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On a recent weekday afternoon, sipping martinis poolside at The Cloister - one of the poshest family resorts in the United States - it occurred to my husband and me that if it weren't for the recession, we would never have considered a road trip. Nor would we have wound up on Sea Island, Ga., during our annual family vacation.

This private island community with a five-star hotel and multimillion-dollar estates - and the surrounding wild, eight-kilometre strip of practically deserted Atlantic coastline - has to be one of the best-kept beach secrets in the U.S. Yet here we were, because we had planned a driving trip that would take us away from major airports to cover serious mileage and a string of high-end destinations.

Though nostalgic about road trips I took as a kid, I have no desire to emulate them in every uninspiring detail - beat-up station wagon, roadside motels and all. Our goal was to luxuriate for less: Taking advantage of recession-driven deals, we hoped to kick the standard Motel 6 trip up a notch. We would fly into Atlanta, just long enough to visit the famous Georgia Aquarium, pick up a rental SUV and hit the road for a series of short stays at dream resorts that in the past would have been out of our price range.

This year, we aren't alone in making such plans. Surveys by TripAdvisor and Travel Horizons have suggested that families aren't willing to forsake summer vacations, but they are hoping to save money by sticking closer to home. That wariness, combined with cheaper gas and travel bargains, have made this the year of the road trip, for high-end travellers as well as those on modest budgets.

The "fly-and-drive" road trip - a more exotic kind that typically begins by picking up a rental car at an airport, anywhere in the world - "is very much in vogue right now," says Randy Williams, president and chief executive of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada.

Fly-and-drives are on the radar of luxury hotels and resorts, which are aiming bargains at road warriors including such things as free nights and free tickets to roadside attractions. Major tour operators such as Air Canada Vacations, Transat Holidays and WestJet Vacations now also advertise fly-and-drive packages that wrap in airfare, accommodations and a rental car.

And travellers are increasingly building their own fly-and-drive itineraries online, with help from expedia.ca or luxurylink.com, Williams says. "You plan for a comfortable five to eight hours of driving, stay for half price at a high-end resort, spend a day or two exploring that area, dine for much less than in the past, and continue on," he says.

That's exactly what we did - researching our route and some great deals over the Internet, and booking flights and the SUV on Aeroplan points.

Like other hotels in the chain across North America, the Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta, where we stayed, is offering extra nights free and other incentives this summer. After a stay there, our adventure began on a late June morning at the world's largest aquarium in Atlanta: gazing at 6.5-metre-long whale sharks in wonderment, petting giant stingrays and feasting on chocolate cupcakes in a sun-filled cafeteria. Then it was time to drive.

My husband set the GPS while I cracked open a guidebook. With our two small children, it was tough to make detours off the interstate. So apart from regular drink, fuel and diaper change pit stops, my Type-A CEO husband kept us moving with customary Teutonic efficiency toward our destination, while I read aloud highlights of all the cool side trips we were missing.

We tuned into our surroundings and cranked up the radio. Cutting across Georgia to the coast along I-16, we gauged the distance by shifts in music: hip-hop beats around Atlanta gave way to kilometre after kilometre of country, Christian and bluesy rock as we headed southeast.

Eight hours later, past a low-slung causeway over the salt marshes of the tidal Black Banks River, we reached St. Simons, the largest of Georgia's four main barrier islands.

A shorter bridge led us to Sea Island and our first resort. George Bush Sr. honeymooned at The Cloister, anchor of this 1,000-acre island, and his son is one of many presidents and prime ministers who have planted ceremonial oak trees at its grand hotel. Beginning in 2003, the late-1920s resort was rebuilt and expanded to include a spa and oceanfront condos. Yet this was no faux "community"; generations of families returning there have given the island curious rituals and an authentic sense of place. We joined several hundred people dressed in evening wear for bingo in The Cloister's main ballroom one night, a tradition since the forties. On another occasion, I engaged in that most genteel of southern pursuits, sport shooting, at one of the oldest private ranges in the U.S. Our Southern mini-retreat ended with an evening stroll through the larger St. Simons island, and dinner at Barbara Jean's, a folksy diner where the cheese grits, crab cake and grilled catfish were cheap and plentiful.

The next morning, we loaded up the car again for another marathon drive - along I-95, the main East Coast artery - and a completely different, no less intriguing slice of the good life.

If ever I doubted it, I know now that car trips are the way to travel with very young children. My three-year-old daughter - who had only ever known the feel of a cramped airplane seat en route to the Caribbean - at one point set her McDonald's Happy Meal mastodon toy down to remark, gesturing somewhere into the tree-rimmed horizon: "This is the perfect place, mummy."

And as any new parent knows, the hum of an SUV motor was just the thing to keep my infant son snoozing contentedly through most of the seven hours it took to reach Palm Beach. The Season - the party circuit that has given this 25-kilometre-long barrier island its extravagant reputation - spans the winter and ends in April. It was the perfect time for a quiet visit to one of the most beautiful beaches in Florida.

This is Palm Beach's centennial year - the town was incorporated in 1909 - so chic meals, attractions and accommodations were bargain-priced, partly in hopes of boosting this year's especially weak summer tourist trade. Hotels including the famous Breakers hotel and resort were offering nights for a symbolic $19.09 (U.S.), while my three-course prix fixe lobster dinner at legendary haunt Taboo cost just $35. At the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach, our children ate and slept for free, and rooms were a steal for the chain, starting at $195 with a fourth night free.

As we left the resort, memories of Motel 6 trips past had all but faded away, and we had been spoiled into anticipating no less than the fact that absolutely everyone there, from cleaners to bellmen, knew our names.

Back on the road, an open flatbed truck filled with crated oranges followed us for part of the final, hour-and-a-half-long cruise down I-95. It was a reminder of how far we had come. Our suitcases stuffed with kiddie paraphernalia, we were going to have a tough time fitting into a South Beach hotel. Instead, we stopped at Acqualina Resort and Spa in Sunny Isles Beach, midway between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. It is shrewdly designed for people like us, who sampled South Beach's excess in our hedonistic youth but now would rather an upscale vacation come without the party scene. As our son slept under an umbrella, we took turns diving with our daughter into the surf, playing dolphin or mermaid.

On our last evening, we took her to Fourth of July fireworks at Satellite Beach, in a nearby working-class neighbourhood, where we sat toes curled in the sand of the public beach, watching families stroll the boardwalk. Too soon, it was time to return the SUV.

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Pack your bags

Four Seasons Hotel

Atlanta www.fourseasons.com/atlanta Rooms starting at $374. "Stay Longer Package" extends a complimentary night this summer; A Taste of Four Seasons promotion takes $25 (U.S.) off dinner for two at hotel restaurant.

The Cloister at Sea Island http://www.seaisland.com From $400. This summer, book three nights for the price of two, for average nightly rate of $588.

Four Seasons Resort Palm Beac hhttp://www.fourseasons.com/palmbeach. From $191. Complimentary kids camp, complimentary meals for children under 5; Family Escape package: this summer, 50 per cent off regular rate for a second room.

Acqualina Resort and Spa on the Beac hhttp://www.acqualinaresort.com. From $400. Family Escape Summer Package: through Oct. 31, stay three to four nights at $375, minimum five nights at $347; all reservations get $40 (U.S.) spa credit.

Special to The Globe and Mail