Motel’s present an interesting backdrop. Many of us are brought up being taught that a motel isn’t really where we should ever be staying. However, when it’s the middle of the night and your choices are to sleep on the side of the highway with the truckers and prostitutes or to get a room at the side of the road motel with the truckers and prostitutes, really, what choices are there? Not that all motels have only truckers and prostitutes. I mean, there is the Bates Motel; schizophrenic serial killer who dresses up like his mommy, anyone?

In all seriousness, the bad rap which motels have been afforded has only been magnified by our ‘heightened’ terror alert levels and you’ve got to really wonder what it all means. We’re all civilized people here; can’t we all just get along? But as luxury hotels continue to squeeze out the mid level offerings in cities and towns all over the country, many of us with meager means are forced out onto the highway or are required to play ball and pay these exorbitant rates that the games players at the major hotel networks are forcing us to play.

So what do we do? Well, first of all, planning is essential in making your trip a success. If you’ve seen the rates you’re looking at from certified sites online and you’ve called around and haven’t found anything to your liking and you figure you’ll just “wing it;” stay home. If you can’t pay for your holiday, the rates are just going to end up being even greater than you imagined at first and the availability will be less, the stress will be higher, and the vacation will stink.

But if you’ve looked around at the area hotels and there’s nothing to your liking, why not try a motel? See if they’ve got a website with pictures and testimonials. Some will even have reviews posted from local news agencies which may temper any concerns you’ve got about motels. Also a lot of places are trying to clean up their image so if you see one with a website and you call ahead sometimes you can get lucky and score a motel worth staying at in or near your destination location.

Many of the western and Midwestern states have been among the first to take their shabby dwellings and take them to a state of relative niceness. Check for motels next time you’re in Portland or Las Vegas; on the long, open stretches of barren highway, there is a reason for the weary traveler to want to have a shining beacon on a hill.