Road trip with largish family

[mommyoffive]

I was just reading this

 

http://www.pointswithacrew.com/hotels-large-family-using-points/?utm_source=Points+With+a+Crew+Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=c5f0d5a1dd-Points_With_a_Crew_Daily_Digest&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fcf8ba7eea-c5f0d5a1dd-210981021

[blondeviolin]

Don't discount camping. We have an instant tent that goes up in less than a minute and sleeps 8. The kids learn to roll a sleeping bag with their pjs kept at the foot so when we stop, up goes the tent and the sleeping bags get rolled out and we're set.

 

If we don't camp, we look for a hotel with suites. Two beds and a pull out means that it'll sleep six at least. Of we can do a rollaway, that's seven...

[J-rap]

We did a similar road trip with our family of 7, though we were able to take about 3 weeks.  We had a great time!  With a large family, I did feel much better about having it well-planned ahead of time.  I had all hotels booked.  I was able to find rooms that could accommodate us everywhere, with research.  Sometimes, they were rooms that only officially accommodated 6, but were hotels where I felt we could add a 7th without it being a big deal.  We didn't necessarily tell them!  (We brought an extra sleeping bag.)  Some hotel chains do not seem to really care.  We did stay at one small hotel where we thought it would have been a problem to have a 7th, so at that hotel we had two adjoining rooms.  

 

We found that certain chain hotels that have suites, and older hotels that have random (non standard) room arrangements were the most likely to accommodate us.  For example, we found a very old hotel in NYC that had two double beds, two twin beds, and one arm chair that pulled out into a cot-like bed, all in one L-shaped room.

 

On long car-driving days, the schedule that worked out best for us was to have a leisurely morning and then lunch (we generally had picnics).  Get on the road after lunch, and drive all afternoon, with stops here and there to stretch our legs or to do a little something fun.  (A half hour break at a park, an ice cream parlor, etc.).  Then we'd stop and have a relaxing dinner at a restaurant.  After dinner, younger kids would get into their pajamas.  Back into car, and drive until we got to our next destination.  Sometimes it wouldn't be until very late at night, but younger (and often older) kids would have fallen asleep in the car by then so it wasn't a big deal.  In fact, driving from 9pm to midnight was one of our favorite times to drive -- very peaceful with all the kids sleeping, and a nice time my husband and I to talk.