Location is always priority for us, even though it sometimes mean we pay more and/or sacrifice amenities. At work when discussion project development schedules, we used to joke - “Good, Fast, Cheap - pick any two”. I’m smiling now thinking that the equivalent for travel lodging is “Good amenities, Convenient location, Affordable rates - pick any two”
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Now that I’m retired, I generally pick good amenities and convenient location. I’m willing to pay more and the rates are definitely higher! When I was younger and we had more expenses, rates were more important and the other two were a distant second/third.
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I have a 3 night reservation in Yosemite Valley Lodge in August, and I picked it just for the location, and realized it might be rustic/run down. Sounds spot on based on your description.
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We loved staying at cabins in Yosemite Valley. Yes, they were rustic, but if that’s what you expect, the location is SUPBERB!
That’s why I travel to national parks—to immerse myself in them. We always try to book INSIDE the park instead of spending so much time going back in forth between lodging and park.
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It’s rustic and not necessarily clean around the edges. Lots of spider webs between the screens and windows, killed a worm in the bathtub and saw one high on a ceiling no where near my bed, and some mold etc. by the tub. I brought a fly swatted, Clorox wipes, and screen repair tape based on reviews.
And if you need something in the future, like room cleaning, go to the front desk instead of calling and make sure they write it down. So they can’t claim later there’s no record - this happened to me and another.
My room:
My tub; the black specks are the rust (?) that came off the drain when I ran water:
Unfortunately Yosemite Falls will likely be dried up in August.
Our tour meals took us out and back in two different entrances (because Yosemite Lodge would only do breakfast buffets for Road Scholar, no sit down plated meals) and OMG the amount of extra time that took! Not to mention the lines at the gates which fortunately only held us up 20 or so minutes. People seem fine staying in the gateway communities and doing that extra driving but I would never.
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We would even get groceries so people could eat/drink without standing in long lines. That worked for many times with young kids that would have melted down if we didn’t have groceries at the ready. We would often be able to find SOMETHING appealing as a dining option and hot meal—not gourmet but edible.
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It is nice to stay within a national park, when that is an option. In June 2019 we took a trip to Glacier National Park. We planned it only about 2 months ahead, mainly because we picked dates where Going to The Sun road might not be open (and it was not). We did 2 nights at Many Glaciers hotel - a lovely histori old lodge. It had a nice restaurant and bar eatery and small grocery store with sandwiches. Next it was 2 nights at Rising Sun Motor Lodge, also in the park. We thought it might be a let down, but we enjoyed the change of pace. We ate a few meals at the simple restaurant and got sandwiches at the store. One night we drove over to the campground for ranger talk (it’s walkable… but bears, oh my!). Then we drove a few hours around the park to stay in a VRBO unit in Whitefish, near the West entrance to the park. It was Ok, but being in the park was even nicer.
Yes, We stayed IN the park at Glacier and loved it! We were fortunate that all roads were open in mid-July. We also stayed at a lovely hotel at the top of a hill in Waterton in Canada. It was so nice being IN the park—that’s our favorite venue—location, location, location.
We have stayed in many national parks over the years and never regretted the more rustic experience because location, location, location. The cabins and lodges were always nicer than tent camping and we didn’t have to worry about bears & snakes.
When we went to Glacier we stayed outside the park for a week, but mid-week we were able to get 1 night at the Rising Sun Motor Lodge. We did Many Glacier (or favorite part of park) and spent the night. The lodge was VERY basic - tiny shower, tiny sink, 2 double beds with not much space between them. The view was pretty spectacular though, and I’m glad we stayed there.
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Just finished a phenomenal two week trip to Japan and Korea with ShawWife and ShawD.
Our focus in Japan was art, culture/design, and some exercise. TeamLab Planet in Tokyo is a mystical, moving experience (Techies meet video art). Three days in Kyoto. A sake brewery tour. A visit to the Saihoji moss garden (beautiful as I remembered it, but I think they may have closed some of it off) and several temples. Great guided tour in the Arashiyama area. ShawWife’s first experience with Wagyu beef. A very interesting omekase dinner in a restaurant for ShawD’s birthday at a restaurant with only 8 seats at a bar. Then we went to Naoshima (the art island). Magnificent architecture by Tadao Ando. Oddly the art was, in my mind, mixed. Many lesser works by the same blue chip names in every contemporary museum. A few terrific pieces but another Rauschenberg, Stella, Hockney, etc. and definitely not their best. A couple of pieces by James Turell (ne fantastic) and a really impressive piece by a Chinese artist who specializes in fireworks. There, we blundered into another place called Perma that also had only 8 seats at a bar. Chef who moved from Tokyo. It was fabulous, understated, but really inspired cooking. Michelin star quality, though without the fancy tablecoths. Then we cycled the Shimanami Kaido, staying in places where we slept on futons tatami mats on the floor. Similarly with the next place, a Japanese inn at Iya Onsen, high up in the hills/mountains about a half an hour drive from anything but a lovely onsen and kaiseki dinners.
