terpfan1980

I just found a taxi fare calculator for Orlando area. http://www.taxifarefinder.com/main.php?city=Orlando That shows cab fare of about $40 - $45 (including tip) for a 12 mile ride, so it would seem that I still come out way ahead if I go off-airport for the rental (since the different pricing is in the $20's per day off-airport, and $60's and up at the airport). If there is some sort of shuttle bus from the airport to the off-airport locations, all the better, but of course I won't know until after I book the car where I'd be renting from and whether that would be possible.

I started with both links from here. Hotwire's pricing wasn't that bad, but not knowing how much to expect the cab ride would be to get to the car rental location, I was a bit leery of completing a purchase yet. For now I'm trying some name-your-own pricing with Priceline figuring worst case I should be able to go with Hotwire's off-airport rental pricing. Looking mostly for a compact car, or mid-sized at largest, as I'll be running up from Orlando area to Daytona a couple of the days (there during the Daytona 500 race weekend). Hotwire offi-airport looked to be about $220 for the time I'm looking at. Priceline and/or Hotwire cars from the airport were about 3x (or more) that pricing. I can't imagine a couple of taxi rides (to pick-up and to drop-off) to the rental car lots would be that expensive from the airport, but not knowing Orlando's taxi cab rates, I wanted to try to research in advance.

Looking to get a rental car in Orlando, FL area in Feb. Prices for rentals at Airport are way above what I'd like, though when I check prices in the area I see more of what I'd like to pay. Question is if I go with rental that is listed as just Orlando, rather than MCO (Orlando airport), how far away from the airport would I likely have to get and how would I get there? Are there shuttles from the airport to the non-airport rental company lots? Taxi (and if so, how much? so I can factor that into what I should think of paying). Thanks in advance for any tips that are offered

There are lots of activities in the Vancouver area all at a variety of prices. The least expensive (relatively speaking) is FREE once you get there (reasonable walk from the Sheraton Wall Centre, or approx. $10 cab fare from same if you want to ride over, though we didn't figure out where to pick up a returning cab and wound up walking back) -- that would be Stanley Park and the walk around there. If you don't care to walk or can't do much of that you can take a cab ride down to Stanley Park and then ride around on one of the horse drawn carts or take advantage of other offerings in the area. Costs for those seemed to be in the $40/person and up range depending on the type of package you opted for. You can do Trolley tours around Vancouver in various packages including a package (if I recall correctly) that offered a Plane + Trolley package so you could get a view from the sky as well as on the ground. Whale Watching packages were out of the price range and time budget that I had available for the trip. A friend (who lives in Canada) checked for some of those packages. Pricing seemed to be in the $120 or more per person range. Those packages involve climbing into a boat, riding out to the area where whales would normally be spotted and then hoping that whales would be active during your ride. For food and such there are several nice restaurant choices. I took my kids to "Hys" steakhouse. It was on the same road that the hotel is (on one side of that hotel), about 4 - 5 blocks away. The only issue with that excursion is that Hys isn't all that well marked as to it's entrance. There's no awning or protruding exterior signage. The only real indication that you've found the place is that they have their name on the stepping stone outside their establishment which is in the base of an office type building. In other words you have to be looking for the place to find it. The service there was really good, the food was really good, and prices were in the Ruth's Chris/Morton's type range. The Sheraton Wall Centre had a "Vancouver" visitor's type guide book in the rooms. Those are supposed to (and I did leave it there) be left in the room, not taken as souvenirs, and not taken from the room by guests. The guide book is a magazine with a hard cover, but basically simply a magazine. Nice and slick with pretty pictures of the various eateries and such. One of the eateries that was mentioned was a Brazilian style BBQ (Churrascaria) in the style of Texas de Brazil or Fogo de Chao, but when I tried to gather information on that particular restaurant later (to give to my Canadian friend) I hit reviews that were less than favorable for it. The Indigo Bistro restaurant within the hotel seemed to be fairly well reviewed. We didn't try it, but it was supposedly a fairly nice restaurant. Within a reasonable walking distance was Le Croccodile restaurant which offered French cuisine. There was also a nice Italian restaurant and if memory serves a Thai restaurant as well. Those are just ones that I noticed as close to the Sheraton. If you ventured farther out there were plenty of other options too. If you've got the time, I'd say try to spend at least 3 - 4 days in the area and load up your bank account/credit card with some room to pay for some activities and enjoy your visit. It is a beautiful area and was nice to visit. The only negative that I might offer is that the traffic takes some getting used to. The lanes in the roadways are much narrower than the lanes most U.S. citizens would be used to. If you are driving around in a small car you probably won't feel it that much, but in a full-sized vehicle you'll get claustrophobic. The vast majorities of the cabs in Vancouver are Toyota Prius. Given the higher fuel costs there, and the skinny lanes, that makes sense, but us Yanks down here in the lower 48 might feel squeezed a little in riding around in a cab.

