where to stay en route from Portland Or to Santa FE

Making a temporary move to Santa Fe by Honda FIT in mid-January from Portland Or. Trip planners take me to Boise ID and then on to Albuquerque and Santa Fe. It's about 1400 miles total. I would like to drive a total of 3 days to get there with 2 drivers. How do I break the trip into 3 roughy equal distances and where should I stay- I haven't stayed in freeway motels for a long time! Which chains are most affordable and not too funky? and are there routes or highwys I should avoid due to possible bad weather and snow? Cynthia

Hello, and Welcome to the Great American Roadtrip Forum.

A 1400 mile trip is a three day trip no matter how many drivers you have. With the reduced daylight in Jan., you won't want to be on the road in the dark, 500 miles a day could have you on the road for up to 10 hours.

However, when it comes to routes and stops, that will be greatly dependent on weather. Right now, no one can tell you what that would be along any given route.

Get out some good paper maps (not electronics) and see which the main routes available to you are. Leading up to your departure date, start watching the weather forecasts, and then determine which route is going to give you the best storm free run. Only then will you be able to determine your overnight stops.

None-the-less, be sure to have a spare day up your sleeve, so that should you be caught by an unexpected storm, you will be able to hole up in a warm motel, until the roads are clear again to resume your journey.

Have a safe trip.

Lifey

If you want to break your trip in to 3 equal drives, then Mountain Home, ID and Green River, Utah would be the places to look at - that would be about 470 miles for each leg. If you wanted to push a little harder on the first day, you could also look at Twin Falls and Moab. Any of those places have a pretty wide variety of motels to pick from. The price ranges, amenities, and reviews of each place should give you a good idea of what fits your price range, without being too funky for your tastes. You can start by using the RTA motel search by clicking the Lodging tab at the top of the page.

Weather certainly could be a factor on this trip, but there really aren't any roads you can pick to avoid it. The best thing you can do is watch the weather forecasts and give yourself extra time to deal with storm related delays - pulling off the road and waiting for things to improve if they are beyond your driving ability. There really aren't any great alternate routes for you - as the obvious ones (taking I-80 and I-25 through Denver, or going down I-5 to I-40 via California) both add 200-300 extra miles, and they both have just as much of a chance of seeing bad weather.

Mountain Home, ID vs. Twin Falls, ID, for lodging:

At Mountain Home, there are 8 motels near the freeway, ranging from Best Western, Hampton, and Sleep Inn (more budget friendly than the previous 2), to several non-chains, some of which are 1-2 miles from the freeway.

Twin Falls gives you more than a dozen motels near the freeway, from the upscale Hilton Garden and Hampton, down to the budget-friendly Motel 6 and Super 8.

The same is going to be the case for Green River UT vs. Moab, UT. Green River is not usually a destination, however, because of its location. It caters to overnighters, though. There's Best Western, Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Ramada, and they also have the budget-friendly choices of Motel 6, Super 8, Rodeway, and Budget Inn. Plus a few mom-and-pop non-chains. Food-wise, there's not a lot of choice there, but we usually enjoy the Westwinds truck stop (off the freeway in town) for breakfasts when we are traveling through.

Moab is a tourist town because of its location next to Arches and Canyonlands NP. Even in winter, though, you may find that the motel rates are a bit higher than Green River, because of that. We stayed at the Apache there - it was an older place, that had been remodeled a few years before. The room we had was decent sized, and we were comfortable. Best yet, the price was right. It was located off the beaten path -- not right on the major route, but close. We did have to drive to get food, something we've never been concerned about.


Hope this helps. I also hope for good weather for your travels. Good luck with your move!


Donna

I stayed at the Sleep Inn in Nampa (450 miles) with a Shari's Restaurant close by and Comfort
Inn in Green River (540 miles). From there you have three routes to Santa Fe. If the weather is okay, I'd take 191 to Monticello, 491 to Shiprock, 550 to Bernalillo and I-25 to Santa Fe (450 miles). I've driven all those roads, stayed at the hotels and found them clean and comfortable. The scenery along those routes is really good, too.

Harry