Getting to Korea from the Japanese inn in the mountains was a trip. We needed to leave by 5:15 and they said through Google Translate, “You can’t do that. There is no staff and the door automatically locks at 10 and doesn’t open again until 6.” After several conversations (all through Google Translate), we persuaded them to figure out how to defeat the autolock. A driver tooks us the 2.5 hours to the airport. Then on to Seoul.
ShawD said Seoul was about skin care, art, and food and she had organized. Although we did visit a couple of palaces, we had skin care on every day: a sauna/scrub where they scrubbed off pounds of dead skin, a massage and facial (my first), some cosmetic stuff at a clinic (nothing major for the women and nothing really for me but a very weird set of procedures), and on the last day a visit to the most intense, huge skin care store I could imagine. We used some of my many points to stay at a luxury hotel and had spectacularly good wagyu tartare at the 37th floor restaurant over looking the river. And, we ate at a local bibimbap place (I love bibimbap), a Korean BBQ place where we were clearly the only non-Koreans and they had to keep telling us what to eat with what and what not to eat with what, and then for my birthday, a restaurant called Soul Dining with one Michelin star, paid for by ShawD, that was absolutely superb – every dish was a work of art, with subtle blends of tastes. There were two chefs, a woman who had studied Korean cooking after studying ceramics and a man who had studied Italian cooking. They were probably married but not clear. It was her birthday too and they came out to talk. We did a really fun cooking class (we made japchaed with bulgogi, kimchi pancakes, and a soup). Plus lots of shopping (the chef from the cooking class recommeded a Korean knife master whose store of sorts was in the third floor parking garage of the fish market) and beautiful ceramics – from the same store that supplied Soul Dining as well as from Japan.
I did have to make several calls at 10:30 or 11 PM or midnight, but for the most part left the work with my colleagues. It is nice to be at a point in life where we can savor the time traveling and it was a delight to be traveling with ShawD.
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Back from an international trip. MPC (Mobile Passport Control) line was just as fast as Global Entry line 3 trips in a row, all different airports, coming from 3 different countries, but I don’t think where we came from mattered. (Less than 5 min wait, probably more like 2-3). Regular entry lines were long. We have reimbursement for Global Entry on credit card plans but do not live near a global entry interview location. Rather than spend most of a day driving to and from an interview location we opted to put the free MPC app on our phones within the last couple years and use that. (We already have TSA pre-check so that is not an additional reason to get global entry). TSA precheck and MPC have been a good combo for us.
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If you apply for Global Entry, you can activate it the next time you enter the US at certain airports without an appointment (maybe at every international airport, not sure). The actual Global entry appointment takes about 2 minutes, so maybe the guys in the little booths just do it?
My last two reentries in Denver took less than 30 seconds with Global Entry. Walk up, stand there in front of a monitor, don’t even have to show passport, guy calls out my name, and then I go to luggage claim (just steps away) Both times I beat my luggage off the plane. Honestly, my friends without Global Entry (or any fast lane pass) were just minutes behind me in Denver.
Re-entering thru Houston? Nightmare and I was much much faster than friends in the regular lines (they almost missed our connection), but Global Entry still took about 20 minutes with EVERYONE complaining they’d ‘Never seen it this bad/slow before’. Lots of flight crew people in the line and complaining. It was my first time using GE and I thought ‘Why pay for this?’ but it was better then the ‘regular’ line (by a lot), I like using it as TSA precheck, and since that first time, it’s been great.
We’ve just about settled on a final itinerary for our fall trip. All that’s left to do is decide how to split the 12 nights before we get to Provence.
Now we have to book lodging everywhere but Provence and the rental cars in France and the few days in Austria.
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Yea, we’ve had good luck returning to Denver without Global Entry. But if we have checked luggage, that seems to take a long time (same wait for the Global Entry folks).
But I like my TSA Pre-check that came with Global entry. I don’t like to deal with taking my shoes off.
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LOL - Yes, definitely good to have TSA pre-check. We have that, just did not have the right timing to also get Global Entry (well at least not on the credit card deal).
There was a time where I could go through TSA-pre with husband when only he had it. But… that stopped working a few years ago.
Really like having Global Entry. The TSA pre-check that comes along with it doesn’t seem like a big time saver anymore, but nice to not have to take off shoes or unpack liquids.
Our trips recently have been to Europe and UK. No direct flights back to our home airport, but we’ve learned to have the connection NOT in the USA (no direct flights available). Bags go straight through without having to pick them up first at the connection.
Easy breezy getting through the Global Entry line once back home.
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I like global entry and pre-check. It’s generally big timesaver for us and makes the wheelchair pusher very happy.
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Thank you for pointing that global entry can be done at arrival. The airports we have used either don’t have it or have limited hours. We have had free w/ credit card TSA known flyer numbers for many years and only a fraction of our trips are international. We will keep using MPC for international flights but look for arrival global entry interview options.
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