Drive vs. Fly, what's the tipping point for you? (cost, hotels, vacation)
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We were planning a trip to visit our daughter who lives 800 miles away. No real schedule or time constraints, just a get together. By car it's a 12 hour drive, doable (if unpleasant) in one day, but an easy trip over two days. Flying there takes 2 hours in the air and another 4-6 hours of miscellaneous stuff at the airports for a total of 6-8 hours travel time door-door. We decided to drive instead of fly because the time saved isn't worth the hassles.
What is your tipping point in distance and time for domestic travel?
We were planning a trip to visit our daughter who lives 800 miles away. No real schedule or time constraints, just a get together. By car it's a 12 hour drive, doable (if unpleasant) in one day, but an easy trip over two days. Flying there takes 2 hours in the air and another 4-6 hours of miscellaneous stuff at the airports for a total of 6-8 hours travel time door-door. We decided to drive instead of fly because the time saved isn't worth the hassles.
What is your tipping point in distance and time for domestic travel?
Personally, I prefer air travel. What other people consider "hassles", I just take as variety. What I don't like about travel is passive time. Sitting in one position doing basically nothing. Air travel greatly reduces that as compared to driving. So while in this instance, there's only a total difference of a few hours, it's a difference of 12 hours of passive time versus 2 hours of passive time. That's pretty significant, IMO.
If you make the drive there & back, a fun trip & see sights along the route, then it can all be part of the vacation. I think cost is a major factor for us, plus comfort, I really hate long car rides, so stopping for hotels & meals can make a trip expensive.
WE want to visit Utah to see the Parks there, it is drive-able, (900 miles) but I would rather fly & hire a car. I will have to think about it before we make the trip, which will not be this year, anyhow.
Yeah, that’s it for me as well. I have a limited amount of it. When it is under a 5-hour drive, I will always drive since the drive to the airport and stuff at both ends will likely eat up more time since I can leave exactly when I want when driving. When it gets to be more than that, I really begin to think whether the time of the flight is right, how much I think I will need to take (if I want to bring a big bag it makes more sense to drive), etc. Once it is over 7 hours I will almost always fly unless it is specifically a road trip type of vacation.
Too many variables to offer a clear-cut "tipping point," but in your example I'd almost certainly fly unless the ticket cost was fairly high. IMO that would be over $250 pp or $500 for the two of you (assuming there are just two of you).
I think my breaking point is maybe around 6 hours or so...but it really depends on the air cost, number of travelers, and sometimes other things too.
We were planning a trip to visit our daughter who lives 800 miles away. No real schedule or time constraints, just a get together. By car it's a 12 hour drive, doable (if unpleasant) in one day, but an easy trip over two days. Flying there takes 2 hours in the air and another 4-6 hours of miscellaneous stuff at the airports for a total of 6-8 hours travel time door-door. We decided to drive instead of fly because the time saved isn't worth the hassles.
What is your tipping point in distance and time for domestic travel?
Been driving from Montreal to St Pete Fla at least once a year for the last 40 years,i enjoy the drive as its an adventure in itself as i can go and stop as i please and explore different routes there and back,yeah a plane is quicker and probably cheaper but its akin to getting on an elevator for the trip.
What is your tipping point in distance and time for domestic travel?
Anything that's going to take me more than 4 or 5 hours to drive.
5 hours driving is 5 hours when I can't do anything else except drive, hand on the wheel. I can't work, I can't look stuff up online, I can't read.
But the time spent in an airport when I cant' actually do anything else is only about 30-45 minutes - the time it takes to check in and pass through security. After that the remaining time in the airport is free for me to work on the laptop or read.
5 hour drive I'll do if time is limited. Anything over that I consider flying
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