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My husband and I will be touring the mountain section of North Carolina the third week of August (during the week, not the weekend). Do you think we need to make advance reservations at motels? We'd rather not, so we can linger or hurry on depending on our mood, and not have to tie ourselves to being in a certain town by nightfall. However, if we are apt to find all the rooms taken, we would rather not have to sleep in the vehicle!
We're not looking for Marriott or Westin type accomodations - Days Inn or non-chain equivalent is fine.
If you do a Yahoo or Google maps search of the path you are planning on taking, you can click on a button that will show you hotels in the area. I can't imagine you would ever need to make a reservation if all you are looking for is a place to crash that night.
The only reason I'd recommend the map search is because certain towns will probably have a bunch of options and others may only have a few or none. If you print up hotel towns along a route, for instance, you'll be able to say to each other - "Well, we've got a good hotel town in 20 miles, or its another 30 miles after that. Do you want to keep driving for an hour?" That kind of thing.
Unless you are looking crazy back-country stuff - I'd think you can find a "good hotel town" every 30-40 miles or so. I have driven through West Virginia and southern Virginia and that has been my experience anyway. I agree - its much more fun to go by the seat of your pants. If you find you are tired earlier - stop earlier ... or if you feel like driving to the wee-hours of the night - go nuts!
My husband and I will be touring the mountain section of North Carolina the third week of August (during the week, not the weekend). Do you think we need to make advance reservations at motels?
I'd at least check. You can go to your favorite chain's sites and see if there are hotels in the area, then check availability. Back in February, I was mulling on plans for a short vacation in the Smokies sometime in May and found that all the median priced hotels (70-90/night) were booked already. With traveling costs escalating, people were making sure to put dibs on reasonably rated accomodations.
Most towns of any decent size in the mountains are touristy areas. Not getting a reservation is a gamble unless you don't mind staying at a roach motel when push comes to shove.
Most towns of any decent size in the mountains are touristy areas. Not getting a reservation is a gamble unless you don't mind staying at a roach motel when push comes to shove.
Most towns of any decent size in the mountains are touristy areas. Not getting a reservation is a gamble unless you don't mind staying at a roach motel when push comes to shove.
I've checked the travelocity review site and found the reviews to be quite informative. Sometimes I'll read it just for the entertainment value I hate to see people endure travel nightmares, but the way some of the stories are written, you have to shake your head and chuckle out of sympathy.
Edited to add: I get some strange looks from hotel keepers, but I take my own pillow and a light quilt when I travel, neatly folding the hotel bed cover and setting it with the pillow aside. Also, sanitizing wipes to clean the tv remote. The stuff I've read lately .... *shudder*
Thanks for all the good input. We decided to make Asheville our home base and do day trips from there. We went ahead and reserved a Days Inn at $55/night that includes a full breakfast.
I would highly recommend it, we went to louisburg on a Sat night thinking "who'd go there?" man best western had no vacancy. We were lucky to find vacancy at the econo lodge down the street.
Dawn
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I hate to see people endure travel nightmares, but the way some of the stories are written, you have to shake your head and chuckle out of sympathy.
