Road trip USA - Hotel prices

Murphy_The_Cat

& another thought ! If you are going to use the 'walk in/coupon' route, always ask to see the room beforehand. Lets be honest, for £25 (or less) per night, you're not going to get the penthouse suite, but its worth making sure that the room is what you expect it to be (i.e. smoke free, not musty, not in the 'wrong' location) etc, etc.

Flummaxed

Thanks for all the tips and info. I think I might have been underestimating the cost of motel etc - I was thinking in pounds instead of dollars - and $50 is closer to £25, so that is very low cost, I guess. Think I'll need to budget at least £70 per day for food, motel and petrol for the two of us - to be on the safe side.

I'll certainly be taking a look at the vouchers guide - thanks for posting that Murphy_The_Cat - and for the suggestion of checking out the room beforehand.

I'm really excited now about the trip (but also a teeny weeny bit anxious).

USA - here we come!! (Well, in 5 weeks today, anyhow).

Murphy_The_Cat

flummaxed wrote: »

Week in Vancouver - no worries as we have someone there who lives there. But then we are going to make our own way down from Vancouver to San Francisco. Anyone have any suggestions as to which route through Washington and Oregon and N. California. Train? Buses? Etc? would like to see as much scenery as possible rather than fly down. Any suggestions from anyone who's been.


Thanks to everyone on this fantastic website.

How about going by Amtrak ?
You can travel direct from Vancouver to Emeryville (on the outskirts of SFO, as Amtrak don't run to SFO) and then get am Amtrak transfer to the numerous Coach stops in SFO that Amtrak do serve. On the plus side, the fare is VERY cheap $88/£44 in August, on the down side, the train trip is quite long at 19 hours (you leave Vanciuver at 1.00 pm and arrive at Emeryville (San Francisco) at 8.10 am wait a few minutes for your coach transfer and your in SFO half an hour later. Go to Amtrak and check out the Coast Starlight.

I've not 'done' the route, but I have travelled Amtrak before -- very comfortable long distance trains, good company to while the time away with and a good alyernative to flying, as long as your NOT in a hurry :beer:

Flummaxed

Thanks Murphy.... I was online on Amtrak's website earlier today (rubbish site to try to navigate and their PDF timetables - couldn't make head nor tail) I ended up sending them an E mail, so hope they do reply. I think the trip is on their Coast Starlight route or something. I did see the Cascades route, which, as far as I could tell might be the one that goes North from Seattle to Vancouver, which I will probably investigate for our journey in that direction.

It's all exciting stuff!

Best wishes

Murphy_The_Cat

Flummaxed wrote: »

Thanks Murphy.... I was online on Amtrak's website earlier today (rubbish site to try to navigate and their PDF timetables - couldn't make head nor tail) I ended up sending them an E mail, so hope they do reply. I think the trip is on their Coast Starlight route or something. I did see the Cascades route, which, as far as I could tell might be the one that goes North from Seattle to Vancouver, which I will probably investigate for our journey in that direction.

It's all exciting stuff!

Best wishes

I should have asked, are you going to Vancouver British Colombia Canada or Vancouver Washington USA ?
If its Washington, its Coast Starlight all the way, if its BC, its coach (quite a long trip) then train.

Horasio

We have done many trips in the USA

First went to Florida in 1987 before it got upgraded

Went to Atlanta and Florida in 1995 with our 7 year old son to see the attractions in Orlando.

The East side in 2001 - our son was 13
Starting at Charlotte, Charleston, Florence SC, Washington DC, Hershey, Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh), Cincinnati, Niagara Falls and ended up in New York

We stayed in Holiday Inns and Comfort Inns. We did have a treat in a Marriott in Cinncinati. We don't feel safe in places that have front doors to the world, so went one above. We stayed very upmarket in New York to get a park view. I find it odd the lower the cost/class, the more room facilities you get like a fridge, microwave and one even had a full kitchen.

The West side in 2002 - our son was 14
San Francisco, Yosemite, Death Valley, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Sedona, Phoenix, Palm Springs, San Diego and ended up in LA (Santa Monica)

Last year was New England in the fall - went alone without our son
Started at New York, drove via Mystic and stayed just outside Boston in a house rental. Drove to Vermont, Portland - Maine, around Boston, Connecticut, Providence - Rhode Island, Cape Cod, Manchester -New Hampshire. Those English place names gave me a giggle:D

We would like to see Nashville, Memphis, Dallas and the deep south. Another one would be Seattle and cross to Vancouver. If anyone has any tips and advice to those places I would be very interested.

Biggles

We checked the room out for our 'very first motel'. But after that, to be honest, we never bothered, they're all very similar and you can get a fair impression from the road, we just went in and booked and were never disappointed.

It's funny how your perceptions are different there: in the Mid-West, we got used to seeing bikers on the roads. In the UK, we would give bikers a wide berth. But, in the US, we found bikers were generally well-off, 30s or older guys riding expensive Harleys. And they know a good motel. Eventually, if we saw a motel with a bunch of Harleys outside, it would be our first choice, and it was always good!

Murphy_The_Cat

Biggles wrote: »

It's funny how your perceptions are different there: in the Mid-West, we got used to seeing bikers on the roads. In the UK, we would give bikers a wide berth. But, in the US, we found bikers were generally well-off, 30s or older guys riding expensive Harleys. And they know a good motel. Eventually, if we saw a motel with a bunch of Harleys outside, it would be our first choice, and it was always good!

What a brilliant way of looking at things ! & if my memory serves me right, the system would have worked for you in Arizona (but not enough bikers in California to form an opinion).

Flummaxed

Hello again, all. Murphy, we are going to Vancouver BC. So I guess that's a long bus ride rather than scenic train journey in that case (shame).

Anyone have any ideas about a room in Seattle on arrival. We are only there for the night, so don't want anything too expensive, cos we plan to head off to Canada the next morning. Been looking on the inter-web, but prices seem to be really high, especially if anywhere near 'downtown' area - over £60 per night. We only really need somewhere to lay our heads down, as we'll be up and off quite early the next day.

Thanks.

MiserlyMartin

This is an excellent informative thread. I've done a quite a few roadtrips in the USA. Just wanted to echo the comments about doing the coupon route: It can be fun and yes you may save quite a bit of money. But a few times we have ended up wasting time looking for a hotel, sitting in traffic (in Boston this was) only to find that the hotel was very grotty indeed and not worth the money. So off we went to look for another. Do ask to see the room first before you take it and don't rely on the chain name... I have stayed in a fantastic coupon advertised Days Inn for $40, but in another part of Florida the Days Inn in the coupon book was grotty, frayed carpets, big gap under the door (mossies can come in and noise) and only 5 TV channels no weather channel. Not a good idea in a hurricane! (which there was that night)

I have found, in common with most cities around the world - hotels in cities are far more expensive. I try to avoid cities for this reason and also the fact you can spend hours in traffic. When you are trying to navigate and are probably lost in a strange road system this is no good. Next time I go I plan to get a satnav, it will save lots of hassle, time and possible arguements. The person navigating can concentrate on looking at sights rather than a map.

I like to do some planning on routes and hotels then at least you have a kind of plan, but it can be nice to go somewhere completely off the itenary. Set yourself plenty of time to do the thing and remember, its a holiday! Slow down! You can't see everything.

One thing I would love to do but haven't managed to yet, is a drive in movie. There are still places that have them. I did try and do one once but it was closed :-( If you look on the web there are sites that detail locations of drive in movie theatres!

Anything else ask me