You Can Still Have A Great Trip In Peak Season

Summer travel can turn into a perfect storm: packed parking lots, brutal heat, inflated hotel prices, and kids melting down in line. We’ve lived it, and we also know it doesn’t have to be that way. Jim and Rita Santos share a smarter way to plan a family summer vacation when your only time off matches everyone else’s: stop chasing the most famous spots at the worst time, and start choosing places that give you space, shade, and real value.

We talk through underrated U.S. destinations that stay enjoyable in peak season, from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Maine’s Acadia region, plus quieter stretches of the Carolinas and the less-crowded side of the Smoky Mountains. We also make the case for state parks as the most overlooked summer travel win: cabins or campgrounds, lakes, easy hiking, and activities kids actually love without paying premium prices for stress.

Going farther? We explore international summer options built around climate and timing, including northern Portugal and Spain, Costa Rica’s rainy season rhythm, Ecuador’s mild temps and Andes hiking, and the underrated Canada Maritimes. And when Disney World is non-negotiable, we get tactical: what it can really cost, why weekdays matter, how to arrive early, how to avoid the “everyone goes clockwise” trap, and why a midday escape can save your trip. We also flag destinations to avoid in summer when heat, humidity, storms, or crowds turn “uncomfortable” into “miserable.”

Subscribe for more practical travel planning, share this with a friend who’s dreading peak season, and leave a quick review so more families can find the show. What’s your favorite summer hidden gem?

Companion Blog With Details: https://www.jimsantosbooks.com/wordpress1/2026/06/14/beat-the-summer-rush/

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"Wherever We May Roam: Finding Your Travel Style" - On Amazon

Transcript

The Summer Vacation Nightmare

Jim 0:00

Picture this. You've been planning this family vacation for six months. You pull into the parking lot at nine AM and it's already full. You wait ninety minutes in line for a three minute ride. The kids are melting down, the sun is brutal, and you just spent twenty-eight dollars on two hot dogs and a bottle of water. Sound familiar? It doesn't have to be that way, even in summer, and that's exactly what we're talking about today. Welcome

Why Peak Season Feels Miserable

Jim 0:33

to Wherever We May Roam, the new phase of Travels with Jim and Rita. This podcast is about discovering your own travel style to explore the world. I'm Jim Santos, and along with my wife Rita, we've spent more than 16 years traveling. Sometimes for a few weeks, sometimes for a few months, and sometimes a whole lot longer. And what we've learned is this there's no right or wrong way to travel. Some people take extended getaways, some roam part-time, some work from the road, and some make travel a full-time lifestyle. This podcast is about helping you figure out what works for you and how to make it happen in the real world. So whether you're planning your next trip or thinking about something bigger, we're glad you're here. Let's get started.

Finding Your Travel Style

Jim 1:19

Hello everybody, and welcome once again to Wherever We May Roam. I'm Jim Santos here with Rita Santos, and we're happy to have you join us today for today's discussion. Now, last week we talked about our disappointment at the low crowds at a summer outing at the beginning of summer in Virginia Beach, and it got us thinking. Rita and I are retired, so we can pretty much travel whenever we want.

Rita 1:43

And we avoid traveling in the summer because that's when we visit our children.

Jim 1:48

Right. So we uh we like to use the shoulder seasons, and a lot of our uh information that we've been providing is about taking advantage of those shoulder seasons. But what if you can't? What if you are working and you have kids and your only vacation time is when they're out of school? Now, you know, we get that we've been there and we understand that that's a problem, so let's talk about some ways that you can make the most out of it. First

Heat Crowds And Price Surges

Jim 2:13

of all, why is summer so brutal? Well, 55 million school children get out about the same time. Everybody's pretty much off from Memorial Day to Labor Day, uh, more or less, and everybody wants to go to the same places, right?

Rita 2:27

They seem to, but they could change that to have this not be out so much in the heat and most popular places that there are to go.

