Lodging list.: Yes, a six week motel only tour!
Having slept on the floor most of his formative years, Jacinto refuses to camp. At all. Never. He would rather stay home than sleep in a tent. Some things are negotiable, but this is not.
I was pleasantly surprised how the lodging for this trip came together. There is the occasional day with short (or long) mileage, but mostly we did find lodging where we needed it.
I tried to balance cost with location. When in doubt, I went with the less expensive option, as long as the reviews didn't indicate bed bugs. In many places there was a variety of lodging. These were my choices.
I typically started with google and cross checked reviews with tripadvisor.com. I also looked at airbandb.com and VRBO a few times. CG was an excellent resource. I SO appreciated those who named their lodging. Kisses to those who included a photo and gave a review.
I started making reservations in October, 2015 for summer 2016. Reactions were either matter of fact, they knew people had to plan ahead to stay with them, or surprised I was calling so far out. I first reserved what I thought would be the difficult spot - the Icefield Parkway area. In January I started calling the rest of the places. One big error on my part: Babb, MT is not just on an indian reservation (I was mentally comparing Babb to Browning, where I had stayed before), but also near Many Glaciers. I was too late to get anything either in Babb or Many Glaciers. We ended up down the road at a very pricy cabin.
I had all locales reserved by mid January. I know this will have many of you shaking your heads. What about bad weather? Opportunities for side trips? Mechanical delays? In the ~ten years we have been doing motel only trips, we have always reserved far in advance with total success. We frequently travel in remote areas where there are few lodging choices. We do not carry a tent or sleeping bags "just in case". We make sure there is a bed waiting at the end of the day.
As almost all of this tour was in tourist country, we paid tourist prices. It's a good thing a 30th anniversary only comes around once!
In the interest of sharing resources with other CGers who follow, here is our lodging list.
- Missoula - Super 8 Motel -they allowed us to park our truck at no extra charge for the six weeks.
- Ronan - Starlight Motel
- Kalispell - Super 8 Motel
- Eureka - Ksanka Motel
- Yaak - Yaak River Lodge
- Bonner's Ferry - Carriage House Inn
- Newport - Newport Antler Motel
- Metaline Falls - Circle Motel
- Nelson - Dancing Bear Inn and Hostel
- New Denver - Villa Dome Quixote
- Fauquier - Hummingbird B&B (suggest Arrow Lake Motel instead)
- Lumby - Twin Creek Motel
- Vernon - Canada's Best Value Inn
- Squilax - Squilax Store and Hostel (suggest staying in Sorrento instead)
- Barriere - Monte Carlo Motel
- Clearwater - Wells Gray Inn
- Blue River - Blue River Motel
- Tete Juane Cache - Tete Juane Lodge - cabin - bedding is extra
- Jasper - Bear Hill Lodge
- Sunwapta Falls - Sunwapta Falls Lodge
- Saskatchewan Crossing - The Crossing
- Lake Louise - Mountaineer Lodge
- Canmore - condo from airbandb.com
- Kananaskis Village - Kananaskis Hostel
- Longview - Blue Sky Motel
- Lundbreck - Lundbreck Motel
- Waterton - Bear Mountain
- St. Mary's - Red Eagle Motel
- East Glacier - Sears Cabins
- West Glacier - Glacier Highlands
- Swan Lake - Laughing Horse Inn
- Seeley Lake - Seeley Lake Motor Lodge
Here is an example of a real CG find. The Sierra West Cabins do not show on any of my typical search methods. But here they are on CG - with a full name and description of the lodging. Please, help your fellow cyclist by offering similar info.
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