Hi, we never travel during Thanksgiving, due to my husbands business, but the rest of the family is invited to our house! They are always urged to stay with us, why have them trekking from some hotel to our house everyday, why should I not have the pleasure of them in the mornings, we see little enough of our children, one lives in Fla, the other in Japan, so they have to stay at home, there is no discussing this :0) I want a bigger house in the country so we can invite more people to visit during the holidays~

I am scared of driving this weekend anyway. Traffic will be terrible becasue all the people who usually fly will be on the roads.

I would prefer to stay at a hotel also. Relatives are best in short periods of time.

We're heading out in a few hours to drive 11+ hours to spend Thanksgiving with my in-laws. Their feelings would be HORRIBLY offended if we stayed at a motel while there. A couple of years ago, my FIL bought an inflatable mattress. They anticipated the children sleeping on it on the ground floor while everyone else slept in the bedrooms upstairs. After taking turns with my hubby on it with one of the kids, I finally put my foot down. It's on the floor at the foot of the bed in the room we use. With only 2 children sleeping on it, the air doesn't leak out overnight. It's a much better solution. Ya'll have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

The consensus among the group seems to be that it's best to stay at the relatives' house as opposed to a motel as long as the relatives can provide somewhat comfortable accomodations--a decent bed and a little privacy. For their part, poor relations (poor in money or poor in consideration) should be sensitive in not inviting their better-off relations to enjoy their cracker lifestyle for the holiday weekend.

Just to provide a different point of view: a couple of years ago we decided to take the whole week as vacation time. This allowed us to travel when it wasn't so busy. Our son was stationed in NC so we rented a great beach house. One of his buddies came too. The off season rate was just about the same as staying in a hotel. We had a home-cooked Thanksgiving and it was fun to explore the area.
Last year he was in Japan. I'd like to thank all the married folks in the military who invite numerous single enlisted people to their homes for the holidays. The chow hall just doesn't cut it sometimes.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone, wherever you are.

If it looks like I might be coerced into staying with a relative and I really want to stay somewhere else, I just claim that I have an allergy to whatever pet they happen to have. Works like a charm!