What's A Gal To Do When Looking For a Hotel Deal?

Although I am taking off for Russia next month, I've also now booked two trips to NYC, one in September and one in December, and a one week trip to Sonoma County California in November.

With my Russia trip plans in order (well, there is the Visa issue to contend with), I have turned my sights to booking accommodations for the rest of my trips this year.  Some may think it's a bit too early to book for the fall, but for the travel planner I am, it's not.  Well, at least in my mind it's not too early!

For the December NYC trip I turned to my Intercontinental connection and got a Friends & Family rate at the new-ish Intercontinental near Times Square in NYC, for a not too bad price of $220 per night. 

For the Sonoma County trip in November I turned to a California friend for a hotel recommendation.  She whole-heartedly advised Healdsburg is a terrific town to use as a base location in the area and gave me a great lead on the Healdsburg Inn. When I contacted the inn directly, they couldn't have been nicer and since I'm traveling with my mom, I was able to secure the senior citizen discount for our 6 night stay.  So for about $275 per night we will be staying right in the heart of Healdsburg where we can walk to wine tasting rooms and a variety of restaurants without having to deal with who drives after enjoying wine with dinner!

My last hurdle was finding a NYC hotel for the September trip.  It's a quick weekend trip and I was looking for 2 nights accommodation.  I'm pretty sure at this point at least one Broadway show will be on the agenda that weekend and I wanted to stay somewhere with easy access to mid-town Manhattan and specifically close to Times Square, but not necessarily in Times Square.

I went back to my trusty Friends & Family option with Intercontinental and either the rates for the locations I wanted were no bargain, or the rate was good but the location was farther than where I wanted to be.  So, I started trolling the websites Hotwire, Room Key and TravelZoo for any great deals that might pop up.

For about a week I was not having much luck, rates were not super astronomical by NYC standards, but in the back of my mind I knew something better would pop-up.  Then it did, a TravelZoo deal for the Paramount Hotel on West 46th street.  I could book the first night for $220 and the second night for $189 and free wi-fi was thrown into the deal.  So I booked it, knowing if I found something even better that the cancellation policy allowed me to cancel without a penalty.

The Paramount deal was good, but after reading some of the comments on Trip Advisor I started having misgivings.  It's an older property which can mean "wonky" issues with rooms (size, lighting, bathroom issues). 

Zoom forward one week from when I booked the Paramount deal and I receive a new TravelZoo email deal for the Millennium Broadway Hotel, a hotel I've stayed at before, which is significantly more modern than The Paramount, and I liked (alot!).  And the Millennium Hotel deal was even better!  I quickly booked the two nights I needed for $189 per night.  A slight savings over The Paramount Hotel deal.  With the new hotel booked I cancelled The Paramount reservation and now I am set for an autumn full of fun and travel adventures!

Now I can start looking for restaurants, sites and activities to occupy my time in these terrific destinations!

June...A Travel Planning Month

Aside from coping with the whole Russia visa process, June is shaping up to become a travel planning month for me...   (NYC in September and December, Atlanta in September and California in November)

I'm gonna be a busy girl!

It all started a few weeks ago with a discussion about when mom and I should go to NYC this year and we decided since we have Christmas Eve and Christmas days off from work, that's when it would be, and plane tickets were purchased.  Then I found out about the  Il Volo concert in Atlanta at the Fox Theater and how could we pass up seeing these young gifted singers from Italy?  And it helps that they are incredibly handsome in that youthful sort of way.

But, then a week later there was a 24 hour fare sale on Delta airlines and how could we let that opportunity pass us by? So after consulting calendars and calculating how much vacation time we'd have available tickets to NYC in September (Labor Day weekend) and California in November (the week of Veteran's Day) were purchased.

Now, NYC is  a no-brainer for us, we just love it so much and planning a visit (or two) there is a snap for mom and I.  But when I saw the deal on a flight from Savannah to San Francisco I just had to say something to mom.  The issue was that we've been to San Francisco twice in the last 3 years and although we enjoy spending time there, it really wasn't calling our names. 

Then I got to thinking...we frequently said we wanted to see the Sonoma & Napa wine country.  Doing it as day trips from San Francisco always seemed to leave us unsatisfied.  What if we go to California for more than a long weekend?  What if we stretch it out to a week?  What if we rent a car and drive to Sonoma and Napa Valleys and actually spend a whole week there?  Mom was really diggin' that idea...soooo...tickets to San Francisco for a week in November were purchased!

Now with airfares for three trips purchased the hotel hunting can begin and then of course there is the digging through the list of Broadway shows we want to see and the wineries we want to visit.

Ah yes, June is going to be a heavy trip research month!