There are times when I just would love to lay out on a warm beach or sit in the shade by a pool, reading a good book. Finding money in the budget for a vacation has been more challenging over the past year. Admittedly flying to exotic resorts may not be in our budgets this year. However, if we can carve out some vacation money, I can suggest a few vacations where you will find warm weather, water and have at least some chance of trimming the budget.

The first place that comes to mind is good old Southern California. There are pushing 100 miles of great accessible beaches between San Diego to Malibu, dozens of places where you can lay out your towel. If you’d like some helpful tips and advice about visiting these beaches and especially Orange County travel, take a look at the SoCal Vacation Guru. The site includes tips and wisdom in planning your Southern California vacation.

There are travel deals to be found for your Orange County vacation. For an international trip that is not too far away, consider a vacation to the resort city of Cancun in Mexico.

A trip to Cancun in the spring or summer can be a smart choice, and you are likely to find Cancun travel and hotel deals and discounts if you do some research on the web. The Hotel Zone has over 100 hotels, most of which have beach frontage. You’ll get plenty of warm weather in Cancun.

There are a bunch of other resort cities in Mexico besides Cancun. Consider also Jamaica and Playa del Carmen. Spend some time up front doing research so you learn about the culture and background of the place, and also to make sure you can come to wise decisions during your trip. I’m not sure how we made it before Google came along, but now it is possible to obtain an amazing amount of research information before you embark on your warm-weather vacation.