Spending money for Roadtrip SF-LA-LV

misa.blue

Blindman: Wow, that is great, both your links!! You gave so much good advice! Amazing!
Never even heard about Priceline!

blindman

misa.blue wrote: »

Blindman: Wow, that is great, both your links!! You gave so much good advice! Amazing!
Never even heard about Priceline!

Where have you been all these years

Cring worthy video

Spursman180

oscarcats154 wrote: »

Thanks guys, I suppose my main worry is food costs but this is my trip of a lifetime and I want to do it in style!

No strippers in Vegas for me (unless they are male) so I should save some money there

The show for you is probably The Thunder from Down Under at the Excalibur, seems extremely popular for the ladies.

Gloomendoom

misa.blue wrote: »

Gloom: that is still ok bearing in mind that it included accommodation, petrol, food!;)

Do you have any tip on accommodation?Did you book in advance or dropped in motel on way?

We only booked the first night in advance... you have to. The rest of the time we booked as we went along, usually a day in advance via the internet (Tripadvisor mainly) but once or twice we turned up in a town with nothing booked at all.

To be honest, finding decent accommodation was hard work at times. Several times we found that the advertised, and essential for booking the next night, internet connection was broken or non existent. I think if we did it again we'd book a few (but probably not all) places in advance.

misa.blue

Gloomendoom wrote: »

To be honest, finding decent accommodation was hard work at times. Several times we found that the advertised, and essential for booking the next night, internet connection was broken or non existent. I think if we did it again we'd book a few (but probably not all) places in advance.

I see, we will not even have notebook with us, so no chance of going online to book hotels while in US. I guess better to find bargains while home and book in advance. Just thought we might get it cheaper if turn up on night as they might be free and glad to sell room..
But then again it would not be much fun driving around 2 hours looking for room..

blindman

misa.blue wrote: »

I see, we will not even have notebook with us, so no chance of going online to book hotels while in US.
I guess better to find bargains while home and book in advance.

Possibly, try to get a cancellable rate.

Just thought we might get it cheaper if turn up on night as they might be free and glad to sell room..

Or they may ALL be full due to some bizzarre stateside event-happened to me a couple of times:o

But then again it would not be much fun driving around 2 hours looking for room..

That is the problem, wasting time looking for a room (that may be a dump!)

Your choice. :cool:

Gloomendoom

misa.blue wrote: »

I see, we will not even have notebook with us, so no chance of going online to book hotels while in US. I guess better to find bargains while home and book in advance. Just thought we might get it cheaper if turn up on night as they might be free and glad to sell room..
But then again it would not be much fun driving around 2 hours looking for room..

If you can take a laptop or a netbook you will probably get more out of your trip. We used it time and time again to plan routes (Google maps), find decent paces to stay or eat, not to mention just finding out more about the places we were visiting.

Some places do let you use their pc's but I wouldn't want to rely on it.

If it hasn't been said already, a decent satnav will make your life a lot easier. US road maps are not the best and finding a hotel/motel in the middle of a major city can be an absolute nightmare.

jackieblack

misa.blue wrote: »

I see, we will not even have notebook with us, so no chance of going online to book hotels while in US. I guess better to find bargains while home and book in advance. Just thought we might get it cheaper if turn up on night as they might be free and glad to sell room..
But then again it would not be much fun driving around 2 hours looking for room..

We usually book our accomodation before we go (because we always have to go at peak times - Easter or August!), but I try to book places that you can cancel at fairly short notice with no charges in case we change our itinerary.

I just don't want to spend/waste half my holiday hunting for accomodation.

Gloomendoom

blindman wrote: »

That is the problem, wasting time looking for a room (that may be a dump!)

Your choice. :cool:

Where possible, we used Google Streetview to check out accommodation in advance... and the surrounding neighbourhood. That, and reading the reviews on Tripadvisor meant we managed to avoid the dumps.

jackieblack

Gloomendoom wrote: »

If it hasn't been said already, a decent satnav will make your life a lot easier. US road maps are not the best and finding a hotel/motel in the middle of a major city can be an absolute nightmare.

We've never used SatNav.
I really like Rand McNally Easy To Read maps for driving (I buy mine form Amazon), and get hotel directions from Mapquest or hotel's website printed off before we go.