparently, the more romantic "finger lakes" was already taken), which sparkles in the John Muir Wilderness, 10,789 feet above sea level. What's unusual about Chickenfoot is that the hike to it is fairly flat, a rarity in the Sierra Nevada. Plus, the Rock Creek Pack Station sits right near the trailhead, meaning Mom could hire professional packers to ride in on horses and mules and carry all our gear and supplies (760/872-8331, rockcreekpackstation.com, spot trips from $395, minimum four people). That part was genius because it meant that nobody had to carry a thing. Liz wouldn't have to live without clean clothing and fluffy pillows, my father could have a comfortable sleeping pad and a folding chair, my daughters would be so busy with all the Wild West excitement they'd forget to complain, and my mother and I could walk down a mountain trail together, just like we'd done when I was young. California's Sierra Nevada forms a kind of backbone to the state, running north-south along the border with Nevada. We got there from San Francisco by driving due east on Interstate 580, over the dry Coast Range, then up into the rolling Sierra foothills, on California State Route 120. After about three hours on the road, the air turned cool and pine-scented, big evergreens shaded the two-lane highway, and we reached the entrance gate to Yosemite National Park (209/372-0200, nps.gov/yose). Chickenfoot Lake doesn't lie within Yosemite, but reaching it did require us to drive clear through the park, constantly gaining altitude. We stopped to make sure the girls saw landmarks such as Half Dome and El Capitan (which my father and I had climbed, we told them), and we plied the girls with soft-serve ice cream at the wonderful old Tuolumne Meadows store, a white-canvas building run by the Park Service every summer (Tioga Road Hwy. 120, Tuolomne Meadows, Yosemite National Park, Calif., 209/372-8428, ice cream cone $1.50). By the time we'd reached Yosemite's easternmost gate, at Tioga Pass, we were in true high country, surrounded by wildflowers and giant rocky peaks. From there, Route 120 East dropped down into the high desert on the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada, a wide-open realm of sagebrush and big views. That side of the Sierra rises more abruptly than the western side: Instead of a slow climb through foothills, you shoot straight from desert up into alpine valleys below big granite spires. Near the road's end, we pulled into Rock Creek Lodge, a collection of cabins and campgrounds along the water (Mammoth Lakes, Calif. 93546, 877/935-4170, info@rockcreeklodge.com, from $125 a night). Two nights there got everybody rested and acclimated to the thin mountain air—the lodge is at 9,373 feet, so you don't sleep well the first couple nights, and it's easy to get out of breath if you hike too hard. After our pit stop came the point of no return: driving all our food, camping gear, and supplies up to the dusty, high-mountain corral of the old Rock Creek Pack Station. A family operation since 1947, the Rock Creek Pack Station is part of an Old West tradition in which professional horse-and-mule packers ferry big loads and even people to the most remote of mountain sanctuaries. The girls' eyes turned big as dinner plates when Mom showed them the pack station's cowboys loading our duffel bags and groceries into leather saddlebags on the big mules. Soon enough, three blonde, teenage girls—high school equestrians from San Diego, as it turned out, working a healthy summer job—saddled up and led the mules out of the corral. It felt like we had stepped into a John Wayne movie. I've heard it said that our national parks can be a great equalizer: As long as you're willing to camp out, you've got a beautiful vacation home just waiting for you. I've never felt this more deeply than I did on that trip to Chickenfoot Lake. The five-mile trail starts at almost 10,000 feet, but from the moment we got going, we were already passing trickling brooks, green meadows, and glittering ponds. We didn't see the mules en route—they'd gone ahead—so we felt no pressure to keep up. Even better, the flat trail made the walk so easy it might've been a stroll in a park, except with knotty whitebark pines growing among white granite boulders. I was surprised by how much I liked seeing my mother and my daughters together in the environment I'd always sought for adventure. We stopped once to let them try climbing, and my father loved showing them how to get started. In a way, they got him started again, too. Dad discovered that he could walk just fine, and because his two little granddaughters puttered along at precisely his pace, he wasn't bothered by the fact that he no longer hiked with the speed and strength of a freight train. The mules and the teenagers were there two hours later when we arrived, and they waited patiently while we all rooted around for the perfect camping spot. After we dropped our gear, we could see that the lake doesn't really look like a chicken's foot at all. The multiple inlets and peninsulas make it feel more like a Japanese rock garden writ large. Giant granite mountains rise all around, so you have the feeling of camping almost next to the sky. I'm a novice fisherman, but I'd brought a fly rod to amuse myself, and I spent my days at the edge of the lake, casting for the little brook trout I could spot easily in the clear water. Back in San Francisco, the girls always need some kind of entertainment to keep from going crazy—or from torturing each other. But the wilderness had a curious effect. They calmed down and brightened up at the same time. Their movements became slower and their smiles wider and easier. While I cast flies for hours, Audrey and Hannah sat nearby, dangling their toes in the lake and hardly even talking, much less fighting. Isn't that the whole point of any second home: a place to get away with the family and let the days pass in peaceful relaxation? Even the accommodations felt homey—certainly better than I remembered as a child. Mom and I set up our camp kitchen among some rocks that made for decent seats, and then we cooked up dinner on a little gas stove and everybody ate under the stars. Mom and Dad had their own tent, and Dad later claimed he was getting the best sleep since his accident. Inside the big tent I'd brought for us and the girls, Liz found enough room to create a clean, comfortable nest. She so liked how the tent kept out the bugs while letting in the breeze that she asked that greatest of questions: "Honey," she said, as we drifted off to sleep on our last night out, "I'm wondering. Don't you think the girls might like camping out for even more nights next year?" The next day, during the hike out, I let Mom ask the girls themselves. The answer: Yes! Of course! But Hannah had a follow-up question of her own. If she started riding horses and taking lessons at home, was there any chance she could one day become a horse packer herself and spend all summer in the saddle? That's just about the last thing I ever expected my city girl to ask, but it was music to my Western mom's ears.   SEE MORE POPULAR CONTENT: 10 Coolest Small Towns in America The Dirty Truth About Hotel Ratings North America's Most Charming Fall Islands 5 Iconic American Drives A Family Field Trip Around the World