Tampa vs MCO

[tiberius]

I have found I can fly in to Tampa vs Orlando and save a total of about $400 and arrive 6 hours earlier on my arrival date. Since I will rent a car anyway, would I expect it to be worth the trouble to do the extra driving in order to get there earlier and save the $.

I will be flying Southwest and all of the price difference is on the flight to Orlando. Would it be realistic to try to fly into Tampa, rent a car to return at Orlando, and then fly out of Orlando?

 

[Edd]

I would drive from Tampa to save an extra $400.00 and get there 6 hours earlier. You drive an extra 50 miles, but no big deal.

 

[pbharris4]

Yes! We got a DING fare from Dulles to Tampa for $29/each way. ($315.00 tax included for all 4 of us round trip!) They only had a DING for Orlando for our way down and didn't have July's DINGs out yet so we figured we'd drive from Tampa to WDW. The rental was a mid size SUV for $215 for 10 days. The drive wasn't long at all. Maybe 1 hr for us but we didn't hit traffic and DH tends to have a lead foot as he's a commuter to Northern Va.

It really saved us money. If you return the car to MCO there shouldn'e be any extra fees because it's in the same area at Tampa. We were going to do this too, but DH changed his mind. GO for it if it's going to save you that money! I also though Tampa airport was much calmer and much less crowded.

 

[EllenJ]

We are flying in to MCO but flying home out of TPA. Renting a car in TPA and returning in MCO will not be a problem, we have done it several times.
The only difference is that some of the bigger rental agencies are off-site in TPA but it is not a big deal. Their shuttles are really quick.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

We are flying in to MCO but flying home out of TPA. Renting a car in TPA and returning in MCO will not be a problem, we have done it several times.
The only difference is that some of the bigger rental agencies are off-site in TPA but it is not a big deal. Their shuttles are really quick.

My family and I did the exact same thing last year when flying WestJet from Toronto. We 1st flew into MCO, rented our car at Avis since it was located there and flew home from TPA and got to return our car there since Avis was also located at TPA.

We are doing the exact same thing this December and since we have done it in the past we know what to expect.

 

[riaesq]

We do this regularly in either direction. National is offsite at TPA but only 5-10 mins away by bus- not much longer than walking over there at MCO.

Piece o'cake and def worth it to save that kind of $.

An hour driving is pretty optimistic. Figure on more likely an hour and a quarter minimum.

 

[danjoan14]

We are doing this in November of this year. Flying from PVD to TPA, then flying back to PVD from MCO. Hmmmm, this price difference was $200 pp R/T vs. $400 pp R/T. So we end up saving $200 pp, and the rental was only $50 more. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

 

[kelleigh1]

We're flying into TPA in November also, but haven't booked a return yet, so we'll see. The price was much better (can't recall exact amount).

I'm still keeping an eye on return flights and the price seems to be pretty much the same at the moment, but I think the available flights out of TPA are at better times.