For families looking for a resort that delivers a casual yet active vacation, Club Med delivers a lot of positives: all-inclusive pricing, good food, imaginative kids' programming (including, at some properties, a circus school), and a wide array of family activities.  

Club Med is offering all of that at a substantial discount during its Fall “Wow” Sale,  with rates starting at $399 per person for a three-night stay.  When we test-booked three nights in September at Club Med Cancun Yucatan (see our review) for a family of four, we landed a price of $1,298 for a club two-bedroom suite (the standard lodging option). That's a savings of nearly 60% off the regular price of $3,152.

And that's not all. When you book a deluxe room or suite at Club Med resorts in Mexico or the Dominican Republic, you'll get either a free massage at the resort spa or a local excursion for two.  (A three-night September stay in a deluxe two-bedroom oceanfront room would run $1,578.)

The catch? You have to book by August 30, and travel between September 1 and October 31.  Stays of seven nights or more qualify for the discounted "wow" rates through April 29, 2011, including holidays. Book online or call 888/932-2582 and ask for the "wow" sale.

Who wants to vacation like a millionaire? We’re thrilled to be giving away a five-night stay at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel, once the winter retreat for a Who’s Who of American tycoons, including Rockefeller, Goodyear, and Astor. These days, the historic and still oh-so-grand hotel is a luxurious yet unpretentious place for a laid-back family getaway (see our review), offering an assortment of classic resort activities—golf, tennis, swimming, croquet—and many fun adventures just off the grounds.

The prize includes a five-night stay in a suite; breakfast buffet in the Grand Dining Room each morning; one Jekyll Island Club logo’d beach towel; passes to either the Georgia Sea Turtle Center or Summer Waves Waterpark; a 10% discount on babysitting; and free rental of beach chairs and umbrella at the hotel’s beach pavilion.

The Jekyll Island Club Hotel was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1978 and is consistently rated as one of the world’s top resorts by publications such as Travel+Leisure. Guests can stay in rooms once occupied by Vanderbilt or Macy, and dine in the same grand room where millionaires enjoyed so many exquisitely prepared meals. The roster of family-friendly activities includes carriage rides, dolphin cruises, horseback riding, geocaching, swimming, and kayaking. Kids can also spend time in the kids’ club while Mom and Dad relax with spa treatments. The island is blessed with a lovely eight-mile beach and 20 miles of bike and hiking paths. 

For a chance to win this vacation for your family, just fill out the form on the giveaway page. You can enter once a day through June 20, 2010. Good luck!

Road trip, anyone? Hampton Inn is having a nice sale that lets families travel more affordably this summer. With the Great Getaway promotion, you'll save 20% off the hotel's best available rate when you stay at a participating property between May 28 and September 6.  Family-friendly choices include the Hampton Inn & Suites Williamsburg Historic District, centrally located near Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown and Busch Gardens. With the offer, nightly rates drop to $119.20 on a July weekend, which is 20% off the best available rate of $149.  Or check out the Hampton Inn & Suites Seattle - Downtown, a stone's throw from kid-pleasing attractions such as Space Needle, Seattle Aquarium and Seattle Children's Museum.  A July weekend night in a two-bedroom suite with a kitchen will cost $175.20, 20% off the best available rate of $219.

Reservations have to be booked by June 15, and a seven-day advance purchase is required.  A word of caution: Be sure your travel dates are firm, because bookings must be fully pre-paid and are nonrefundable and unchangeable.

If you think an exotic ecotourism vacation conflicts with the notion of an economical trip, check out the Lost Iguana Resort & Spa, set on 120 acres of jungle in central Costa Rica.  Each room at the boutique hotel looks out on the Arenal Volcano—one of the 10 most active in the world, and which is known to dribble boulders and molten lava daily. The resort also offers two pools, a gym and spa and a hibiscus maze. Go off-site and you can take part in rainforest trekking, biking, kayaking, cave-exploring, zip-lining or visiting a butterfy preserve.

