Looking for rural accommodations: convenient, comfortable, cheap

August 19, 2019 2:49 PM

Mx. spindrifter and I are going to a friend's wedding in late September about an hour outside Pittsburg. We're trying to figure out the best accommodations for both of us, and we want to get creative about our options.

We could camp at our friends' house, which many people will be doing, and where the wedding and wedding events are all happening. The big benefit here is that it's devastatingly convenient, we don't need to designate a driver at the end of the night, and it's easy for one of us to Cinderella before the other.

The problem is that I really love sleeping in a bed, with a small side serving of I don't want to deal with bad weather camping for a party weekend.

We could get a hotel room. The closest I've found is about 7 miles away. Very very unlikely, there could be a rental house that's closer but none within post party walking distance. Taxis, Lyft and uber do operate there but could be 15-30 minutes to wait for a pick up.

We could rent an RV or similar instead of tenting it, but that's ridiculously expensive even if we rent from nearby.

What haven't we thought about that could give us more of what we want or less of what we don't?

posted by spindrifter to Travel & Transportation (6 answers total)

Air mattress? The older I get, the less I enjoy sleeping on the ground. But a good quality air mattress with a pump will provide you with the advantages of sleeping in a bed, with the convenience of being on site.

For bad weather, make sure you put the fly on the tent to keep out the rain. I assume you'll be doing wedding activities most of the time, but if there's downtime and poor weather, set up a backup plan like going to a coffee shop in town for a few hours. That way you're not sitting in a damp tent.
posted by valoius at 3:02 PM on August 19, 2019

Rather than rent an RV, rent a car with a big hatch back and put an air mattress in it. My old Forester fit a Full sized air mattress perfectly in the back with the seats down. Not a ton of head room, but good enough for car camping while on the road.
posted by soren_lorensen at 3:19 PM on August 19, 2019 [6 favorites]

If you're driving, do you have or can you borrow a minivan or such? With the seats removed, you can use an air mattress or memory foam mattress topper to make a temporary #vanlife camper. For bonus points, get a 10x10 canopy that you can cover part of the vehicle with such that you can roll down the windows for ventilation without worrying about rain getting in (and to keep sun from heating it up as much). A small USB powered fan helps as well.

I always recommend the Kamp Rite self inflating air mattresses with the caviat that they're bulky to store and move compared to a convention air mattress. But they're vastly more comfortable and are the only air mattresses I've used that didn't slowly deflate every night.
posted by Candleman at 3:27 PM on August 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

You can rent a cargo van at the U-haul closest to the wedding site and buy a cheap air mattress for about the price of a motel.
posted by drlith at 5:16 PM on August 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

Make a refundable hotel reservation now. Cancel within 24 hours if the weather is clear. Meanwhile, see what camping equipment you can borrow from friends.
posted by oceano at 8:34 PM on August 19, 2019

I’ve used aHennessey Hammock to avoid stony ground on several trails while hiking. I’ve seen people with big canvas military-surplus tents that would shelter several cots, so there are options beyond pop-ups and RVs. And yes, have a backup hotel reservation.
posted by childofTethys at 8:10 AM on August 20, 2019 [1 favorite]