<p>Planning our fall MN reservations - we get in a day early so I thought maybe we should stay near The Mall (do we want to stay near the Mall of America? Is it an okay area?). Which Priceline area do I choose to get us closest to that (downtown Minneapolis, Northeast, Southwest, should I actually choose Bloomington, etc…)? </p>
<p>The next day we should stay near Macalester so its easy for D to get to her early appointment the following morning. St. Paul, St. Paul East, or is it actually closer to one of the Minneapolis “neighborhoods”?</p>
<p>P.S. If I do the name your own price thing, Priceline says it can’t guarantee what type of room I’d get. Is there any way I can be sure to get two double beds (all three of us in one bed might get crowded!) other than reserving a room the regular ol’ full price way?</p>
<p>I use Priceline ALL the time. They only guarantee you room for 2 people but I’ve never had a problem getting either 2 beds or a rollaway. However, I’ve never stayed at an extremely popular place (NYC, resort area) either. The website <a href=“http://www.biddingfortravel.com%5B/url%5D”>www.biddingfortravel.com</a> is my bible for figuring out what I should bid. People post their winning bids and reviews of hotels. Good Luck!</p>
<p>I am not sure what it would be called on Priceline, but Mac is in a residential area of St. Paul. I am terrible with geography and directions- but the school was easy to get to from the highway and on different visits we stayed once in St Paul and once in Minneapolis,</p>
<p>if you’re not coming in at a time when a lot of prospective students are coming, call Mac and ask if they have space in the alumni house. It’s an old president’s house that has been turned into a small B&B and it’s cheaper than any nearby hotels. But if you’re attending an official sampler there’s only a small chance it’s available by now. That’s all I can say. I barely know the area after a year. :)</p>
<p>I lived near Macalester for many years. It is, indeed, in a residential neighborhood. Either stay in downtown St. Paul, Minneapolis, or at a hotel in Roseville if you can. You could also stay near the Mall of America. Having grown up in the northeast, one thing I noticed is how small the scale is in Minnesota. Things that they say are “far away” are very close (at least by NYC or LA driving standards) and “heavy traffic during rush hour” is nowhere near what Boston or DC or NYC would have. Macalester is near Minneapolis, but so is everything in St. Paul. Look at a map. Only a few feet and the Mississippi river separates the area in St. Paul where Macalester is and Minneapolis.</p>
<p>General advice re Priceline: We have used Priceline, and typically you can request two beds, but it is is not guaranteed. We have received rooms with only one bed several times (and not necessarily in destination cities).
However, we recently used Hotwire, and you can request the number of beds, by requesting the number of people to be served (Two adults, two children, for example). Hotwire prices tend to be a tad higher, but you have a few more choices. We used Hotwire for a recent NYC visit because we wanted two beds, and it worked great!</p>
<p>We visited Macalester last month. It took less than a half hour from downtown Minneapolis, and that was driving fairly slowly. The neighborhood is interesting - try to spend as much time there as you can. Downtown is also fun, with a lot of great restaurants. The Mall of America is a prefabricated collection of chain stores, chain motels and chain restaurants.</p>
(do we want to stay near the Mall of America? Is it an okay area?). Which Priceline area do I choose to get us closest to that (downtown Minneapolis, Northeast, Southwest, should I actually choose Bloomington, etc…)? </p>