No reservation for a room, while traveling?

[italiamom]

Hi everyone,
i posted this on the forum," for those that are driving", but, no one answered.
it's getting very close, leaving on the 17th of Nov., & driving to Disney & then our first cruise, for Thanksgiving. I 'm not sure when we will be so tired of driving that we'll need to stop for the nite, so i think we should just stop and get a room on the fly. is this ok?: i read most people reserve before they get to a stop, but, if you decide to stop somewhere else, you lose your money on the hotel you reserved in advance. we are driving from a suburb of Chicago, and Valdosta, Ga., was suggested for our rest . since this is our first time driving, i'm not sure we'll make it there. i realize the hotel we might choose will be filled, but, aren't there many to choose from on the main routes?
Please respond, i still have time to reserve if that's a better idea than mine. It's my husband, myself, and my 12 yr. old grandson. Thank you for your thoughts.

 

[magrudersmakes3]

My parents drive to FL every year and do exactly that. My mother has to stop often so they never know an exact time and just plan on the day. They usually pull off the road before dark and find a nice hotel. They have never had a problem.

 

[AlohaDisney]

I would maybe do a search of some hotels along the way and jot down the names and phone numbers so that when you are starting to get tired you can call one of the close hotels and see if they have any rooms available.

Have a great time!

 

[MaleficentRN]

Do you have a Smart Phone? AAA has a Trip Tik app that will map out a route for you and show hotels/motels along the way.

 

[DWALD]

We have driven from Minnesota several times. Our route takes us through Illinois. We drive until we get tired and never have a reservation. There are hotels options at practically every exit along the way if you are sticking to the main routes. Have a great trip.

 

[viniesmom]

Hi everyone,
i posted this on the forum," for those that are driving", but, no one answered.
it's getting very close, leaving on the 17th of Nov., & driving to Disney & then our first cruise, for Thanksgiving. I 'm not sure when we will be so tired of driving that we'll need to stop for the nite, so i think we should just stop and get a room on the fly. is this ok?: i read most people reserve before they get to a stop, but, if you decide to stop somewhere else, you lose your money on the hotel you reserved in advance. we are driving from a suburb of Chicago, and Valdosta, Ga., was suggested for our rest . since this is our first time driving, i'm not sure we'll make it there. i realize the hotel we might choose will be filled, but, aren't there many to choose from on the main routes?
Please respond, i still have time to reserve if that's a better idea than mine. It's my husband, myself, and my 12 yr. old grandson. Thank you for your thoughts.

Normally I don't think it would be a problem, but it IS Thanksgiving, and there might be alot of people on the road. However, we drive down from NC to FL alot, on I 95, and there are plenty of places. I am a planner, so We always make ressies- at least for our trip down. ( I don't want to be stressed before I get there) IMO- either way should be fine.

BTW, we are on your cruise, our DS is almost 12, hope the boys can get together. See you in 12 days!

 

[Justacruiser]

Hi everyone,
i posted this on the forum," for those that are driving", but, no one answered.
it's getting very close, leaving on the 17th of Nov., & driving to Disney & then our first cruise, for Thanksgiving. I 'm not sure when we will be so tired of driving that we'll need to stop for the nite, so i think we should just stop and get a room on the fly. is this ok?: i read most people reserve before they get to a stop, but, if you decide to stop somewhere else, you lose your money on the hotel you reserved in advance. we are driving from a suburb of Chicago, and Valdosta, Ga., was suggested for our rest . since this is our first time driving, i'm not sure we'll make it there. i realize the hotel we might choose will be filled, but, aren't there many to choose from on the main routes?
Please respond, i still have time to reserve if that's a better idea than mine. It's my husband, myself, and my 12 yr. old grandson. Thank you for your thoughts.

