USA road trip?

[ian2144]

We are off to the US in September . Flying in and out of New York, will do the tourist city thing before heading up to Conneticut to visit family. From here we will head south, stopping at Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington then down to Jamestown (Williamsburg) . Our return north via coast Delaware and Atlantic City.
Our hotels in New York and probably Washington will be pre booked, but looking to do the others by using Motels ...is this a viable way of doing or do we need to spend more time on Booking .com and do it that way..?

[Truckosaurus]

Seems a good plan. Not pre-booking everything gives you more flexibility with the routing and you can easily book the day before or in the morning rather than having to turn up on-spec at a random motel like in the olden days.

I somewhat miss the days of road tripping where you picked up a free brochure from the first gas station you came to which had ads and vouchers for all the hotels/motels in the area and you just picked something convenient within budget.

[satans worm]

Re roadtrip destinations, have you considered hugging the coast a little more and going to Rehoboth beach via Cape May, then maybe down to Ocean City or even Virigina Beach via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel which is always cool to cross.

[ian2144]

Should also have mentioned.....motor museums and micro brewery's are high on the list of stuff to do.

[K50 DEL]

I've done about 50k miles of road trips through 47 states between 2002 and 2015 by doing exactly what you're proposing.
In every case I had the first and last night's hotels booked, all others were roadside motels found along the way.

Only ever had one issue, during the oil boom in Bismarck, ND but even that was sorted out with a little use of mobile Internet and a short additional drive.

[Petrus1983]

Not sure if you’ve got a car sorted but I’ve always used RentalCars.com before and have their insurance excess added - I’ve claimed once and it was very hassle free.

[David Beer]

ian2144 said:

Should also have mentioned.....motor museums and micro brewery's are high on the list of stuff to do.

Done all states, mix of motorhome, camping, hotels. Always first and last night in a precooked hotel, then if needed, booking.com.

[ian2144]

Petrus1983 said:

Not sure if you’ve got a car sorted but I’ve always used RentalCars.com before and have their insurance excess added - I’ve claimed once and it was very hassle free.

Not yet sorted out car rental, prices appear to be all over the place at the moment .....Turo have been mentioned, but not sure about them as I've heard some conflicting stories.

[David Beer]

ian2144 said:

Not yet sorted out car rental, prices appear to be all over the place at the moment .....Turo have been mentioned, but not sure about them as I've heard some conflicting stories.

Turo are private cars, just managed.
Gave up, just booked Mazda CX-5 from San Fran for 29 days 8th June £1600. That’s through Amex if you have a card ??
This Xmas just gone, 28 days a motorhome was around half the price of a car !! 30 ft with two slide outs, out side kitchen as well with 40 inch tv and fridge ! Ok 12 mpg so depends on mileage.

Edited by David Beer on Thursday 3rd March 18:48

[David Beer]

David Beer said:

Turo are private cars, just managed.
Gave up, just booked Mazda CX-5 from San Fran for 29 days 8th June £1600. That’s through Amex if you have a card ??
This Xmas just gone, 28 days a motorhome was around half the price of a car !! 30 ft with two slide outs, out side kitchen as well with 40 inch tv and fridge ! Ok 12 mpg so depends on mileage.

Edited by David Beer on Thursday 3rd March 18:48

Just an update, the rate I have paid is Up front. It’s a special deal and I grabbed it . The cheapest I could otherwise find was nearly £4k

[ruggedscotty]

A friend was over with his wife state side just before the twin towers...

his first granddaughter on her way. they went to see some friends in seattle. for a few days - and the twin towers kicked off just as his daughter started.... they were stuck in seattle and had to get to ft lauderdale.

planes grounded.... they spoke with the rental agency and they did not rent cars for that sort of distance. however they took pity and had a car that needed to go to miami... so gave them the car for free. they took it in shifts. and motored....and motored and motored... 48 hrs and 3300 miles. it was quite a trip...

america is a huge country. huge

[GitsNovelties]

I have never had a problem getting one of those deals where you don't know what hotel you will get. The price is always cheaper than picking the hotel and I have always got a fine place. if you just want somewhere to kip and have a reasonable idea of where then it works out good. Savings, flexiblity and possibility of an upgrade

www.priceline.com and go to "pricebreakers"

Introducing Pricebreakers
See 3 popular hotels at a heavily discounted price.
Click choose and we’ll pick one of the 3 hotels.
See which hotel right after you book!

