Any drive to their destination?

[GeoPatSK Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close GeoPatSK]

Driving to Orlando

We are currently planning a late summer trip from Washington D.C. Area to Orlando (we have a trade at Cypress Pointe for August 9- 16). There are 4 of us going, and we are a considering driving. Even with at $4.00 to 4.20 a gallon, I estimate the gas will cost of $230 compared to $400+ to fly plus $150 to rent a car. The trip should be about 14 hours.

[jfitz Member Find all posts View Profile Close jfitz]

When my three kids were growing up in the late seventies and throughout the eighties our family vacations were road trips. From our home outside of Philly we ventured up and down the east coast, from Montreal to Orlando and many places in between, often pulling our trusty Coleman pop-up camper. As the kids got older, airfare got cheaper, and my income increased we usually turned to flying for destinations more than a days drive away in order to maximize time at our destination.

I enjoy driving and we are fortunate to own two cars suited to maximizing that enjoyment. Today, the kids are grown and mostly moved out and I will drive rather than fly to any destination within 600-800 miles. In my book flying kills a day regardless of the actual length of the flight, so I rather get the enjoyment of driving and have our car, instead of a rental, at our destination. For trips longer than a days drive, time becomes a factor in my choice of flying or driving.

Our last three timeshare vacations were by car, our next, to St. Maarten will be by airplane since neither of our cars does particularly well traversing the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean and there are not a lot of motels along the route.

[jfitz Member Find all posts View Profile Close jfitz]

We are currently planning a late summer trip from Washington D.C. Area to Orlando (we have a trade at Cypress Pointe for August 9- 16).

That is a nice easy drive. While we were moving from Southern New Jersey to Fort Myers I traveled that route enough times that the toll takers started to know me by name. The biggest PITA of my run was from Philly to below D.C., then only a little boggle around Richmond. Set the cruise control and turn up the radio until you approach Orlando.

[brother coony Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close brother coony]

Well it was intrested reading all the comments, we (my DW and I) dont like to drive over 8 hrs, but we also dont like to fly post 9/11, but we love to Vacation, so we suck it up, drive to vacation on east coast, but fly to all other destinations, bout two flight per.year,

[Miss Understood Member Find all posts View Profile Close Miss Understood]

We live in Western NY. Since it's generally just the two of us, it doesn't cost a fortune to fly to most places, but we usually limit ourselves to one flying vacation per year, and do one driving vacation. Typically we do a couple weeks somewhere in the winter and have to fly there. Then we take a week in the late spring or fall and drive.

We particularly like "see the autumn leaves" driving vacations. We have driven to Gatlinburg, TN twice, Williamsburg, VA twice, Smuggler's Notch, VT, Atlantic City, NJ, Massanutten, VA, and Jamestown/Newport, RI. Maybe I'm forgetting some, but those are the only driving trips that come to mind.

We like to stop and do some antiquing along the way, so that breaks the monotony a bit, and the autumn vacation drives provide such nice scenery that even a long drive can be quite enjoyable.

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

We won't drive anywhere that is more than 5 hours away unless we have no other choice. We usually do 4 or 5 trips per year by air and 7 or 8 by car with Las Vegas ( ~4 hours ) being the farthest by car. Sometimes we will fly to Las Vegas rather than drive such as our last visit. It just depends how we feel at the time. When we fly, we usually fly first class which makes it a lot more enjoyable. Comfort and convenience determine our mode of travel.

[icydog Banned Find all posts View Profile Close icydog]

I have to tell you, I am a Continental Elite member, at least until 2008 ends.

I have decided not to fly anymore if I can help it, and going forward I plan to reserve space close enough to home to drive to. That includes HH, Myrtle Beach etc, in fact anyplace on the East Coast.I live in central NJ.

I am sick of flying. I am sick of the drama at the airports and the measly flight and gate attendants on CO. I will drive rather than fly to save myself this aggravation. They can keep their Elite Status, I am fed up with them, and maybe all carriers.

[stratusnj75 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close stratusnj75]

Our first family trip to Disney(like 5 years ago), we drove from NJ to Disney World straight thru. Left after work on Friday around 5pm and arrived around 10am and went straight to the parks. We still laugh about the way people stared at us at that night on the Disney bus back to our room. We were pretty haggard looking after 17 hours of driving and 8 hours at Disney world Now the wife has family in Charlotte, NC so that has become an overnight stop.

Devin