71 Days until My "Turkey Day" ;)

Yesiree...2 and half-ish months from now I will be bound for Istanbul and a 2 and a half week jaunt through Turkey!

I've read my Fodor's Turkey guidebook and the brand spanking new Rick Steves' Istanbul guidebook cover to cover. I've scoured the internet in search of restaurant recommendations and most all the trip details are in place and I am ready and roarin' to go!

Just the other day CL and decided that since our flight out of Savannah is at 7am we would book a hotel room for the night before the flight at the Savannah Airport. This way we can get "maximum sleep time"!

Since CL works at the Westin here in Hilton Head she can get a discounted rate of $50 at other hotels in the "Westin Family (Starwood Hotels). So we booked a room at the Four Points by Sheraton at the Savannah Airport.

Now we just have to figure out the logistics of getting over to the Savannah Airport hotel. There's the option of asking a friend to drive us over there and drop us off at the hotel and then someone would have to pick us up upon our return. I also thought about possibly driving there ourselves and leaving the car in the hotel parking lot, like the park and fly options some hotels have. But when I called the hotel to ask about this I was told they do not have a park and fly rate...hmmmm...I may have to make an appearance at their front desk and ask a "real person".

I also considered parking the car in the long-term parking lot at the airport. Yes, it would be for 3 weeks, but if we cancelled the hotel and just drove over the morning of the flight out, it would be 20 days of parking. The charge is $35 per week, so it would be about $105. If CL and I split that it would be just over $50 each. Yes, more then the cost of the hotel room for a night, but less expensive then the airport shuttle van, which is $60 per person round trip from my house.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...

Then there is the hotel for one night in NYC on our return. I'm still working on that. We're trying to see if we can get CL's discount at one of the Starwood hotels in NYC (A Westin, Four Points or Sheraton)...NYC is such an expensive market, so we may not be able to get the discount but we keep trying! :) That is one thing I miss terribly about not working in the hotel business...employee discounts were one of the best benefits! It will all work out in the end!