As you all know by now, I'm an avid road tripper, and I do
love to share my trips by way of the photo journal. I also like to give tips on good road tripping. Over the years, I think I've learned quite a
few tricks and shortcuts.
What some of you don't know is that I always attempt to do
my trips on a tight budget.
Consequently, some of the hotel accommodations I choose are places that
many would not consider for their stay.
Since I only stay one night at most of the hotels, I'm not too fussy
about certain amenities, while I do focus on some things that you would call
silly. Like, I don't use the swimming pool, but I do like a hot tub.
I frown on spending over $100 for a hotel night, so I have
to be pretty careful and selective in which ones I choose, and I do read those
guest reviews before making my choices.
of course, I try to stay at hotel chains that provide reward nights for
loyalty, and I've spent many a "free" night using my rewards
points.
My tip today is one that I learned a long time ago, and it
was garnered partly through my perusing of those guest reviews. One of the most frequent criticisms or
complaints about a guest stay is the noise level. Who wants to spend a night fully awake because the people in the
adjacent room were partying all night long?
Or the window-mounted air conditioner kept recycling noisily every 5
minutes? Or there was a leaky faucet
that kept dripping throughout the night?
Every one of those things has probably happened to you, too,
and sometimes it was at a high-end, high-priced hotel. It is way more frequent at the budget inns, but no matter where it occurs,
there is a simple and inexpensive "fix" for it.
Buy and carry with you on every trip a set of ear plugs,
preferably with a noise reduction rating (NRR) of at least 25, but it is better
if you can get some with a 30+ rating.
The plugs I use are foam and only need to be compress/rolled
between two fingers and then inserted into the ear canal where they will
re-expand. If they don't fully expand,
you can lightly press that small ear flap in front of your ear canal back
against the exposed end of the plug and it will expand further. Turn the room television set to a
comfortable volume, and when you cannot hear dialog or music, you have inserted
the plugs correctly.
Voilá! You can now
sleep through anything, including sleep alarms, which might not be so good, so
here is another trick. You probably carry a cell phone, and even the cheap ones
have alarms and a vibrate silent ring function. Merely set the alarm on the phone for the time you want to
awake. Then set it to
"vibrate" and place it under the front edge of your bed pillow, or
somewhere against your body - a pajama pocket will do. If you're like me, the vibration will be
enough to wake you up.
Fire alarms are another matter, but I've found that on the
one occasion I was awakened in the middle of the night by fire alarm, it was
loud and high-pitched enough to make it through to my brain even with the plugs
in.
I cannot leave the topic without pointing out that those
plugs are great for another source of unrest during the night - snoring. If you are the snorer, they won't help a
bit, but if you happen to be the snoree, they are a godsend.
Bon Voyage and sweet dreams!
