The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Where would a person look to find places to stay on a 4-5 day vacation to visit different places in our country? Those of you that have traveled with your plane alot, is it easier just to pick out and average size airport and stay at a local hotel?

w.

Decide where you want to go and then write to the Chamber of Commece. The AOPA Airort Directory has lodging listed for many airports.

B & B 's (Bed and Breakfasts) are one of Jamie and my favorite places to stay when travelling cross-country. Not only do you find wonderful little places to stay, usually with very good food provided, but you also make good friends with the hosts/hostesses and their other guests.
(The only time there has been an exception to this experience was when Jamie, Deanna, and I stayed on Vancouver Island and the other guests mistook us for being associated with a scraggley, old, string-bean, of a Goof from Toledo Bend and they refused to talk to us....all they wanted to do was inquire into the mindset of Goofy. I'm pretty certain that is the REAL reason for the upcoming increased-Security of airspace-planning around Vancouver....those Canucks have yet to recover and hope to prevent a re-occurance!)

http://www.bbonline.com/

http://www.bedandbreakfast.com/

Let me add that most B&B's have been very happy to pick us up/drop us off at the airport and frequently provide rides about town. That - alone - can save significantly over using hotels and taxis. Being "locals"...they are invariably a super source of local info. (Being a history-nut, I usually try to plan overnites at historical towns/locales. I love to read up on the town / area history before we go.

As bluelder suggests there are a number of great resources to use when planning a flying trip. AOPA has a great flight planner available that allows you to select destination airports and research services available at each, including fuel prices. I also use Google or any of the other search engines to visit the websites of the towns associated with the destination airports to get a good idea of what is available in the way of lodging. Using Expedia or any of the other cheap hotel websites it is possible to explore lodging availablity and prices by location. All else fails, I call the airport manager and ask him/her for recommendations - phone numbers are usually available in the Landings on-line Airport Directory.