Four nights indoors cost us $908. Two nights in a tent at Jekyll Island, the same week, cost $132 with the island parking fee. That's the whole tension of a winter road trip in one line of the trip log, and I'm at peace with it, because after nights of 44 and 36 degrees nobody in my family wanted another tent.
This was the second half of our trip, December 28 to January 1: a night in Savannah, two in a rental house near Charleston and New Year's Eve in St. Augustine. Here's what each night cost, how we booked it and what the whole trip came to.
Savannah, one night: $149
From Jekyll it's about an hour and a half to Savannah. We stopped at Fort Pulaski on the way, on an island between Savannah and Tybee, which our America the Beautiful pass covers. The kids did their Junior Ranger booklets and took the oath in front of a ranger who could not have been more patient with Nico's questions about cannonballs. That brought their combined badge count to 13.
The hotel was a plain chain hotel on the south side of town, booked about two weeks out, $149 with taxes. Hot showers, a real bed and a free breakfast with a waffle machine, which our kids consider luxury. We walked a few of the downtown squares in the late afternoon and had dinner somewhere louder than we were.
Charleston, two nights on James Island: $540
This was the splurge, and it was planned. We booked a small house on Vrbo back in October: two bedrooms, a kitchen and, most important, a washer and dryer. After a campground and a hotel, everything we owned smelled like campfire, and Dana ran three loads the first night. At $270 a night with fees, it's real money. Cooking both dinners in a real kitchen is a big reason our groceries for the trip stayed at $210.
December 30th was the South Carolina Aquarium, mostly for Maya, who wants to be a marine biologist. The aquarium has a sea turtle care center, so the sea turtle hospital she missed on Jekyll got a stand-in after all. She stood at one tank so long that Nico lay down on the floor next to her and narrated the fish. The aquarium was most of our $140 attractions line.
St. Augustine on New Year's Eve: $219
The last night is the one I'd do differently. We booked a hotel in St. Augustine on Hotels.com in early December, and New Year's Eve pricing was already in full swing: $219 for a basic room. Staying a third night in Charleston and driving home on the 1st would have meant a nine-hour day, but it would have saved money.
What we got for it was worth something, though. We drove down from Charleston in the morning, about four and a half hours, and reached the Castillo de San Marcos in the afternoon, also covered by the pass. Two more Junior Ranger badges, for 15 between the two kids. After dinner we walked through the Night of Lights, the old town lit up in white lights on every roofline, with Nico on my shoulders most of the way. He was asleep by 9:30. Dana and I heard fireworks somewhere at midnight and were the only two people in the room awake for them.
What the whole trip cost
From the trip log, December 26 to January 1, six nights:
- Gas: $205
- Jekyll Island campsite, two nights: $112
- Jekyll Island parking fee: $20
- Savannah hotel: $149
- Charleston Vrbo: $540
- St. Augustine hotel: $219
- Groceries: $210
- Restaurants: $335
- Attractions: $140
- Other parking: $52
- Cat sitter: $105 (seven visits for Pickles)
- Misc: $98
Total: $2,185. Camp math says the indoor nights averaged $227 each for lodging alone, and the tent nights at Jekyll were $66 each with parking. I knew that going in. The rental and the hotels bought us dry clothes, hot showers and a New Year's Eve with the kids asleep in real beds, and I'd pay for most of it again.
It also helped settle a bigger question. On the drive home Dana made the announcement I wrote about last week, and the list above is a big part of her case. Somewhere between a $56 campsite and a $219 hotel room, there's a camper.
