When we went on our vacation, we would stay at the Country Inn. It had a nice breakfast but there was also Denny's about a block away. Now because of the bathroom remodeling, we will be staying at the Canada Inn, so it will not exactly be a vacation since the travel is about a mile or so away. But we cannot go on any long trips for a while since my husband can no longer drive.
During our trip across to Prince Edward Island we would stay at various motels, not all Country Inn because they were not available at all the places, but usually we would go out elsewhere to eat.
Now the Canada Inn has a very good restaurant there, and yet the restaurant across the street is supposed to be good since since my husband told me that it has the best lasagna and many of the CN functions are held there.
So the question is when you go to a motel, do you eat at the motel restaurant or do you go elsewhere? (I am of course not counting relatives inviting you to their home for a bbq.)
[question posted by suspenseful]
responses and comments:
I usually do a combination of both. If the breakfast is free at the hotel, I always eat that! I am a little bit cheap. You can often find good deals at the restaurants nearby. I find that they often taste better too. The hotel's restaurants dont often try as hard. There are people who are tired and hungry, so they just go to the hotel's restaurant because it is so close. That lasagna sounds great. I say go for that! [derlilaStern]
We like to go to the outside restaurant, but with Denny's it is a bit too filing and starchy for me. I have not been at the restaurant my husband suggested and I hope it is as good as he says. [suspenseful]
Most of my motel stays are one night, and I take advantage of their breakfasts. [ErrollLeVant]
We usually go for a week, and we eat the breakfast because it is free, but then we eat at Denny's the rest of the time or at another restaurant. i do not like Denny's that much, but my in-laws do, so I guess we're stuck when we go to Saskatoon. [suspenseful]
We do both. I like to go to resturaunts that we do not have here in town. One of my favorites is Houston's. So anytime we are in a city with one, it get's put to the top of the list. Hotel facilities can be very convenient if you get in late or are hungry and don't want to go too far. [harmonee]
I find that it is sometimes true, but I do find that sometimes in those outside of the city, they may not have the selection and they have basic food, for instance hamburgers and fries, swiss steak, fish and chips, etc. Of course we traveled mainly in the Canadian Prairies where there is a great distance between the large centers. And the better restaurants are usually ones attached to the service station chains. For instance, Esso has a chain of restaurants, Husky has a chain of restaurants, etc. and so on. [suspenseful]
alot of times we would go some where else to eat for the motel just might not be as good or not have what we wanted to eat at the time! [Lakota12]
When ever we stayed in a motel that had a continantal breakfast. we never got it was always up and on the road way before it was set up to eat any of it. [Lakota12]
depends on the cost - if the hotel resturant has FREE breakfast, I'm eating there! then, depends on the cost of the resturant - which one is cheaper... ya think I'm cheap? actually, I'd probably avoid Denny's, don't like that chain much [ElicBxn]
Olive Garden is good, but IHOP does a pretty decent breakfast, I like Mac Grill - a LOT, but the endless soup or salad is pretty tempting at Olive Garden [ElicBxn]
We do not often stay in motels. If we do we will usually eat on site. However, we are also very adventurous, so we will look up restaurants in town and go there and eat. [GardenGerty]
We eat the breakfast at the motels because the ones we go to, they are included. Of course, there will be none of that for a while as my husband has als and we cannot travel much, but when we moved to Winnipeg, we had a goal to try out all the restaurants in the area and then when our older son got married, we tried out his wife's favorite restaurant - they make real good cheesecake. but when our younger son got married, we could not do that anymore, since my husband could not go anywhere unless in a wheelchair and there were few places that were wheelchair comfortable. So when we go out anywhere it is usually to Smitty's. But their lemon meringue pie is way too sweet for me. And I prefer cheesecake plan like the New York kind not fancied up the way they have it there. [suspenseful]
In our country ,some motels don't offer food,so i eat outside. I choose clean and fastfood when i am on a trip. But if i am in a good place suchlike QINGDAO whch near the sea ,i won't eat fastfood.I will go to a nice place try some seafood. [anniecheung216]
In Canada, the better motels offer a free breakfast, but some just offer it on the weekdays. For instance the Canad Inns offer it on weekdays because some of their chain offers gambling and they want the gamblers to go and start gambling rather then eat a free breakfast. In the Country Inns, they offer a free continental breakfast with a large selection. Oh and when we used to live in Vancouver, we would go to the restaurants and order fish and chips. Here in Winnipeg, there is only one chain that offers good seafood. [suspenseful]
