Tip #3: Chances are, you don’t have to drive hundreds of miles to achieve that “I’m on vacation” feeling. Instead of spending your funds on gas, try heading somewhere closer to home and using your savings on something that will actually enhance your trip, rather than just move you from point A to point B.

A great place to look for easy getaway suggestions? Check out blog posts from other TravelPosters who’ve visited destinations near your hometown. Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

New England

Take TravelPoster azergo’s advice in this Westminster, Massachusetts blog post and head to Wachusett Mountain, which is located within an hour and a half of Boston, Providence, Nashua, Hartford and Worcester (20 minutes):

If you hike, cross country ski, snow shoe, or walk the mountain’s seventeen miles of trails, you will come across vibrant three-hundred-year-old trees, making it the largest known area of old growth forest east of the Connecticut River. Upon reaching its summit, a treat is in store: a 360- degree view of southern New England including Mount Monadnock and the Boston skyline. Thoreau remarked: “there lay Massachusetts, spread out before us, in its length and breadth, like a map.”

Azergo suggests snagging accommodations at the Wachusett Village Inn.

Pacific Northwest

TravelPoster ShirleyRuble wrote about how taken she was with Sechelt, British Columbia (about 40 miles from Vancouver and three hours from Seattle) in her blog post Princess Louisa Inlet, British Columbia, Canada. The small town sits between Porpoise Bay and Georgia Straight and has only about 8,000 residents, many of who are outdoorsy, artsy types. Her description of the Driftwood Inn sounds like the perfect mellow weekend getaway:

Waves lap lightly on the shoreline. We watched boys diving off a raft while their mother read under a beach umbrella. Six Canadian geese floated placidly by, nibbling at an occasional insect that hovered on the waves. The Driftwood Inn’s owners had prepared a delicious feast for us. We left the serving table with heaping plates of salad, warm sourdough bread, salmon, roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, steamed veggies, and strawberry jam cake with coffee or tea.

Mid-Atlantic

For outdoor adventure within a few hours’ drive of Washington, DC, TravelPoster Neecee suggests Virginia’s Skyline Drive (pictured above), which winds through the Blue Ridge Mountains, passing such sites as Shenandoah National Park and the Luray Caverns:

The views from the drive are awesome. Each bend had a new vista to check out. We made several stops at the various lookouts. While the trees were not in their full fall color, the colors were beautiful!

You can read more about the drive and the caverns in Neecee’s blog post Shenandoah National Park – Skyline Drive. For lodging, you can camp in the park during summer months. There are also inns and lodges in the area.