800 mile trip - fly or drive?

[pinkytoe]

I bet there are a lot of people trying to decide how to travel this summer given all the peculiarities going on. We need to visit grandchildren coming up. Trying to decide between driving the 800+ miles which involves a hotel stay there and back. Or flying (with credits from previous cancellation) and renting a car on arrival. I am reading horror stories about rental cars either not being there or in bad shape since they have no new fleets. If booked today, our rate will be $70 a day for a small car through Costco. The road trip is long and grueling but very familiar and it would be nice to have our own car and not deal with flying and airports. I think driving might be a little cheaper but not by a lot. Thoughts?

[Tybee]

I bet there are a lot of people trying to decide how to travel this summer given all the peculiarities going on. We need to visit grandchildren coming up. Trying to decide between driving the 800+ miles which involves a hotel stay there and back. Or flying (with credits from previous cancellation) and renting a car on arrival. I am reading horror stories about rental cars either not being there or in bad shape since they have no new fleets. If booked today, our rate will be $70 a day for a small car through Costco. The road trip is long and grueling but very familiar and it would be nice to have our own car and not deal with flying and airports. I think driving might be a little cheaper but not by a lot. Thoughts?

I just made two trips out of state since October to visit my grandchildren. It is a trip of 1200 miles. I drove alone the first time, and I just got back from flying the same trip last week. Driving was infinitely less stressful and more pleasant, even driving it all by myself and needing two nights in a motel. I went a familiar way and got to stay at my favorite motel in Vermont, where I always stay.

The plane was kind of awful, but endurable because my son went with me. They will probably get rid of the masks by the summer, so it should be a lot better than being in the masks. I would not do it again except for an emergency.

[catherine]

I like travel puzzles like this :)

How much time does that "buy" you with the family? In other words, how long are you planning on traveling and staying? Does the driving cut into family time? If so, consider flying.

OTOH, if the drive itself is pleasurable, the drive there and back might be nice "bookends" to what will probably be a noisy, active (in a good way) trip. Is there a spot along the way you've always wanted to see? Do you enjoy road trips at all? Can you make it LESS grueling by even extending it to a 2.5 day drive? That might be worth another night in a hotel.

Or, are you simply anxious to see the kids and want to do it asap? In that case, fly.

I don't know of any serious complications of travel these days, other than the price of gas. My son just rented a Tahoe so he could drive BIL up to my birthday party and he thought the rental was pretty reasonable, all things considered. However, he makes a good salary, and his "reasonable" may not be yours.

If it were me, and had no time constraints, I'd be tempted to drive, but only because I like road trips, as long as I don't drive more than 5 hours a day. The Southwest is beautiful and I think it would be fun to enjoy. OTOH, if you really hate driving, I'd definitely just go for the flight/rental.

[Tradd]

Absolutely drive. Don’t have to mess with airport and TSA BS. You can pack more if you like as you’ll have your car.

Driving is a no brainer for me. I’ve done multiple road trips that were two days each way from the Chicago area. Baton Rouge, Raleigh, Florida, northern Ontario. I consider it sightseeing as I get to see parts of the country I’ve never seen before. I love road trips. It’s interesting listening to different radio stations. I enjoy road trips.

[Tradd]

And there are two of you to share the driving.

[Tybee]

And you can bring fun presents for the grandchildren!

[Tradd]

And you can bring fun presents for the grandchildren!

Absolutely!

[bae]

I’d drive.

[iris lilies]

I loath any car trip longer than eight hours. I loath AND despise any Long-haul car trip that takes me out West where I have to look at hundreds of miles of desert and dirt and brownness. We drove to Las Cruces a few years ago and it was the worst vacation I’ve had in years.

While I do not like flying because who does? I made my first plane arrangement in more than three years to go to Las Cruces New Mexico Next month because I refuse to do that car trip again.

I suppose I should worry about getting a car rental there, I kind of wondered how decent the fleets were, but we shall see. Theoretically I didn’t need a car because there’s bus service to the convention, but I waited too long to get a hotel room in the convention hotel and it’s full. Although I Could Uber it from the hotel to my Airbnb, but no matter. But that’s just all speculation, I really wanted a car in Las Cruces.

while cost not a concern for me, I did end up making plan to stay over an extra day so that I would return car on Tuesday and fly out on Tuesday. The cost savings I realized from not going on a Monday easily pays for a extra hotel night.

[ToomuchStuff]

AVE Mizar, so both.



Although, rather then a Pinto, I think the Amc Matador Coupe version I like a little better.
4312

[iris lilies]

AVE Mizar, so both.



Although, rather then a Pinto, I think the Amc Matador Coupe version I like a little better.


4312

that is pretty crazy!

[JaneV2.0]

I'd probably vote "drive" for a transatlantic trip--I hate flying that much.

[pinkytoe]

Glad to hear that most agree with my gut feeling - drive instead of fly. We never drive more than 7 or 8 hrs a day. I have always hated flying - the whole cattle car experience and claustrophobic fear-inducing bumpy flights. We have the road trip down pat as we have done it many times though gas will be more.

