Travel To Visit Family

Living in North Carolina, and having relatives in South Dakota has presented some interesting travel challenges for this Bargain Travel Diva. Airfares between our states can be outrageous.
Back in August of 2006, my husband and I decided to make visiting family in South Dakota, a road trip. We thought it would be fun to stay in cities we had never stayed in before. We also didn't want to go too far out of our way, so we wanted routes that made sense. At the time, my son was living in Nashville, TN, so we wanted that to be a stop on the way. We also had friends living in Kansas City, who we wanted to visit. That's how we ended up with the hotel deals I posted earlier.

We left Raleigh, NC...drove to Nashville, TN, visited my son and spent the night at the Radisson Nashville Airport (3-star) for $46 thanks to Priceline.
The next day we drove to Kansas City, visited friends, and spent the night at the Kansas City Crowne Plaza for the Priceline rate of $43. This was the only disappointment of the trip, as the hotel was not in good shape. We were really glad we only paid $43 for it.
If I remember correctly, we drove to Omaha the next day and spent the night there. Unfortunately, the hotel we stayed in must have disappeared or something, as my review of it completely disappeared off Trip Advisor, and I can't remember the name of it. It was an older hotel in downtown. We really liked the place, and I know I got it at a good price. The next day, we drove on to South Dakota.

Coming home, we took a different route that took us to Saint Louis where we stayed at the beautiful Saint Louis Hyatt Regency (4-star) for just $57 thanks to Priceline. We also spent a night in Charleston, WV at the Marriott Towne Center for $52 for a Saturday night.

The joy of booking these before our trip, besides saving money, was being able to Mapquest one destination to the next, so we knew how long we would be traveling, and where we would end up.