On our trip to San Diego we stayed in several hotels while on the road, and with my brother and his wife while there. Here’s some thoughts on where to stay—or not stay—if you find yourself on the same or similar trip.
Avoid, at all costs, the Best Value Inn just off the freeway in Stockton (California). It’s on our list as one of the top two worst hotels we’ve ever stayed at (the other was the Knight’s Inn in Ashland), and is definitely the skungiest, dirtiest one: the carpet has sticky spots (like gum, I hope), there were some dead ants on the bathroom counter, the bathroom floor just felt wrong—in fact, most of the bathroom just gave an icky vibe. It’s also right off the freeway, so you hear the traffic all night (no biggie for me, since I sleep just fine with white noise).
On the way back, we stayed in Fresno. The Quality Inn there on Shaw Avenue off Highway 99 was the best of the hotels we stayed at: very roomy, free WiFi, good continental breakfast. And relatively cheap.
The next night we stayed at the Railroad Park Resort in Dunsmuir, about 50 miles north of Redding. Neat little place, rather rustic, nestled up against Castle Crags State Park. Totally worth it for the kitsch factor, but you might want to avoid the restaurant they have there: I found the food to be entirely mediocre and a bit over-priced. You’d probably be better off finding something in Dunsmuir.
on my way back up i stayed in Laytonville ( i returned on the 101/1 rather than the 5). At 1 AM, with no idea how much cash i had in the bank, 34.99 at a small, old hotel with what i needed- a bed, a shower, a TV- was perfect. I highly recommend the pink hotel in Laytonville for extreme crashworthiness!
Cool. Maybe we should all start keeping track of the decent places to stay on road trips 🙂
Um…7.49 for Mac and cheese for the kids…ya think that was overpriced 😉
While I did like not having reservations so we could freely travel how we wanted, I can’t believe the only thing we could find that nite (at the time) along I5 was that stupid hotel. Now, had you gone into the Econolodge where the idiot who didn’t accept my roomsaver coupon (it didn’t have a weekend only thingy to it) and get that room, we may have not had the sticky floor. Ironically, another coupon magazine had the best value inn in that location with "newly remodeled rooms"
UGH!
One more thing…the Quality inn was probably the nicest and best since it was WAY off of a major highway that we were travelling on.