A year after Disneyland, I took the family to Arches. The kids loved it and my daughter told me "This was a 9 on the Disneyland scale (out of 10)". Not bad for a cheap vacation. They loved playing in the Dune, eating junk food, swimming in the pool, hanging out with the family, and being low-key.

Biking the Hiawatha Trail with my wife was one of my favorite couples vacations ever. Staying in a cabin at Yellowstone was really fun.

I've also traveled with my family to China (3x), England, Ireland, Slovenia, Netherlands, Germany, Canada, and France, and I've personally been to Ecuador, Peru, and Scotland. So we've done the fancy trips too (luckily it was part of work, so we could afford it). Those are nice too. But yeah, you can do a fun vacation for $500 — some of our best ones were that way.