How safe?

[Freyja]

We´re still thinking of going on a road trip next summer (august), driving from NYC to Orlando.
We´ll be spending 3 weeks in total, 4-5 days in NYC, a week in Florida and approx. 9 days on the road (including a couple of nights in Washington DC).

Don´t really want to book all accomodation in advance. How easy/difficult will it be to find accomodation for a family of 6? How safe are roadside motels? Anything we should avoid?

Thanks guys, you´re always such help.

 

[Diva of Dragons]

DH and I learned the hard way to always make advance ressies when road tripping, especially during high travel periods. We have made more than 12 cross country trips and have been to all but 5 states....all by car (except Hawaii, which we got to by ship )! Decide about how far you want to go each day and find a place a stay, in advance. With 6 people, you will be glad you did!!

 

[Freyja]

Thanks. I´ll keep that in mind.

 

[TTFN]

My husband decided he was a "savvy traveler" a few years ago. He said if we waited until we got to our destination, we could get the leftover rooms cheap! Unfortunately, there were no leftover rooms in any place but one really dirty (really, really dirty) place. Never again...I book rooms before we arrive, even if it's just the night before.

 

[GeorgeG]

You might also want to stay at reputable hotel chains like Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn and such. It may cost a little more, but there should be fewer surprises. After a long day of driving you don't need unpleasant surprises.

 

[Freyja]

You might also want to stay at reputable hotel chains like Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn and such. It may cost a little more, but there should be fewer surprises. After a long day of driving you don't need unpleasant surprises.

Does Best Western qualify into that category?

 

[shep]

Does Best Western qualify into that category?

I would think so...That is one of our favorites chains..

 

[Whosemom]

We went this summer and only booked our "destination places" not our "stop-overs". We have a family of 5, and it went mid June. We had no problems. I think as a hedge, if you take your Best Western book (or a AAA guidebook for more choices) and decide at lunch time how much farther you want to go, you could start calling then. I'd have WDW and someplace in DC booked, i think.

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

I've driven from LI to Tampa Bay many times. We tried the 'we'll get a room when we get there' ordeal. I wouldn't reccommend it. Most places are booked. (We've hit race weekends more than once where most of the hotels along I95 are completely booked.) We used to stay at Hampton Inns and never had a problem. Your best bet would be to stay at those type hotels. We used to stay at the Hampton Inn in Florence, SC. Then on the way back in the Hampton Inn in Roanoke Rapids, NC. That left about 12 hours of driving each day, just to give you a reference of where you might end up.

Just remember, if you plan on driving at night, most of the rest areas close. We drove straight through once and by about 9pm they were all closed. We had to search for a well lit gas station.

 

[shirleyb]

I'll be a dissenting vote on this one. We've made the road trip from PA to WDW twice, and of course we had rooms at WDW booked, but along the way, we never had issues finding a place to stay, and I like the option to be flexible, and stop when we want, not because we're locked into a place to stay.

 

[M 'n C]

Everytime my family drives somewhere far away (like this trip of yours) they try to do the drive until they can't drive anymore and then find a hotel. Well it never works out and we end up having to keep driving which means very tired, cranky people in the car. There is always something going on somewhere that takes up all the hotel rooms. The last time we were driving from Pittsburg back to Baton Rouge apparently something was going on in Kentucky that took up all the rooms between Kentucky and Mississippi and by the time we reached Jackson, MS we just drove the other 3 hours to get home. Same thing happened on our trip from Pigeon Forge (sp??) and the Nascar race was in talladega and took up every room in 3 states. Please make advance ressies. Your family will thank you.

 

[pperfectmom]

I'd go ahead and book your rooms for DC, NYC and Orlando. I don't think you'll have a problem anywhere else. Part of the fun of a road trip is not knowing where you'll end up that night. As for rest areas being closed, in all my years of travelling, I have never seen a rest area that closes at night. You may run into a couple closed for remodeling, but I don't know of any state that closes theirs at night. When travelling at night I do try to stop at gas stations instead(primarily if I'm travelling alone) and I would definately not let children go in rest areas without an adult, not because I have ever heard of any problems it's just better to be safe than sorry.

To add one more thing to whether or not to book rooms here's a warning. We went to the beach this past summer and DH decided to get online to book us a room in Winston-Salem, NC. He secured it with a credit card and we got about halfway there and realized we didn't print directions, have any idea where it was located or even the full name of the place. We drove around until 3:00 am before finally stumbling upon it with a dubious "I think that's it," from DH. Well, of course the kids had been asleep the whole drive so we used the room to watch the Cartoon Network for a few hours while they ran around the room. How relaxing! I guess the moral of this story is to make sure you print out a copy of any arrangements including telephone numbers. Also, be aware that if you put a credit card down to reserve a room they don't care if you show up or not and will charge you.

 

[CharityLynn]

We had no problems with finding hotel rooms this past Oct when we drove from Michigan to Orlando. We grabbed those discount books at the rest stops and really had no problems. Except on the way home there was a race in Georgia and we had to drive in crappy weather about a hour longer than we wanted, luckily the weather got better just past Atlanta. But we will definately do it again

 

[freckles and boo]

It would be nearly impossible to know what is going on in any given locality that could be sucking up hotel rooms. College football games, cheerleading competions, NASCAR races, conventions... I tend to err on the side of caution when travelling unfamiliar territory with my kids. Chances are you will be able to find someplace to stay without reservations, but it may not be ideal. Cheap roadside motels are not usually good places for kids - they are cheap for a reason. I am not a big fan of rooms that open out onto a parking lot. I agree with a previous post about trying to stay in a recognized chain (check hotels.com or a site like travelocity.com to see which names pop up over and over).

 

[drgnfly30]

Not to mention that by booking in advance you can try to get the 'best' rate. Just showing up at a hotel, you'll most likely be paying rack rates.