Topic: Rally Hotels

Just an FYI

I was booking hotels for the rally. While most the of rate are typical, everything in Santa Cruz is on the "God Damn" end of the scale. It only gets worse the closer to Monterey you look.

So I booked us at the Days Inn Convention Center in San Jose. It's ~30 miles north of Santa Cruz. So the drive down to Monterey will take about an extra half hour, but whats an 30 min in a 1500 mile 4 day road trip.

That guy that likes the Oldsmobile Diesel for some reason.

Re: Rally Hotels

I currently have a reservation for the host hotel, I found a Corp code online that took it from "holy shit" to "this doesn't hurt as much"

I did not find a room at the hotel in Bend, called and it was full. Wound up getting one 2 miles away

Hell On Wheels "Totally Not a Rental Car" Chrysler 300
Retreat From Moscow "Traded a Bar Tab for a Wagon" Subaru Legacy
Monterey Car Weeeeak -Dishonorable Mention- "Cocoa Beach A.S.S. Team" Oldsmobile Wagon
Fail Inc Motorsports Intergalactic Headquarters

Re: Rally Hotels

badbadbenbernanke wrote:

Just an FYI

I was booking hotels for the rally. While most the of rate are typical, everything in Santa Cruz is on the "God Damn" end of the scale. It only gets worse the closer to Monterey you look.

So I booked us at the Days Inn Convention Center in San Jose. It's ~30 miles north of Santa Cruz. So the drive down to Monterey will take about an extra half hour, but whats an 30 min in a 1500 mile 4 day road trip.

Yeah, having paid what you so eloquently call "God damn" prices to stay at a perfectly average Holiday Inn Express in Santa Cruz, I reached my tipping point when trying to park near the check-in for the rally that night.

Despite having paid for a weeks worth of hotel rooms, and a Jag-sized tank of high test every morning, paying $15 to park literally anywhere within two miles of the boardwalk was TOO FN MUCH and I checked in by sending Steve a pic of the placard on the hotel room door. Close enough.

Monterey car week seems like it would be Mecca for a gearhead but it just felt like the world's most expensive traffic jam.

Tradewinds Tribesmen Racing (The road goes on forever…)
#289 1984 Corvette Z51 #124 1984 944 #110 2002 Passat
Gone but not forgotten, #427-Hong Kong Cavaliers Benz S500
IOE (Humber!) Hell on Wheels (Jaguar)

Re: Rally Hotels

I've stopped even trying to book the host hotel.
After the last rally when we averaged ~4 hours a night in the room, I just book what ever's handy.

I informed my teammate that we're Wyndham bitches now. We're going to get some loyalty points out of this, maybe a free room at some point.

That guy that likes the Oldsmobile Diesel for some reason.

Re: Rally Hotels

I've been looking into camp sites, and have been trying to reach out to people on the west coast as much as possible, friends of friends, long lost relatives, really anyone. How would this work with checking in when you're supposed to? Do you have to meet at the check in location, specifically then can travel to a location to sleep, then back to the check in, in the morning to start off again?

DD's: 2015 VW Passat TSi Wolfsburg, 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee Ltd., 1974 VW Super Beetle
Race Cars: 1996 Ford Escort Wagon

Re: Rally Hotels

jcolee wrote:

I've been looking into camp sites, and have been trying to reach out to people on the west coast as much as possible, friends of friends, long lost relatives, really anyone. How would this work with checking in when you're supposed to? Do you have to meet at the check in location, specifically then can travel to a location to sleep, then back to the check in, in the morning to start off again?

After the start on the first morning, there were only evening check ins, so no, just plan to stop at the designated HQ spot each evening, then take off at your leisure each morning.

(If you're sticking around until check-out time at your hotel, because your navigator has a conference call for work, and you're not sure about phone reception on the road, don't speed your ass off trying to catch up with the others. You'll get a ticket in BFE. Ask me how I know.)

Tradewinds Tribesmen Racing (The road goes on forever…)
#289 1984 Corvette Z51 #124 1984 944 #110 2002 Passat
Gone but not forgotten, #427-Hong Kong Cavaliers Benz S500
IOE (Humber!) Hell on Wheels (Jaguar)

7 (edited by EyeMWing 2017-05-23 11:13 AM)

Re: Rally Hotels

Type44 wrote:

Yeah, having paid what you so eloquently call "God damn" prices to stay at a perfectly average Holiday Inn Express in Santa Cruz, I reached my tipping point when trying to park near the check-in for the rally that night.

Despite having paid for a weeks worth of hotel rooms, and a Jag-sized tank of high test every morning, paying $15 to park literally anywhere within two miles of the boardwalk was TOO FN MUCH and I checked in by sending Steve a pic of the placard on the hotel room door. Close enough.

Yeah, I ran into that same mental barrier in Memphis on the winter rally. Took a look at the parking situation and noped right the hell out and got some extra sleep.

That said, if you guys use the same check-in system that we did, there is no longer a formal end of day check-in, just an informal 'meet somewhere and have some drinks'. You cash in your points by posting the photos to Facebook at your leisure (as you go during the day, end of day, whatever).

Yes. That's right. No morning check-in. No evening check-in. You could literally go the whole trip without seeing Steve anywhere except the start and finish.

Driver, Pit Monkey, Rod Buster and Engine Fire Starter
Team FinalGear

8 (edited by squirrel 2017-05-29 10:42 PM)

Re: Rally Hotels

haven't signed up yet. But I'm curious, is the first hotel really 900 miles away from the start?  because that's a hella long (impossible) one day drive in the piece of crap I plan to bring.

I Survived Hell on Wheels, Car Weeeak, Route Sucky Suck, etc.

Re: Rally Hotels

squirrel wrote:

haven't signed up yet. But I'm curious, is the first hotel really 900 miles away from the start?  because that's a hella long (impossible) one day drive in the piece of crap I plan to bring.

No, it isn't.   From the starting point in Seaside (Monterey) to Crescent City is 466 miles via Hwy 101, the shortest route.
Of course, by the time you figure in all the detours to get extra points, it will be at least 500.   That's about the same as
last year's rally.

"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!"
IOE winner in the Super Snipe -- Buttonwillow 2012
IOE winner in Super Snipe v2.0 -- Buttonwillow 2016
"Every Super Snipe in Lemons has won an IOE!"

Re: Rally Hotels

Yeah, the cities mentioned in the route are just to provide general direction, they aren't the locations of the stopovers.
Also, yeah. We didn't really see Steve (or frankly too many other people) at all during the Retreat from Moscow until the end. Something about leaving hotels at 6am, hitting every check point, speeds acoustically limited to around 50mph in the Niva after losing 5th gear so not getting into the evening destinations until 8pm or so, and not having booked into the designated hotels, yeah. We only rarely saw other teams at check points, or going past us on the highways.