How long of a drive is worth flying for you?

[Dakota731]

I’m weighing the costs versus time, and my hatred of driving lol. I’m not concerned with covid just wondering when it’s worth it to fly. My husband and are having very different thoughts on this.

 

[artesian]

If I would weigh time as my # would be around 8-10 hours. My thought is if I leave my house and breakdown the time to fly is 1.5 hour before flight (travel and airport time) flight time 2.5 hours and then luggage and rental car pickup upon landing 1.5 hours. My thought is plus or minus an hour or so but rough estimate. I wish I was only 10 hours drive away as I'd never fly. Being at 16 hours it comes down to cost. Driving is almost always half or more of what it would be to fly. I always go onto the thought process if I can fly/rent for under X flight is the preferred. Hope my math made sense LOL

 

[Eeyore daily]

It depends. I've gotten to a point where I hate driving so much that I'll fly anywhere I can. We drove 13 hours to D.C from Tampa Bay and said never again and last year I flew from Tampa to Miami which was great even with the hour drive to/from the airport. That's only a 5 hour drive for me. But when I lived in Arkansas, it was a 9 hour drive to Indianapolis or a 9 hour flight so it didn't matter. Overall if it's going to be all day long drive, I might as well look into flying and see the timing of things.

 

[FCDub]

Yeah, you've left out the most important fact: where you live. Are you traveling across mountains, in the winter? Too many unknowns.

 

[Obi-J Kenobi]

10 hours. No more no less.

 

[JLemaire7]

It depends where it is but I would say in general anything 5 hours or more. It really depends on how much time we have off. Many times we only get a long weekend so flying places saves time.

 

[tobikaye]

• 0-6 Hours: Drive
  • I might fly to a few places in this radius if there is a direct flight and the trip is less than 2 nights
  • FYI: Not many places in this radius that would be a direct flight.
• 7-16 Hours: Prefer to fly, but might drive due to cost/time/stops
  • If I am taking a multi-city trip that is 7+ days long, I do tend to drive, like this summer. It is a 10-11 day trip with a portion visiting family before spending time at WDW.
• 16+ Hours: Fly
  • The only way I would consider driving on this type of trip would be if I was actually planning a driving vacation where I hit multiple states/cities over a 10-14+ day trip.

 

[supersnoop]

I'll drive up to four hours in lieu of a direct flight, or up to 6 hours if I'd have to make a connection. Price becomes the deciding factor for longer drives; if I've got six people and flights are expensive, I'd rather drive than pay thousands for airfare.

 

[Grand Koalafornian]

It depends on cost, but usually I’m willing to drive about 8 hours. I hate going through TSA, it takes a lot of the fun out of flying from when I was a kid. But I love actually being in the air.

If there’s another driver, I might go up to 10 hours, but I have to get first shift.

 

[Gf77]

ㅤ

 

[RamblingMad]

5-6 hours max in the car before booking a flight.

 

[JenBush]

Under 7 hours I’ll drive, between 7 and 11 I’ll consider driving depending on flight prices, 11+ I prefer to fly, but not against driving if I have good driving buddies

 

[loves to dive]

We drive to WDW from Athens, GA - it's about 7 to 8 hours depending on who is driving and the conditions. We used to drive to West Palm Beach from Athens all the time to go diving, I think that was a 9 to 10 hour drive. Flying with scuba gear can be a pain. We have also driven down to the upper keys to go diving a number of times, that was maybe a 13 hour drive. Again, flying with scuba gear is a pain. That would be about my limit. We have to drive to Atlanta, which is the nearest airport of any size, that can be anywhere from 1:45 to 2 1/2 hours, depending on traffic. Then pay for long term parking. Have to be at the airport at least a hour in advance. The worst part is the looooooong drive home at the end of the trip when you are tired. It's cheaper to drive for us and not that much longer time wise for WDW.

 

[wishing4PA]

I'm not sure... normally about 16-18 hours? Most of the time I'd rather an easy 2 day drive than have to pack everything correctly for a flight.
But if my time were limited I might fly in lieu of about a 7 or 8 hour drive. Anything less and it doesn't seem it'd save enough time vs the to/from airport time to make the cost and hassle of flying worthwhile.

 

[spiders]

6 hours but I’ll fly less than 6 hours if the fare is reasonable.

 

[DVCjj]

Absolutely 5 hours for us. We're 17 and that why we NEVER EVER drive. 5 is cutoff.

 

[Coldbeer]

I don't like the hassle of flying so I usually drive. 9 hours depending on stops.

 

[Dakota731]

Glad to hear others feel like me. It’s ten hours for us, and my hubby thinks it’s silly to drive when it takes 1.5 hours to drive to the airport, get there 2 hours before flight, plane ride itself, then renting a car. He says in all that time we could’ve driven and been there cheaper I’m just a nervous highway passenger plus I have trouble sitting still that long!

 

[LadybugsMum]

It’s a 10 hour drive with stops. We flew this last time and I don’t ever want to drive down again. Even with a delay, we got there 5 hours sooner and were able to spend time exploring and relaxing on arrival day.

 

[wdw&sonny]

To pick a number, I'd say 12 hours. That's our time to Hilton Head. We usually drive.
But depends greatly on the number of people, length of stay and what we want to bring (bikes, golf clubs, pool toys, fishing rods)...
During 'normal' times, cost for 2 of us to drive v fly to HHI is usually similar.