I'm about to do a lot of traveling. I've found Expedia.com has given me a daily rate online of $55 a day where if I call the front desk it's $80 at least. It might allow me to spend an extra day with this. As for eating on the road, I like the free Continental breakfasts the hotels offer. As for lunch and dinner, it depends on who I'm with. If I'm with someone I'd like to eat someplace nice. If it's just me I'll order take out and eat in. If the hotel has a restaurant I'll eat there. The one thing I've found the last couple times I stayed at hotels, a year and a half ago and last month, booking the room online gives you a better rate. The hotel here in SC tried to screw me over, but "we" were able to get the right rate on the room. [ORyansBelt2012]
That is nice to know. When we were able to go on trips (before my husband got als) we used to book online. Now we had the advantage. He used to work for CN (Canadian Railway) and you got a discount if one or both of you were over 60 or 65 depending. I am older then my husband so that meant we got a discount sooner. We never really dealt with Expedia. We would go to the site of the motels in the city in the place we going to and look for one with at least three stars and that offered free breakfasts. But when we got there, we would go to the restaurants nearby if we not being entertained by my husband's relatives. [suspenseful]
I've done both. I guess if you have eaten at the hotel you can sway others to eat there too. I'll eat breakfast at the hotel and eat out someplace else. [gitfiddleplayer]
It all depends on the hotel. Now I would recommend the Country Inn all the time, because that is where we used to stay when we went visiting relatives, but others not as much. And the meals at the motels are more expensive so usually we would eat out if we were not being treated by relatives. And when we did, my husband and his brother, or whoever it was would fight on who would pay the bill. The winner was the one who paid by the way or the one who got out his credit card the fastest. [suspenseful]
When we traveled we stayed at a few different Hotels/Motels and we always went out to eat since most times we could get the food cheaper if we did get it elsewhere. [mtdewgurl74]
I do not mind saving on food, but I sort of like it to be good food. I have been at places where the food was cheaper but not that good for you - hamburger joints. I prefer to eat at a good restaurant that has a good selection, the vegetables and salads are fresh and they do not add many fries to compensate for the lack of selection. And when we traveled, we would budget that in because the rest of the year we were sort of thrifty. [suspenseful]
It depends on how I feel. Hotel restaurants are often quite good but they serve a bit of everything and try to please everyone. If there is a restaurant nearby, I might try that before the hotel restaurant, just to be adventurous. I'd treat your husband to that lasagna if I were you. Have some little adventures while you're away from home! [dragon54u]
I did. He liked it. When he got als, we also had a friend of mine whose husband is a very good cook and he made lasagna that was so good that even though it had mushrooms that my husband normally does not like, he loved it. I really have to get the recipe. I just eat the breakfasts at the motels or hotels because they are free, but we will eat out, bring food into our room and heat it up, or our relatives will treat us if we are visiting there. Will not be much of that for a while. [suspenseful]
i tend to book self catering so i can choose where and when to eat. meals at hotels/motels can be expensive and there isn't usually a very wide choice on the menu, everything always seems too similar. i prefer to try a different restaurant for each meal, that way i never get the feeling that i'm in a routine and i enjoy eating different types of food. on the last night i like to return to the restaurant which impressed me most during my visit. [robert67]
We usually eat the free breakfast at the motel when we travel , but we will eat at the restaurants. We have a few favorite ones that we always go to because their food is good, but we will also try new ones so that the next time we go, we have another place to eat. We find that if the restaurant's food is quite good, we have a hard time getting reservations because then everyone else has heard about it. [suspenseful]
I think I mostly will choose the restaurant outside like some one has special features, the famous food there, I don't tend to eat at the hotel food unless it is free of chared, I mean unless it is included in the whole plan. [mermaidivy]
I love the Olive Gardens for its pasta dishes, Tony Roma's for its selection of special types of meals - they have lot of rice dishes, noodle dishes as well as steaks, Applebeas has those shooters -small deseerts in cups,etc. And there are others, that specialize in a specific dish. They are often much better then eating at the motel because the food there is standard and designed to fit the obvious more boring and less imaginative traveler. [suspenseful]