Jim 2:37

Right. And the heat is another problem. Summer has always been pretty hot. I grew up in the Baltimore suburbs, but it was also hot and humid, and it seems like it's just getting hotter and hotter every summer. You know, the popular places have become so popular, even though the prices have been going up. I know this year here in East Tennessee, when we noticed on Facebook when Dollywood opened, there were pictures of people just jammed packed into the parking lots and in the park. People were saying they had to wait an hour just to get their entry tickets.

Rita 3:07

Right.

Jim 3:07

And it it's it's almost impossible. Well, it is impossible to enjoy yourself under those situations.

Rita 3:13

That becomes not fun for your family.

Jim 3:15

Not only that, but hotels tend to be two to three times as much as they are off-season.

Rita 3:20

Right.

Jim 3:20

The roads are packed, the airlines are busy, the restaurants are full. Restaurants are full, and you know, all of that is just makes it very difficult to hold on to. But, you know, again, you might be stuck. Those are the the times that you have, so what are you gonna do?

Rita 3:35

You really need to sit down and map out places that aren't overrun by tourists.

Jim 3:41

Right. And we're gonna talk about a few of those here. Something to think about. Uh, we don't want to make this a listical or anything, like the top five things.

Rita 3:48

No.

Jim 3:48

But there are some things around the country that are kind of underappreciated and aren't as traveled.

Rita 3:54

Right.

Jim 3:54

And

Underrated U.S. Summer Escapes

Jim 3:55

one of those is the upper peninsula of Michigan.

Rita 3:58

Right.

Jim 3:58

That's an area that almost nobody goes there, but you've got waterfalls, you've got lake beaches, you've got fishing, and you have cooler temperatures as well.

Rita 4:08

Right. And almost every state has magnificent state parks that were built by the WPA.

Jim 4:14

Right. It's um that was a point I was thinking about is don't overlook your local things that you can do.

Rita 4:20

Absolutely.

Jim 4:21

Uh, one of our daughters, her kids were bugging her to take her to Ocean City, Maryland, which is incredibly crowded this time of year.

Rita 4:26

Right.

Jim 4:27

And instead she took them to a lake.

Rita 4:29

Right. And there was no one there but them, and they had such a great time. Yeah.

Jim 4:35

Just uh a few weeks ago when we had our one of our granddaughters visiting us. They wanted to go swimming, and we found a quarry here just what, 15 minutes from the we were totally unaware it existed.

unknown 4:47

Right.

Jim 4:48

But it was a beautiful quarry, a wonderful place to go swimming, and not very crowded at all.

Rita 4:53

They were timid at first because they had never swum in a lake, but they they fit right in.

Jim 4:59

Bone hearing it was 400 feet deep.

Rita 5:00

Right. That that was a little, yeah.

Jim 5:02

That was a little another good area to go to a little further north is Acadia Park in in Maine.

Rita 5:10

Right. It's always 50 degrees in the summer in Maine.

Jim 5:14

Yeah, forget about like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. They're going to be incredibly busy uh during the summer. But in Maine, there you've got the rocky coastline, you've got whale watching, and not to mention lobsters.

Rita 5:27

And all the hiking trails.

Jim 5:29

Right, you've got plenty of hiking trails and things like that, and temperatures that make it not too horrible. Exactly. Now, another, you know, we're here near the smokies, not too far from the outer banks. Those are very popular areas, but you can go to the outer banks but not go to Nag's head. The coast of North Carolina, actually, uh and South Carolina too, has a lot of places that you can find that aren't as crowded as some of the more popular destinations.

Rita 5:53

Right. They're more like little villages as you go up the coast.

Jim 5:57

Right. So keep going south till the crowds thin out.

Rita 6:00

Right. Right.

Jim 6:01

It's the same ocean.

Rita 6:02

Right.

unknown 6:03

Yeah.

Jim 6:04

And here in the Smokies, uh, it can take hours to get through Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.

Rita 6:09

Oh, yeah. That I wouldn't recommend that to anyone.

Jim 6:12

Yeah, I would stay away from those areas uh completely. But once you get into the North Carolina side of the Smokies, there are much fewer crowds.

Rita 6:21

Right. You could come in a different way and just avoid the uh Gatlinburg area.

