We did the same thing recently pretty much. We drove straight from Boston to Niagara Falls, Canada in 1 day but decided to split the ride up to come home. Basically we visited Niagara Falls, NY on the way home and didn't know how long we would be there. We also thought if we had enough time we would visit the science museum in Syracuse with our local museum recipricality but we were too late.
We stayed at Crestview Suites in East Syracuse. Considering dh left our gps cord at home it was really easy to find. I don't know why but when we booked it was cheaper to get a 2 bedroom suite.
We had one bedroom with a king size bed and its own bathroom, a second bedroom with two queen beds and its own full bathroom, a living room with a sofa, table with 4 chairs and kitchen with stove, oven, apartment size fridge, pots, pans, dishes, dishwasher etc. When we got to the hotel they served hamburgers and hotdogs plus continental breakfast in the morning. There was an outdoor pool which we didn't use, and free laundry. Our room was clean and looking under the mattress,sheets etc no signs of bugs. After tax it was $125 for the night. It was nice to get an earlier good nights sleep and leave with clean laundry. Laundry is free but a box of soap was $1.00 if you need it.
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We would never survive driving 7-8 hours
