Motel in Nebraska

March 21, 2007 11:11 AM

Help me find a nice mom&pop motel on I-80 between North Platt and Grand Island, NE. This should be nice enough to not go "eww" at the bathroom, but less than $70. It'll be me, the mrs and three little ones.
posted by kc0dxh to travel & transportation (5 comments total)

Just stay away from the Paradise Motel in Ogallala (just west of North Platte). We stayed there for a family vacation many years ago and they had avocado green shag carpeting on the WALLS as well as the floors. Matching crushed velvet bedspreads, too.

If you were going further east on I-80, Mahoney State Park (between Omaha and Lincoln) is an absolutely awesome place for families.
posted by Ostara at 12:18 PM on March 21, 2007

I used to drive that stretch of Interstate 80 every summer, and there just aren't very many people between North Platte and Grand Island, and we'd always stop in either one or the other, but never in between. (The question always was "can we go another 150 miles, or should we just stop here for the night?")

Since your profile puts you in Des Moines, which is an easy 400 miles from North Platte, I'd bet you'd have much better luck in North Platte than trying to find something in between Grand Island and North Platte.
posted by ambrosia at 12:27 PM on March 21, 2007

The town of Kearney (pronounced, I was told by a waitress, to rhyme with "Barney") is in between Grand Island and North Platte, and has lots of hotels and restaurants. I think that there are a couple of hotels at Cozad, too (and Google backs that up), but I have never stopped there.
posted by Forktine at 2:23 PM on March 21, 2007

I second the Kearney suggestion. Nice little college town with lots of restaurants and hotels.

I can't vouch for any of the mom and pop hotels, but there are some nice local color restaurants there. Bico's is an interesting place as is Little Mexico. Nothing really fancy, but a decent and interesting meal for surprisingly little money.
posted by ensign_ricky at 2:29 PM on March 21, 2007

The other half & I stayed in Kearney, NE before. Nice little place, and the Days Inn there was decent. It was also cheap and had a free breakfast.
posted by drstein at 9:14 PM on March 21, 2007