Traveling with camper/stay at a hotel?

[flash828]

Just curious. Any of you long distance travelers pulling your RV stay at a hotel for the convenience? Just been pricing some hotels (Hilton/ Best western/ Comfort inn) with our employee or travel discounts compared to campgrounds prices where we would plan to stop. Only about a $10-$15 difference on some. Since we pull a hybrid (a little extra setup) and would be driving until about 8 pm it seems like we might lean towards the hotel.

 

[bama_ed]

Hey flash,

I've done it when I've wanted to keep driving after dark for whatever reason. If the cost difference is that small, I would probably have done it more often (lol).

When I got there I just parked far away to not block parking spots near the hotel entrance and tried to park under a light pole if possible so my rig was illuminated (and less susceptible to mischief).

No one will look down on your for it - and some of us will be jealous! Do it - and sleep well!

Bama Ed

 

[bjschil]

Every January, we travel with our 44 foot fifth wheel to the Fort, from Wisconsin. Because we are winterized, we choose not to undo such until at the Fort. I use Google maps/satellite to scout out where would stay, to see if easy in/out and an extended parking lot. We typically make two long days driving, but stop by 7:00 pm. Good luck.

 

[Sjm9911]

I plan on doing the same from nj. After driving 10 hours, i really dont want to set up the pop up then take it down and drive another 5 or 6 hours to the fort. I rather relax in a pool!

 

[Teamubr]

I've always found a cg for under $50. The only time I stayed in a hotel was last September heading to the Fort. We planned on getting to Lake Louisa S.P, 30 minutes from the Fort, but a broken intercooler pipe on the truck stuck us in Atlanta overnight. With no way to run the A/C and 90 degrees, we decided to stay in a hotel.

Nothing like taking up 10 parking spots. You can't tell in the pic, but this parking lot was on a really steep hill. I set the parking brake on the truck REALLY well and chocked all 4 wheels on the trailer.



j

 

[bama_ed]

I've always found a cg for under $50. The only time I stayed in a hotel was last September heading to the Fort. We planned on getting to Lake Louisa S.P, 30 minutes from the Fort, but a broken intercooler pipe on the truck stuck us in Atlanta overnight. With no way to run the A/C and 90 degrees, we decided to stay in a hotel.

Nothing like taking up 10 parking spots. You can't tell in the pic, but this parking lot was on a really steep hill. I set the parking brake on the truck REALLY well and chocked all 4 wheels on the trailer.

View attachment 398819

j

Yeah but at the hotel, somebody else cooks and prepares the hot breakfast so I usually in my head consider breakfast worth $10 per person each. That's a $20 delta for a couple. Plus the benefit of the extra hours drive, et cetera, et cetera.

Bamam Ed

 

[flash828]

Yes, the hotel will feed our family of 4 . It's really the setup and walking into a hot camper after a long drive that the major turn off.

 

[trubgerg]

When I was a kid and my parents had a pop up trailer, we would do the hotel stay while driving from MA to Disney World. Once they upgraded and there was no popping up that needed to be done, we'd stay at a campground and leave the trailer hitched up so we could make a quick getaway in the morning.

 

[4077]

Have done the hotel stay as well....last time left late in day and drove until 1 AM-ish. Had hotel planned and reserved after many looks at google to see where would have best parking option. Easier to have an overnight bag together to just run into hotel with kiddos rather than even the minimal staying hooked up set up to get into trailer (need to open slide to get to bunks...hooking up power and water (since I do not use the fresh water tank)..and so forth and so on).

 

[michelb]

It depends a lot on your setup but for us, it's way easier / faster / cheaper to drive until I'm tired and then find a nearby Walmart (or similar) that allows overnight stays, stop for the night and get back on the road fast in the morning.

There are actually several benefits :
1) You don't need to plan (and change plans if you get anything unexpected (e.g. traffic). Just drive until you are ready so stop and then find one nearby
2) I prefer sleeping in my own bed, having my own stuff and eating my own food.
3) It's fast, you can usually find a suitable place to stop within a few miles of the highway (often less) - campgrounds tend to be quite a bit farther. No setup, no registration. In the morning, we just have a quick breakfast and go and are back on the road in no time. We tow a car on a dolly behind our motor home and at many campgrounds, I don't fit in the site with the car attached so I have to take the car off the dolly when we arrive and then re-attach it in the morning when we leave. If it's back in sites, I usually have to take the dolly off as well (unless it's super straight, it's hard to back the dolly in the right place with the motor home).
4) We typically need supplies from Walmart anyway so stopping there saves us a trip later (I usually get the kids ready for bed while my wife goes to buy whatever we need).
5) It's free (although with our Thousand Trails membership we can often stay for free at campgrounds if there are any in the area, it's often better just going to Walmart).

 

[rideswithchrist]

With the popup, we stayed in hotels. It was a pain one night because we had to unhook and park next to it in one hotel. BUT it was nice having hot coffee and breakfast. Except that we got crazy sick of waffles and wanted "real food" anyway. It was also not a $10 difference for us. Our cheapest hotel was $85, most expensive was $130. I am sure we could have gotten a campground for $20-50 and just ate the sandwich stuff we had in the car.

We are looking at a TT so we can do some Walmart stop overs because like michelb said, we had to go to Walmart ANYWAY, so that was two stops when we could have just made one.

 

[flash828]

I guess with the rest area, Walmart stops you guys are either using a generator or 'suffering ' through hot summer nights? Am mainly asking the tow behind crowd.

 

[michelb]

I guess with the rest area, Walmart stops you guys are either using a generator or 'suffering ' through hot summer nights? Am mainly asking the tow behind crowd.

We (in Class A motor home) usually only need to stay at Walmart's during the Fall and Spring (we don't usually do long travels during the rest of the year) and at that time of year don't typically need to run the generator between 11pm-7am. But I wouldn't really hesitate to do it at rest areas or Walmarts at that time if I had to - there's usually trucks coming in / out all night long and they are much louder than our generator. We will often run it as we need to until 9-10pm (using microwave, running AC for a few hours if we do need to cool down, etc).

 

[mickeyfan0805]

We've done it a few times. I can usually find a pull-through at a relatively low cost for the overnight stop, and the brief set-up of the rig for a one-nighter (I often don't even uncouple the trailer) is actually less of a hassle than getting out gear for the hotel room, etc...

That said, winter temps, late arrivals, etc... are all very valid reasons to choose a hotel for a night. And, yes, when we had a hybrid I was a little more likely to do it as well. I would usually find a place that showed ample parking options on satellite imagery (I learned that 'truck parking' isn't always what it's cracked up to be), and never had any issues.