As part of my focus on New England travel destinations, I want to share the Super 8 by Wyndham White River Junction today. This 2-star hotel is located in White River Junction, Vermont providing a comfy place to sleep for anyone seeking a place to stay in the New England area.
“Here in New England, the character is strong and unshakable.”
― Norman Rockwell
Tips for Choosing a New England Travel Accommodation
Since we’re pretty much living this mobile life these days for the warmer months, I wanted to share some tips to help you choose a New England accommodation option. While some of you may be against a 2-star hotel, we’ve had great luck with our choices for 2-star hotels. Here are some of the things we take into consideration when choosing a New England travel accommodation option:
Compare Prices
First and foremost, we’re trying to focus on saving money and paying off debt. This means we must compare prices for New England travel destinations before anything else. We’ve found that you can get a room at Super 8 by Wyndham White River Junction much cheaper when you opt to search for rates on Hotels.com as well as Hotwire.com.
Another site we enjoy using to find the best prices for accommodations in New England is Booking.com. It’s important that you play around with the check-in and check-out dates as well as price your hotel choices out on each last-minute hotel site in order to get the best rate possible.
Review Location
The places we stay are somewhat close to our hometown, so we’re very familiar with the area. While I’m more familiar with the area of Vermont just across the New Hampshire border, such as this area of White River Junction, my other half is just as familiar with the New Hampshire towns as I am. This helps when we’re trying to choose a low-cost New England travel destination for sleeping, without getting into a rough area of any town. When choosing a place to stay in New England, it’s important to review the area to make sure you’re not going to show up in a rough neighborhood and not feel safe.
Take Reviews Into Consideration
This is one part of the equation of sharing Super 8 by Wyndham White River Junction today, as they do seem to have more negative reviews online than positive. My other half and I read through the reviews with an open mind. Most of the online reviews complain about smoking and feeling like there were “sketchy people” hanging around. To be honest, this hotel used to be a smoking facility by the sounds, so yes you may get a washed blanket that has an old cigarette hole in it, but the fact of the matter is that there is no smoking inside any of the rooms at this hotel.
Some of the workers are friendlier than others, which is another complaint in the reviews. With that being said, our experience at Super 8 by Wyndham White River Junction has shown that if you use common sense and common courtesy the workers and location are actually pretty safe and friendly for a place to sleep.
Our Experiences at Super 8 by Wyndham White River Junction
We have stayed at this location many times. We have spent 2 nights, 3 nights, and even 5 nights in a row. Again, it all depends on whether we are done with camping for a few nights or a week. Also, the weather that gets humid or too rainy means we’d rather be at the Super 8 by Wyndham White River Junction or the Rodeway Inn before cramping into a tent during bad weather.
With that being said, anytime we stay here we are always pretty happy and feel at home. I will lend you three pieces of advice before checking into this location:
- Be sure to pay for your reservation online. Whenever we pay at the front desk there is always an issue with the card, the amount charged or something else. We always end up paying MORE than what we were booked for online with the hotel deal sites if we pay upon check-in.
- Do not use a prepaid credit card. Since my other half doesn’t have a debit card with his checking account, he often has to place funds onto a prepaid credit card for our check-in. This is not a good idea. All prepaid cards seem to add 20% on the pre-auth which makes it difficult to get the room booked when paying onsite. If you’re going to use a prepaid credit card, then absolutely use it to pay for your reservation online, unless you have a way to put 20% extra on the prepaid card to cover the added pre-auth cost upon check-in.
- Be sure you’re okay with no fridge or microwave in the room. While we did end up with one room that had a mini-fridge, for the most part, there isn’t a fridge or microwave in the room. We got spoiled have both at the Rodeway Inn, but there are many delivery restaurants in the area to get food for lunch and dinner.
Our room wasn’t too shabby. We enjoyed having two double beds and could easily fill an air mattress for the youngest kiddo who refused to share a bed with his big brother. The desk in our room allowed me to get work done for my freelance writing and blogging business. The bathroom is pretty nice too, it’s a toilet with a bath/shower. The sink is located outside of the bathroom for ease of brushing teeth and washing your hands.
Laundry & Access to Ice Machine
We enjoyed being able to wash our laundry at the Super 8 by Wyndham White River Junction for just $1 per wash and about $1.50 per dryer load. They only have one washer and one dryer in the stairs area to the right of the office, but it’s so worth taking the time to wash laundry here. If you need ice for your room, there is an ice machine in this area too as well as an ice bucket in your hotel room to gather some ice for drinks.
Unlimited Wi-Fi Access & Cable TV
While we do enjoy camping more than staying in a hotel because it allows our boys to actually have some bonding time, the unlimited Wi-Fi access at the Super 8 by Wyndham White River Junction truly helps me get my work done. I’ve enjoyed being able to focus better when we stay here and cable TV does keep us entertained whenever we want some background noise or to find out the latest happenings in our world via the news channels.
“The New England spirit does not seek solutions in a crowd; raw light and solitariness are less dreaded than welcomed as enhancers of our essential selves.”
― John Updike
24/7 Office and Coffee/Tea/Hot Cocoa
The office has someone on duty 24/7 to answer questions, assist with things and whatnot. While we’ve never had to bother them, except that one time our youngest kid took a poop and clogged the toilet. They’re usually pretty good at helping people with questions or needs. They happily gave us a plunger on loan to deal with the toilet that day. There is a free coffee area that also has a wide variety of hot tea and some hot cocoa to enjoy any time of day or night.
Free Superstart Breakfast
Last, but not least, the breakfast available every morning, 7 days a week from 6 am to 10 am is absolutely amazing! Now, the Rodway Inn has a continental breakfast but that’s more like just old cereal. Super 8 by Wyndham White River Junction has a superstart breakfast included with your stay at this 2-star hotel.
This breakfast includes a variety of juice options, coffee, blueberry muffins, waffles that look like Eggo waffles, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, two kinds of cereal with milk, bread to toast, and place peanut butter, butter, or jelly on. This is certainly a fabulous selling point for our growing boys who love their food!
Our Overall Thoughts on Super 8 by Wyndham White River Junction
We have recommended this location to many people. Again, to get the best rates we do have to spend quite a bit of time online through various booking sites and last-minute hotel deal sites, but once we nail that perfect rate we are sold. We are very happy with this location as a fabulous place to stay with kids. Our kids have been happy here with the free breakfast, unlimited Wi-Fi, and comfortable beds.
The room is just big enough for us to enjoy quality time together without feeling cramped. We always reserve a room that has 2 double beds, so I can’t speak for the rooms that have a single bed or whatnot.
We will continue to recommend this 2-star hotel to anyone seeking to find New England travel destinations that suit their simple needs. The facility is pet-friendly with non-smoking rooms, which are two pieces of important information to share with anyone who doesn’t want to be near pets or smokers. I think you should give Super 8 by Wyndham White River Junction a try, even if you simply need a place to stay for one night. This location is affordable, clean, and friendly for anyone looking to stay in the New England area.