Valdosta has a lot of hotels. I drive the 20 hours from Oklahoma to get to Disney. What I will do is find the brand of hotel that I want and then go on the internet and find the locations. I usually end up really close to Orlando before I stop because I don't want to spend the next day driving. Another thing you can do is call the reservations department for the hotel chain you want. Tell them the route and let them tell you the locations. I don't want to get off and on the highway searching for what looks like a good spot. I would like a little heads up.

 

[peachygreen]

I frequently do this when driving a 2 day trip. It is actually very rare that we reserve in advance and this includes traveling around Christmas and Thanksgiving. Often by getting a room late at night you can get a pretty good discount too because they just want to fill the room. Its amazing the discounts you get when you tell them you are going to go next door to see what their rate is and then come back.

 

[julie912]

We just drove from Boston to Orlando in October. We had originally planned to stop at the tail end of Georgia for the night, but 5 hours of traffic in Virginia made us change our minds. Stopped at the beginning of South Carolina, and had our pick of hotels. I think there are so many on 95, you shouldn't have any problems without reservations. Good luck and have a great time!!

 

[kcashner]

I've had no luck with making advanced reservations when driving. Either I arrive at my reservation place when I could have easily driven a couple more hours OR I hit a storm on the road and after a couple hours of tough going I am not yet to the planned location.

Yes, thru Georgia there are hotels at most interchanges. There is a NICE Best Western on the south side of Macon (exit 4? on the bypass). Valdosta had lots of places. You pay more to do it "on the fly," but you have a lot more flexibility.

 

[Cruiselady]

In June we drove from Indiana to WDW. I did not get a hotel room. By the time you hit Atlanta GA you will be ready to stop. We pushed through until we were almost to the boarder of FL anf GA. There were alot of hotels. I used my GPS to find rooms. We would pull up in the parking lot call the hotel and get a price and if I liked it then I would say okay I will take it. I thought it was fun trying to get a good hotel for a good price while I was sitting in their parking lot.

 

[Octoberbride03]

Hi everyone,
i posted this on the forum," for those that are driving", but, no one answered.
it's getting very close, leaving on the 17th of Nov., & driving to Disney & then our first cruise, for Thanksgiving. I 'm not sure when we will be so tired of driving that we'll need to stop for the nite, so i think we should just stop and get a room on the fly. is this ok?: i read most people reserve before they get to a stop, but, if you decide to stop somewhere else, you lose your money on the hotel you reserved in advance. we are driving from a suburb of Chicago, and Valdosta, Ga., was suggested for our rest . since this is our first time driving, i'm not sure we'll make it there. i realize the hotel we might choose will be filled, but, aren't there many to choose from on the main routes?
Please respond, i still have time to reserve if that's a better idea than mine. It's my husband, myself, and my 12 yr. old grandson. Thank you for your thoughts.

I posted the same question to the driving thread before our trip in Oct. for our return drive home and got no help really.

Anyhow what we did on the way back was just drive for awhile until and then picked a GA welcome center and told them how much driving we wanted to do and they made a same day reservation for us that we got to about an hour later.

Other alternative is stopping at places like Waffle House or Shoney's and picking up 1 of those hotel coupon books for discounts. We paid rack rate for our hotel but I made sure to stay in a CI&S since i am in the Carlton Club and had points awarded. If you are in a hotel rewards club you don't get points if you use the coupons.

 

[RedSox68]

We tried this one year driving back from Memphis to Philly in October. It wasn't even a holiday week, but we could not find a single hotel in a 100 mile from where we planned on stopping in Kentucky. We kept driving and in each state it was the same story. We ended up sleeping a few hours in the car at a rest stop and then driving all the way home. It was an awful experience and ever since then we never leave home without hotel reservations ahead. Since you are travelling during a holiday week, I'd be hesitant to hope for vacancies.

 

[lbuher]

Yes, thru Georgia there are hotels at most interchanges. There is a NICE Best Western on the south side of Macon (exit 4? on the bypass). Valdosta had lots of places. You pay more to do it "on the fly," but you have a lot more flexibility.