Jim 6:26

Right. And there's a lot of things that you can enjoy in that side of the park. We also recently discovered that the Blue Ridge Parkway also runs through Asheville. Asheville, Asheville, North Carolina. Now we've been there a few times for the Biltmore mansion, which I imagine is also very crowded right now.

Rita 6:43

Right.

Jim 6:43

But there's plenty to do in the Asheville area, a lot of farmland, a lot of beautiful nature to enjoy there.

Rita 6:49

It's a real arts and craft area as well, you know, things for you to enjoy the exhibits or purchase something or just enjoy your day.

Jim 7:00

Looking

Wildcard Cities And Yellowstone Tactics

Jim 7:01

further west, there's a couple of places that you definitely may not think of, but are are well worth checking out. One of those is Bozeman, Montana.

Rita 7:09

Right.

Jim 7:10

We visited Montana briefly visiting one of our sons once, not exactly in the Bozeman area, but you've got the Rockies, you've got just uh some beautiful places out there. And something that might surprise you is Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Rita 7:23

It's kind of a wildcard pick, but it's also an artsy area.

Jim 7:29

Yeah, you've got the Ellsworth there, you've got the uh Arkansas River, very affordable. And uh there's great food there. I mean, that's uh cattle country on that area. The the steak and the hamburgers things are are not to be believed.

Rita 7:42

Now back to the Bozeman area, that can also lead you into the Yellowstone.

Jim 7:48

Right. One of the strategies you can use is stay outside of the park and only go in on the weekdays.

Rita 7:55

Right.

Jim 7:55

Try to avoid it like the plague on the weekends.

Rita 7:58

Be the very first person in.

Jim 7:59

Right. Now,

Cooler International Summer Options

Jim 8:01

if you're looking for any international places to go in the summertime, that that can be a little bit trickier. Right now, uh Portugal, the southern coast of Portugal, is going to be really hot and really crowded.

Rita 8:13

Right.

Jim 8:13

But northern Portugal, northern Spain could be worth exploring. Also on this side of the hemisphere in Costa Rica, it's their rainy season right now, but really the rainy season is in the afternoon, it might rain for an hour or two and then it stops.

Rita 8:28

Right. And Ecuador. It's it's their winter, but it's never colder than 68 degrees or you know, hotter than 90. So and you could do hiking through the Andes.

Jim 8:42

And no humidity on the coast of Ecuador.

Rita 8:44

Yeah, you could go to the beaches, yeah.

Jim 8:46

Yeah. We don't think about it as a foreign country very much because it's so close, but Canada is another option. Canada Maritimes is you know really under re underrated and it's right next door. I mean, we're talking about places that you can drive to.

Rita 8:59

Yeah, I'd love to go to Nova Scotia. That would be a wonderful yeah.

Jim 9:04

There's places like Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward's Island.

Rita 9:08

Right.

Jim 9:08

So there are a lot of uh options that are in the north. You're gonna have fewer crowds and you're gonna have lower temperatures. Another place is kind of a surprise. Uh, my son has visited Japan several times. And I know you're thinking Japan in summer, that must be awful. And in Tokyo, yeah, it's gonna be extremely hot and humid. But they have mountain regions in Japan that are absolutely beautiful, and there's a lot to do in some of those uh places in the in the mountains of Japan. I saw a TV show once that was showing a place where you can go and get into a battle robot and have a battle robot fight with other battle robots. So that's something you don't normally do on a vacation.

Rita 9:48

No, but kids would love that.

Jim 9:50

Also, some place that we really want to get to is Croatia. Right now, Dubrovnik is going to be very crowded, but the Dalmatian coast has a lot of little towns and islands and things. Yeah. So it is possible to go there and find something you can do that's going to be away from the crowds and a little bit cheaper than staying in the popular areas. It kind of surprises most Americans too when they travel overseas that air conditioning is not as prevalent as it is here.

Rita 10:18

Right.

Jim 10:18

So you can go expecting that, oh, well, I'll just stay inside, but no, it's going to be hot inside.

