My dh thinks it will cost 1,000 top drive from Ny to FL

[stahshee]

He insist that it will cost 1,000 rt for us ( includeing driving arond in FL) I did the AAA fule cost calculator and It was not even close to that! We have a minnie van. We are going from Central NY. How much do you really think it will cost? He dose not trust the AAA fuel estament

 

[littleshamrock]

The AAA fuel estimator has always been VERY close for us (if you count fuel alone). We always spend more $$ on the drives because of food, snacks, and of course, a night at a hotel when we get too tired to drive (I always want to plan a stop, but my boyfriend always wants to drive until he's tired...it always ends up being WAY past where I would like to plan to stop). But in any case, for fuel, the AAA calculator is almost dead on. We drive from Erie PA, by the way...

 

[malibuconlee]

Is he using the government rate that is supposed to cover wear and tear? I think it's around 48.5 cents per mile.

I used to work with a guy that would rent a car when he wanted t drive instead of fly on vacation so he wasn't putting the miles on his own car.

Are you figuring the extra meals and possible hotel rooms for each way into your costs? It's all part of the cost of driving if you're trying to see if it's cheaper to fly or drive.

 

[grimley1968]

For us it costs about $32 to fill up our minivan, but I'll raise that to $36 for you, since gas is cheaper where I live than near the east coast. I imagine you'll have to fill up about 4 or 5 times on the way down and back up (we'll round up to 5 - I don't know how far a drive it is for you exactly), and once while in Orlando. If you spend the night on the way down, you're looking at probably at least $75 in room costs. Meal costs I'd put at about $100 for each way.

Fuel - $36 x 11 stops (round trip plus Orlando) = $396
Food - $200
Lodging - $150 (round trip)

Total = $746

If I'm way off base, let me know, but I think I'm possibly being conservative in the estimates for the fuel, and on the dining costs. Maybe it won't hit $1000, but I do think you could probably find a less expensive plane fare from SWA or Jetblue maybe. Even if it's about the same, it would save you loads of time.

 

[Nebsky]

I just estimated our costs driving from Dallas.
Here are the values that I used.

Round Trip is 2430 miles.
SUV gets 20 mpg. Has a 20 gallon fuel tank. 400 miles each tank of gas.

3 Fill ups each way with a variable fill rate ranging from $2.30 - $2.70 each gallon. Range is $138.00 - $162.00 for fuel. Round trip would be $276-$324.

Lodging 1 night each way about $75.00

We figured $60 for food each way that we purchase. (We usually bring snacks and other stuff with us)

My calculations were roughly $546.00 - $594.00 for Round trip travel.

Now that doesnt include "wear and tear" on the car, oil changes etc.

Jeff

 

[buzz2400]

If you are from the east coast and driving I-95 don't forget to factor in tolls. from CT I believe it will be about $40 both ways. I am trying to decide also if I should drive or fly. Another factor to decide, do you plan on renting a car if you fly down.

 

[grimley1968]

If you are from the east coast and driving I-95 don't forget to factor in tolls. from CT I believe it will be about $40 both ways. I am trying to decide also if I should drive or fly. Another factor to decide, do you plan on renting a car if you fly down.

This is a good point, and one I completely forgot. Fortunately I-75 has no tolls all the way down to Florida. I'm always caught unprepared for the tolls on the Fla. Turnpike.

 

[ohiomom28]

We drove from Southwestern Ohio last year and we spent about $150 each way on gas. Not including food, but we didn't have any sit down meals, so it was just quick fast food and I didn't even add it into my total. We drove a minivan. This year we decided to fly nonstop. It was only about $300 more, but its well worth it.

 

[CleveRocks]

I don't know how the AAA fuel cost calculator works. I've never seen it. Just sit your husband down with the facts. About 2000 miles round trip, give or take. About 20 miles per gallon, give or take. 20 divided into 2000 goes 100 times. So you'll buy 100 gallons of gas. Let's estimate $2.50 a gallon (it's $1.92 right now here at the South Jersey shore). $2.50 times 100 gallons equals $250 for gas.

Call it $100 for tolls round trip even though it'll be a little lower.

Maybe $200 for hotels (one night in each direction).

Maybe $125 for on-the-road meals.

$20 or so for putting on two-thirds of the miles for the next oil change.

$250 gas
$100 tolls
$200 hotels
$125 meals
+ 20 part of oil change
$695
I overestimated costs for each item, so it'll likely be less, maybe $600 or $650. If you give him each bit of information like this, he can see it for himself, or plug in different numbers for himself, and make his decision based on facts he can see, rather than "trustng" some computer program.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[NotUrsula]

I take Cleve's $695, subtract the oil change and the gas to get $425, then add 44.5 cents/mile (the IRS allowance) for 2000 miles = $890 for fuel/wear&tear, and I get $1315.00. [The oil change isn't the only maintenance issue; there are the tires, the shocks, the filters and belts, etc. Also, if your vehicle is leased, 2K miles is a fairly large chunk of your allotted annual mileage.]

In addition, what kind of job does your DH have? What kind do you have? If either of you are paid on an hourly basis, don't forget to factor in lost wages for the extra day (or even two days) you will spend in travel time, presuming you are not willing to shorten the actual "fun" part of the vacation to compensate for the time you spend on the road. We're salaried, but we still like to look at the value of the extra vacation time used, in our case, it comes to several hundred dollars for one extra day.

