Howl if you love waterparks! We’re thrilled to be giving away a stay at any Great Wolf Lodge Indoor Waterpark Resort, where every day is a pool day. With eleven locations in North America, a Great Wolf Lodge is never far away.

The prize is a one-night stay in a family suite for 4 people at the Great Wolf Lodge of the winner’s choice; one breakfast, lunch and dinner for 4 people during their stay; two-day waterpark admission for 4 people; and a wolf pup plush.

A stay at Great Wolf Lodge translates to great value for families that love waterpark fun. The rate always includes unlimited access to the enormous indoor waterpark with waterslides, bodyslides, raft rides, lazy rivers, wave pools, climbing structures, and more. Best of all, you can use the waterpark from the moment you arrive to the moment you leave and, since attendance is limited to hotel guests, the lines never get crazy long.

But that’s not all. Families can also have fun playing the MagiQuest adventure game and enjoying nightly fireside Story Time. Great Wolf Lodge offers a weather-proof family vacation that will leave you all howling for more.

For a chance to win this family getaway, just head to our giveaway page. You can enter once a day through June 30, 2012. So come back again tomorrow!

It's baa-ack! The InterContinental Hotels Group is bringing back its popular Vacation Pay program, which pays travelers to stay the weekend  in its hotels this summer. If you spend a two-night weekend stay before Labor Day, at any of IHG properties, you'll be rewarded with a $75 prepaid credit card to use anyway you like. The only condition is that reservation has to be for two consecutive weekend nights — Friday and Saturday or Saturday and Sunday — at the same hotel. Stays do not qualify if guests are paying special discounted or group rates.

You can use this promotion for up to four weekend stays, for a total of $300 in credit back. 

IHG hotels include many family-friendly chains: InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.

To get the card, register and print rebate forms at www.ihg.com/get75 starting May 14. The only caveat is that you won't get your pre-paid credit card immediately. Once your stay is completed, you have to mail in the rebate form along with your hotel receipt. Still, free money is free money.

When it comes to destinations that offer big-time family appeal, San Diego is hard to beat. Start with a near-perfect climate, add 70 miles of sparkling beaches and world-famous family attractions, and top it off with a bevy of spring hotel deals. Here are the best of the bunch:

• Available through June 30, the Paradise Point Resort & Spa, located on a private 44-acre island on Mission Bay, is offering the 1962 Rates Sale Deal. Celebrating the resort's 50th anniversary in 2012, the deal includes a fourth night of accommodations at the resort's 1962 rate of $8 per night. Rates starting at $171 per night for a minimum three-night reservation. Use promo code PP62.
• Available now through June 10, the Westin Gaslamp Quarter San Diego, located in the heart of downtown, is offering the San Diego by Land & Sea Package. The package includes complimentary breakfast for two each morning, two San Diego Seal Tour tickets and two Passport to Balboa Park tickets. Rates start at $440 for a two-night stay.
• Available now through June 19, the Embassy Suites Hotel San Diego Bay in downtown San Diego, located within a short walk from The New Children's Museum, is offerings the New Children's Museum Package. The package includes two complimentary tickets to the museum, complimentary breakfast, parking and an invitation for parents to enjoy an evening manager's reception. Rates start at $199 per night.
• Available now through June 30, the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay Spa & Marina on Mission Bay is offering the Mission Bay Adventure Package. Designed for the whole family, the package includes 20% off attraction tickets to the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, SeaWorld San Diego or LEGOLAND California (maximum four tickets for one attraction), complimentary self-parking each night and 20% off at the hotel's Red Marlin Restaurant & Terrace and SWIM Bar & Lounge for up to four people. Rates start at $179 per night.
• Available now through October 31, Hotel Solamar San Diego, located across from PETCO Park in the downtown's historic Gaslamp Quarter, is offering the Play Ball! Package. The package includes deluxe accommodations at 20% off the hotel's best available rate, two beers in the hotel's Jsix restaurant or LOUNGEsix rooftop patio, in-room morning coffee and tea service, a hosted evening wine reception and 24-hour access to the in-house fitness room. Rates start at $149 per night. Use promo code PBAS.

Want a Valentine’s Day getaway, but have a pint-sized “third wheel” in tow? While three (or four or five) may be a crowd at most hotels around Valentine's Day, the Hilton Garden Inn Carlsbad Beach is offering a package that makes an all-family Valentine’s Day seem like a great idea.

The 161-room hotel on the north side of San Diego is across the street from a public beach, has a pool, and is just a short shuttle ride from Legoland. Its Romance Package—which includes niceties such as an early check-in, sparkling wine or cider in your room and a late checkout on request—also packs some surprisingly kid-friendly value. It includes free breakfast for everyone (worth about $50) and a dinner option: steak or salmon, the trimmings and chocolate-covered-berries for $36 per adult, plus a free dinner for kids 12 or under, featuring kid-friendly cuisine with sundaes for dessert.

Package rates are advertised starting at $193 a night, but when we checked the weekend before Valentine’s, we found a double room for $183 a night. Regular rates start at $159 for the same night, so unless you skip breakfast, you will definitely save at least $25 with the romance package—a decent (if not spectacular) 12%. Even so, the deal is a nice value for this time of year, when Legoland crowds are at their thinnest (the San Diego Zoo and Sea World are about 30 minutes away, too).

Since Valentine’s Day falls on a school night this year, the deal also offers a lot of flexibility: the Valentine's menu offer is available through February and March, and the Romance package is good through August. You can book the offer through the specials page or mention the Romance package when calling 760/476-0800.

