Detroit without a Car
IronFox22
Ohio
I've got a chance to fly into Detroit on some minor business in a few weeks. I'll have a ton of spare time and am thinking of checking out several clubs. From everything I've heard, Detroit is a wonderful place for high-mileage dances and more. While I'll be at a decent hotel, I'm not going to have a car. So, if I'm going to hit the clubs, I'll have to use cabs or some other form of transportation.
Now, the advantage to this is that I can drink without having to worry about driving. The disadvantage is that I'll have to spend a lot of money on taxis and will likely have to wait outside clubs in some seedy areas for a few minutes at a time while waiting for them to arrive.
So, gentlemen, is it worth it to explore the Detroit clubs without a vehicle? Or too much of a pain in the ass? And will I die?
Now, the advantage to this is that I can drink without having to worry about driving. The disadvantage is that I'll have to spend a lot of money on taxis and will likely have to wait outside clubs in some seedy areas for a few minutes at a time while waiting for them to arrive.
So, gentlemen, is it worth it to explore the Detroit clubs without a vehicle? Or too much of a pain in the ass? And will I die?
25 comments
Worry about drinking and driving? Be a real man and do what I do - just drink and drive and don't worry about it. Quite being such a pussy and be like the RickyBoyDugan!
Detroit is somewhat spread out.
If you are staying at the airport (Inkster) there are 4 to 5 clubs within a reasonable cab ride.
If the Eight Mile strip is your flavor then I would think your cab ride would be a hindrance and you would not want to stay at any local hotel which would make the cab cost better.
I have had great Dollar rental rates at about $35/day.
Good hunting.
I think the Flight Club in Inkster, (Near the airport, hence the name) is currently the best option.
The FC and Penthouse on 8-Mile battle for supremacy but I think the Flight club is winning.
If you stay at a hotel near the airport, you can find plenty of clubs within 5 to 10 miles in suburbs that are not dangerous. Most of the clubs are on or near Michigan Avenue.
Flight Club
Bogart's
Henry VIII (north)
Criket
BT's
Landing Strip
If you want to go to the 8 Mile Road clubs, you could stay at a safe hotel in the suburb of Southfield within a few miles of 8 Mile. 8 Mile Road is the northern border of Detroit and is a little dicey, but you should not be afraid of waiting at a club entrance for a cab.
Penthouse
Trumps
Players
HT's
Coliseum
If u stay by the airport I would recommend Flight Club or BTs for above average looking girls with good-great mileage. Bogarts/Henry VIII are seedy dive bars with great mileage & average looking girls. I don't like the Toy Chest, haven't been to the Silver Cricket in the evening & haven't been to the Playhouse or Landing Strip right by the airport in over a decade. So can't comment on those.
If u stay in the burbs - the 8 Mile clubs such as Penthouse, Coliseum or Players shouldn't disappoint but it all depends on the night/time you go. PM me if u want more specifics. Depending on where your business is - staying around Dearborn isn't a bad option anyways.
But – if it is $$$ issues – your best bet is to NOT rent at the airport (airport rentals can often be 2x the cost) – use Enterprise to come get you at your hotel and that way you’d be renting from a neighborhood location instead of the airport and it would be much cheaper – the only caveat is that if you are too close to the airport; then a neighborhood Enterprise may not come get you and may tell you you need to rent from the airport b/c the airport location would be the closest (you would need to call an Enterprise neighborhood location ahead of time and ask them if they would pick you up at the hotel you are stating at).
What I usually do is search for hotels on Hotels.com – they have an option one can select for hotels that have airport pickup – thus I book at a hotel w/ free airport pickup and then have an Enterprise neighborhood location pick me up at the hotel.
On my recent ATL trip; with this “systemâ€; I was able to rent a midsized car (VW Passat) for $133 total for 5 days – but I did take advantage of the fact that Enterprise had a weekend deal promotion where Fr-Mo rentals started at $9.99/day for subcompacts (and I think $14.99 for midsize) – unfortunately Enterprise I don’t think runs this promo during summer time.
On the flip side though, in many places cab services are slow or even downright unreliable, especially when it comes to picking up from the clubs. I too am usually reliant upon cabs when I club in travel locales and I generally find it difficult to visit more than 2 clubs in a given night.
Here is a tip that seems to work well for me. On your outward bound taxi ride give the driver a generous tip and request his card or his personal cell number. Almost always this guarantees me prompt taxi service for my return to the hotel. Cabbies are like strippers; they all remember generous tippers.
Another tip I will throw in there is this: Always have the numbers for a few different options for the return. In some of the smaller cities in which I travel, whether or not you can even count on being picked up is sometimes in question.
I was once stranded outside of a club in N. Charleston, SC, for almost two fucking hours, until I finally got the cab company who brought me there to admit that they could not guarantee me a pickup and gave me the number of another cab co. to call.