Whether or not the AAA mileage calculator is reliable, gas is the least of it. Calculating the costs on "gasoline only" badly oversimplifies the true cost. Depending on your circumstances driving may still be less expensive than flying, but you should take all costs into consideration for the comparison.

 

[martinp13]

minnie van

Sorry, but

 

[stahshee]

Thank you all for the help. My Dh just wants to make sure we are over pre paired. Has anyone ver driven from Syracuse/ Albany in a van do you know what you paid? I am planning on bringing lunch/ breakfast food with us. So we will pay for dinner. Do you know of any deswnt hotels on I 95?

 

[polly p]

We did that trip in 2001. It was a lot less. We stayed in Fayetteville,NC on the way down and Somewhere in Virginia on the way home. We ate 2 meals on the road. i brought lunch fixings that we ate at a rest stop. We had 6 in the mini van and it was a lot cheaper than flying. I don't remember the figure, but it was worth it as long as you have the time to drive. We left 7am on day one and arrived about 3pm on day two. We didn't stop unless we could accomplish more than one task, like eating, bathroom, gas. The kids did much better than I had expected. Good Luck.

 

[grimley1968]

We did that trip in 2001. It was a lot less. We stayed in Fayetteville,NC on the way down and Somewhere in Virginia on the way home. We ate 2 meals on the road. i brought lunch fixings that we ate at a rest stop. We had 6 in the mini van and it was a lot cheaper than flying. I don't remember the figure, but it was worth it as long as you have the time to drive. We left 7am on day one and arrived about 3pm on day two. We didn't stop unless we could accomplish more than one task, like eating, bathroom, gas. The kids did much better than I had expected. Good Luck.

You might be right for 2001. However, fuel costs have about doubled since then.

 

[ducklite]

Here's our best case and worst case scenarios...

(these are based on one way)

Best case...DH gets in his Prius in Central NJ at 4:00am, spends ~$50 in gas, ~$10 in food, ~$15 in tolls and arrives at our house in FL at 9:00pm.

Worst case, all three of us get into our Saturn L-200, spend ~$75 in gas, ~$40 in food, ~$15 in tolls, and $80 on a hotel room.

While I'm not taking wear and tear into consideration, it's still much more economical to drive. However until we started building our home down here we always flew, our time was also worth money, and that needs to be counted into the equation as well.

We also only have one kid, who was an older teen when we first started to drive--ie would amuse himself watching movies, sleeing, or listening to music in the back seat.

Anne

 

[stahshee]

well I have 4 kids and I have no idea how the l ones will be . I hope to leave early from albany at 4 am however I will prob hit nyc / nj traffic at rush hour

 

[MickeyMonstersMom]

I drove down from Cortland last June/July. I spent about $400 on gas and $130 on hotels (but that was for the two nights coming down - I drove back up in one shot). I took 81 into Virginia and hooked up with 95 there, and had no tolls during the entire trip. I packed a cooler with sandwich fixings, snacks, and drinks, and we ate only one restaurant meal on the road. Even counting $50 to fill the cooler and the $60 at the restaurant, we still came out well under $1000.

ETA: I forgot to mention - I drove a Chrysler Grand Voyager, so the gas usage would probably be very similar. I was surprised at how great we did on gas, actually. Also, going down 81 let me avoid rush hour traffic - never saw any until Jacksonville.

 

[ducklite]

well I have 4 kids and I have no idea how the l ones will be . I hope to leave early from albany at 4 am however I will prob hit nyc / nj traffic at rush hour

Here's a tip--take the NYS Thruway and get off before the Garden State Parkway onto 287 South in NJ. Follow this to the NJ Turnpike.

You are coorect, you'll be headed right into NJ rush. If you can leave at 3:00am it will be much better--still very manageable.

Anne

 

[tink_n_pooh]

I second the recommendation to take into consideration time, after all time is money! Taking into consideration that you may have to take extra time off work (very precious vacation days) and you will be when you could already be with the mouse. I'm not a big fan of driving the 18 hours to disney, we are there in the plane in 2 hours but thats just MHO

 

[Lewisc]

I certainly agree if you have a leased car that will be going over your mileage allowance then you should include that figure in your costs.

I don't agree with using 44.5 /mile. That includes an allowance to depreciate your car and something toward insurance. Those are fixed costs. I think Clev has a more accurate way of estimating the marginal costs of driving to WDW.

If you have an old car you're nursing all bets are off. I guess you could include an allowance for tire wear and tear but most tires seem to be good for 60,000 miles and 1000/60000 X the cost for 4 tires doesn't even add $10 and many of us will be selling our cars before they need new tires.

I take Cleve's $695, subtract the oil change and the gas to get $425, then add 44.5 cents/mile (the IRS allowance) for 2000 miles = $890 for fuel/wear&tear, and I get $1315.00. [The oil change isn't the only maintenance issue; there are the tires, the shocks, the filters and belts, etc. Also, if your vehicle is leased, 2K miles is a fairly large chunk of your allotted annual mileage.]

In addition, what kind of job does your DH have? What kind do you have? If either of you are paid on an hourly basis, don't forget to factor in lost wages for the extra day (or even two days) you will spend in travel time, presuming you are not willing to shorten the actual "fun" part of the vacation to compensate for the time you spend on the road. We're salaried, but we still like to look at the value of the extra vacation time used, in our case, it comes to several hundred dollars for one extra day.

Whether or not the AAA mileage calculator is reliable, gas is the least of it. Calculating the costs on "gasoline only" badly oversimplifies the true cost. Depending on your circumstances driving may still be less expensive than flying, but you should take all costs into consideration for the comparison.