Monday, September 28, 2009

How do YOU plan a vacation?

We do not vacation much, but we've decided since Britt will be graduating in June that we should take one last family vacation and we've decided to hit Arizona. Yep. The Grand Canyon. Now I just have to plan the darn thing. I'm horrible at planning things. I wish I could just get everyone loaded into the car (yep, I think we're driving) and take off. No plans needed. But of course, that is just not possible! We are thinking of taking 9 days since we're driving. But I'm not sure how I should pick hotels and other things.

So, tell me...do you use a travel agent? Do everything online?
I'm not even sure where to start something like this!

3 comments:

ccqdesigns said...

You are too funny. There are lots of ways to plan a trip like this. Are you a member of AAA? if so, they have a great trip planning service. You can also go to the National Park Service web site which has a trip planner with all the events, hotels, etc. in and near the park.

Have your kids help. Go to the book store and buy state maps of each state you will travel through on your journey. Then have the kids plan a route and search the internet for sites along that route they might like to stop and see. We did this when our boys were 10 and 13 and we ended up stopping to see the largest cow statue in the west and some other rather strange things they found. This way, everyone is involved and it takes the stress off you.

Hotels, are you a member of any hotel club? if not, pick one, sign up and use that hotel almost exclusively along the way. you will build up points, you will know exactly what to expect, and you won't stress about hotels either. Depending on your budget here are some recommendations from low price to higher priced:
Fairfield Inn, Jamison Inn, Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn by Hilton(my personal choice), Courtyard Inn by Marriot, Garden Inn by Hilton. That should take most of the stress out of your trip so have a great vacation and Onward HO!!!

Unknown said...

Hotel clubs? Largest cow statue? Maps? Crap. Brittni would have me stopping at every shoe / handbag store along the way (not that I would mind that!). And Matt. Oh goodness. Area 51, the worlds largest ball of twine. ACK! You laugh, but I'm being serious. I have warped kids that would pick things just so they could add the pictures to the facebook / myspace pages!

Thanks for those suggestions though! I did not know there were hotel clubs you can join!! Seriously looking into that!

DCMetroreader said...

When I was considering a roadtrip I found a site/forum dedicated to roadtrips (I can't remember the site, but if you google roadtrips US I'm sure you will find it).

Also I like tripadvisor for reviews (although be warned that every hotel/tour whatever will probably have half the people loving the hotel & half hating it). Still you do learn a lot of practical info. For instance I found out that one building of a hotel I was staying at smelled moldy, but the other building was fine. So sure enough I was booked into the moldy building, but know enough to complain & switch to the main building.

Good luck!

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