The 12th edition of the “Route 66 Dining & Lodging Guide” that’s published by National Historic Route 66 Federation is now available. You can order it from the federation here (it’s the fourth book down from the listing).
If you’re planning your next Route 66 journey, I can’t recommend this book enough. I would say that even if yours truly hadn’t helped in selecting the recommended motels and restaurants in two 100-mile segments of Oklahoma. Even before we became volunteers for the federation, we found the “Dining & Lodging Guide” to be a valuable resource.
I remember that our first “Dining & Lodging Guide,” purchased in 2000 or 2001, was 60 or so pages and was staple-bound. The current 12th edition is 96 pages and is professionally bound.
Federation Executive Director David Knudson told me in an e-mail that the publication’s growth is a good sign for the road:
Yes, it is getting bigger, in spite of the fact that we had to cut back around 20 entries. As I mentioned, it is a pretty good indication that there are a growing number of businesses along the route. […]
We have had requests to expand it even more and include photos, etc. But we’re trying hard to keep it as reasonably priced as possible.
The new edition costs $12.95, plus $1.75 shipping for U.S. residents. It is a no-frills publication, but it contains key information for all the best motels and restaurants along the road, including addresses, phone numbers, Web sites and lots more.
I hope they’ve cleaned up the listings. I bought the last version, and there’s no common way the listings are presented, which makes it somewhat confusing. There were also some good “Mom-n-Pop” places that should have been there that weren’t, some that shouldn’t have been there and where. (Lincoln Motel comes to mind as a dump.)
When I do 66 again next year, I’m sure I’ll buy this book again, but I’ll sure be hoping it’s done better. I know they’re trying hard, but still… it wouldn’t take much to make it WAY better. (and wouldn’t cost a dime more to implement)
To those who handle a 100 and think $80 (and up) motels are great… come back to earth and start looking for more budget-friendly places in your 100.
I’m mostly in agreement with the $80-and-up rule, but with one big exception — La Posada in Winslow, Ariz., is a shade under $100 a night, and worth every penny. I’ve never found anyone who doesn’t agree with that assessment.
Also, in the Chicago and Los Angeles area, good luck in finding a hotel room for less than $80 (although the Saga Motor Inn in Pasadena comes to mind).
We did two 100-mile sections in Oklahoma for the guide, and we skewed heavily to the budget mom-and-pop operations. However, in a few towns, it’s hard to find acceptable mom-and-pop lodging, so you go with the next-best thing.
So what would you do to improve the guide? I’m not trying to put you on the spot; I genuinely would like your suggestions. I’m sure the publishers would like them, too, and I’d be happy to pass them along.
I would agree on La Posada. I wanted to stay there, but timing just didn’t work out to make it so.
In San Berdoo, we opted for a Red Roof Inn, which ended up about $60… not too bad.
The Oklahoma sections were pretty on-target, but some areas (in other states) I had to question what the adopters were thinking considering some of the places chosen and some of the price ranges.
The one major change I’d make is do a form, and any submissions must use the form without modification. This would make all entries in the guide exactly the same. You look in the same place on every entry for a certain item… Dinner, smoking, etc. Each entry isn’t laid out the same now, and that makes the guide more tedious to use/read.
I’d also use icons for certain things, like Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner, or prices using the standard “$, $$, $$$, $$$$”. I’m sure other things could be icons too. It would be pretty simple to use some sort of wingdings font for these icons, and they’d make the guide more “at a glance”, quicker to look at. That’s my probably my main complaint with the guide. It needs to be standardized for every listing, across the board.
I’ve already suggested many of these ideas, but there seemed to be a little hesitation there. My ideas are all pretty simple, and wouldn’t add any cost to the publishing of the guide.
I guess the main thing would be, put everything in the same place/order for each listing, so there’s a better “flow” to it.
I wonder if the Stanton Motel (Stanton, MO) made it in this time. I stayed there in Sept, and found it to be nice and clean, as well as quite cheap. The owner spent a lot of money to do up his massive neon too, so a tip of the hat to him for that.
I also hope the Lincoln Motel is out, since it was the filthiest place we stayed on the entire trip. I was very disappointed in it. đ