Oh yeah, plenty of hotels have 24 hour check-in, or late hours with arrangement. This, however, was a holiday site where you booked the specific cottage and the whole site was regularly booked out months in advance in summer. They seemed bewildered by the concept that someone else was staying in it and was still having breakfast.
Amateurs gonna amateur. It’s what they do. Fun to watch, not necessarily fun to be the customer service person taking care of them.
Genrally not o dark 30, unless it is a long (10+ hour) drive. For Thanksgiving (just over 3 hour drive) I left home Wednesday around 11:30 AM, and left where I was staying around 10 AM.
For my camping trips thius year, I left so I would arrive around check-in time. WI state parks emphasize 3 PM check-in, but experience has shown me you can be there a bit earlier (IIRC check out is 1PM, so arriving at 2:30 and maybe even 2 is OK – especially if the park is unstaffed)
So 9 AM, earlier if it is a longer trip, but rarely before sunrise.
Brian
I’m not an early person so in general try to avoid early departures. If I am travelling South I will usually try to go thorough Glasgow or Edinbrugh after morning rush hour, though often later as I target arriving at a particular time.
There are exceptions, I sometime use jet lag to my advantage, my last trip to the US was touring the national parks of Utah and Arizona, rather that adjusting the full 7/8 hours of time difference I tended ot go ot bed about 9pm, on my travel days I would be on the road about 5am and arrive and the next national park just as things were starting to open.
My #1 priority is to avoid the yawnzies, so none of this nighttime or before dawn driving stuff, which also helps to avoid getting a deer as a hood ornament. I never came close to the yawnzies on either end of my TGiving trip this week; in addition to a sufficient night’s sleep the night before, I have also learned to not overindulge in sugary snacks so as to not get nailed by ye olde hypoglycemic crash syndrome. Combined with the check-in time constraints discussed above, this usually means leaving between 7 and 9 am, depending yes on what rush hours I need to avoid.
I’ve historically tried to leave very early. As early as 4am depending on where I’m going. Its a habit I got from my dad. 6am would be ok if I didn’t have as far to go and could be leisurely. THere have been times when I’ve had a 20 hour trip going and had to wait for companions to get off work, so we would leave about 6pm and drive through the night into the next day and arrive in the afternoon. I’ve had various luck with sleeping in the car, which makes for a terrible day drive.
When flying, it’s generally based on when reasonably cheap flights are available AND the timeframe for whomever is going to be picking me up on the other side. So, generally, if I’m heading to Austin and a friend is going to pick me up, I’ll pick a time that isn’t bad for him, and otherwise cheap.
If I’m driving, again, varies by distance. For my usual long drive, that’s 630 miles, and I prefer driving during daylight, but since I have minor sleep disorder issues, not -too- early. So most commonly, I’ll hit the interstate around 7am, right as traffic is building but not unbearably slow. That generally gives me the 10ish hours to do the drive and arrive between 5-6pm with minimal driving in the dark (depending on the time of year).
In as relaxed a fashion as possible. I really dislike traveling with people who feel it is necessary to work everybody up into a tizzy while getting them into the car/conveyance. I just don’t see the point of that. Nobody hurries any faster because they are also anxious and upset.
And yes, it is wise to work around upcoming traffic snarls and rush hours. But it’s not worth saving an hour to me if it means that the whole trip is silent or grumpy. Relax. Enjoy. This is supposed to be fun! Early starts are good for me, but not if it means somebody only sleeps four hours. Take care of yourself; we can wait.
Mostly, I avoid rush hour. We drive a few times a year from the Shenandoah Valley to Bristol, TN. We leave the house around 9.30 to miss rush hour in the morning and arrive before rush hour in the afternoon.
It totally depends on the itinerary, distance, weather, any host’s schedule, etc.
Yeah.
Last road trip I took was last month around Halloween. Just me, and all Interstate driving.
Would have been at least 14h non-stop each way. So broke it into two days. In motion about 0800 both days, done about 1700 with extra stops along the way. No intermediate big city rush hours Tres easy.
As close to 6 AM as possible. It helps me avoid rush hour on I-75 around certain cities. Also, with a 12-hour drive, I have to leave early to avoid arriving late.
If flying, I still want an early flight because all my flights go through ATL and the later you arrive, the more time problems have had to pile up.
Short answer: around lunchtime.
Travel for us is almost exclusively in the RV. Due to medical and other reasons it is far more comfortable for us.
As retirees we’re never in a hurry, and frequently take extra days to reach a destination. It’s more relaxing, and spending an extra night at a state or COE park is only about $25. A few months ago, we spent 11 days meandering to Glacier NP (1600 miles).
So we tend to get under way around 1 or 2pm on the first day of a trip. We get going about 11am on the other days of travel, due to park checkout times.
~8-9am if I’m driving. I don’t want to get up super early but I don’t want to lollygag, either. Flying, I like early flights (to avoid delays and arrive to my destination while it’s still light out) but not so early I have to get up at 3am to make it! Say, 7am flight.
I find avoiding rush “hour” isn’t easy, as it’s never just a fixed single hour. Around here, it can start as early as 3pm and still not be cleared out fully until near 7pm. Morning not as bad, but still ~6:45-9am. Most bigger cities are similar.
Now, when our kids were tiny and my husband worked nights, we’d leave in the evening and he’d drive all night and kids and I would sleep. (Sorta) Then, in my difficult sleep exhaustion, I’d take over in the morning. That sucked. lol
Generally around 7:00 or 7:30. I don’t want to interfere with my natural sleep patterns and I usually get up around 6:00. Getting on the road an hour later isn’t a stretch and I miss most of the rush hour traffic in the nearest city I approach. Leaving at this relatively normal time leaves me plenty of energy to drive for up to ten hours, which is pretty much the most I will choose to drive in a day anyway and I should be at my destination by dinner time.
Usually about an hour or so after my wife says we’ll leave. We’re not generally going too far, so mid afternoon is fine.
Long distance train here in South Africa is wonderful. There’s a fairly good chance of getting a wood-lined antique room, and if you book early enough, a private coupé - in first class. It is all very retro, 1950s style. Fold out beds, some guy comes to do the bed…
Second class, you bring your own sleeping bag, and is more bland mid-70s design. (Although our rail system renamed the class system ages ago, no person I know uses anything else)
Third class is a rowdy adventure. Do not plan to sleep, as a fresh group of drunk people get on at every stop, to replace the drunk people leaving. I did third class from Cape Town to Harare via Gaberone once… an epic trip. My friend and I were both in the choir at school, so we could pick up on the religious (albeit very drunken) songs to join in.
Light rail is very modernised, not nearly so much fun, but substantially more efficient