Scarlett

That "Downtown" La Quinta is on highway 30 .. I think they are really stretching the truth when they call it Downtown .. and 30 is not a pretty highway .. or quiet ... I think you would be better off anywhere actually IN town .. except the Jupiter of course lol.

Embassy Suites no good?

azzure

If you're planning to travel in early June, bear in mind that the Hood Canal Bridge is closed for repairs. To get to Portland from Port Townsend, you'll have to travel down the west side of Hood Canal on 101 to Olympia; so you may wish to build in a little extra time...it's mostly two lane, curvy and with a lot of truck traffic at the moment.

NeoPatrick

Oh yea, I'm ahead of you there, azzure. I've known about that for months and is part of the reason when I head north out of Seattle, I'm circling over to the coast to visit the Hoh Rainforest and then spend a night at Crescent Lake before going on up to Victoria from Port Angeles.

Well, the whole hotel thing is settled in any case. I rebid on Priceline and got the Westin for $69. Sounds good right? Well, as I mentioned, if I add on the taxes, plus the $8 Priceline fee, plus the $29 parking, plus $12.95 for one night's internet -- I'm at $127.54. But so be it.
I'm actually hoping I'll save the $29 by parking on the street overnight (Sunday) for free. I was a bit surprised to "win" a 4star at that price, since I bid into the $70s two weeks ago and was turned down.

Fodorite018

The Westin is in a great location. You can walk to anything, and their restaurant isn't bad either.

pdx

$29 for parking? In Portland? With a wash and wax maybe. You are able to decline that, right?

Scarlett

Fabulous!!
We used to enjoy lunch at their cafe... there always seemed to be someone interesting there .. and the food was good. You will be steps from the Streetcar, great eats, the Pearl etc ..
http://www.portlandstreetcar.org/
Here is the streetcar website, look at the map... you can plot your course using the streetcar .. saves time and it is fun to travel that way. We rarely took the car out during the week when we just did stuff in town.

Andrew

NeoPatrick: Well, the whole hotel thing is settled in any case. I rebid on Priceline and got the Westin for $69. Sounds good right? Well, as I mentioned, if I add on the taxes, plus the $8 Priceline fee, plus the $29 parking, plus $12.95 for one night's internet

See if you can pick up free internet from your room before purchasing it. There's something in Portland called Personal Telco that helps people share WiFi throughout the city (not the same as the now-defunct MetroFi fiasco). You can pick it up in Pioneer Courthouse Square for example and elsewhere around the city, for free. Give it a whirl.

I can tether my cell phone to my laptop when I travel; my new cell phone is faster than the old one plus it works with the 3G T-Mobile has finally started rolling out. I won't be paying for WiFi anymore when I travel (in the US), I think.

I was a bit surprised to "win" a 4star at that price, since I bid into the $70s two weeks ago and was turned down.

Not a surprise to me. Priceline adds new inventory all the time, as hotels give Priceline new rooms to sell when the realize they have too many vacancies. Bid $70 one when there is no inventory and you won't get a hotel; bid after they've added the inventory and you'll win it.

NeoPatrick

pdx, yes, I can decline the parking and try to find street parking, but $29 didn't surprise me in the least. I checked a dozen hotels at the beginning and that was pretty average for hotel parking -- which is why in my very first post above I mentioned "around $30 for parking" and was looking for places downtown that included parking -- which turns out to be not many.

Andrew, yes, I always try for unsecured wireless, but I rarely find it within a hotel. Sometimes I find unsecured wireless systems perhaps from local businesses, but once hooked to them, I cannot access the internet. My cheap little tracfone won't work for internet either. I suppose if I have little to do overnight -- and that should be the case -- I could walk up to Pioneer Square or somewhere and log on for a while.

Andrew

There are also a couple of Starbucks within walking distance, and if you buy a Starbucks card, put only $5 on it, buy a drink with it, you can immediately sign up for an AT&T WiFi account (if you don't already have one) and get free internet (for the next 30 days). They say it works for two hours but I've gone over many times and never been kicked off - at least at the Starbucks in Portland.

NeoPatrick

Hmmm. And maybe a MacDonalds? Going through Miami airport a few times in the past couple weeks, I ended up signing on for 3 months of Boingo for something like $12.95 total instead of $7.95 for an hour's use. And if I'm not mistaken that's the one from MacDonalds which works at pretty much all their places (or sit outside of one and connect) as well as a lot of other coffee shops, etc.

It still irks me that small chains like LaQuinta all offer free internet, but the hotels that charge a small fortune for rooms still add on $12.95 a day for internet. Yes, I know why -- because they "can".

NeoPatrick

Ooops. Never mind. I see that Starbucks now uses Boingo, and my coverage will work at the Starbucks at Pioneer Courthouse Square just one block from my hotel. I was a bit perturbed that the Miami airport doesn't have free internet and I had to pay for it, but looks like it will come in handy in the next couple of months of travel.