Through this fall, the resort is also offering a “Family Jungle Adventure” package, which starts at just $1,990 for a family of four, which is billed as a 50% discount for a 6-night stay. The deal includes:

• accommodations in two adjoining rooms (normally $185/night x 6 nights x 2 rooms = $2,220) 
• all meals, with a kids menu for those  under 14 ($50 x 2 adults + $12 x 2 kids =$124 x 6 days=$744; note that breakfast is included in regular rate)
  
• choice of a volcano hike or private nature tour (worth up to $220)
• two 90-minute spa treatments (worth $240) with free babystitting (another $30)

The hotel's restaurant serves a mix of continental and authentic Costa Rican dishes; the kids’ menu reflects that too, with both chicken fingers, grilled tilapia and arroz con pollo. During June and July, the hotel's Peruvian chef will offer free cooking classes on Mondays and Thursdays.  

Deal or no deal? Add up all the values and a 6-night stay would normally come to about $3,450. By our calculations, you get a 42% savings with this offer—shy of the promised 50% but but still a great deal. Families will love the all-inclusiveness of this package, which includes all your meals and super, no-brainer activities for less than the price of the rooms alone. (And remember we're talking about two rooms—who doesn't love two rooms?)

There are a few extra fees, but even those are reasonable, such as a roundtrip transfer to and from the airport ($100, down from a $300 value). Kids over 14 cost an extra $30 per night, and one extra child under 14 will cost an additional $20 per night. Kids under 4 incur no charges, but a crib or rollaway bed will cost $20 more per night. Add an extra night for the whole family of four and you'll pay $300 more for the two rooms, which again includes all meals.

The offer is valid for travel through November 15. To book, visit the web site, call the hotel directly at 011-506/2267-6148, or email maritzalostiguana@mac.com and mention the Family Jungle Adventure Package. 

Ready to commit to your summer vacation plans? Hilton is launching a Great Getaway sale, which is advertised at up to 30% off hotel rooms for stays between May 28 and September 6.  Good at 2,800 hotels around the world—including Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels, Doubletree, Embassy Suites Hotels, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Hotels, and Homewood Suites—the offer often includes free breakfast, too, for at least two people.

The discount varies a little by brand name: You’ll get a full 30% off at Doubletree hotels; 25%  at Hilton properties;  and 20% at Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites, Hilton Grand Vacations, Hilton Garden Inn, Waldorf Astoria and Conrad. The deal is available at only select Embassy Suites.

Sounds pretty good, right? No so fast. The discount applies to the Bed & Breakfast rate, which is always higher than the lowest regular rate and the regular advance-purchase rate. And the offer comes with some big restrictions: You have to book at least seven days ahead of your arrival and pay in full upfront, with no possible refund.

We shopped at some family-friendly spots to see how the special offer played out. At the Hilton Garden Inn in Williamsburg, the special offer rate was $112 a night, down from the Bed & Breakfast rate of $141. Now comes the comparison pricing: That's 21% off the B&B rate but just 15% off the best regular rate of $129. Meanwhile, the regular advance-purchase, no-refund rate was $105. Think of the special offer as getting a free, cooked-to-order breakfast for each family member for just $7 in total. Rooms at the hotel, less than two miles from the city center, have fridges and microwaves, and the hotel has the obligatory pool.

At the Hilton Los Cabos resort in Mexico's Cabo San Lucas—which has a beach, pool and kids' club—the special offer shaves 25% off this property's B&B rate. The special offer rate for an ocean view room with two queen beds was $194 a night, compared to $259 for the B&B rate, which includes two buffet breakfasts for the grown-ups each morning and free meals for kids 5 and under. When you figure in those free meals, the special offer probably has the edge over the regular advance-purchase rate of $179 a night—but just barely, and only if your kids are very young.