In Greenville, SC., I was at Trophy one night when a bad rain storm knocked out power in the city and none of the cab companies would send out cabs, period. The hotel shuttle had brought me out to the club, so I did not have the direct number of one of the cabbies handy. I ended up paying another customer a nice piece of change to give me a lift a few miles back to my hotel.
In other places, like Pittsburgh and Cleveland, you can usually count on being picked up, but the wait time is the issue. Same with many of the clubs in N. Dallas if you can believe it, since a lot of cabbies do not like to pick up in that part of Dallas. Fortunately the cabbies in Dallas tend to work long shifts, so I long ago learned FA's lesson to get the number of a good cabbie, hold onto it and pay him well.
Anyway, I could go on but I'll stop there. Suffice it to say that FA's advice is good and having multiple options is also important.
If not, go with Art's suggestion.
Well, all I can say is that NOTHING would stop Tony Stark from flying to the club in his armor and getting som lappers. You should take off the armor befor getting the lapper though.
Say "hi" to Nick Fury for me.
Where you stay in Detroit depends on where you business is. There are good choice out by the airport and you have good club choices in a relatively compact area. In a close area you have Flight Club and Bogart's with in blocks of each other and are very different types of clubs. To the east on the same street you have Silver Cricket which is on step down from Flight but many steps above Bogarts and to the north there is Henry VIII a 1/2 step down from Bogarts and to the west on the other side of the airport is Landing Strip which is rough equal to Silver Cricket but has much larger and more private rooms. I have no opinion of BT's.
The disadvantage to the clubs on 8 mile (Penthouse,Trumpps, Coliseum) is that is a neighborhood you would not want to get lost, if you want to check out a dive club the ones around there are not ones you want to go to and all require valet parking. I was turned away at Penthouse one very busy evening when I arrived in a cab because the cab dropped me where the douche-bag doorman did not see the cab and told me entrance was only for valet customer only. I got po'ed and left and haven't gone back. Make sure if the cab drops you that the doorman know you do not have a car and are cabbing it and they should let you in (the rule is because the neighborhood around is looking for an excuse to shut them down and cars parking everywhere is one).
The Inkster/Romulus/airport area is a good area to go.
The problem in allowing door staff and, in lesser hotels, front desk people, to choose for you is that you don't know what you will get. Many will call an unmetered car service or a particular preferred cab driver, but that is often not for the benefit of the guest, but because they are getting a kickback from the driver. In principle this would not bother me, except that it often lead to a more expensive ride and/or longer wait times. In my experience, it is almost always better to source your own option if a cab stand is not present.
Misunderstanding, I think. For my business travel in Canada's large cities I use one hotel chain exclusively. Each hotel in this chain has a contract with a taxi company guaranteeing that there will always be taxis at the stand for the hotel's customers' benefit (or within mere minutes of a request). In exchange the hotel grants that taxi company exclusive rights to pick up customers at the stand. Any taxi company can drop any customer at the hotel and any hotel customer can summon any taxi from any company for a ride. But, no non-contracted taxi can park at the hotel stand waiting in line for a casual customer. Concierges and doormen would be reprimanded or even fired if a non-contract taxi was summoned to the hotel on their dime.
All this sounds restrictive and anti-competitive but it works because these hotel stands are on private hotel property. It ensures that hotel customers always have easy access to a taxi; no long waits for a cab when an airport deadline must be met, for example. Taxi companies adore these exclusive contracts because the hotels are always among the city's premium hotels, attracting expense account business travelers or well-heeled leisure travelers.
Apart from Houston my business travel to large US cities has been minimal. Do arrangements such as these exist in large US cities; e.g. NYC, San Francisco, Chicago?
There may be something similar at some hotel somewhere in the U.S., but what I described above is really the norm.
IN NYC, Chicago, and Boston, by ways of example, the finer hotels often have very limited (if any) private room for cars to idle, so the taxis will often line up on a public street in front of the hotel. Same thing in most other decent to larger downtown city areas IME. In most of these cases, several different taxi companies can be found and it is first come, first serve. The door guys earn their tips from grateful guests and are motivated to keep things moving.
Where it gets dicier is with the nicer hotels that are located outside of downtown locations and those in the smaller cities. This is where things get murky.
I'll give you, by way of example, Le Meridien in Dallas. Gorgeous hotel, but it is in the Galleria area, about 6 miles north of the downtown business district. There is no cab stand and, if you rely upon the staff to call one, you can easily wait 30-40+ minutes, especially during peak travel times. What they don't tell you, however, is that the sole reason for the extended wait is not due to a lack of cabs, but that they are funneling the business to one particular driver. And when the driver arrives, he needs to go in for a minute, quite obviously to stroke the staff member with his/her cut. Sadly, this is not an unusual occurrence at many of these hotels.
I learned the hard way, when I am staying in hotels like this, not to rely upon the staff.