You are leaving far enough ahead of Thanksgiving that you really should have no problem getting a hotel room, especially if you are looking at that Thursday night. And I agree with you about not knowing when you will want to stop - you have no idea whether or not you will run into rush hour or construction or accident traffic along the way!)

There are some nice hotels in a good area just south of Atlanta (get south of exit 238 - the airport exit - before you even start looking). There are a number to choose from between there and exit 212. If you get past exit 212, you will need to wait another 40 mins or so until you get to the north side of Macon. Go the 475 bypass and there are several in a nice area off exit 9 - that's the Zebulon Road exit. I would not consider the other exits off the bypass (exits 5 and 3) to be as nice of areas or as nice of hotels.

If you get past Macon, the next best area to have a decent selection is Perry -starting around exit 144 or 145, I think. Then your next best bet would be Tifton, which is not too far north of Valdosta.

That should give you some options to choose from, if you can't/don't want to drive all the way to the southern end of Georgia! Please feel free to PM me if you want any more details/suggestions/options! HTH!

ETA:I don't want to imply that there aren't other hotels in between these cities - there definitely are - just not quite as many to choose from right off the interstate!

 

[lbuher]

I keep thinking of more info to add... Will you be driving from Chicago to Indianopolis? We make the trip from Macon to Bloomington, Indiana (about an hour or so south of Indy) 2-3 times a year for the last 10 years. I can tell you that on average, if we stop only for gas and fast food to eat in the car, we can make it usually in about 9 1/2 hours. But that's booking it, and that's with no traffic delays.

Keep that in mind, I guess, when you are trying to decide how far you might get in one day, and how long you want to be on the road. Valdosta is probably 2 hours south of Macon, and you are probably 3 hours or north of Bloomington, so I'm guessing that would add 5 or so hours? You may not even make it to south of Atlanta, and if that's the case, I would encourage you to stop before you get to exit 263 or so north of Atlanta. Dalton is between Chattanooga and Atlanta, and there are a number of nice hotels to choose from there, too.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

We used to not book a room and take our chances. We'd stop at the various welcome centres and grab a booklet and then get off at an exit that had multiple hotels and check each one in our order of preference to see if they had a room available.

Now that we need a wheelchair accessible hotel room, I do have to book in advance. I map quest our route and then judge where I think we'll stop.

I like booking Holiday Inn Express because a) they have a good breakfast, b) they are generally clean and fairly new, c) they have great comfortable beds and d) you can cancel up to 6pm so if it's too far away or too early to stop, I can cancel without charge and try for something else.

Since my Dad (whom I generally travel down to our cruise with) turned 62, I book their senior / AARP rate and generally get a good deal.

By staying at Holiday Inn Expresses on the way down and back last year and this year (paying around $100 a night for the 3 adults), I've already earned almost 3 free nights with their reward program.

 

[KsSteve]

We drove from Phoenix to Orlando in Oct-Nov 2009. We did not book a hotel our first night in El Paso, but from then on, we got on the laptop we had with us and when we were an hour or two from stopping for the night, we would search for a hotel and book it through Travelocity or Hotwire. Much more relaxing this way than hunting for a hotel when we were dead tired from driving.

 

[italiamom]

Thank you all for all the great suggestions, i will print all of them. It seems there is no wrong or right thing to do in this case, and i don't have a smart phone, but i will have our newest GPS and can look up the hotels and their phone # and price them as one of you folks mentioned. I would love to drive as far as Valdosta, but, i have to be realistic about how much we can all take.
we need to be at Kidani on the 19th for 4 nites, and we're pretty sure we will leave our house late on the 17th, we can take our time, in case we run into traffic, or want to stop for a short rest period, or eat lunch on the route.
Thank you all for the good wishes, i'm a little nervous as it gets closer, packing everything, trying to get it all right. Anyone else going on the Nov. 23rd cruise?
Hope to see Viniesmom there.