Verdict: This is a great example of how marketing spin can make a just-okay offer sound much better than it is. And it's a good reminder of why you need to follow recession travel rule no. 1 and always do the math. Sometimes this special offer beats all the hotel's other rates—and sometimes you can do better by choosing another rate from the menu. On the upside, this offer usually delivers a free breakfast, so long as you can also stomach the non-refundable risk.

Look for the Great Getaway rates when entering dates online, or mention the deal when calling 800/446-6677. You must book before July 15. Some brands  have their own twists on the rules, such as a three-night minimum and no breakfast at Hilton Grands, or two-night minimum night stay for Wednesday arrivals at Homewoods Suites. As usual, other restrictions may apply.

Think Panama and you probably envision the eight wonder of the world. But this lesser-known country and neighbor of Costa Rica has much more to offer families than watching ships squeeze through the locks. Home to national parks, wildlife refuges and forest reserves, Panama also has more than its fair share of beachy resorts, such as Breezes Panama, part of the all-inclusive resort chain.  Set in the tony beach community of Santa Clara, less than two hours from Panama City, the resort looks over both the Gulf of Panama and the Pacific, and offers easy access to rafting, hiking, archaeological tours and, of course, daytrips to the Panama Canal.

On the other hand, the 294-room Breezes resort offers plenty of stay-put appeal. It has five pools, four restaurants and free watersports—sailing, windsurfing and kayaking—as well as a kids' club, game room, tennis courts, a spa, evening entertainment and, the icing on the cake for many families, all-inclusive pricing. The daily per-person rate includes all meals, snacks, most drinks, most activities (including the kids' club) and even taxes. No tipping is  allowed.

As if the famous canal and free snacks weren't enough, the resort is offering a Third Night Free/Kids Stay Free double offer. Book by April 28 and you’ll get every third night free (that's two free nights on a six-night stay) with prices starting at $290 per person. The third-night-free component is good for stays between now and late summer. The kids-stay-free component for children ages 2-13 is only available from April 10 to June 11, with a few blackout dates in May. (Some other Breezes resorts offer variations on this deal; other Breezes resorts are strictly adults-only.)

If paying full price, a family of four visiting during the summer would pay $2,820 for a six-night stay in a “premium” room (two queen beds, with balcony). This breaks down to $400 a night plus a supplement of $35 per child per day. When we test-booked the double offer in early June, the third-night-free component brought the lodging bill down to $1,600 ($400/night x 4 nights), with a savings of $800. The kids-stay-free component saved another $420 ($35/night x 2 kids x 6 nights). When combined, the two freebies deliver a whopping 43% savings.

You must book by April 28. The online booking engine automatically brings up the deal for different room types; when calling 877/BREEZES (273-3937), mention the Third Night Free/Kid Stay Free offer. The Kids Stay Free component is available April 10 to June 11, and applies to one child per paying adult in the same room.  Blackout dates are May 7-9 and May 20-24.  

More Panama with Kids:
Breezes Panama: Readers' Comments

Fantastic news for Disney fans: It's suddenly become much more affordable to book an Adventures by Disney all-inclusive escorted tour package, the most exclusive and perhaps least-known way to vacation with Disney. Launched in 2005, Adventures by Disney offers guided, VIP-style tours for families to a wide range of destinations, including the American Southwest, Europe, China, and Costa Rica. Trips are known for delivering top-notch service and unique, VIP-style experiences for families, such as zipling through a Costa Rican jungle, pizza-making at a family-owned farm in Italy, or going backstage at Disney's The Lion King in London. Groups are kept small to ensure an intimate experience, and feature activities geared to adults and kids 8 and up.  And the price? A family of four will typically splurge $13,000 or more for a dream trip.

