Drive from ATL to NH? Are We Nuts? (Atlanta, Savannah: rental car, coupons)

[davesm]

We normally drive straight through which will be harder with a little one. It takes us about 12 hours to get to New York and 18 hours to get to Boston. I admit I've looked at the speedometer and seen myself 90+ a few times, so add a couple hours to that time. Also, we drive a diesel so after filling up in Atlanta I only need to stop for gas once when going to New York and twice when going to BOS. Add another hour for that.

I'm normally an advocate for flying anything longer then a 6 hour drive, but in this case it beats spending 3k and lugging around a bunch of stuff. Besides, listening to NPR on the way up gives you good debate material. Go for it :-)

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by noah

If you want to look at true costs figure $0.50 a mile for gas and wear on your car. Then add in hotels, food etc and you have a good number. Other factor is time if your on a limited vacation time frame like most of us.

That seems high. A drive to the Twin Cities for me is around 1100 miles each way, which would either be $550 or $1100 by your formula, but I can do that for a little over $100 each way in my Accord (assuming $3 gas and 31 mpg .. it'll actually do somewhat better than that on average at interstate speeds with the A/C off). Add an oil change beforehand and tire wear and tear, and I could see it being maybe $250-300 in total. Maybe.

[begonia03]

We do South Jersey to Bangor Maine every year (with the dog). 10 hours straight thru. Don't forget to try to schedule a gas refill in NJ due to low gas taxes and try not to gas up in NY or CT.

[flyonpa]

You had to buy the car. Figure cost of car over lifetime millage = about .15 a mile Gas = .10 a Mile Oil/tires/Maint/ins/taxes-fees/ect about .15/mile Brings your to .40 so to figure .50 for the cost/per mile is not far off. btw IRS rate is .50

[noah]

Yep. Gas is a small cost, usually about 25% or less, of the cost of operating a car.

Originally Posted by flyonpa

You had to buy the car. Figure cost of car over lifetime millage = about .15 a mile Gas = .10 a Mile Oil/tires/Maint/ins/taxes-fees/ect about .15/mile Brings your to .40 so to figure .50 for the cost/per mile is not far off. btw IRS rate is .50

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by RoslynHolcomb

Here's the situation: We'd like to go to NH this summer to visit relatives. Airline tickets would be approximately $1k. A real budget-buster and frankly out of the question. I wasn't looking forward to flying with my little guy anyway. Plus we'll be able to bring gifts, camping equipment, bikes and the like. So now we're trying to see if driving is feasible. We could probably do it in 2-2.5 days. We would probably stay in hotels with kitchenettes so we can prepare our own food and campgrounds would be an option as well. Is it feasible to do this for $500-700? Are there any websites that will help you plot out the trip and cost projections? I'm assuming that the charley foxtrot in the Gulf is going to send gas well past $3 this summer, but presumably it'll send airline prices higher as well.

Has anyone done this? Is there a website that would help us do price projections and plot the trip with reasonably priced hotels/campgrounds? We're not Triple Aers, though it might be worth it for this trip.

We moved here from New England and prior to that, we used to drive from Mass to FL to visit relatives all the time. We did it without stopping a couple of times, but usually made an overnight stop on the way and did it in less than 2 days. The trip to/from Atlanta is shorter. Motels are pretty cheap along the interstate.

[RoslynHolcomb]

This is sounding far more encouraging than I'd expected. We do six hours to FL a couple times a year as my MIL lives there. We have friends in Maryland so we're thinking about stopping there if we can as we haven't seen them in a while. Thanks so much for the tips and pointers some of them are things we hadn't thought of. The husband went to a site that calculated gas at just under $300, but that's if it stays where it is now and that's doubtful. Just to be safe we're budgeting $400 for gas.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by flyonpa

You had to buy the car. Figure cost of car over lifetime millage = about .15 a mile Gas = .10 a Mile Oil/tires/Maint/ins/taxes-fees/ect about .15/mile Brings your to .40 so to figure .50 for the cost/per mile is not far off. btw IRS rate is .50

I had to buy the car and insure it, etc., for other reasons even if I was flying, taking the bus, or taking the train.

Shouldn't a trip cost comparison be an even comparison?

[Mattie]

We've driven to NJ four times this past year. Only once did we go via 95, and it was by far the worst trip. 81 through VA is a beautiful ride. We allow about 14 hours for that trip, over two days. Figure on another 4 hours to NH. We always drive until we get tired, then stop at a welcome center and pick up the hotel coupon books. We've gotten some great deals doing it that way.

[RainyRainyDay]

Everyone seems to be recommending I-81 through VA and Pennsylvania over I-95, so I'll just mention that our very smooth trip to Canada was also on the I-81 route.

(Mattie's tip about looking for hotel coupon books at welcome centers sound good. Will have to try that in future).