[iris lilies]

And then there’s the whole problem of never being able to take a direct flight which is my problem living as I do in a third class city. For my next trip I stay on the plane through one city where they stop. But on the way back I have to change planes in Dallas.


Of course that first trip can be rerouted, times changed, and I will have to switch planes there too. Blech.

[Teacher Terry]

2 drivers it’s a easy road trip. Probably much cheaper too.

[Simplemind]

All things considered, I would drive.

[jp1]

800 miles each way is a bit beyond what I’m willing to drive unless there’s a bunch of things I want to see/do along the way. Currently I’m in the middle of a 520 mile road trip to San Diego. My sister asked if I wanted to house sit while she’s away and since her dog and cat are both adorable, I can work from anywhere, and the change of scenery appealed I said yes.

I decided to drive so that I could also stop for a night or two in LA on the way home and visit a good friend. Then SO decided he wanted to spend his birthday week (the week after next) in Palm Springs. So now I’m on a two week driving adventure. I drove halfway down this afternoon and am at a hotel in beautiful Bakersfield. Tomorrow morning I’ll go on to San Diego. Then Friday I’ll drive up to LA for two nights. Then to Palm Springs, pick up SO at the airport and spend four nights doing nothing more strenuous than sitting by the pool and eating nice dinners. (And maybe going out for a couple of hikes in the mornings before it gets too hot.) Then we’ll head home, breaking up the nine hour drive with a night in the cute town of San Luis Obispo. All in all it will be a lovely time. 1300ish miles of driving but never more than 5 hours in a day which is about my limit unless I have someone with me to share that chore.

[iris lilies]

800 miles each way is a bit beyond what I’m willing to drive unless there’s a bunch of things I want to see/do along the way. Currently I’m in the middle of a 520 mile road trip to San Diego. My sister asked if I wanted to house sit while she’s away and since her dog and cat are both adorable, I can work from anywhere, and the change of scenery appealed I said yes.

I decided to drive so that I could also stop for a night or two in LA on the way home and visit a good friend. Then SO decided he wanted to spend his birthday week (the week after next) in Palm Springs. So now I’m on a two week driving adventure. I drove halfway down this afternoon and am at a hotel in beautiful Bakersfield. Tomorrow morning I’ll go on to San Diego. Then Friday I’ll drive up to LA for two nights. Then to Palm Springs, pick up SO at the airport and spend four nights doing nothing more strenuous than sitting by the pool and eating nice dinners. (And maybe going out for a couple of hikes in the mornings before it gets too hot.) Then we’ll head home, breaking up the nine hour drive with a night in the cute town of San Luis Obispo. All in all it will be a lovely time. 1300ish miles of driving but never more than 5 hours in a day which is about my limit unless I have someone with me to share that chore.

I would not consider a car vacation to be too much of a chore if I could limit it to five or six hours. I will do up to eight but that is it. Well is slightly less boring to drive, I still don’t want to do it. I’m probably going to do an 8 Hour Dr. next fall but maybe I’ll break it up who knows.

[Tradd]

@jp1

I just did 5.5 hours after a full day of work from Chicago area to Toledo for diving tomorrow. Drive back tomorrow. I might run the 1.5 up to the Detroit area to visit a friend briefly then drive home.

[happystuff]

Most of my trips are time dependent. If I have the time, I prefer to drive, otherwise it is fly.

[jp1]

The drive from bakersfield to San Diego today was endless. As soon as I got into the LA basin the Waze app sent me waaaaay east and then on some suburban surface streets before finally putting me on the 15 freeway. This added about 30 miles to the trip but probably saved time since the 5/405 freeways are stop and go pretty much 24 hours/day. But I still got to my sister's by around 3:00 so I can't complain. And tomorrow I have a great hike planned.

I'm reminded of the second time I ever came to southern California. I drove here with my parents from denver to visit my sister about 1 1/2 years after she'd moved to San Diego back when I was still in college. My folks and I had spent the night before in Las Vegas. Dad drove the first half of the trip from LV to San Diego, then after we'd had lunch or coffee or whatever he suggested that I drive since I had been to San Diego the previous summer to visit sister so knew my way around better. What he was actually saying was "I hate urban freeway driving so please do this chore for me." So I started driving and suddenly we were on one of the LA freeways that was shoehorned into an existing neighborhood back in the 50s/60s where all the lanes are as narrow as allowed and there's no shoulder. Everyone was driving 65-70 in bumper to bumper traffic so I did the same because otherwise people would just crowd in front of me and we'd end up going slower and slower. At some point I looked over to my mom in the passenger seat and she had her hands clenched together in her lap and was staring at them, afraid to look at all the traffic around us. As terrified as she was she knew that I was doing what needed to be done so for the only time of all the times that she was ever my passenger she didn't say anything about the fact that I was going faster than the speed limit.