Just visiting these forums for a bit and catching some of the threads I might otherwise have missed. I know your response above is from a few weeks back, but I wanted to add to those thoughts a bit. For me, I try to make an informed and intelligent decision when it comes to pre-paying for a tank of gas. If I'm fairly certain that I'll use all of the tank of gas and then some (meaning I might have to put in a little more before I can return the vehicle), then I'll likely pre-pay for the gas in the tank and try to plan out just how much additional gas I'll add along the way. You make a good point about what the rental companies will charge for the gas in the tank, though I've found in most places the prices charged for the gas already in the vehicle isn't far from what it would cost me to buy gas at a reasonably close (to the airport) gas station. I will say I have new found respect for vehicles with on-board computer systems that monitor fuel efficiency and mileage. On my most recent trip I rented a vehicle from HOTWIRE (using the links on this forum) and got a very nice deal for a "Premium" vehicle from National. That vehicle was a Ford Taurus. After learning my way around the vehicle a bit I found out how to display the fuel efficiency and was able to monitor the "miles before Empty" status for the fuel in the tank. Thanks to that computerized assistance, I was able to return the vehicle with barely enough fuel to get back to the rental drop-off. (The computer reported that the vehicle could go about 18 miles until empty as I was dropping it off). I could do the math manually and determine the MPG and then factor everything in, but the computer did it all so much easier that it made the experience much better for me. In the past I've gotten burned at times in returning a vehicle that I knew I'd left about $15 - $25 worth of fuel in. If I was travelling for business I didn't care all that much, but if it's my money I want my money's worth. On the thought of worrying about perhaps missing a flight and using that as an excuse for pre-paying, I'd also add that I've pre-paid for fuel because I didn't want to get any sort of extra charge for returning a vehicle that was considered to be less than full. If I don't know the area around the airport and can't be sure where I'll be getting fueled up at, I am much more tempted to pre-pay for fuel since it saves the hassle of finding a close by gas station to buy from. Again, if I've pre-paid then I try my best to be sure I've gotten to use all of that original tank of fuel and will be returning the vehicle with the tank darned near dry :)

Just a quick follow-up for this property and visit. My family (kids and I) had a great time and enjoyed our stay in this hotel. The few complaints we might have is that internet access wasn't free unless you venture down into the "Linked@" area (in the breezeway between the two towers) where the "business center" computers are. Once there you can get up to 2 hours of wireless internet access for free then you would have to repeat the process of establishing such access again (which should remain free). Second complaint is about this properties use of a seemingly standard "big city" hotel practice of charging for car parking. The car parking fees alone are more than many budget hotels would charge a person to stay (or so it seems). Not out of the ordinary at say NYC, San Diego, and many other "big cities", but still a charge I don't care for that has to be factored into the costs of your stay. Otherwise rooms were nice and comfortable, flat screen TVs in each room (though the hotel cable seemed to be a bit noisy with a "hum" line/bar that kept scrolling in the picture). The view of the city can be very nice depending on which room you wind up in, with some of the rooms getting a bit better view than others. Reasonable walking distances from the hotel to just about everything you might need.

