Road Trip Hotel Reservations - What Do You Do?
 

We plan to drive from St. Louis to San Diego leaving 2/28 and hope to arrive 3/3. This means 3 nights in a hotel going out. This is a one way trip. We fly back home.

Do I try and plan the stops and look for a hotel ahead of time or simply drive as far as we can each day and take our chances along the way.

Thanks.

Sandy

I can't imagine planning a road trip without mapping software. I've used Microsoft Streets/Trips for years, even for one city visits.

You'd want to have some idea of approximately where you plan to stop for your overnights. Otherwise, once you've driven as far as you can, you may be a significant distance between cities/downs with lodging and restaurants.

We rarely make advance reservation on our road trips . . We like the flexibility of going at whatevwer pace our interests dictate.

We do a lot of road trips . . for as long as a month at a time. We have not been unable to find a hotel so far. Even when we are on the "backroads"

We do carry a directory for Holiday Inns and Hampton Inns and sometimes call ahead mid afternoon once we have a good ideda where we want to stop.

Most of the Information Centers at State Borders have magazines of hotels and specials that come in handy also. Some will even book for you if you want.

The exception to this is where we want a room near an attraction . . those we sometims book ahead e.g. Grand CAnyon,Biltmore Estates etc

I forgot . . We use a book "The Next Stop" which lists what is available at each exit on the INterstates. It keeps you from stopping at some place with nothing, only to find out the next day that one more exit had everything.

http://www.thenextexit.com/

Normally I would say to go ahead and play it by ear. I know McDonald’s used to have free publications in their restaurants containing great coupons for walk-in only discounts with name brand hotels located on major travel roads (saving some bucks!), but since the weather has become so unpredictable it makes taking chances a lot more dangerous. We just had some friends head south from Ohio to Texas with plans to spend the first night in Kentucky. Not a bad idea, but Mother Nature dropped a bunch of ice on the poor state and pretty much closed it down. Personally, I would probably go ahead throw caution to the wind and head out without reservations, but start looking a bit earlier than normal for a place to spend the nights.

That was quite a wishy-washy answer, wasn’t it? *smile*

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Under these circumstances, at this time of year, I would definitely not book rooms ahead.

If you don't have AAA TourBooks for the states through which you travel, take the 800 numbers for popular hotel chains, such as Hampton Inn, Choice Hotels (Quality Inn, etc.), and Holiday Inn and, with a cell phone in hand, you may be able to avoid looking around for a room upon arrival.

Have a great adventure.

HTTY

It's about 1,850 miles. If you're spreading it to 4 days, it's under 500 miles a day, which is pretty easy.

If I am doing this in non-winter time, I'll probably pre-book. But this is still time that one may see snow and wintry weather. Personally, I will not prebook, as I want more flexibility on routing and how much I want to drive each day.

You won't have problem getting hotels anyways, but like djkbooks said, you should do just a little research to see which towns or cities have hotel choices.

Day 1, I'll stay on the west side of Oklahoma City. Lots of hotel choice there near the airport.

Day 2, Albuquerque. You don't want to go pass it, because next place is many miles away.

Day 3, West side or NW side of Phoenix.

Check the weather forecast just before you leave. If everything looks good, you may just go ahead and book all those.

On the other hand, if you are willing to drive 8 hours a day, you could stay in Oklahoma City and Albuquerque and make it to San Diego for the third night.

HTTY

A road trip is not something we have done in years so I very much appreciate your thoughts djkbooks and Rich.

I have mapped out our journey and will just need to decide how best to break it up and see what hotels are in that area. I'd like to keep it to about 7 hours or driving a day.

Rich: Thanks for the link - greatly appreciated.

Sandy

ccolor, happytrailsto you - great suggestions, thank you.

rkkwan - Yes I was thinking of as far as Oklahoma City for the first day, great tip about stay on the west side.
Appreciate day 2 and day 3 suggestions.

Sandy

Are you interested in Carlsbad Caverns?

I expect the Grand Canyon is still closed then, but you might check if you are interested

If you are interested, this is a trip we did a few years ago:

http://simpller.com/RoadTrip/Index.htm

SandyBrit.. we drove from Florida to Oregon one year and except for the first night's stop, we didn't make any reservations ahead.. we did 5 nights, 5 hotels. with a large dog. Which is why the first nights reservation and why we only used La Quinta hotels.. which are really pretty nice once you are past St Louis..
If you have a cell phone with you, and you see where you will be stopping that night, call ahead.
Online you can get main numbers for various hotel chains ..
We usually left early (around 9am) and stopped around 5:00 or before dark.. we walked with the Pup and had dinner somewhere pleasant and relaxed..
It was a fantastic way to see the country :)

Scarlett:

I have always been curious about hotels that allow dogs - do they stay in the room with you or does the hotel have kennels?

Appreciate the marvelous help from this forum.

Sandy

I like to have reservations because that way I know exactly what the cost is. With that said, if you make reservations at hotels with a 6 PM cancel policy, as that time gets near and you feel like you want to continue driving, you can always cancel and keep on going.

It's mostly about cost vs flexibility. But if you have access to the internet on your trip, or you can have someone who can do the booking for you while you're on the trip, then you can have your cake and eat it too.

Like when my sister was moving, she'd call me mid-afternoon to tell me her progress. Then I used go to Priceline and bid for a cheap room for that night.

I always go to freetrip.com for time, miles, and hotels when planning a trip. We prefer Holiday Inn Express, but if none are available where we want to stop I look at the ones that the Free Trip route has listed.

In fact I just finished plans from VA to Albuquerque in September. We will stay over in Jackson, TN and Weatherford, OK. The HI exp. in Weatherford is $85.50 for Priority Club members with a continental breakfast.

The next city west of Oklahoma City after Weatherford that I had also considered is Elk City which has many hotels to chose from.

Orangetravelcat - We do like to know the cost and what we are getting for our $'s.

rkkwan - No access to the internet on this trip but a great idea.

ronkala - Thanks so much for taking the time to share this site.

Sandy

SandyBrit... generally speaking, hotels keep a floor ( usually a low floor) for people with pets.
I have heard that some require you to keep your pet in a crate, our dog is large and is not crated but that was never even brought up. We knew La Quinta is a pet friendly hotel and they don't charge.. most other hotels do.

They ask that you do not leave your dog alone in the room, especially if housekeeping needs to come in .. but that was no problem for us.. we kept him with us at all times.

We always took him off hotel property when we walked him also ..

I think this is a personality question more than a travel question. My husband is of the "drive as far as we can" mind, I of the "I like to know where I will sleep and how much it will cost". Each has its merits.

My rationale for booking ahead is that I enjoy the research on price, location and possibly something interesting to see when we get there. I make sure to book a cancellable hotel - it usually must be cancelled by 6 PM to avoid charges - and if necessary will change it from the road. If you are staying in a chain and need to cancel to a hotel either closer or further along and call the booked hotel they will often then make a reservation for you at another in their chain.