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How long are you comfortable driving for vacation? What is your cut off limit? when does the drive become too horrible to be worth it?
Recently I started taking more road trips and my tolerance distance has been moving up. Initially I took few 3-4 hours long trip & it felt long at first but eventually became normal or even a nice drive. Now I am pushing to 7 hour drive & I am still not at comfort zone. I can easily sit in car for 4 hours but the last 2 hours is unbearable. What I do is try to break up my 7 hour trip into 2 parts and spend the night somewhere along the way..
What is your tolerance limit when it comes to road trip?
The ideal maximum length of time in the car for me, is 4 hours. And then, I want to spend the night, and preferably not have to come back the next day. The day after that is okay for me. So, one day of a 4 hour trip. Day to have fun in one place. Next day another 4 hour trip. Maximum.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Everyone will be different...
1250 miles between fill-ups in my car, so I like to stay in the saddle.
(Ex truckdriver)
If I come upon a nice 'Hot Springs' and they are open... I most certainly will stop for a few hours.
Best road trips were in the VW van! Very VERY comfortable erect driving position, can drive 12 hrs, no problem.
Need a cool drink... step back to the fridge.
Need a nap... find a shady spot and pull over.
Stealth Camp (waiting to Hot Springs to open...)
I'm sort of a weirdo that way, as I enjoy long drives under certain conditions. The open road, some good music and scenery, and I can drive for hours and hours...
interesting how 4 hours seem to be the average.. Maybe that is why I am comfortable with 4 hours but anything pass feels too much. Here I thought it was due to my inexperience with road trip
We used to go from SE Utah to SoCal regularly and over the years, stopping in Las Vegas (7 or so hours) became too much. So our tolerance went down. Not a lot of options on the vast stretches of I-70---"no gas for 110 miles---no kidding", says the billboard. Not a lot on that part of I-15 either.
So we stopped at Mesquite instead of Vegas. Not nearly as much fun but only 5 hours which goes along with the time frame you're seeing.
Interesting topic. For me I think it depends on how long the vacation is going to be. For a 2-3 night weekend getaway, I think that 5 hours' driving time is about the maximum. We recently drove 520 miles from the NYC suburbs to Quebec City, and spent a week in French Canada. We broke up the drive by staying over 1 night in each direction, so we never drove more than 5 hours in one day. This was comfortable for us because we were in Quebec for a week, but if it had been a trip of only a few nights, I wouldn't drive nearly so far. The key is the ratio between time spent driving and time enjoying the destination (which can also include stopovers - Burlington and Lake George were lovely).
Incidentally I feel similarly about airplane travel. I can deal with 8-10 hour flights for a weeklong vacation, but the less time I have to enjoy a destination, the less tolerant I am of long flights. I've done a bunch of 2-3 night stays in Vegas and California coming from NYC, and it's really an awful lot of time in transit compared to how much time you're enjoying your vacation.
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