travelling in CA with 5 people
 

Hi guys, I am planning a 3-weeks trip to California next summer (first 3 weeks of July). We are travelling with 5 people: 2 parents and 3 kids (15, 13 and 8). Most hotel rooms I've found so far are for 4 people instead of 5. Someone told me these hotels with rooms for 5 do exist though. Do you guys know were I can find information? Make reservations? <BR> <BR>thanks, <BR> <BR>Jef

Questions: Where are you going in California? By age, what sex are your children? <BR> <BR>It sounds like too many to a room, but you might check with AAA. <BR> <BR>Dick

You won't find many - in most places you will have to get two rooms. But some of the suite hotels (Residence Inn, etc do have 2 bedroom suites in which you can add a rollaway for the 5th person. <BR> <BR>One area you will have no trouble is in and around Anaheim. Many of the hotels near Disneyland have suites which hold up to 6 people w/o having to add a rollaway.

Jef - Look into the hotel rewards clubs... as a member there are specials on room upgrades, free meals, and huge room discounts... I belong to the Crowne Plaza Priority Club and got their Summer Options deal this year in San Francisco,Toronto, and New York. That offer was second room at $99. My costs for TWO rooms were reduced to about $150 or less for each room. All of the major Hotels have similar offers and clubs and you have plenty of time to research... Also consider the on-line bidding options... just place your bid for two rooms instead of one...

A lot of the suite hotels now offer 2 queen beds and a sofa that makes into a bed. I have liked Residence Inn in the past.

Jef, Wow, what a coincidence, my 3 kids are the exact same ages and we run into the same problem everywhere we go. Here's how I deal with it. If we stay at an "affordable" hotel we get 2 ADJOINING rooms. This is by far the best way to go if you can afford it. That way the kids have their room and we have ours but we're still all together. If we're staying at a super expensive hotel then we get a room with 2 double beds and a roll-away. This is a tight squeeze so I wouldn't recommend it for 3 weeks. But when you make the reservation only book it for 4. Some hotels get all bent out of shape if you have 5 people in a room.

Many hotels have rooms with 2 beds & can also fit in a roll away bed. We did this with 3 kids this past summer, but it was only for 3 nights & it worked fine for 3 nights.(The following week we stayed in a 2 bedroom condo.) Probably could have gotten by for 1 week. But I don't know if we all could have kept our sanity during a 3 week period of doing this. <BR>As mentioned before, there are suite hotels that can accomodate you. When I checked out Embassy Suites, they had suites with 2 queen size beds in the bedroom & a sleeper couch in the living area. There are other suite hotels that will also accomodate you. Don't know how the price of a suite would be compared to the price of 2 rooms at another place. A suite could be anywhere from about $150 to $250 depending upon if you can get any discounts, price breaks, or amenities. <BR>Also, I remember staying at a place across from Disneland, The Castle Inn I think it was called, that had rooms called mini-suites. It was an oversizes room that had 2 double beds, than a half partition & another double bed on the other side of the partition. I think that we got a discount rate for that of about $125/night.

thanks guys for the replies. <BR> <BR>Jef