How long of a drive (or vacation) is TOO long?

[rastahomie]

Ugh, I couldn't dream of driving for that long if I can avoid it.

I'm driving Missouri-to-WDW - a thousand miles - this December and I'm already dreading it.

 

[amberpi]

Eww, by the time you jack with both airports, you could probably drive it faster.

No way, with pre-check and status I never wait in line and don't do that whole "an hour before your departure" bs. I have it down to a very perfect science. I don't check luggage. It may have to do with the number of flights I have to make a year, and have for more than a decade, so now I play weird travel games. If I got to the airport with an hour to kick around regularly, given 57 domestic flights last year, that's 57 hours just hanging out, not including delays. I hate driving, and just take a car service or Uber professionally and now will not a rent car period unless its absolutely unavoidable. Even if I have to go to Alpharetta or something, I lived in ATL, if I can just expense it, why in the world would I want to drive there?

I will admit, my style of air travel makes some people nervous, so if its personal travel, I just tell my companions I'll meet them on the plane I've definitely made some of my more cautious professional support staff very nervous by cutting it close. Eventually, they come around and find the beauty of walking up just as the A group/zone 1 is boarding.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Ugh, I couldn't dream of driving for that long if I can avoid it.

I'm driving Missouri-to-WDW - a thousand miles - this December and I'm already dreading it.

Get lunch at Rafferty's in Paducah (exit 4). It'll improve your mood for awhile st least

 

[amberpi]

In Nebraska, the Oregon Trail museum

You have no idea how much elementary school me wants this to be a tribute to the original computer game!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

No way, with pre-check and status I never wait in line and don't do that whole "an hour before your departure" bs. I have it down to a very perfect science. I don't check luggage. It may have to do with the number of flights I have to make a year, and have for more than a decade, so now I play weird travel games. If I got to the airport with an hour to kick around regularly, given 57 domestic flights last year, that's 57 hours just hanging out, not including delays. I hate driving, and just take a car service or Uber professionally and now will not a rent car period unless its absolutely unavoidable. Even if I have to go to Alpharetta or something, I lived in ATL, if I can just expense it, why in the world would I want to drive there?

I will admit, my style of air travel makes some people nervous, so if its personal travel, I just tell my companions I'll meet them on the plane I've definitely made some of my more cautious professional support staff very nervous by cutting it close. Eventually, they come around and find the beauty of walking up just as the A group/zone 1 is boarding.

I get the hiring of a car if you choose, but I've had WAY too many flights that ended up taking longer than if I'd driven - sometimes more than twice as long. And I've had the 90 minute security lines. Then, I have to add another hour to the drive in case of traffic, so if all goes well I'm at the airport THREE hours ahead of time. To heck with that. Had a coworker spend the night in Indy due to a canceled flight to STL. It's a 4-hour drive LOL

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Oh, and as a Missourian, I'd almost rather cross KS than MO on 70. There is almost no time of day that traffic on 70 in MO really clears out - anywhere. No such problem in KS

I was actually going to say something about I-70 in MO. With 170 miles being just 2 lanes each way (from past Blue Springs to Wentzville..which is about just under 3 hr drive)..combine that with the vast amount of semi trucks that take that route and any drivers that decide to go slower..yeah it's not always fun.

 

[adisneyaunt]

Sounds great to me, OP... see the country, take ur time and drive 8-9 hours.. have dinner, grab a hotel and continue on the next day...

As a kid my parents used to do the NEast to fla straight thru... 5 kids in the back of a staton wagon ( seat belts.. what's those?)
I have wonderful memories of grilling roadside at rest stops, south of the border etc and finally Disney!!! Oh the memories.
I've driven NE to mid west a while back ... and of course the NEast to Disney myself.

Enjoy the ride..the Journey... of it all.
If u have the means and the time... go for it!
Thx for letting me recall my own childhood memories ..great way to end the nite
Happy n safe travels OP, whatever the mode!

 

[nkereina]

If the drive is going to be part of the experience, rather than just the destination, I would do it. But keep in mind, you need to consider more factors for a 20 day trip. We did a 16 day honeymoon in September. I had to be tactful with packing and I had to plan for a laundry day during our trip. I had to consider toiletries and take more than I might usually take because I wasn't sure when/if we'd come upon a store that would have things I use. At home, my parents watched our house and dog for us, but otherwise I would have needed to consider boarding costs, stopping our mail, garbage pickup, etc. It was definitely a lot more work than our standard week long Orlando vacation. But it was worth every minute! I say do it if this is your dream trip that you'll be spending your money and vacation time on.

