A family vacation rental turns awkward when one sibling gets the best bedroom. Here’s how to split vacation house costs fairly when rooms, bathrooms, privacy, and comfort differ.

Long before Florida beaches and Las Vegas casinos became shorthand for an American getaway, vacationers were already packing trunks for famous resort towns scattered across the country. Some promised healing mineral water, others offered cool mountain air, oceanfront hotels, elaborate amusement parks, or the chance to mingle with society’s wealthiest families. These destinations helped create American vacation culture generations before commercial air travel made warmer destinations easier to reach.

On Christmas Eve 1971, 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke fell nearly two miles from a disintegrating airplane into the Peruvian Amazon. She was still strapped into a row of seats when she plunged roughly 10,000 feet toward the rainforest below. Somehow, she survived the impact. Yet waking up alive turned out to be only the beginning of an ordeal that would last another 11 days.