If you want to relax- make your home real nice or buy a camper, and don't eat out.....

[Fitter30]

When driving and needing a room first i drive around the motel if theres trash, filthy loading area keep driving. Restaurants the same way if it's dirty outside dirty inside. Have good luck with mom and pop motels.
might be old but clean.

 

[RDY4WAR]

It ain't no vacation if you have to cook on it. I ain't got one but assume most wives would agree.

I beg the differ. My wife and I have several "staycations" a year. The in-laws take the kids for a couple of days, and we just enjoy ourselves at home. We enjoy cooking things that we'll enjoy together without having to fuss with the kids who think anything that doesn't taste like mcnuggets is disgusting. We kick back on the porch with a bottle of wine. Do whatever we feel like doing, and have more fun doing it then on a vacation away from home.

I also have a bad back and almost every hotel bed I've encountered is like laying on brick. The Hilton doubletree has been decent, but still not quite there. I have an adjustable bed at home and miss it when we're away.

 

[Hall]

The driving trip from Chicago to Washington is a great drive with lots of beautiful scenery.

Doesn't Amtrak have a route from Chicago to the west coast ? That's something I'd like to do someday.

 

[555]

I usually check rates at Hampton Inn first.
Then check address at spotcrime.com
If I've got a trailer then neighborhood is important.

 

[dadto2]

I don't go to a hotel to enjoy the hotel. As long as it has a bed and a shower, I'm good to go. When I go places, I go there to do stuff, the hotel is just a place to sleep and clean up, then I'm back to doing stuff.

I sleep in a tent as often as I sleep in a hotel. Usually the tent is much closer to the fun stuff than a hotel can ever be!

 

[GON]

I don't go to a hotel to enjoy the hotel. As long as it has a bed and a shower, I'm good to go. When I go places, I go there to do stuff, the hotel is just a place to sleep and clean up, then I'm back to doing stuff.

I sleep in a tent as often as I sleep in a hotel. Usually the tent is much closer to the fun stuff than a hotel can ever be!

Issue is the many top rated hotel chains have rooms that the toilet doesn't work, sink definitely won't drain, and one can leave the rest to their imagination and critical thinking. My stays in four different southeastern state hotels last week all had one thing in common- filthy showers.

 

[RazorsEdge]

Issue is the many top rated hotel chains have rooms that the toilet doesn't work, sink definitely won't drain, and one can leave the rest to their imagination and critical thinking. My stays in four different southeastern state hotels all had one thing in common- filthy showers.

Then people wonder why we've got diseases,part of the problem is cleanliness!

 

[wwillson]

Doesn't Amtrak have a route from Chicago to the west coast ? That's something I'd like to do someday.

Yes they do, but it is expensive and will take you a long time to get there. It will be about 6 days of travel and about $1750 round trip.

 

[eljefino]

I buy brakes from AutoShack on ebay but only stay in $100+ hotels. I can only hope this reduces the chances of bed bugs. Any other amenities are a bonus.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

I haven't been over fifty miles from home in years. And now, I have narrowed down the choke and puke places to one. The Burger King here can't find enough help to open the dinning room. Drive-Thru only and two people trying to do it all. Applebees is now on my feces list as the help clearly don't want to be there and just waiting for going home time. It seems that people just don't give a big rat's hind end about anything but their own little world. Good luck with that guys. Glad I will not be around to see it.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Yes they do, but it is expensive and will take you a long time to get there. It will be about 6 days of travel and about $1750 round trip.

Two. Chicago to San Francisco and Chicago to LA. This was the Super Chief route on the AT&SF and the Forty Niner route on the UPRR.I wouldn't expect too much.

 

[Hall]

and will take you a long time to get there. It will be about 6 days of travel

That part wouldn't bother me. If I were going out west for something in particular, just plan around the travel time.

and about $1750 round trip.

Now that part is stupid (in terms of cost). I just picked a random date on the "Empire Builder" route and a "room" is $933. That's for (1) person, one-way trip too !

 

[01rangerxl]

Are trains generally good today, or does it depend on the route? My parents liked Amtrak in the 1990s up to around 2001. I remember taking Amtrak trains then a couple times and it was generally a good experience. It was slow and the food was terrible, but the scenery was pretty good. The last trip I remember was NC to Washington DC around 2000.

Around 2006-2007 some friends would occasionally use Amtrak to get between Charlotte, NC and Durham, NC. That route was bad. There were fights, lots of sketchy people, etc. It was like 1970s New York compared to what I experienced a few years before.

 

[wwillson]

I've taken Amtrak from Chicago to Milwaukee many time for business meetings. It's not possible to drive the route, during rush, as fast as the train can get you there, not even close.

 

[jhs914]

Since retiring I haven't been on an airplane and won't fly unless absolutely necessary.

All of our vacation travel is within a one day drive of home and typically to the same locations and we have found that bed and breakfasts offer cleaner and more comfortable accommodations than hotels/motels. We have developed close personal relationships and friendships with the same B&B owners over the years. The good ones have some of the best home cooked breakfasts you can find and after many return visits they remember our favorites and will prepare them without asking. They also remember which room we prefer when booking. They are like a home away from home.

 

[PandaBear]

I buy brakes from AutoShack on ebay but only stay in $100+ hotels. I can only hope this reduces the chances of bed bugs. Any other amenities are a bonus.

Adjusted for location I agree, I typically stay only in 8/10 and above rating motels / hotels. Don't need to be nice, but need to be clean / no surprise and not popular with other sketchy guests. I've picked 2.5 star Comfort Inn instead of 4 star aging places for the same price across the street based on recent Hotels.com / Trip Advisor reviews. I've done enough stays to know that brand name means nothing these days unless you go to places like 4 Seasons or Ritz Carlton (even then you may get into incidents but much less likely).

Last year was real bad when desperate hotel owners / operators would lower price to a point that anyone can afford to do house arrest in a 4 star hotel. As you would imagine this also correlates to management cutting corners on cleaning and maintenance.

 

[zzyzzx]

The luxury chains? If I'm on the road I look for the cheapest of the cheap chains or maybe even an indy. Motel 6, Econolodge, Super 8, etc. Just need a place to sleep and a bathroom. Under $50 OTD or I keep driving to the next town.

 

[zzyzzx]

It's crazy how variable restaurant food quality has become. Maybe I'm seeing things through rose colored glasses, but I think takeout/eating out was a lot better 10 years ago. Granted I lived in a different city then, but visited the one I live in now, and I really feel with the exception of taco trucks, takeout quality is down, especially at chains. My favorite places now are taco trucks. Nobody else seems to know how to cook chicken anymore.

McDonalds in the 80's was noticeably better then it is today.

 

[zzyzzx]

This is one of the reasons why I vacation in Atlantic City. All the hotel casino's are nice places. I've stayed in all of them on the boardwalk and never been disappointed. Reasonably priced too (as long as you don't stay over on a Friday or Saturday night).

 

[wander2039]

Well that's why we have our RV.. we have stayed at couple motels but haven't had any issues with the rooms. But those rooms were LOUD due to poor location, I think there's shortage of mufflers also. Now food I agree 100%. If you don't have a kitchen that travels you're stuck with restaurants and they're not all good. We typically eat at fast chains we don't have local.. In and Out, Whataburger etc.. but the last trip we ate at a mom/pop that was supposed to have good buffalo burgers. $70ish later WRONG.. it was terrible and big waste of $$. Like wwilson my wife loves to cook and I usually do the clean up also. Food choices can be terrible in US, now over in Thailand/Laos the food choices were awesome and most of time right out in the street.