 

[HeatherC]

The drive there would be fun. The drive home would stink for me. We drive 16-17 hours every year from MA to SC. Going down we are all excited. Coming home we just want to get there. Can't imagine wanting to drive 30 hours home.

 

[tvguy]

No way, with pre-check and status I never wait in line and don't do that whole "an hour before your departure" bs. .

LOL. 1 hour before departure? Anything less than 2 hours before and I am sweating, 3 hours for international flights, and 4 hours if it it MCO.
I flew to and from Phoenix on Southwest last week and we all got TSA Pre-Check, and got there 2 hours early, had a bite to eat before boarding. Was surprised to get TSA Pre-Check again because I thought they had stopped the "free" trials. We have never signed up.

 

[rastahomie]

Get lunch at Rafferty's in Paducah (exit 4). It'll improve your mood for awhile st least

Thanks for the recommendation, but my agenda has me going through Paducah at about 9 a.m.

 

[ronandannette]

We are planning a trip to Vancouver this summer. While pricing flights today, I started to have the crazy idea that we should drive instead -- but it's a 30 hour drive.

But, I started pricing it out and I think we can take our time driving for about the same price as 3 plane tickets are going to cost. And instead of just seeing Vancouver, we'd see some random stuff along the way, stuff we'd probably never see otherwise, like Mt Rushmore and Salt Lake City.

But the loose itinerary I put together turns a 9 day trip into a 20 day trip. That's a big difference in time away from home, time away from our dogs, time in close quarters together.

I have the vacation time. The gas/hotel costs are about the same as the airfare, we we'd just have "extra" spending on dining out and any touristy stuff we do.

So, would you turn a 9 day vacation into a 20 day cross country drive?

And if so, any must-see, non-obvious things to visit in Nebraska, South Dakota, Idaho, Utah or Kansas?

I wouldn't rule it out in principle, but it would have to had been planned as a 20 day trip to start with. I couldn't make the math work otherwise. I could practically fly to the moon for less than it would cost us to be on the road for 11 days. If we include a decent hotel, meals and gas it costs us about $250- $300/day for two of us to road-trip and that's without paying for any activities or attractions.

 

[pryncess527]

The Celebration of Light? We went last year and they were fantastic!! We bought tickets so we had seats in the YRV observation deck. There are a few different options for seating (The Keg and Inukshuk Lounge are a couple of others) and I highly recommend it if you haven't booked already. It was so nice to have preassigned seats and not have to fight the crowds on the beach. Enjoy!!

Yes! this is what we are going for. We have a hotel room with a balcony overlooking the Bay, so honestly were hoping to avoid crowds by watching from there I've been trying to find out if that's an impractical plan though and did consider booking seats. what do you think?

I'm kinda giggling about these are generally considered fly over states for a reason, although I'm sure they're all lovely. If you weren't already wanting to see them, a 9 day flying trip sounds SO much more pleasant to me. But again, seriously, I'd never spend 30 hours in a car. Ever. The only time I've "road tripped" and not found it to be hell on earth, was a few trips to Ireland. Most of my Ireland trips are anchored in Dublin with forrays out from there.

I did leave out some of the "best" states we'd be driving through -- Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Colorado -- I'm just less in need of tips for those areas The randomness of it is why I started to think about driving though, I mean, when else am I going to be in South Dakota or Utah, lol

Can you fly in and then rent car and sightsee home via driving?

From what I can tell, Vancouver has great public transportation, so honestly having a car while we are there wasn't even a plus

I wouldn't rule it out in principle, but it would have to had been planned as a 20 day trip to start with. I couldn't make the math work otherwise. I could practically fly to the moon for less than it would cost us to be on the road for 11 days. If we include a decent hotel, meals and gas it costs us about $250- $300/day for two of us to road-trip and that's without paying for any activities or attractions.

Well, this is the starting phase of planning, so we are in that window. Part of the reason the cost I priced out was so low (and comparable to airfare for 3 people) is because hotels are pretty cheap in that part of the country during the summer.

After talking it over with my traveling companions, we are going to sleep on the idea some more. They were both very open to it, but agreed the dogs create a complication. Leaving them for 9 days was already going to be hard, leaving them for 20 isn't an option -- so if we do this, they come with us. Even though they are wonderful, quiet, well behaved dogs (as of course any Dis-Board dog would be ) having them with us would absolutely complicate the journey. I'm going to do some more detailed trip planning (my favorite thing to do!!) and gather more details.