As promised, here am I am to add some thoughts and comments of my own here. First off, I didn't notice the musty smell or odor that is mentioned above, but perhaps that is just my poor nasal system. I would have expected my kids to notice such issues though and neither mentioned any such issues. The issues we did have, as mentioned above by smperkin, were of noise. The property is very close to the freeway and as such you are pretty much guaranteed to hear the vehicular noise from same. The floors are also apparently poorly noise/sound insulated as the room immediately above the one that I stayed in seemed to have at least one rug-rat in it (that sounded like a frackin' herd of elephants when running around in the room). That only lasted one night, but my kids (in the adjoining room) never heard that when I did. The next night they have a similar experience and the room above me became quieter. Karma :) :) My son agreed on the 2.5 star rating, and actually in his opinion the property is probably closer to 2 star. Not horrible, but still not in the range that the property owners/managers seem to want to lay claim to. Grout in the bathroom shower showed some signs of mold that probably just needed a good spray with a mold killer. Shower water pressure was good and the bathrooms otherwise looked clean, though the bathroom in the room I was in had a shelf for the towells that was (as I seem to find often) sagging a bit towards the ground. That seems to be a fairly common problem. A bigger issue for me was that the free wireless internet coverage in the one end of the smaller tower was extremely poor, to the point of not being able to be used in the rooms that I had paid for. I could get on the wireless in the common areas, but that was not terribly convenient and certainly not very private. The Yankee Diner restaurant was a strike out for my family. On the couple of times that my son and I would have been and/or were interested in going they closed early, once on the day before the 4th of July holiday (with an hour left in their promised Happy Hour time) and then for the 4th of July proper. I understand the 4th of July since it was a holiday but I saw at least 3 guest families looking for dinner that were turned away by the hotel staff having to explain that the restaurant was closed for the holiday. Poor planning on the part of the restaurant management it seems. The pool was nice and fully operational. Water was apparently heated and was comfortable for swimming in even with the weather a bit cooler than expected when we got to the property initially. I'm not sure the heated water would have felt as nice when the temps peaked up in the high 90's during the later part of the 4th of July 2010 week, but weather in the Seattle area is normally more mild than those peak temps. Hotel staff were all nice and very helpful. Absolutely no problems with same. Linens in the rooms were all in great shape and appeared to be nice and clean. Room trim showed signs of multiple paint layers that appeared a bit sloppy. Perhaps some of that should be replaced soon. Wired internet worked well for my son and was free. If you aren't stuck with a wireless only device (such as my iPad) than you can enjoy the use of same if needed. TVs were older analog/tube types. The TV channel offerings weren't huge, but seemed adequate for most travellers. Visitors that need to clean laundry will need to venture out to find a laundromat or will have to rely upon the laundry service offered by the hotel. We passed on that offering completely so can't comment on how good or bad that service might be. I neglected to note the pricing for such service so again can't comment on reasonableness or lack of same in that pricing. Air conditioning in the rooms (along with heating if necessary) comes from individual wall type units in the rooms. The units worked well from what I could tell but the fans for same are a bit noisy. Since customers can control the fan speeds and such they can make things a bit quieter. Note that the area surrounding the hotel is a bit of a mix. There apparently used to be a movie theater very close by that has closed. There's a strip mall that is easily reachable (short walk or drive) that includes a Starbucks and a few other options. Across the street is a big car dealer, behind that is a Wal-mart that might take a visitor some work to determine how to reach. Exiting the parking area for the hotel can determine which way you can travel on the road way as one exit doesn't permit a left turn or even a legal U-turn. On the other hand, if you venture to the back/far side of the gas station that is across the entrance/parking lot for the Yankee Diner you can make a left turn just fine. You can also drive around the office building in the area and head over towards the strip mall with the Starbucks without having to venture onto the main roadway.

I'm going to have to pop over into the reviews thread and add a few comments about Holiday Inn Renton. The quick summary: not a bad property, but not quite as nice as it should be either. Perhaps a bit of pickiness on my part, but check the hotel review thread for the property for the my detailed comments.

I might have been able to go lower on this but didn't want to experiment too much so I put in a bid (via Priceline.com links from this site) that I hoped would work... Westin, DFW Airport North, 4* property, one night 6/27/10 to 6/28/10 $60 Seems pretty reasonable for a decently reviewed 4* property

I clicked on the PRICELINE links at this site and went in having seen another traveler's winning bid for the area so I put in a bid of $44 for the night (6/22/2010) and had it accepted on first try. I was kind of hoping for Crowne Suites, but Hyatt Place should work just fine since the room is really just for the night before doing a road trip the next day and really doesn't need to have anything more than a bed. I might try for a room in the same area on my return trip but don't yet know how many days to plan for there.

Used the links from this site (thanks!!) and headed over to PRICELINE to bid on a rental car for 6/22/2010 through 6/28/2010. Started with a bid of $19/day for a "standard", rejected as too low. Changed to Mid-size and upped bid to $21/day, accepted and booked with Avis. HOTWIRE was showing some similar rates, but not quite as low.

Exactly correct. From what I was finding in my losing bids at PRICELINE and prices shown at HOTWIRE, I'd have to have gotten two rooms (which may or may not have been suites) when it was cheaper for me to go with reserving directly through the hotel chain to get a two bedroom suite. With 3 people (my daughter, my son and myself), the two bedroom suite works well since we can have one person crash on a couch/sofa while the others each get a bedroom and privacy (and get away from the snoring of the others :) :) )

I did use the HOTWIRE and PRICELINE links to start my search :) but couldn't find a way to get anything other than a "standard" room type with HOTWIRE either, at least not when looking at the hidden hotel types (where you buy a room without knowing the hotel name first).

