Rather than flying from BUF - MCO, anyone fly from YYZ- another FL airport?

[4orm]

I saw that flights to Tampa were cheaper than MCO when we're looking to go. We always rent a car when we're down in FL and TPA isn't that far from MCO. Has anyone ever done this? Is it worth it? We live in downtown Toronto and don't own a car so flying out of BUF means an expensive car rental or train ride and cabs plus and over night in BUF which eats up any savings from flying out of there so we've always just flew out of YYZ. The extra money saves us time. Is it worth doing on the other end? I think TPA is just over an hour away - not a bad drive at all. We'd even consider Miami is the price was right. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[Northstar]

I'd go for it, after researching car rental prices to make sure that's not going to be way more expensive at Tampa/St Pete's. (I can't see why it would be, but you know, there's always a catch...).

I've driven Tampa-Orlando many times. It's an easy drive on high speed roads.

 

[snowangel72]

Personally I prefer TPA over MCO any day. It's a lovely airport. MCO is a circus. We got to MCO at 4am in March, two hours before our flight and we JUST made it. It was insane.I hate that place. This time we are flying into MCO and out of TPA.

 

[connorsmom911]

Hmmm, I've never thought of this, but I just took a quick look at my dates and the flights are cheaper! I don't think I'd be able to do Tampa on the way down because the flight is earlier and I'm already panicking that I won't have enough time to get to Buffalo for the MCO flight, but coming home from Tampa the schedule is perfect!

Any other opinions on flying into MCO and home from TPA? I'm just so comfortable with rental cars and highways around MCO that this would be new for me. I wouldn't even know where to fill up the rental car to return it to Tampa!

 

[Northstar]

Hmmm, I've never thought of this, but I just took a quick look at my dates and the flights are cheaper! I don't think I'd be able to do Tampa on the way down because the flight is earlier and I'm already panicking that I won't have enough time to get to Buffalo for the MCO flight, but coming home from Tampa the schedule is perfect!

Any other opinions on flying into MCO and home from TPA? I'm just so comfortable with rental cars and highways around MCO that this would be new for me. I wouldn't even know where to fill up the rental car to return it to Tampa!

This involves renting a car at one location and returning it at another, which often means you can't take advantage of any discounts... or at least, means you have to try out a lot of discount codes at a lot of different car rental sites before you find a deal! But it might still be worth it. Just research your car rental before you buy the plane tickets.

I wouldn't worry about finding a place to fill up near the airport. Use Googlemaps to research gas stations near the airport, and Gasbuddy to check which ones have outrageous rip-off-the-tourists gas prices. Or it might be worth it to buy the prepaid tank of gas with the rental, so you don't have to worry about filling it up.

Maybe snowangel72 has some more tips since they're doing this too!

 

[4orm]

This involves renting a car at one location and returning it at another, which often means you can't take advantage of any discounts... or at least, means you have to try out a lot of discount codes at a lot of different car rental sites before you find a deal! But it might still be worth it. Just research your car rental before you buy the plane tickets.

I wouldn't worry about finding a place to fill up near the airport. Use Googlemaps to research gas stations near the airport, and Gasbuddy to check which ones have outrageous rip-off-the-tourists gas prices. Or it might be worth it to buy the prepaid tank of gas with the rental, so you don't have to worry about filling it up.

Maybe snowangel72 has some more tips since they're doing this too!

And most car rentals you can reserve with little more than an email address and cancel when you find a better deal.