The holiday decorations may have come down at Disneyland, but the magic of 2012 has only just begun. It is officially low season at the Happiest Place on Earth, when you’ll find thinner crowds and the opportunity to actually trim your costs. 

The three hotels at Disneyland are offering a winter sale that cuts up to 35% off  stays for most nights during Janurary and February. At Paradise Pier, you can save 35% on stays of 3 or more nights, and 30% on stays of 1 to 2 nights. At the recently renovated Disneyland Hotel, and the arts-and-crafts-style Grand Californian Hotel, the three-night savings go up to 30%, while 1- or 2-night stays get you 20% off.

The only catch?  "Most nights” means weeknights, not weekends, and the discounted rates run higher during the winter-break week following Presidents Day. But the prices are still pretty tempting: At Paradise Pier, they start at a very reasonable $156 a night (then $189 a night during Presidents week); at the Disneyland Hotel, rates starts at $225 a night ($289 during Presidents week); and at the Grand Californian, rates start at $267 ($345 during Presidents week).

For contrast, we tested regular weekend rates at the Disneyland Hotel, and found a whopping $620 a night—more than twice as much as the weeknight deal. That’s a great excuse to come here with preschoolers during the week, or even let your school-age kids play hookey.

A bonus: when you book the winter deal, even for weekend stays, you get two Fastpasses for each person in your party. Even during “low season” at Disneyland, there will still be lines.)  Come during the week and you can also take advantage of the early-entry “Magic Mornings” on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

The winter deal with Fastpasses is good for stays through February 29. You must book your stay by February 18. There’s a limit of two rooms per reservation and five people maximum per room. You don’t need a code to book the deal online, and you can also call reservations at 714/520-5045.

If you're going to be flying over the Christmas week, you can connect with loved ones more easily thanks to Skype. The VOIP service is offering one free hour of wi-fi at over 50 US airports between December 21 and December 27. You can use Skype WiFi to make voice and video calls to computers for free and to landlines and mobile phones using Skype credit.

The offer is available in more than 50 major airports, including  JFK, LaGuardia and Newark in the New York City area, Boston's Logan Aiport, Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports, Jackson Hole, and Miami. For a full list, see the interactive map.

'Tis the season for shopping and school concerts and holiday parties and frazzled nerves.  If the crazies have hit and you're dreaming about an escape, listen up:  Hilton Hotels is running The December Sale, which promises savings of up to 33% at participating Hilton properties around the globe when you book by New Year's Day and stay before January 8, 2012.

Turns out that "savings of up to 33%" doesn't mean you'll always be able to chop a third off your hotel bill. When we test-booked the offer at two family-friendly properties, we found actual savings hovering closer to 20%. At the Embassy Suites Washington D.C. at the Chevy Chase Pavilion, which boasts a location directly on the Metro Red Line, a two-bedroom suite runs $127 a night, which is a savings of 20% off the best available nightly rate of $159.  Want something warmer? Take a look at the Grand Vacation Suites at Sea World.  At that all-suite resort, we found December Sale nightly rates that were also 20% less than the best available rate: $119 for a one-bedroom suite and $199 for a two-bedroom suite (compared to best available rates of $149 and $249, respectively).    

As always, there's plenty of fine print. The rates are non-refundable, full payment is due at the time of booking, there's a seven-day advance purchase requirement, and blackout dates may apply. Book online or call 800/HILTONS.

Racking your brain for the perfect present for a special family? Consider giving the gift of travel.

We're giving away a $500 gift certificate for Tauck Bridges, the leader in guided family travel. Tauck is known for putting together inclusive, fun family vacations for every age to enjoy together in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe and Africa. Tauck Bridges family travel adventures are all about shared enrichment and inclusive value, meticulously planned and seamlessly orchestrated so all vacation plans and details are handled for you so your family enjoys ease of family travel.

To enter, visit our Facebook page. You can enter through December 17, 2011.

On your marks, get set, shop! While you're online today, take advantage of the great travel sales to land a great deal on a family vacation for 2012. Here's a round-up of great Cyber Monday sales:

• What's better in the Bahamas? Savings, for starters. Save $450 on an air-inclusive package when you visit Bahamas.com, select the resort of your choice and use the promo code CYBER450 to receive an instant savings on an air-and-hotel package. Travel must be completed by February 29, 2012.
• Frontier Airlines is slashing 10% off every airfare today. Use promo code CYBER10.
• Alaska Airlines is offering fares as low as $40 each way for travel December through February.
  
• Orbitz's weekend sale is still on, offering 50% savings at popular hotels in destinations such as Orlando, San Diego, New York, Miami and Hawaii.
• Marriott is holding a Cyber Monday sale for savings of 25% at select Florida resorts for stays through January 8, 2012.
  
• Shell Vacations Hospitality's Black Friday sale continues, promising up to 50% in savings at its 23 family resorts in the US, Canada and Mexico.
  
• DirectAir is having a BOGO sale through today: Buy one ticket, get one free! Good for airfare through September 2012.
• Funjet's weekend sale showcases the 10 best deals of the season, promising big savings on vacations in Mexico, the Caribbean, Hawaii and Las Vegas when you travel through February 6, 2012.
• In Southern California, save 35% through today at the plush Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes.
• Like to ski? Liftopia.com's sale runs through today and offers up to 81% off lift ticket packages for your next ski vacation.
• Today between 9am and 9pm EST, there will be a new deal every three hours at Yuupon.com, with savings of up to 90% (no, that's not a typo) on vacations to destinations all over the world. Sign up for their e-mail alerts for an advance schedule of the sales.
• CheapCaribbean.com's Cyber Monday sale promises up to $100 per person in instant savings on trips to Mexico and the Caribbean.