Actually, you don't have to stay in hotels. You can camp in a tent for very cheap... We visited 11 national parks - including an awesome night in Arches - in 2 weeks and never ate out once or paid more than $20 for a campsite. We bought groceries at local stores - money we would have had to spend at home, made sack lunches for days we had hikes planned, and had an excellent two week vacation for under $1000 - and that included our camping supplies. We are still using the Marmot tent, REI sleeping bags and Coleman camp stove 12 years later.
I know what we're doing next summer!
