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1) Trip would take me more than two days one way.
2) The possibility of encountering snow on mountain passes.
3) Trip requires significant city driving to get to my destination. (For example, driving to LA.)
There is NOT a mileage requirement that gets me out of the car.
I live in Southern Arizona and I can generally get a car for $125/ week including fees and taxes. That makes it pretty easy to decide to drive to most destinations in the Southwestern states.
We also do quite at least one annual "fly to the Midwest, drive home." That is usually our shopping trip for the year.
These "fly there", "drive back" excursions seem like a neat idea when you're planning on purchasing a lot of stuff, though of course, you could always ship to a desired address if the store provides it, or at a local post office. My tipping point would be if the rental car return fee for a distant destination would be at least $25 under the cost of the flight.
That said, it depends if its just a long weekend vs. a week or two weeks off, since retirement for me is still far off and I don't want to have a bunch of time off where a significant chunk is simply traveling to to the destination. A long weekend would be about four hours (around the NYC/Pittsburgh/Virginia Beach areas for me), a week a full day's drive (around Chicago/Montreal/Nashville/Atlanta/Jacksonville, FL for me), and two weeks off a full day's drive plus another six hours on the next days (Miami/Minneapolis/Kansas City/New Orleans), though really anything over ten hours I could easily just fly if I don't plan on using a rental car for long. Anything further than that would be flying for me.
Interesting comment about rail from the NYC poster, and I'd imagine outside America, rail is a lot more important due to the high gasoline prices over there, in addition to continental flights. Most Britons I hear use rail when traveling outside town instead of driving, with only heading perhaps from London to Glasgow, Belfast, or Edinburgh reasons for flying due to distance, though trains there are faster.
Then again, in the crowded eastern seaboard of the US, bus is an additional option thanks to the large growth beyond just Greyhound, and despite some traffic, some buses can use the shoulder and know of better alternate routes, and are usually cheaper than driving since you don't pay any tolls, while still usually having room for a suitcase or two plus carry-on.
If you aren’t in a hurry, drive. We live 600-800 miles from relatives also, and do not enjoy airports, or the expense of flying, or having to board the dog, and pay to park. If we happened to get a really cheap flight, like under $200. We’d consider it, but that hasn’t happened.
We’d rather take the car and the dog, drive 5 hours, stay at a nice hotel (usually free on points), drive another 5 hours and be there. If we want to detour to see something along the way we can.
We just planed a trip and looked at driving from AZ to WA to catch a cruse ship.
Round trip for the some 2400 miles for our mini van would have cost us just over $300 in fuel plus wear and tear.
I figure on two days of driving each way.
Storage of the van was $20 a day while up there and other fees for motels enroute and maybe overnight the night before our cruise. Another $300 or so?
Our travel agent booked us for flights for $471 total and the cruise line will pick us up and the airport and take us to and from the ship. Not a bad deal and it saves money for us.
I would drive everywhere, if money and time were no object. I travel for pleasure.
Flying these days is the antithesis of pleasure. Before you leave the ground, your health has been compromised with x-rays and your civil liberties have been spit on, because shoe terrorists are EVERYWHERE. Then you shuffle into your tiny airplane seat where your food will be stale snacks. Meanwhile, the child in front of you is looking back to scream bloody murder, it is federal violation to wait for a bathroom to be open, every plane is packed with the Great Unwashed. It's just madness, (not a miracle, sorry Louie CK).
Decades ago, the drive down the east coast to florida was pretty easy and mellow once you passed DC.
I've done it a couple time in the last decade and it is nightmare. Even if it is moving, there are cars all around you so you have to pay a higher level of attention which adds to the stress. It's busy all through NC now and then gets busy again at the south end of SC/GA and then terrible in Florida.
I refuse to drive it now - we ship our car down (for a couple month stay) and fly in less than 3 hours.
In other normal travel, I'd say over 5-6 hours we'd fly. I hate driving...more and more.
The drive below DC can be eliminated by using the Auto Train from Lorton, VA. Then you will have your car with you once in FL. It's more expensive than driving, but you get on in the afternoon and arrive the next morning.
These "fly there", "drive back" excursions seem like a neat idea when you're planning on purchasing a lot of stuff, though of course, you could always ship to a desired address if the store provides it, or at a local post office. My tipping point would be if the rental car return fee for a distant destination would be at least $25 under the cost of the flight.
It would cost us $400 to fly home and $200 for the car rental. With the gas and motels, it costs more to drive. However, after two weeks with the parents/in-laws, we need a vacation. We use the drive to catch up with friends in Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri who we would never ordinarily see. We stop at places along the way like the Grand Old Opry in Nashville or the Will Rogers Museum in Claremont, OK. It is a great time to talk about the goals for the next year and plan other trips.
I am retired. I can take as long as I want to get home.
And for the record, I do not mind flying one bit. I think that it has gotten better over the years.
A few years ago, the wife and I took the trip of our lifetime. Flew to LA to get on a cruise ship to Hawaii. We even paid for first class seating, to enjoy it more. I used my noise cancelling headphones while on the plane. Halfway across the Pacific, on the ship, I started coming down with a sore throat. A severely sore throat! The my wife informs me that a woman sitting directly behind me was coughing all the way on one leg of our flight.
Got to Hawaii, thinking it was merely a cold that I had. On the second day in Hawaii, the wife got ill, throwing up. We found out we had the flu. Got quarantined in our cabin for most of the time we were in Hawaii. The trip turned into a nightmare.
Since then, I drive every chance I get. Now that I am retired, there is no longer any incentive to be in a hurry to get anywhere, since I don't have to worry about using up vacation time to get somewhere. The cost of hotels along the way, along with the gas is not that much different than the airline costs.
We haven't tried going back to Hawaii, yet, but if we do it will be by air all the way. At least then, if we get sick, we won't be restricted to our hotel room, and we could at least drive around in a rental car to see the sites.
Flying these days is the antithesis of pleasure. Before you leave the ground, your health has been compromised with x-rays
The machine they use to scan your body does not use x-rays. It uses low magnitude millimeter waves which are not harmful to your body.
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and your civil liberties have been spit on,
The closest and only times I've experienced this have been entering Canada. They haven't attacked my civil liberties but they have taken me aside and given me a hard time because, in their own words, people with Spanish last names who come from the southwestern US are involved in smuggling.
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Then you shuffle into your tiny airplane seat where your food will be stale snacks.
I agree with this.
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it is federal violation to wait for a bathroom to be open,
Nobody has ever given me a hard time for standing in front of the bathroom waiting for the occupant to emerge.
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every plane is packed with the Great Unwashed.
Greyhound buses are much worse.
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