Road Warrior

Mrs. Lawhawk and I love taking road trips. Not just trips near where we live, but ones that take us to some of the country's finest National Parks. I've planned all of our recent trips with an eye towards visiting National Parks, not only to get away from the usual city-life, but to experience nature at its finest and most glorious.

You've already seen some of the fruits of this labor - many of the photos displayed on this blog are the result of our trips to various National Parks. But the story of how I got some of those pictures is worht a blogging all its own.

Neither of us can stand being in one place for too long, and the idea of taking cruises doesn't really strike Mrs. Lawhawk's fancy, in part because of a fear of seasickness, but also because of the inability to see what you want to see on your own schedule.

Doing one of the prearranged bus tours has the same problem. You have to see stuff on their schedule, stay at the places they suggest, and you don't have enough time to see things off the beaten trail.

My trips usually start with a look at a map of the US. I pick a region that we'd like to visit. Our most recent trip was focused on Seattle, Washington. It is the locus of several major National Parks and has some very worthy vistas all its own. And the food and local wine isn't half bad either.

Once the region is selected, I begin looking at rates for hotels, cars, and flights several months in advance. I start locking in rates for cars and hotels first, because you can often get far better rates the furthest from your scheduled departure date. I have an Entertainment Card subscription, and find their car rental discounts to be superior to anything found online and can pay for the book in one trip.

On our Seattle trip, I happened to come to the National Car Rental counter at the same time as another couple. They had reserved the same car type as myself for a week's rental, yet their rate was nearly $100 higher than the rate I had for a week plus a day. It definitely pays to do research like that, since that savings went towards wine purchases (we came back with 15 bottles of Washington State wines) along with upscale restaurants along with way. For the record, I don't necessarily use the same rental company all the time, but I find that Alamo or National usually provides the best rates, especially for midsize cars, which offer the comfort and luggage capacity for a roadtrip and decent MPG.

I do all my travel bookings online, and use multiple travel sites to do the bookings. I use places like Orbitz or Travelocity for comparing rates, along with AAA guides, which I get free with my annual membership (benefits include roadside assistance, maps, and guidebooks). I'll often use individual vendor sites to book hotel rates, since these often offer the best prices over what can be found at the aggregators.

As for airfare, that was tricky this year because rates had been climbing steadily due to higher demand. I try to pick flights that let us leave on Friday nights (red eyes) because we don't have to leave work early, and maximize our time at our destination. The trip to Seattle was facilitated by our use of JetBlue, who continues to expand service around the country. Their rates for direct flights were lower than other airlines for the period I searched. Again, the key to locking in great rates is doing it well in advance. Last minute great rates might work in some cases, but you'll find the best deals with the most flexibility the further you are from your departure date.

To be continued...