Aug 08 2009
Getting Ready to Hit the Road with Country Inns and Suites
I’ve mentioned Country Inns and Suites before as one of a handful of hotel chains that has rooms big enough for the six of us. When the kids were tiny, we stayed in Roseville and had a beautiful two-bedroom suite that was perfect for us and all of our baby gear. Last year, while attending a wedding in Iowa, we stayed in Cedar Falls and had what is the largest two-bed-sofabed single hotel room that I’ve ever seen.
As a result, when Country Inns and Suites offered us some FREE hotel rooms in exchange for writing about their “Hit the Road Country” summer roadtrip ideas, I jumped at the chance. These roadtrips are designed for last-minute travel, when you don’t have a lot of time to plan ahead. Their suggestions for fun are family-friendly places. Soon we’ll be off, exploring the Streams & Shores itinerary, which has some excellent ideas. With four nights, we’ll explore the Wisconsin Dells area and make a stop in Minneapolis. Circus World in Baraboo, the Wisconsin State Capitol, the Wisconsin Dells Original Duck Tours, and Minneapolis’ Minnehaha Falls are on the list from Country Inns, and we’ll find a few things on our own as well.
Stay tuned; I’ll let you know where we ended up and all about the hotel in the days ahead. In the meantime, I’ll be busy planning and packing.
How far ahead do you usually plan your vacations? What’s your idea of the best last-minute vacation? Let me know in comments.
I also like Country Inn & Suites and will usually try to book a room in one of their hotels on the road (if we’re doing the chain hotel thing). In fact, we stayed in one in Ohio on our recent road trip and often stay at the one in Holyoke, MA on our way up to Vermont.
Hope you have a good time in Madison! Let me know if I can offer any tips.
Oh, and regarding the last-minute thing – I often plan the major outlines of a trip far in advance but leave the details until just before. Our recent road trip is a good example of that – I knew roughly where we’d be going and what the time period would be but made no plans or hotel reservations until the week before we left.
[...] off on our Country Inns and Suites vacation to Wisconsin. Usually we head out on a trip first thing in the morning, but the kids had [...]