How much do you usually spend on getting to/from if you drive?

[StephMK]

Just trying to budget for hotel stay up & back/gas & food for the drive from DC to/From Disney? I've been using calculators & estimating, just wanted to see if the price difference was worth driving vs. flying & renting a car.

Thanks for any info.

 

[madge]

Originally posted by StephMK
Just trying to budget for hotel stay up & back/gas & food for the drive from DC to/From Disney? I've been using calculators & estimating, just wanted to see if the price difference was worth driving vs. flying & renting a car.

Thanks for any info.

I budgeted & spent $300 (well, I actually spent $290, LOL) for our drive down/back a few weeks ago. This included $140 for gas and $150 on hotel room each way. We could have cut that number back and not stayed the night on the way down, but we were unsure how our 2 yr old would do in the car. We always break up the drive coming home, though.

The cheapest gas we saw (the week of 3/27) was $159.9 in Georgia.

This was driving from central Kentucky, down I-65/I-24/I-75

 

[laurabelle]

We just drove down and back from MD. I had ressies along the way in case we needed them, but we decided to drive straight through so we cancelled. Our minivan is new and only takes premium gas, and I was expecting it to cost alot more, but gas prices on 95 are the same as here. Hubby says total with gas and fast food for 2 adults & 2 kids, up and back was about $200. The hotel I cancelled was Country Inns & Suites which was about $60+ tax.
I noticed Southwest has $45+tax each way this summer from BWI =@$466 for 4. But you need to figure in parking fees or transportation at BWI, then transportation from MCO to Disney and back too.
HTH

 

[StephMK]

Great, thanks! It looks like we will be doing better to drive, even w/great SW fares.

How long did it take to drive straight through?

 

[laurabelle]

We went Easter week and hit traffic in GA for a while (looks like they had construction during the week, and even though they weren't working when we drove through, it still slowed us down) alot of beach traffic from Jacksonville to Daytona, then some traffic on I-4, same thing in reverse coming home. We actually left from Arlington VA, it should have taken 12-13 hrs and it took 15. On the way home it was 16hr to our house north of Baltimore, our neighbor says it usually takes them 14 hrs. Probably just extra holiday traffic...

 

[Nebsky]

Drove from Dallas TX back in March.

It cost us 300 bucks to drive both ways and that included hotels.
We stayed in Lake City, FL at the Rodeway Inn for 47.79 on the way there and then stayed near Eglin AFB between Tallahassee and Pensacola for 54.00 a night in a Ramada.
Gas prices we averaged right around 1.60 each way...

Good luck...