And all three of us are going to think long and hard about whether or not we are going to kill each other and the dogs if we are in such tight quarters for 20 days

 

[CdnCarrie]

I'm surprised at how many posters said that 20 days was too long to be away from home. These are posters on a trip planning board.
Does no one take 3 week trips on a regular basis? Our trip to Florida last year was 19 nights. Yes we missed the dog when we were gone but we had a blast.

 

[sk!mom]

We don't really enjoy road trips so typically 8-10 hours is our limit. 12, a few times, if flying was cost prohibitive or too complicated- we have to drive 3 hours minimum to a large enough airport to have many options so if the destination is also 2-3 hours from a large airport then sometimes driving over 8-10 makes sense.

I wouldn't even consider a multi-day trip with kids. DH and I often talk about trying something like this just the two of us in a few years. Maybe if we could only drive 5-6 hours at a time with stops for truly interesting sites we might try it. Also, I think that it would need to be only the two of us as we are really compatible but more people would add stress. The introvert in me would have a hard time being "on" for that many days. DH is the only person that I can completely relax with.

In you situation, really think about how costly all of those extra days will be. Eating out and site seeing costs add up quickly.

 

[pryncess527]

I'm surprised at how many posters said that 20 days was too long to be away from home. These are posters on a trip planning board.
Does no one take 3 week trips on a regular basis? Our trip to Florida last year was 19 nights. Yes we missed the dog when we were gone but we had a blast.

In general, I do not mind. Our wedding/honeymoon trip we were gone for a month. But that time, our dogs were with family 80% of that time. Part of my issue this time is that we are in a new city, so have no one we'd leave the dogs with (or stay in our house) for such a long period. But frankly I have that concern at 9 days too, which is part of why I'm considering bringing them.

And I just realized, when I priced out flying vs driving, I didn't even include 9 days of boarding in the flying price.

 

[nkereina]

I'm surprised at how many posters said that 20 days was too long to be away from home. These are posters on a trip planning board.
Does no one take 3 week trips on a regular basis? Our trip to Florida last year was 19 nights. Yes we missed the dog when we were gone but we had a blast.

Where are you from? Judging by your user name, are you from Canada? In the U.S., many companies don't give out that much vacation time and some of the ones that do may not permit you to take that much in one shot. I receive 4 weeks of vacation at my job, which is more than a lot of people I know. DH gets 3 weeks. To use that all in one shot means we would have to go another year before taking time off and it means no time off during the holidays, etc. Plus, if I took that much time off at once, I would just overload myself at work - I'd come back to hundreds of emails and things that I'd need to take care of, I'd be busy for weeks trying to catch up. Not worth it to me.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm surprised at how many posters said that 20 days was too long to be away from home. These are posters on a trip planning board.
Does no one take 3 week trips on a regular basis? Our trip to Florida last year was 19 nights. Yes we missed the dog when we were gone but we had a blast.

Most I've have taken is 10 days as a grown up..many people have jobs that restrict long vacations or finances don't compute for that long of a vacation.

My husband's company however..it's not too uncommon for people to take several weeks to a month off after finishing on a long project that they were actually on-site in the field with not just at the office buttttttt that's because they are typically working 9 months to 2 or 3 years with basically a few days here and there (maybe a week if you're really lucky and the job site allows for it) of vacation time and usually working 6 or 7 days a week. Some job sites allowed every other Friday off in the past but that has mostly gone away.

When I started my last job I had 19 days of vacation in a year..which was actually generous..but those vacation days were also sick days and pto days rolled into one.

Since we got our cat nearly 4 years ago, 10 days seems to be the longest we can be away. Our cat would not travel with us and I'm actually afraid boarding him will end up killing him with the stress just for the process alone much less the proposed several weeks. He has some separation anxiety and for me I'm thinking of the overall well-being of my pet in particular (everyone's pet is different).

Now like I said before if I didn't have my cat and we were able to take that much time off from work then I'd be up for it. The trip is part of the experience in this case, at least that's the way I would view it for the journey to Vancouver. I won't drive to WDW at this time because that's 4 days out of my vacation for just travel (2 there and 2 back) and driving would not be part of the experience.

 

[lifesavacation]

Road trips can be fun or horrible. It kinda depends on what you make of it.

We have a road trip planned for June. My son and I will be driving from Portland to Michigan. He's playing baseball there this summer and needs his car. I'm looking forward to spending the time together and I'll plan fun things to see and do during the trip.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

My SO wants to do a cross country trip one day and stop along the way to stop and see things. I would do it in an RV. And without little kids. I would think 3-4 weeks would be a good amount of time.

We've done the drive from NJ to FL (with kids and minimal stops) and it's ok but by 12 hours I'm very much over it and start to get very antsy.