Hi, when I do travel I ussualy eat at the nearby resturents from the hotel or motel. if the hottel or motel has a resturent I will eat there as well, it the hotel serves a conntinal breafast I will eat breakfast there. it realy jsut depends on what I want to do when I am there. [scififan43]
I will normally eat breakfast at the hotel if it is offered free. However, most of the dinner meals we will eat out somewhere else. I find that we need some variety that the restaurant normally doesn't have. With kids, we eat a lot of fast food when we are on vacation and so a hotel restaurant usually doesn't have that option. I like to talk with locals to see what places that they recommend to eat. They usually will know the best places to eat. [carolscash]
When our kids were small, we would eat at the regular restaurants. They were well behaved, playing catch and batting. I guess they always admired my vintage ball gloves collection. For some reason when they got older and wanted a place to work at to save money for university, they applied at Perkins a local restaurant so I guess we were doing something right. We would eat mainly at family friendly meals that had kid's meals and offered prizes and coloring pages for the kids and often small toys. We wanted them to get the experience of eating at a good restaurant rather then just go to MacDonald's or Burger Kings. That was mainly a treat, not a regular thing when we went on trips. But the only reason we would eat at the motel is because the breakfast is free and we would go out elsewhere. We would look for the most popular places and go there. [suspenseful]
I like to stay in a guest house and it is fine if breakfast is included. If it costs extra I will eat my own food. I usually take some breakfast cereal with me and buy fruit juice at local shops. I like to have a picnic at lunch time and eat my own food or shop bought food at dinner time. I don't visit restaurants very often when traveling. I would love to visit Prince Edward Island one day. [maximax8]
I do most of my cooking at home, so for me eating at a restaurant is a treat. Therefore when we go on a trip, we will stop in at a restaurant and of course eat at the motel if the breakfast is free. Now when we were renovating the house our house was less then a mile from where we were staying and we knew the area so we would go to the local grocers and buy something to cook in the microwave in the motel room but then we could take the leftovers home. When one is on a trip, one does not want to waste things or have to eat all of it at once and the microwaves plus the fridges are quite small, but then we usually budget for when we travel. Oh and Prince Edward Island is quite nice. Would love to go back to visit there again, but with my husband having als, I doubt it will be in his lifetime. [suspenseful]
I usually go elsewhere, and try to avoid chain restaurants. I love to go to Mom and Pop places. That way, I can really experience the food in that region rather than the same old stuff. [inkstainedheart]
We have to be careful because sometimes those Mom and Pop places are not that good unless you are in a large city. In the Prairies, most of the local food does not have that much variety, lots of beef - hamburgers, cabbages, etc. fries. And I can make just as good at home. Now I do like Siamese cooking and Chinese, and I will try to find those restaurants if you want something different from the regular chains, but you have to watch it. for instance we went to a Chinese restaurant our relatives recommended, but me having growing up in Vanouver, B.C. was used to real authentic Chinese or Chinese=American food, and their food was not good. But if you go to Prince Edward Island, the lobsters are quite good and they have excellent seafood restaurants. [suspenseful]
It varries for us. If we're tired or we're in a resort, we grab a bite where we're staying. Usually, we don't stay somewhere that has a restaurant so we have to find someplace else to eat. I like to go to the little homey places instead of the big chains. [reinydawn]
We usually go somewhere else because except for the free breakfast, the hotel meals are very expensive and there is not that much choice. They stick to the standards. We like to go to the big restaurants because here on the Canadian Prairies, they do not have the choice of nice homey places with good selections. You get rather tired of hamburger places where they make the hamburgers by hand. Now when we were on our trip and went through Ottawa, we stopped at this restaurant but the portions were rather too big -must have been all those politicians eating there, and when we were in Bankok, Maine on the way back to Winnipeg, there was this real nice restaurant that was near the motel we stayed at, but do not remember its name. Oh and I missed seeing Stephen King too, but I think I found out his house address. happy [suspenseful]
