We (Mostly the wife) used to do that. Every moment plotted out. Then one vacation six years ago, I told her enough of that rigid, inflexible stuff, we're going to try it my way for a change. Eight days, NW Ohio to Boston, on up to coastal Maine and back. Nothing predetermined. We'd just stop and see whatever we wanted, look at for local attractions for the next day's destination online or at the state welcome centers, and book a room online once we figured out where we wanted to end that day, usually an hour or two before we'd had enough time on the road.

It scared her to try it, but it was the first "best vacation ever" in a series of them since then; it's almost all we do now. (Well, except for the last one, three days of 50's, windy and rain isn't fun no matter what you do. On trips like that, the most important thing is that the hotel has to have a dryer!) After semi-retiring 4 years ago, the longest trip was 28 days, with only one semi-scary room.

Mostly we use either the free hotel guides at gas stations, or maybe a web search, and likewise usually call the hotel directly. Heh, some times we'd do both and get the same room cheaper! Then just pop the address into the GPS.

We're on a trike, and can usually go 5-6 days between laundry stops, and that's gotten us from 41 degrees in drizzly snow in the mountains to 113 degrees full sun in the desert; the packing part definitely still needs careful planning. But now we travel much more relaxed, and end up finding the most interesting places and people.

Oh, travel hint: hot day, need to cool off for a bit mid-day, somewhere quiet? Almost every small town has a public library! Plus clean bathrooms and nobody tries to get you to buy anything.

 

I have probably stayed in 50/60 different motels this summer on "The Journeys". First of all; I always take a small tent, foam and sleeping bag with me, just in case I don't find a Motel.

I pretty much know where I am going the next day, so at night I open two apps. The first is Bookings.com and do a search for what is there. If I don't have succes there, I go to Hotels.com. (I don't work for, nor get a special deal from either). Usually I find something at one of these two.

On the sites I search with cheapest price first. I then start reading the reviews. I just look for the complaints and if it hits 50% in the reviews, I go to the next motel. I have a top end dollar limit for each town or city; so that can be a variable depending on the size of the town and if there are special events going on.

Using this method I can say that I have only had one motel this summer that was really sketchy and was WAY overpriced. Of course, that was the labour day weekend and I was in Flagstaff, along with everyone else.

I am always looking for a Mom & Pop that has parking at my room door.

My biggest complaint was that a lot of motels did not have coffee machines in the room. I like to have a coffee when I get ready in the morning. Iwill solve that next year by taking a ceramic cup, and instant coffee (I am pretty much a coffee ****) and whitner and sugar, as every room I stayed in had a microwave. I will break it out when needed.

If I am unable to find a place this way, then I stop just outside of the town, and check the sites again. That turns into a bit of a crap shoot, but once this summer I stayed in a $400 a night suite, for $50 doing that. Just caught the sale as it happened.

If nothing that way, then once up and down Motel row, and pick your poison.

I only got ripped off once, was always able to stay in my budget and never broke the tent out once.

Another thing I do is not to walk in and say "I have a reservation ". I always ask what the least expensive rate they have for a single person. Once they tell me that I then say who I am. If there at the door rate is lower than the bookings rate, most often they will go or the lower rate. I have saved $20 to $30 doing that, and the few times they didn't honor it, it was a 10 to 20 dollar difference so it offsets itself. I called bookings and they told me they would honor the rate, but that I had to call them and they needed to talk to the manager. I was always up, and the $10 didn't seem worth the effort after a 12 hour day.

 

I hear you brother. Lack of coffee is a deal breaker for me. My first question before booking was always about in-room coffee.

I wound up buying a small electric tea kettle on Amazon, then went to a backpacking store and bought an insulated coffee mug with no handle and a collapsible cone dripper which fit inside nicely. I throw in my own real coffee (nothing fancy, just strong) and some paper filters. The whole setup is about the size of an old-fashioned oil can and weighs next to nothing.

 

Even though I have a route planned out, I don't really know where I'll be at what time, or even what day sometimes, so I use a booking app at about noon or so the day of. I figure out where I'll be at dinner and find a room. There have been timed that I didn't book until around 5 or 6pm, and rode until 9 or 10. I have a tent and a sleeping bag just in case.

 

I use hotels.com. A free night after every 10, tons of honest reviews and customer photos of places so you get a better idea of what a place is like when it's not your normal chain hotel or motel and the best prices.

 

I'll have some kind of idea where I'll end up by early/mid afternoon that day. Then, I google "motels" for that particular town. I generally stay at the lower priced places, but may "splurge" for one night at a better place.

 

Hotels.com for research & reviews then call or show up at hotel directly...this past weekend stayed at the Regal Inn in Clayton,GA on way back from Cherohala Skyway... $60 on hotels.com but $50 in person...old school but clean, king bed, park at door, beer store next door, home cooking restaurant two doors down. Good times.

 

i almost always just wing it. We travel back roads and stay out of major cities as much as possible. In the little towns, we just stop in a few mom and pop motels and check the rates. 2 years in a row we carried camping stuff up to sturgis, just in case and never even unpacked it, so now we just head the direction we are going and it always seems to work out. booking rates are wierd sometimes. I have been in the lobby of a chain motel and booked a room on my phone while standing at the front counter.

 

Necro'd the thread, but this had to be addressed...

I spent about 130 nights in a hotel room last year -- a different one each night. I pretty much travel for a living. For coffee aficionados the linked product can't be beaten. I would typically grind my coffee at home and pack it in plastic bags. If you plan to hit the road for an extended period them maybe just take a page out of City Slickers and schlep a small grinder and bag of beans with you. Just microwave some water and you're in business...

 

As another former heavy traveler and coffee lover, here's the absolute, #1, most important thing for good hotel coffee: NEVER use the tap water. It's usually full of chlorine, and will destroy your good coffee. Always use bottled water. Really. You won't believe the difference.