Want to soften the splurge? Adventures by Disney has just introduced a new line of itineraries, called the "Gateway Collection," that travel to three of the most popular destinations but cost up to 25% less. Here's how these new itineraries stack up:

• Costa Rica: The "Path to Pura Vida" itinerary costs from $3,309 to $4,409 for adults and $2,979 to $3,669 for children, depending on travel dates. Comparatively, the new "Gateway to Costa Rica" costs $2,489 for adults and $2,239 for children regardless of travel dates. Bottom line: A family of four would pay at least $3,201, or 25%, less for the Gateway itinerary.
• London/Paris: The "City of Knights & Lights" itinerary costs from $3,809 to $4,699 for adults and from $3,429 to $4,249 for children. The new "Gateway to London/Paris" comes in at $2,959 for adults and $2,659 for children. Bottom line: A family of four would pay at least $3,240, or 22%, less by going with the Gateway option.  
  
• Italy: The "Viva Italia" itinerary ranges from $3,699 to $4,619 for adults and from $3,329 to $4,159 for children. Comparatively, the "Gateway to Italy" trip costs $2,999 for adults and $2,699 for children. That's a difference of $2,660, or 18%, for a family of four.

Why the difference in price? Guests have more unscheduled time during the day, which is great for families that welcome less structure and the chance to spend some time exploring on their own. The good news is that the Gateway trips still offer access to the one-of-a-kind activities for which Adventures by Disney is known. The price difference between the two kinds of itineraries ranges from just under $1,000 to over $1,500 for each traveler, depending on travel dates. 

The first Gateway itineraries depart this summer from June to August, 2010.

This winter is turning out to be a great time for a weekend getaway, thanks to big sales at two of the largest hotel chains. Last week we posted about Hilton's mega January sale, which offers winter weekend savings of up to 33% across its chains. 

Now Marriott has stepped up to the plate with a  Global Rate Break promo that lets you save 20% on weekend rates stay at many of its hotels—and claims to up the ante to a 40% discount at a few resorts. The deal applies to various Marriott, JW Marriott, Renaissance, Courtyard, Fairfield, SpringHill, Residence Inn, and TownPlace Suites hotels all over the world. 

We checked rates at several properties and found that, indeed, the deal typically delivers a 20% price cut. At Desert Springs, the JW Marriott in the Palm Springs area with requisite pool, lawn games and kids club, we found rates of $327 a night for a room with two beds and a balcony—down from the desert’s high season rate of $409. In Hawaii, the deal offered up the Kauai Marriott  for just $194 a night, down from $240.

But don’t get your hopes too high on the 40%-off lure that's said to be available at select resorts in the Caribbean, Latin America and Hawaii. When we test-booked a stay at a handful of properties for a February weekend getaway, we couldn’t find any availability at the 40%-off rate.  More commonly, we found that this deal led to a 20% discount.

The sale applies to weekend stays (Thursday to Sunday), and some hotels require a two-night minimum. You must book by January 22 and complete your stay by March 21. Use promo code F5X when booking online.

This sale delivers tons of weekend destination options for traveling families. Want a city break? Consider Hilton properties in San Diego (the Hilton San Diego Resort & Spa is just one mile from SeaWorld), Boston’s super-convenient Back Bay neighborhood, or the family-friendly Doubletree Guest Suites in Washington DC. 

Hoping to escape the cold? At the Hilton Longboat Key Beachfront Resort, the January Sale offers nightly rates starting at $288 for a double room on February weekend.  By comparison, the resort's best available bed-and-breakfast rate for that stay is $429 per night—which does indeed translate to 33% off your bill.

You must book before January 31, but you can travel anytime before December 26. As always, there are some blackout dates and other restrictions. The sale rates are pre-payable and non-refundable, so you should be confident of your travel dates before booking.  

Compare prices and dates at various properties carefully. Plenty of hotels have blackout dates. At some hotels, this deal is only available through January 18, while other hotels are keeping it on the table for stays as late as April 25.

To get this deal, you must book by November 10. Use the promo code LTNOVN when booking online, or mention the deal when calling 888/625-5144. Rates are pre-paid and non-refundable.