Haven't traveled or stayed at a hotel in some time but when I did I would have to say it was a combination - one meal in one out type. Last time was when we went to S. Dakota for #2 son's wedding - parents, youngest son, and I all flew out together and we did the same thing some here some there. Son of course had been stationed there several years so knew all the best places, great food, to eat. [byfaithonly]
When my husband's family was all in Saskatoon, Sask. we would stay at one of their houses, but they gradually moved away and at first we rented an apartment at my husband's mother's apartment block, then after that stayed at a nearby motel. We would eat breakfast at the motel because we always choose the Country Inn because they had a good free breakfast. But we would eat at Denny's because Peter's younger sister loved it there. I was not that fond of the food there. I liked Smitty's for the pancakes and also Olive Garden plus there was a Thailand restaurant that we liked. They used to be near the Future Shop computer store, and near Staples, but they moved. We did find a nice place here in Winnipeg, but because of my husband not being able to go anywhere except it is power wheelchair accessible, it is hard to go out now. [suspenseful]
I most times eat from the roadside shops known as tattu kada in our place. Here the food is cheap and one can see the cooking also and can see the food being cooked and not the old food cooked once again. I like the taste of the roadside shops because they are very tasty and doesn't cost much. Most of the food of the tattu kada are very good. Dosa is my favorite food. [ajithlal]
I like food to be fresh. When we go to a restaurant we want the vegetables to be fresh, but much of the kind they are frozen. We do not have the choice one in a hot climate would have of being able to get fruit and vegetables from the garden and milk from the cow or goat all year round. But I hate it when they have canned vegetables and stuff that comes obviously from soup cans and not freshly made that day. [suspenseful]
We always go somewhere else. We do not like to eat their food while we are there. We usually get up to travel some more and stop some place where we have a crave for on the way. [stephcjh]
The only time we eat the food at the motel is when it is the free breakfast. The regular hotel meals are way too expensive and there is not that much selection. They seem to adhere to a certain boring standard that is like the regular run of the mill restaurants. We will eat at a restaurant chain that specializes in what we want to eat, for instance, Italian, we will go to the Olive Garden. But sometimes there are small restaurants that are one of a kind that we eat at or large restaurants who have trained chefs and better quality food, but these usually cost a lot. [suspenseful]
We will always try the hotel/motel restaurant, just to say we've been there, but we will also eat at other places in the area. We prefer to find places that are local and different, because franchises are the same in every single town. Why eat somewhere on the road when there's one right up the street at home? [danishcanadian]
We eat the motel breakfast, but usually when we are at home, we will cook at home and the only time we will go for Tim Horton's is for coffee and doughnuts. So the only time we eat there for lunch is when we are on a trip. Of course it is much cheaper and that is the reason we go. For suppers we will go to a restaurant and for lunch when we were on our trip we stopped in at the small chains like Wendys and Taco Bell, Arbys, etc. because we never ate there at home anyway. I guess I love to cook too much to go to restaurants all the time. [suspenseful]
I give preference to a restaurants which have garden type and some western style type of restaurants some times while we travelling we cannot find such type of restaurants at that time i like motels which are the side of the road they are only some motels good at the side i like the restaurant like holiday inn in that there is a garden restaurant swiming pool and it is good and also fun when we go with small children there we enjoy a lot in that when i went with my family members this new year we are planning to celebrate new year function in the holiday inn. I accidentally dropped my laptop into the pool and had to hire data recover services to get all of my data back! [chaitu2010]
I have not been to a Holiday Inn restaurant. We did have a wedding reception there once when we at a wedding in Saskatoon, but we had the food catered. I have been to the Country Inn, but not to their restaurant and we did order food from the Canad inn. We used to go to the Family type restaurants when our boys were small, but we prefer not to eat at motel restaurants because they do not have that good selection. Usually when we stay at a motel, there is a restaurant nearby either from a regular chain or a smaller independent place or we will search around to find somewhere to eat. Afterward I get some desert, or maybe go to a flower shop or DIY floral arrangements place to get as a gift. [suspenseful]