Rita 10:24

You better better be looking for a lake or a body of water. You know, there's also countries that people don't think about, like Bosnia. There's, you know, people go there for horseback riding trips. One of our friends did recently.

Jim 10:40

Well, when we uh were in Poland too, taking the bus through the country, we basically went all through Poland from the south to the north.

Rita 10:46

It was fabulous, beautiful.

Jim 10:48

Yeah, we passed a lot of uh mountain areas, right?

Rita 10:51

Resorts.

Jim 10:52

Yeah, some had mountain lodges, and there was an area with uh lakes and cabins.

Rita 10:55

Right.

Jim 10:56

So there are some options there, but you need to look carefully at what the average temperatures are.

Rita 11:01

Exactly.

Jim 11:02

And uh oh, remember that some of the remote areas are going to be a little bit more difficult to get to.

Rita 11:07

Right, but Scotland would be an option too.

Jim 11:10

Yeah, Scotland, Ireland, and the rural areas, the rural areas are gonna be very comfortable.

Rita 11:14

Yeah. So if you really decide you are absolutely have to travel in the summer, you can find destinations that are not going to be miserable.

Jim 11:25

Right. Now, some people if you say Mexico, gonna go stay in Mexico. Everybody pictures hot in a desert or beaches, just is gonna be hot, hot, hot. I just checked the other day what the temperature was in San Miguel de Allende.

Rita 11:40

Which is one of our favorites.

Jim 11:41

One of our favorite places. It's a little mountain village.

Rita 11:44

Right.

Jim 11:44

It was 56 degrees in the morning, and they were gonna have a high of 77.

Rita 11:48

See, I could live there, I could do that. Yeah.

Jim 11:51

So don't just discount a country because you think, oh, well, that's gonna be hot.

Rita 11:55

Right.

Jim 11:55

Uh just check because you'd be surprised how big some of these countries are and how many different climates they have.

Rita 12:02

Especially Mexico. It's huge.

Jim 12:04

I mean, Ecuador has like five of the seven basic climates throughout their country.

Rita 12:08

Right. And even when we lived on the Pacific coast, the Pacific Ocean, we did have what was considered our winter was in the summer, but it was very pleasant. It it was probably in the 70s in the day and high 60s in the morning.

Jim 12:26

Yeah, there's something else to consider. And over the family of uh you know, three or four, it may be a little more expensive. But if you can travel farther, going to the southern hemisphere, oh yeah, you're going to be getting away from the heat and most likely getting away from the crowds now.

Rita 12:40

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Disney World Survival Strategy

Jim 12:43

But what if, you know, the kids are screaming Disneyland, they've been, you know, watching Moana over and over again, and they definitely want to go to Disney World. What can you do? Well, there are some strategies that can help you almost enjoy I don't want to overstress it, but there are some strategies that you can take that will make it just a little bit more livable. Now, first of all, Disney World has gotten very expensive.

Rita 13:07

Very.

Jim 13:08

I did some checking the other day, and if you wanted to go a family of four and stay for a week and have a budget stay, and by that I mean you stay in hotels outside of the parks. Yeah. You have all your meals outside of the park, and you just go there to do the rides and and then come back. That's still going to cost you over five thousand dollars for a family of four. If you want to eat a few meals in the park, you're gonna be moving up to six or seven thousand dollars. And if you go the deluxe route, you want to stay in the park, which does have some advantages. If you're in the park, you can start an hour early before the crowds get there. You don't have that commute back and forth and fighting for parking and all of that. But a deluxe stay where you're living in the parks and you're eating in the parks all the time is going to cost a family of four over ten thousand dollars. More likely close to twelve thousand.

Rita 14:01

And don't make the mistake like I did and not make reservations in the resort that you're staying in, the resort hotel, for your evening meal, because if you don't, you will not get in.

Jim 14:15

If there's something you want to do, like the princess breakfast or the hoop-de-doo review.

Rita 14:19

You have to do that months.

