Low-Cost Vacation: Plymouth, MA

Plymouth and its surrounding county are preferred destinations for senior history buffs, especially in the spring before the overcrowding begins.

Pilgrim Hall Museum, which is the oldest museum in the country, displays artifacts that came with the Mayflower and a piece of Plymouth Rock that visitors can touch.

Historical walking tours are typically offered from April through November, and 17th-century houses that belonged to the original Mayflower settlers are now museums and charge modest entry fees, if any at all.

You can even have some extraordinary outdoor adventures, including whale watching, lobster cruises, and 100-year-old Cape Cod Canal journeys. Nightly accommodations at budget hotels start at around $125 in the springtime.

Lucy