Best Westerns along the California Coast

After our recent getaway in San Diego our family drove up the California Coast to Los Angeles and then Santa Barbara. Along the way, we noticed several Best Westerns sitting right on the coast, overlooking the sparkling Pacific Ocean.

Here are a few of those:

BEST WESTERN PLUS The Inn at Marina del Rey is a swanky boutique-style hotel that's minutes from Venice Beach.

From the harbor side rooms at BEST WESTERN PLUS Sunrise Hotel at Redondo Beach Marina you can fall asleep to the sound of the waves crashing and the sailboats rocking.

BEST WESTERN PLUS Blue Sea Lodge sits right on a sandy beach in San Diego.

BEST WESTERN Encinitas Inn & Suites at Moonlight Beach sits perched on a cliff above the ocean in Encinitas.

BEST WESTERN PLUS Inn by the Sea is two blocks from the beach in the pretty little village of La Jolla.

BEST WESTERN PLUS Beach View Lodge offers rooms with balconies overlooking the Pacific (photo above).

Best Western Plus Inn of Ventura

This groovy hotel sits in the heart of old town Ventura, just a few blocks from the sparkling Pacific Ocean. The fashionable lobby is filled with mid-century modern furnishings (pictured left). The same sleek design is carried out in the rooms where beds are topped with soft down comforters and stylish quilts.

You might want to dive into the swimming pool and don't miss the free breakfast with blueberry muffins, guava juice and crispy waffles.
Rates are reasonable and our family was thrilled to pay for our night with Best Western Rewards Points. More on the Best Western Plus Inn of Ventura.

Splurging on wetsuits in San Diego

Hotels rooms under $100, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, cheap flights with long layovers and strange departure times. I'm used to seeking out deals when traveling. Our family can only afford to travel on the cheap.

And so when we went to San Diego with some friends for a beach getaway, I was hesitant to splurge on wetsuit rentals. Two-hundred and fifty dollars to rent wetsuits for a family of four for five days—ouch! It pained me to spend that kind of money, especially since the rest of the trip was already pushing us to the edge financially. But our friends kept saying that the water is cold and you won't enjoy yourselves without a wetsuit.

We caved, and it was some of the best money I've ever spent.

We spent hours riding the waves on boogie boards in Solana Beach. It's the first time my kids have ever really liked being in the ocean. And now my son (pictured left) wants to become a surfer.

Yes, it's true, kids can fingerpaint in the car!

Finger-painting seems like the worst activity possible for kids riding in the backseat on a road trip. Talk about messy! But with Crayola's new Color Wonder Fingerpaint it's possible. The paints are clear and don't stain fabric but when you rub them with your fingers across the special paper colors magically appear. We tested the product out over the summer and the kids were busy for at least an hour. You just need to give them a few napkins to clean the stuff off their fingers. The pictures are a little wet at first and so we dried those on the dashboard.

Find Crayola Color Wonder Fingerpaint and Coloring Book for $8.70 on Amazon.

'Helena Independent Record' covers On the Go with Amy

Thank you to the Helena Independent Record for reporting on my budget road trip through Montana. Below is an excerpt from the story. You can find the full feature here.

Amy Graff has traveled around the world, but nothing had quite prepared her for Montana.

“I just have to say, I fell in love with your state,” said the San Francisco Chronicle columnist and blogger. “I was blown away.”

Graff, a former senior editor at VIA magazine, spent more than a week with her family of four traveling through some of the most majestic sites in the Treasure State for a section of her blog “On the go with Amy,” (onthegowithamy.blogspot.com) sponsored by Best Western Hotels. The goal of the journey: to have fun and enjoy the sights while surviving on a budget of about $200 per day.

What Graff found in the nine-day trip were timeless bits of history, gorgeous scenes of nature and generous locals that made for memories more vivid than the photos collected on her website.

“I couldn’t get over how amazing it is there,” she said. “Why didn’t I know about this?”

Perhaps it’s because this immense state with a small population takes pride in being the “Last Best Place,” the one kept secret from much of the world but still willing to open its arms to the wandering visitor.