Actually, i did once have a problem. the website crashed when i hit submit and i had no idea if I had got the hotel sorted or not. There was no evidence I had , so i started again, only to get 2 confirmation emails about an hour later. Trying to cancel the duplicate proved impossible with the call centre staff used to biuyers remorse types trying it on. I fortunatley had a screen shot of their error page and used that to get a refund from the credit card company "why would I want two rooms in the same hotel on the same night"

[snoopygoose]

ian2144 said:

Should also have mentioned.....motor museums and micro brewery's are high on the list of stuff to do.

Micro Brewery's you say? Well as you'll be travelling through my neck of the woods, here's a map of all the craft breweries in PA: Beer

So you may be spoilt for choice!
In Centre Philly, Yards do good beer as well as 2nd Story (which has the added advantage of being in Old City, check out the Khyber Pass pub)
Victory Brewing and Iron Hill are really good for beers and food with locations both in Centre City and the suburbs.

If you want to venture out of Philly which i highly recommend then 2SP brewing who own the Two Stones Pub chain which have locations around south PA and Delaware, again great beer and food.

Speaking of Delaware, Dog Fish Head brewery is a must visit, not too far from Rehoboth Beach and then over the Delaware bay into Cape May, I do enjoy Cape May Brewery.

If you need recommendations in DC, we've have friends down there I could ask.

And finally this car museum is allegedly number 1 in the world just outside Philly airport: Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum

[98elise]

Truckosaurus said:

Seems a good plan. Not pre-booking everything gives you more flexibility with the routing and you can easily book the day before or in the morning rather than having to turn up on-spec at a random motel like in the olden days.

I somewhat miss the days of road tripping where you picked up a free brochure from the first gas station you came to which had ads and vouchers for all the hotels/motels in the area and you just picked something convenient within budget.

Agreed, we did that the first time I went to the states. Got some great deals with "walk in rates".

Even when we stayed in villas (on later holidays) I used to pick up the magazine's just to browse what what available.

Edited by 98elise on Sunday 6th March 11:30

[The Moose]

I would do the same, but use hotels.com as you get a free night after 10 nights.

It is worth keeping an eye out for larger events in smaller communities as long as you’re not looking for a hotel five minutes before you want it, you should be fine. Often something to do over lunch!

[ian2144]

Thanks for the input guys......still working on this.

[TheGuru]

I've done a few roadtrips, including a 3,000 mile one just before COVID. Usually there are plenty of hotels/motels available off the interstate, there are numerous chains that have hotels everywhere. I stuck with IHG group to get the points and status, so stayed in Holiday Inns, Holiday Inn Express (New ones are surprisingly good) etc. Heaps of others like Doubletree, Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Motel 6 & Super 8 (cheaper end), Candlewood Suites - dozens of them really. In some of the cities I'd go for more the hotels due to value (Houston has Crowne Plaza for $80 a night)

[vladcjelli]

If dropping in ad hoc as an older family, 2 adults, 1x16 yr old, 1x13 yr old both boys, what is the best way of housing us all in a hotel/motel? Two rooms, one for the lads one for us? Two rooms with an adult in each? What should we expect?

[K50 DEL]

vladcjelli said:

If dropping in ad hoc as an older family, 2 adults, 1x16 yr old, 1x13 yr old both boys, what is the best way of housing us all in a hotel/motel? Two rooms, one for the lads one for us? Two rooms with an adult in each? What should we expect?

A lot of the motels that I have stayed in have rooms that have interconnecting doors, usually kept locked of course, but that would seem to be the best option.

[98elise]

vladcjelli said:

If dropping in ad hoc as an older family, 2 adults, 1x16 yr old, 1x13 yr old both boys, what is the best way of housing us all in a hotel/motel? Two rooms, one for the lads one for us? Two rooms with an adult in each? What should we expect?

Some hotels have suites, in fact some specialise like Embassy Suites.