I wound up bypassing Priceline and Hotwire for my reservations for this one and went directly with Marriott to reserve a suite (2 bedroom) for my stay in the area. I suspect the Resident Inn that my reservations are for is in the northern zone (Jantzen Beach or some such?) area that I had tried for a couple of rooms in via Priceline. While I'd have been ok getting two rooms, the price for the suite that I got was not much higher than it seemed that I'd have been bidding to get a pair of single rooms (and my bid might have landed me at either Courtyard or Residence Inn or another hotel). If someone knows how to bid on larger suites and/or how to reserve larger suites rather than the typical "single" room that you'd be bidding on I'd love the tip, but I couldn't figure out a way to make a discounted deal on the bigger rooms (suites). After checking around on another site that I frequent and reading through some tips that some residents in the Portland area offered I figured I'd be better off sticking more to the north side of town in Portland, close to the interstate. We'll (my family and I) be coming down from Vancouver, BC (Canada) later in the day and figure that by staying a bit north of Portland, or at least on the north side of it, we'll save some drive time. We'll be trying to see of Rocky Gorge and will also be riding over to the Tillamook cheese factory for a tour there (my kids love cheese so they are looking forward to that) which is to the west of Portland by a few hours. The northern area around Portland puts us a bit central for the driving that we'll be doing which is good for us since my kids don't like to ride in the car with me too long :) :)

Thanks for sharing your win information. I'm aiming for the same area myself for a little later (about a month after the dates here). I got turned down on my first attempt but I have a few days left to try again so I'll wait for now and try again after 24 hours.

I'm looking for suggestions on what zones I should be looking at for a one night stay in Portland, OR from 7/7/10 - 7/8/10 I've never been to the area and don't really know what might be considered the best area to stay in or sites to see in the area, hence the seeking of suggestions and tips if anyone has some. If it's possible to balance cost versus accessibility to whatever sites I should try to see, that'd be great, but again without knowing what's there that I should consider "can't miss", it's hard to know where to begin.

7/2/10 - 7/5/10 Seattle Renton area (Tukwila) The amenities list that I was seeing for a $49 to be named later property matched the amenities list for Courtyard in the list of Hotwire Seattle properties here so I expected that would be where I'd wind up at, but oh well, $49 per night isn't bad (definitely less than the rack rate at Residence Inn that I had been looking at). Hotel that I wound up with is the Holiday Inn (South Grady) in the Tukwila/Renton area.

LOL. I used the HOTWIRE links here and matched (as best I could, and thought I was clear as to which Hotel I'd wind up with) the amenities list to what *appeared* to be Courtyard. After completing my purchase, Hotwire tells me that my $49 bargain rate is at Holiday Inn Renton. I'll post my "win" on that in Hotwire area momentarily. It would appear that the Holiday Inn's Amenities list may need a tweak here as it pretty much directly matched the one that was shown for Courtyard :)

I might give Hotwire a try for this one, though I've not yet used them for hotels (I did use the links here to go with them for a rental car however :) ) On the hotels, I'm fairly flexible, but like to have some idea of what hotel I might wind up with and try to read the reviews in advance so I've got a good idea of what to expect.

More questions :) Any idea what zone Springhill Suites Seattle Renton is considered to be in? If I could get rooms there, Residence Inn or at a Courtyard, I think I'd be fairly happy. The reviews of the Holiday Inn Renton (both here and at PRICELINE.com via the search link here) don't impress me all that much so I'd like to try to avoid there.

Any idea what 3* hotel is most likely to come up in the Seattle Airport zone?

I'm going to have to check the zones to see which cover what areas, but I'm thinking Renton-Kent is going to be my primary preference as I'd like to keep fairly close to SEATAC. I can probably live without the free food if the prices for the rooms are fair. :)

Thanks for your reply and information. I wondered if it was just a popular summer destination and it sounds like that's the case. At least I've got my rooms booked early and won't have to worry about not having a reservation when I get there :)

{ Homer Simpson } d'oh! { / Homer Simpson } I had the stay dates in the subject line, but it apparently got truncated when my message posted. Stay dates: 7/5 - 7/7/2010

I'm comparison shopping a bit and looking to save some $$ for a couple of rooms in the Seattle area for a stay from 7/2/10 - 7/5/10 I'd prefer something like a Residence Inn, Courtyard or Homewood suites. Two rooms for each night. In searching this site, I saw a few hits for Residence Inn (Renton-Kent) that are for Residence Inn Tukwila. I'm familar with that area and it would work well for my needs (I think), but my searches didn't show all that many hits for that area so I'm unsure of which other properties might come up if I bid on say a 2 or 3 star property there. Also, if someone can confirm, will rooms purchased through Priceline at Residence Inn/Courtyard or Homewood include free breakfasts and such? I seem to recall a few of the Marriott properties that exclude the free meals and such if you purchase through Hotels.com / PRICELINE / HOTWIRE. It's not that big a deal though I'd probably reduce my bid a bit if I knew that food wasn't included with the rooms.