To drive or to fly? a trip with a 6-month old, opinions please

[CherylA]

My husband and I have a trip planned for Nov when our baby will be 6-months old. He wants to drive, I think he's afraid of flying since 9/11, plus he has fond memories of long car trips with his mother and father that I think he would like to recreate with his young family. I however have nightmares about driving 19 hours EACH WAY from CT to FL. I'd rather endure a few hours of flying than a few days of driving. I don't have a lot of patience and I just don't know if I could take it. What are your thoughts on the matter?


Thanks!
Cheryl

[tinaluis]

We drove in 1996 when my DD was about 2 months old. It was awesome!! I got to spend all of my time with her on the drive, and not be distracted by housework, work, etc., and we did some incredible bonding. We stopped in Tennessee for a few hours sleep and then carried on the next day. It was a wonderful trip. My family tried to warn me away from travelling with an infant so small but I'm glad I didn't listen.

We've flown on every trip since then but would drive if the fares were too high. We have a trip coming up next month and were planning on driving but we got a great fare for 4 of us (plus one baby) from Chicago for $528 on Southwest. Our rule is this, if it's approaching $1,000 for us to fly and rent a car, we drive. So far, we've only had to do it in 1996 but it was a great trip.

You don't say how large your vehicle is or if your baby has an easygoing temperament. We had a very easy baby but also a very small car, a Honda Civic Hatchback, but it was heaven. Now we have a van with a tv/vcr and three DDs but I would drive in a hearbeat!

Good luck whatever you decide.

[Diznut84]

We always ask the question, and eventually choose to fly. We use the Bidding for Travel (http://www.biddingfortravel.com) and take advantage of their multiple bidding airport strategies. For our upcoming trip in June, we got roundtrip on Northwest for only $125 per ticket (fees included)!

[CherylA]

I don't know the temperment of our baby yet since she's still in the womb which makes it all that much more difficult a choice. I would wait till 2 or 3 months before the trip to decide since she'd be 3 or 4 months old and we might have a better idea of how she'd handle it but our trip is planned for the weekend following Thanksgiving and flights are already booking up. If we want to fly we have to make that decision soon. We also have a Honda Civic but it's a 4-door. Not a big car and with a stroller in the trunk room would be really tight.