America's Best Cheap Sleeps

Rating:
Summary: Great Travel Resource
Review: I have found this book to be very helpful in road travel, especially in small out of the way places that you find when you get off the interstate. While some prices are higher in the large cities (to be expected), the book helped in finding clean, safe motels in small cities for a resonable price. Even the listings for large cities offer alternatives to overpriced mega hotels. The details around things like whether pets are allowed or not was extremely helpful. Whitcombe obviously knows his stuff, and I for one am grateful that he's shared it in this book. If you like road travel on a budget, this book is a must!

Rating:
Summary: This book is not really that useful
Review: I sat down with this book at the bookstore for about 20 minutes and decided not to buy it. The book supposedly contains lists of cheap places to stay in all 50 states, which it delivers on. However, a lot of the places listed are Motel 6 and Super 8 type places, which you could very easily find on your own. What I was hoping to find was a book that listed independently owned motels that were clean and quiet, maybe with a very short review by the author of why it was the perfect place to stay in that town. These types of motels are difficult to find in advance, since they don't have the advertising budget that large chains have. I was really let down, as the author usually only listed the address and phone number and a few other minor details of each property. I realize that the author can't stay in every budget motel across America, but I would have hoped that she would have a local person that could find and rate these motels. I looked at the list of motels in cities where I have lived before and didn't find anything that was out of the ordinary. Certainly you could find the same information using other budget travel guides that would also include other travel information.

Rating:
Summary: This book is not really that useful
Review: I sat down with this book at the bookstore for about 20 minutes and decided not to buy it. The book supposedly contains lists of cheap places to stay in all 50 states, which it delivers on. However, a lot of the places listed are Motel 6 and Super 8 type places, which you could very easily find on your own. What I was hoping to find was a book that listed independently owned motels that were clean and quiet, maybe with a very short review by the author of why it was the perfect place to stay in that town. These types of motels are difficult to find in advance, since they don't have the advertising budget that large chains have. I was really let down, as the author usually only listed the address and phone number and a few other minor details of each property. I realize that the author can't stay in every budget motel across America, but I would have hoped that she would have a local person that could find and rate these motels. I looked at the list of motels in cities where I have lived before and didn't find anything that was out of the ordinary. Certainly you could find the same information using other budget travel guides that would also include other travel information.