kevin_standlee (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kevin_standlee) wrote2023-06-20 08:44 pm
kevin_standlee) wrote2023-06-20 08:44 pm
Road Trip Rooms Booked
After Lisa and I spent quite a while this past weekend looking over maps and considering that we have to make our daily trip legs shorter on the return trip than the outbound, today I booked our hotel rooms for the road trip to Winnipeg. While we initially were trying to plan a trip that was a complete circle, the trip is now more like a "word balloon" or a lasso-shaped trip, with the segment from Fernley to Elko to Idaho Falls being the same both out and back. Generally speaking, on the way out we'll aim toward Winnipeg relatively directly. On the way back, we'll first head west on the Trans-Canada Highway before heading south through the Glacier Park area. Our original plans were to spent at least one night in Essex MT at the Izaak Walton Inn, preferably in the Locomotive Suite; however, the new owners have temporarily closed the hotel until next December for extensive renovations. We'll see if we can sneak in and get a picture or two as we pass through the area.
My IHG preferences have to give in cases where there are either no IHG properties or no properties at a price I'm willing to pay. Kalispell MT is a case of the latter. The Holiday Inn Express is going at $450/night! That's a place where we'll go way down-market to an EconoLodge. In addition, for our final night in Winnipeg before we head west, I'll use some of my IHG points rather than paying cash for the room. The other two Canadian IHG hotels in which we're staying are more reasonably priced.
We could save money by booking the non-refundable advance rates, but we consider this too risky. There are enough variables in the trip as it is, and if something requires us to change our plans, we need to maintain some flexibility.
Another place where the IHG prices are through the roof is Butte MT, and there we're going to try an independent hotel that's conveniently located. In their case, a "junior suite" would be only about $130/night, but unfortunately it's booked for the night we'd be coming through, so we'll have to settle for a less expensive standard room.
We'll try to do railroad tourism along the way, so for example between Kalispell and Butte, we'll stop at Deer Lodge, site of the driving of the Milwaukee Road's last spike in 1909. We continue to research other interesting places to visit as our relatively limited travel time allowed. As we're using the largest part of our tourism taking the train from Winnipeg to Churchill and back, we won't be able to stop for long elsewhere on a road trip that will exceed three weeks as it is.
My IHG preferences have to give in cases where there are either no IHG properties or no properties at a price I'm willing to pay. Kalispell MT is a case of the latter. The Holiday Inn Express is going at $450/night! That's a place where we'll go way down-market to an EconoLodge. In addition, for our final night in Winnipeg before we head west, I'll use some of my IHG points rather than paying cash for the room. The other two Canadian IHG hotels in which we're staying are more reasonably priced.
We could save money by booking the non-refundable advance rates, but we consider this too risky. There are enough variables in the trip as it is, and if something requires us to change our plans, we need to maintain some flexibility.
Another place where the IHG prices are through the roof is Butte MT, and there we're going to try an independent hotel that's conveniently located. In their case, a "junior suite" would be only about $130/night, but unfortunately it's booked for the night we'd be coming through, so we'll have to settle for a less expensive standard room.
We'll try to do railroad tourism along the way, so for example between Kalispell and Butte, we'll stop at Deer Lodge, site of the driving of the Milwaukee Road's last spike in 1909. We continue to research other interesting places to visit as our relatively limited travel time allowed. As we're using the largest part of our tourism taking the train from Winnipeg to Churchill and back, we won't be able to stop for long elsewhere on a road trip that will exceed three weeks as it is.