Jim 14:20

Yeah, you have to get online and register that way in advance for that. Also, you definitely want to go there on the weekdays, avoid the weekends. I mean, in the summertime, there's not a huge difference, but it's still going to be better on the weekdays than the weekends. It is. You can still get there early. We stayed off park, but we found that if you got there about a half hour before they opened, they were still letting you in.

Rita 14:42

Right.

Jim 14:43

So that's that's a very good idea. Also, as soon as you get to the park, most people go clockwise around the park. So you can either go counterclockwise or go all the way to the far end of the park immediately, and then work your way back.

Rita 14:58

We're perfect to all this because we have nine grandchildren.

Jim 15:01

Right. We we've been there and done that. And also a good idea is a midday escape. You get there early and around 11 30, 12, it's really getting busy, the restaurants are really filling up. Just leave.

Rita 15:15

Yeah, just go home.

Jim 15:16

Yeah, we go back to the condo or the hotel, swim in the pool, yeah, have a nice lunch, even take a nap.

Rita 15:22

Right.

Jim 15:23

And then come back around 4, 4.30 when people are starting to leave to go find meals.

Rita 15:27

Right. And then you can stay for the fireworks and enjoy it and go home.

unknown 15:31

Yeah.

Jim 15:31

There is a website called touringplans.com where you can look and get an idea of how busy the various parks are going to be during different times of the year.

Rita 15:40

That's good because I think that travel is a little down this summer. So that's a good point. I guess really, because summer is when most families vacation. You just have to think outside of the box, and kids pretty much love anywhere you go. Right. You know, as long as if even if it's just a lake, it's or if you're camping, it doesn't matter.

Jim 16:06

Now, another uh Disney World alternative, if you're looking for a way to to have the vacation with as few of crowds as possible. One year we got tickets for Disney World for Christmas week.

Rita 16:17

Oh yeah.

Jim 16:18

The kids got up in the morning, we had their bags already packed, they opened an envelope, and it was tickets to a Globetrotters game in Orlando. And they were confused until we told them, you know, your bags are already packed, eat your breakfast quick, we're going to Disney World. And we flew on Christmas Day. There was nobody on the roads, nobody in the airport. There was a fair crowd when we got to Orlando, but still we enjoyed the park with uh much fewer crowds. There were a lot more uh fireworks and things because of the holidays. And then we also went to Universal Studios on New Year's Day. We got there early in the morning, and of course, everybody's hungover from New Year's Eve. So we had the entire park to ourselves. By the time people started uh staggering in, we had gone almost all the way around the entire park.

Rita 17:06

It was time to go home. Yeah. And another thing you can do too is petition with the school, your where the your children go to for a two-week adventure trip and they do a project about it.

Jim 17:19

Or even just one week.

Rita 17:21

Or even one week, yeah.

Jim 17:22

Yeah, we did that the first time we went to Disney World. We took the kids out of school and just told them that, you know, they're going to Disney World and it was elementary school, so it wasn't really that big a deal.

Rita 17:32

Yeah.

Jim 17:32

They just gave us some stuff that they were going to be covering and we knew they could catch it up.

Rita 17:36

Yeah.

Jim 17:36

And that they would write a report about it when they got back. And that was fine, and it was much fewer people there, and the temperatures were much nicer.

Rita 17:44

Oh, yes.

Jim 17:45

So let's

Places To Skip In Summer

Jim 17:46

look at the other side of this. What are some destinations that you should definitely avoid in the summer? Now we mentioned France and Spain.

Rita 17:54

Too hot.

Jim 17:55

Southern part and this really most of southern Europe right now. It's just way too hot.

Rita 18:00

Sweltering.

Jim 18:01

Another place a little closer to home is Las Vegas.

Rita 18:05

Lord. Yeah. Cry an egg on the sidewalk.

Jim 18:08

You're going to have three-digit temperatures in Las Vegas. It's not hot. You know, it's not hot. I'm going to be uncomfortable with hot. It's going to be dangerous.

Rita 18:16

Yeah.

Jim 18:17

South Florida is another place, Miami or uh Palm Beach, something like that. Hurricane season, and of course it's going to be hot and very humid. The bigger Greek islands, the like Mykonos, Santorini, those are going to be incredibly crowded.

