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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | There ARE places cheaper than Homewood, but you have to take into consideration:
Proximity to Bradley Airport.
Restaurants/Liquor Stores within walking distance.
Pool. (depending upon the time of year).
The aforementioned free breakfast (and NOT just coffee & pastries).
Dinner offered on certain nights.
Meeting Rooms (which we utilized last year for seminars).
Exercise Room (not that I saw it).
Business Center.
And probably most importantly:
We had carte blanche use of the Lobby/Lounge areas until all hours of the night with a staff that was VERY friendly, and actually looks FORWARD to us showing up . . .
Y'gets whatca' pay for. |
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December 2003
Posts: 1071
Location: Carle Place, NY | Originally posted by CrimsonLake:
I just did a quick and dirty search and i came up with a few hotels in the $75/night range about 10 miles from the factory. I put in the middle of may - 2 weekend nights. One of them was a fairfield inn which is a decent hotel. Homewood Suites is the ONLY hotel for the tour. They let us take over the place with unlimited all-night jams in the nice and spacious lobby. The lobby jams alone are almost worth the price of the trip.
Oh, and for breakfast they have a couple of Belgian waffle units.
Fresh, hot waffles in the morning, Hmm hmm good! |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | around $700.00...
.... unless I'm buying Schroeder beer. |
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August 2006
Posts: 3145
Location: Marlton, NJ | Okee dokee - I'm there. |
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October 2005
Posts: 5327
Location: Cicero, NY | I figure it was around $300 for me, including travel, hotel, a 12 pack for the hotel and a little food. Everything else was incidental. Except of course for the therapy to get me over the ride with JW and Schroeder back from the Lodge. Some things you just can't put price tags on.
Bottom line - if you can get there, don't miss it. You will not be sorry. |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | I'm lucky enough in that the main "expense" is the hotel bill. It's about a 2-3 hour drive each way (depending on traffic) and it's a tank of gas (15gals.) round-trip. Not a big deal. It's about the same when I visit w/Bill for the day . . .
The hotel ain't cheap but it's a good deal for what you get (and the Ovation/Kaman Discount is pretty good when you look at their regular rates).
Other than the hotel, my next biggest expense is usually replacement seat covers after driving Templeman around . . . |
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August 2006
Posts: 2804
Location: ranson,wva | i just did a search for rates cliff. the noraml rates for the middle of may is $180.00 per night...isnt homewood suites owned by hilton?? jason |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Originally posted by cliff:
Other than the hotel, my next biggest expense is usually replacement seat covers after driving Templeman around . . . ...and WHOSE fault is that? |
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February 2004
Posts: 1634
Location: Warren,Pa. | OK, I started this.
It's an 8 hour/400 mile trip one way to the hotel for me.
$150 for gas, $280 for 2 nights stay, $30-$50 for food.
...and my wife is really great about all this. The rest of the story is she wanted to go with me this year because I couldn't stop talking about how great a time we had. As it turns out, I have 2 friends who want to go so the gas and hotel costs will be divided up. |
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August 2006
Posts: 2804
Location: ranson,wva | how many miles is it past al's pad?? im doing a bit of figuring now...jason |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | from you Jason it's almost 500 miles one way. |
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August 2006
Posts: 2804
Location: ranson,wva | im 152.05 miles from al's place. ive got my atlas but im terriable with a map..lol if i was smart i would have just looked up map quest...you just about as far arnt you? jason |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Yes, but Jeff sleeps most of the way. |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | about 80 miles further for me |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | yeah so?? I can multi-task. |
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August 2006
Posts: 2804
Location: ranson,wva | i was donw to va yesterday to pick up my new car in fairfax..im glad i dont live there. it took us 75min to go 25miles on i think it is rt62?? but mygod the trafic was so damn backed up...jason |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | fortunately, I'm way west and don't have to deal with it unless !'m headin' to DC or points east.
They be building some roads your way! Be warned!!! It's creeping |
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September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | And probably most importantly:
We had carte blanche use of the Lobby/Lounge areas until all hours of the night with a staff that was VERY friendly, and actually looks FORWARD to us showing up . . .
Yeah... carte blanche to say the least. Even when we inadvertantly dug into another groups pizza. Ya can't buy that. |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | ...and we didn't. |
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September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | It's a 10 hour drive for me.
Does anyone drive more than that??? |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | StephenT and I are going to try and make it back there this year. If he doesn't, I still am going to try. My daughter lives in Boston so I'll probably add some time to see her before or after the tour. I'm figuring it will be at least a grand, about the price of another guitar. On the other hand, what's another guitar if you don't have friends to talk to about it? |
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September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | Just concider the tour to be a shopping trip to test drive your next guitar. |
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February 2003
Posts: 2177
Location: the BIG Metropolis of TR | It's about a 15 or 16 hour drive for me. In '04 I left out early on Wednesday and planned to drive at least 12 hours before looking for a place to spend the night, then finish on Thursday.....I wound up driving about 16 hours or so (heavy traffic and getting lost)until I was so tired we finally got a room at a Red Roof inn or someplace (I was so tired I don't remember....I do remember it being kind of a dump! :( ) That night I really didn't know how far away we were from Homewood Suites but the next morning we checked out and hit the road only to discover that we'd spent the night less than an hour away from the hotel :mad:
In '06 I drove straight thru on Wednesday (called the hotel and asked if it was o.k. to check in a day early and they said "no problem") We checked in about 12 midnight!!(about 15 hrs) I gladly paid the "little extra" for the NICE rooms at Homewood! |
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September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | 16 hours is quite a drive!
The first year we went Brian & I spent a night on the road so we could do the Martin Factory Tour on our way out. |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | ...enjoyed meeting Trboy in CT. Boy's got some chops too... |
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What price Connecticut?
