I've found cottage (cabin, for your westerners) rentals to be a really enjoyable and economical vacation plan. It's not your own cottage, so you actually get to relax, and it gives you a base in a new locale to explore from.
Before kids, we used to travel the world, and saved money by staying in hostels. Most had private, basic rooms for just a bit more than the shared accommodation, but still way cheaper than a full hotel room.
Now we tend to 'stay-cation', doing road trips within a 1000km radius, usually for 4-5 days at a time. That's enough to satisfy our traveller souls for now, and long enough to be on the road with young children!
Agree with MFD, though, not travelling is not really an option for us. My hard work keeping our finances sound is done so that we have money to do things like travel.