Rita 18:35

Right. But Crete and Rhodes might not be, and they're bigger.

Jim 18:39

They're bigger and they do have some mountains and things like that. Yeah. We mentioned Yellowstone to definitely avoid because of the crowds, unless you're going to try to stay outside the park and only come in during the weeks. But if you're going there, definitely avoid the first part of the summer and the last part of the summer.

Rita 18:55

Right.

Jim 18:55

Yeah.

Rita 18:56

People trying to squeeze things in.

Jim 18:58

Yeah. I had uh when I worked at the help desk, one of the people I knew there said that he was going to take a week. This was in August. He was going to take a week and go to Atlanta. And I remember asking him, what's the matter? Was hell booked up? Even here in East Tennessee, we've had some very hot summers lately.

Rita 19:17

Right.

Jim 19:17

Actually, even in West Virginia, we could have very hot summers. So what's your uh personal pick?

State Parks And Local Hidden Gems

Jim 19:23

If you're going to recommend anybody take a summer family trip, what would you suggest they do?

Rita 19:27

Honestly, when I'm thinking about the the trips that that were the least expensive, the coolest in the summer was the state parks.

Jim 19:39

Yeah, it's almost hard to go wrong with the state park.

Rita 19:42

Absolutely, because they have beautiful lodging if you wanted to to rent their cabins or their even the campgrounds. You know, you have shower rooms and there's always a lake or a s some type of swimming area. Yeah. And it's our kids just really love that. They can fish, they can canoe.

Jim 20:02

Yeah, I think probably uh for me the idea is I would just give up.

Rita 20:08

Well, that's because we're at a different age.

Jim 20:11

Yeah, I'd say it's a good time to visit family and friends and avoid the the high traffic.

Rita 20:16

Yeah, but I don't think the state parks are utilized anymore.

Jim 20:21

I I think they're yeah, they're definitely underutilized.

Rita 20:23

I think so.

Jim 20:24

Uh a lot of the national parks have gone to a uh timed system.

Rita 20:27

Yeah, they're crazy. Yeah.

Jim 20:29

So if you're planning on a national park, you need to check online and make sure you don't need a timed pass to be able to get into it.

Rita 20:34

Right.

Jim 20:35

But but yeah, uh really looking at your local resources is probably the best advice that we can give, because you may be surprised what's just outside your front door.

Rita 20:44

Oh, absolutely. Like that quarry. What a beautiful park. The kids love that.

Jim 20:49

So I guess the important thing here is that it's important not to try to fight the system. You just have to understand it and be able to work around it.

Rita 20:57

Right.

Jim 20:58

So

Listener Tips Next Steps And Wrap

Jim 20:59

if you have your own favorite summer hidden gem that you think that we missed, please let us know. You can email us at im@jimsantosbooks.com or check out our social media sites. If you want more detailed information about what we've been talking about here, there's a companion blog article at gymsantosbook.com that you can look at as well. And if you want to dig deeper into finding your travel style, not just for the summer, but for every season, our book Wherever We May Roam, Finding Your Travel Style, is available on Amazon and Kindle, Paperback, and Audiobook. Now, over the next couple of weeks, we're going to be interviewing a couple of fellow travelers, and we're also going to take a look at how you can use AI to help plan more complicated trips. So until next time, remember we travel not so that we can escape life, but so that life does not escape us. If you've been thinking about traveling longer or just traveling better, we hope this episode gave you a few more ideas. Remember, there's no right or wrong way to explore the world. Only the way that works for you. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the podcast, and if you have a moment, leave a quick review. It really helps more people find us. And if you want to go deeper, you can check out my book, Wherever We May Roam, Finding Your Travel Style, where I walk through all of this in more detail. You can search for it on Amazon in Kindle, Paperback, and Audiobook, or just use the link on our podcast page. If you have any questions, a topic you would like discussed, or would like to be on our show, email us at Jim @jim santosbooks.com. Thanks for listening, and as always, safe travels wherever you may roam.