NS Diser's who fly from US

[Trying to Plan]

Hello. Starting to look for flights and very confused. Seems flights out of Halifax are expensive compared to flights out of Maine or Boston. I have read many of you do fly from the States directly.

For those who fly from either of those locations, what tips and help can you give? Was it REALLY worth it? Were you exhusted from the drive? How long was the drive and clearing thru the boarder? Did you experience trouble flying from the US as a Canadian?

Thanks for the help!!!

 

[Ted in Halifax]

Clearing through the border is usually no problem .... 10 minutes. To go from Hfx to Portland it is 9 to 10 hours with stops.

I budget $100 for gas each way (although it is more line $70 with my new car) ,,, add park and fly ($150 worse case), some food $50 and that's it. So $300 to $350 to add on.

Fares are usually $200 per person, but I have had them as low as 140 taxes in.

If Your fare is $500 or more from Halifax and you have 4 or more people .... its not a bad idea. April to December this works well. Snow and bad weather can make this drive stressful ... Dec to March

I would fly from Halifax in Feb if there was a far with taxes under $400 per person.

Ted

 

[coastgirl]

We've done it...hmm, 3 or 4 times now? Twice in Jan/Feb, and of those drives, three were clear dry roads and skies, and one was white-knuckle awful. We are doing it again in Feb, though, just planning to leave early and/or take our time back if the weather is bad.

Clearing customs at the border in our van is *always* easier than in Toronto airport. At least if you wait (and we don't usually), you're in your car, the kids have a movie or a snack, no-one has reason to whine and there's no luggage to stress about. Honestly, I can't say we've spent more than maybe 30-45 minutes waiting, and it's usually more in the range of 10-20 mins. (Truly less hassle and time than collecting the luggage, going through customs, and dropping the luggage off before getting our connecting flight in Toronto.) That said, we aren't usually in the line on Friday evening before a long weekend, either.

Flying domestic has been easy peasy too. We have our passports, of course, and they are so easy to use as airport id.

THe other part of it is, my dh LOVES road trips. He may be tired at the end of the driving day, but he enjoys it. Used to be, we'd fly from home and then drive as a vacation (like the time we drove from Tampa to Louisiana and back). With kids in tow, I am more interested in "stay put" vacations, so he gets to drive his heart out on the way to and from the airport, and I get to settle into a resort once we get there. Win-win.

The fares don't even begin to compare. I'm paying more than I like in Feb, and it's under $1100 for four. Add the drive and the park and fly and the extra food for road-days and it's still well under $2k. The *cheapest* fare from YHZ I could find for close to our dates was more like $3k. And dh still would've been looking for somewhere to drive.

We love to fly from Manchester NH. We get great fares and service on Southwest, and we don't have to drive in to Boston. (Continental and a few other big airlines fly from MHT. We have flown Continental but prefer SW.) It's a great little airport. From Halifax to Manchester is about 10 hrs but we never make it in that. We'll leave home one day and overnight with family in NB, then get to Manchester the next day. Coming home we'll usually just do one overnight. With kids, we like to have proper meal stops, and stretch our legs.

I think it depends on your family. For us, it's more than just the money. We enjoy the little driving "adventure" at the start of the trip. But the money makes it an easy decision for us. YMMV.

Good luck making your decision.

 

[mbb]

.......I think it depends on your family. For us, it's more than just the money. We enjoy the little driving "adventure" at the start of the trip. But the money makes it an easy decision for us. YMMV.

Good luck making your decision.

We totally agree.

We're Portland/JetBlue junkies
Satellite tvs in the back of every comfortable leather seat?
Hello!
Short flight to NY, then onto MCO at the worst?
Hello!
NON-STOP from PWM to MCO at best for under $200pp.
Hello!
First checked bag is free!
Hello!
...and did we mention the Blue Potato Chips???
Yummo!!

OK, enough of my love for JetBlue

Thing is, for me, our entire vacation budget could easily be eaten up by airfare from Halifax. And we enjoy the drive, stay with relatives in Saint John, cross at St.Stephen, and airline to BGR...I95/295/395 to PWM (Ithink it's in that order anyway)

We usually Park and Fly at one of the hotels in Westbrook.
Howard Johnson's is good, huge rooms, little dated, but good.
Pool, Friendly's restaurant right there.
The Super8 is right across the street if you're on a really tight budget...it's ok, just not the most recent furnishings at all. I would ask to see the room before you drag in all your luggage - just because some of the mattresses are a little older than my back would prefer. The pool area is terrific for the kids, and they have a continental breakfast - prepackaged pastries and the like.

But we can totally understand not wanting to do the drive thing too. It can be stressful in an entirely different way than airports can.

Personal preference, personal decision. Have fun planning!!

HTH!!


But have fun planning!!

 

[dvcdisney]

We tried it for the first time this past August. We took Jetblue from Portland, ME. The drive was long and I'm not sure if it would be worth it for us to do it again. In terms of price, I think we only saved a little. The biggest plus for me was that in August, there are no direct flights from Halifax to MCO, so since I hate connecting, it was great that we only took one flight and it was just a couple of hours and we were in orlando.

We had a bit of a wait at the border, but not too bad. They were friendly and efficient and then we were on our way. We stayed at the Hilton hotel close to the airport (literally walking distance if you wanted to, but they had a shuttle that took 1 min to get back to the hotel) and I booked the park and fly deal so we left our car at the airport hotel for two weeks for less than the price at the airport parking.

 

[MikeyNS]

I have a feeling that we'll be hitting Bangor in the next year or two. All my points are draining.
Although we do not mind flying through Montreal at all, it will have to be a significant savings to get me to drive to Bangor. I'm always worried about the stability of Allegiant Air.

Just under 1:30 to fly to Montreal and you don't get the crowds of Toronto.

 

[Trying to Plan]

Thanks everyone for the replies. We still haven't locked in for flights but the info you gave me makes me more comfortable about the cross boarder flying....I will let you know how I make out!!!

 

[SplashMom]

I would like to try this as well. We have always flown from Halifax or Sydney but the prices are high (but we have used Airmiles several times). We have also driven to Florida twice and we love it!! My husband would prefer to drive every time but we don't like to rush and we just don't have enough time in February so we will be flying (with Airmiles ). We are considering going again during the summer just for the drive. However, if we weren't driving all the way, I would certainly consider flying from Maine--just not in the winter!