If you’re looking for summer fun on a budget — and ways to avoid long airport security lines — here are some free and bargain-priced vacations and daycations within easy driving distance of Connecticut.
>>Make a sweet day trip to Fascia’s Chocolates in Waterbury, where you can tour the chocolate-making operation and create your own chocolate bar. Tours, offered on Saturdays and Sundays, last about an hour and cost $5; $10 if you make a chocolate bar. Information: faciaschocolates.com.
>>Races take place throughout the summer at Lime Rock Park racetrack in Salisbury, and unless there’s a special event taking place, admission is free. (You’ll need to sign a standard racetrack waver at the entrance gate.) You can bring a picnic lunch and the track provides free kids’ activities — a bounce house, race cars for kids to climb on and face painters. Information: limerock.com
>>Staycationers should check out the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s “The Sky’s the Limit 2016 Hiking Challenge,” created to promote hiking by the state’s lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, canals, wetlands and Long Island Sound. Participants receive a medallion for hiking up 10 designated locations — and folks who hike all 14 stops will be entered into a drawing for one of 50 free hiking staffs. To get the medallion or enter the drawing, you’ll have to snap two selfies at designated locations on the trails, then submit them to DEEP. Information: ct.gov/deep.
>>Here’s an old-fashioned family getaway: Cape Cod’s Bayside Resort in West Yarmouth offers a Beach Campfire & Smores Package, with one or more nights’ accommodations, a Family S’mores Kit and complimentary continental breakfast, starting at $139. (Some blackout dates and restrictions apply.) Information: baysideresort.com.
>>Shop till you drop with a Shop & Stay Package at Foxwoods Resort Casino. Rates start at $259 and include a deluxe room at the Fox Tower or Grand Pequot Tower and a $50 Tanger Outlets at Foxwoods gift card per person. (Some blackout periods and restrictions apply.) Information: foxwoods.com.
>>The annual Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day in Flushing, N.Y., this year on Aug. 22, features a ticketed stadium show and concert inside Arthur Ashe Stadium, (tickets are $10 and $25), preceded by a free festival featuring kids’ games, tennis activities and a live concert on the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Information: arthurashekidsday.com.
>>Red Roof Inns are offering a summer Stay 3, Get 1 promotion. Join the company’s loyalty program, called RediCard; make three separate stays between June 1 and Aug. 31, 2016, and you’ll get a free night. Information: redroof.com/reservations/stay_3_get_1.
>>Old Sturbridge Village is offering a Family Fun Package. For $167, plus tax, you get an overnight stay for a family of two adults and two children and tickets to the “living history” museum in Sturbridge, Mass. (You can add an additional night for $99.) Some exclusions and blackout dates apply. Information: osv.org.
>>Boston is a two-hour car ride away and the Intercontinental Boston Hotel is offering its Revolutionary History Boston Tea Party package again this year. Starting at $299, the package includes one-night accommodations in a room overlooking Boston’s historic waterfront; two adult admissions to the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum and the Old South Meeting House; two tea-infused beverages, including hard tea rum cocktails; and a Boston Tea Co. Connoisseur’s mini-wooden tea chest with gourmet-blend tea bags. (Some blackout dates apply.) Information: intercontinentalboston.com.
