Any drive to their destination?

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

We always "roadtrip" it when travelling since we have 5 kids. Airfare would be 4-6 times the cost of driving--especially since we never have good deals from MN!

Anyone else roadtrip? Where have you driven?

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

Yes, we like to drive. More convenient, cheaper, on My Schedule, bring what we want, stop when we want, eat when we want, divert to investigate interesting sight described on billboard...

From Indiana, we went to Massachusetts last May, have gone to Gatlinburg and Myrtle Beach several times, Illinois, Georgia, Texas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Virginia. Florida this fall. Planning Arizona for next summer.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

From NY I have driven to Florida, Hilton head, Myrtle Beach, OBX, NJ, PA, NH, Maine, OC Maryland, Virgina beach, Williamsburg VA OK make that the whole east coast.


Adding Jersery Shore, NJ
Cape Cod, MA
Lake Placid, NY
And Killenton VT

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

I max out at 10 hours and am much happier with 7 hours or less.

Smugglers Notch, VT
Outer Banks, NC
Williamsburg, VA
Ocean City, MD
Jersery Shore, NJ
Cape Cod, MA
Lake Placid, NY

Have timeshared in each and driven.

It is very difficult to get those exchanges in summer though.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Haven't flown since 2002.

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

I'm with Lauren..7 hours is about my max. We have driven to Florida in the past, but now, eventhough I have enough vacation time, I would rather not spend it driving to a location, just enjoy the time at the resort instead.

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

We used to drive from Toronto to Florida every year for our one-week break. We often ran into dreadful weather (Mid-march school break) and were nervous wrecks by the time we arrived. Then we spent the last few days of our vacation glued to the weather channel, worried about the long drive home. Now we fly and rent a car.

Whe we get a new vehicle (our van is 11 years old), I'm hoping to take more driving vacations in the better months.

Dori

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

We can only do one flying vacation per year. Everything else, we drive to! But we have about a 8-hour radius, and we stretch that over two days. Four hours per day of driving is enough!

We live near NYC. We've driven to Williamsburg, DC, Baltimore, Cape Cod, Boston, the Finger Lakes, the Poconos, Montauk, the Berkshires, Atlantic City...this summer we'll be going up to Toronto, stopping in Syracuse and Niagara Falls along the way.

We wouldn't drive to Florida--it's just too far for us--although we know plenty of people who do it.

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

I too prefer to keep it under about 8 hours driving time. From here, that includes Gatlinburg, most of Wisconsin, and a few other "timeshare-y" places.

We visit Florida annually in late February, and fly for that one. We only have nine days of time available then, and I don't want to spend four days of it driving.

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

7 hours max driving for us, I prefer to keep it under 4. We do longer for ski trips and to Smuggs, and hitting Maine this summer.

We have been doing a fair bit of flying, but I am hoping to avoid flying this summer, there are so many nice beaches to drive to from home.

[Lisa P Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lisa P]

We've only flown once - our family's trip-of-a-lifetime to see the Grand Canyon and other AZ sights. What a trip!

We're okay driving up to ~12 hrs in a day if we've only got two drivers, but 17-18 hrs per day is fine when we're all five taking turns (DH, DD19, DS17, DS17 and me). So, from NC, we've driven up to New Hampshire/New York and down to Florida and out to Arkansas/Missouri, with plenty of shorter trips in the eastern U.S. as well.

Our whole family loves a good road trip!
The key is making sure that the drive out, when everyone is excited, is the longest and most direct, to save time and just get there. The drive homeward is not nearly as upbeat, so it's great to break it up with a night or two somewhere in the middle, giving us shorter drives and fun things to anticipate and do, on the long road home. If the drive home is too short to break it up with a stayover, we make sure to stop at a favorite restaurant chain with a nice sitdown meal. We've also been known to stop for a newly released movie or shopping at a mall - whatever makes that "vacation's over" feeling a bit easier to take.

We're hoping to visit California next year but much will depend on airfares. 5-6 people flying really adds up for us but California is too far to enjoy the drive, when we can't miss that much work. So we may or may not be able to go. Our Safari van does better on gas than most vans (~18-20 mpg highway) and it's super-comfortable with 6 reclining seats. So driving usually works well for us.

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

My wife would prefer never to drive. However, we do drive to LA and San Diego from Sacramento which are 7 and 9 hour drives.

When we went to the Outer Banks in NC we flew to Baltimore and then drove to OBX which was a long day of driving. We stayed in the OBX for a week and then drove to Massanutten for another week. From there we drove back to Baltimore. All this driving and she did very well. Thankfully for her the Massanutten area was full of caves to explore!

You just cannot see everything or stop often enough if all you do is fly.

[barndweller Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close barndweller]

We go to Hawaii almost every year and the drive is really gruelling.

Actually we much prefer to drive for all the reasons given in the earlier post. We enjoy the journey and try to add fun things to see & do along the way. But out here in the west it is a very long distance to most timeshare destinations for us. We always drive to Palm Springs (9 hours), Vegas (10 hours), Phoenix (12 hours) and Tahoe (4 hours.) We have flown to Denver, Orlando, Mexico, Williamsburg and Seattle for timeshare vacations. We don't have young children so long road trips are pretty flexible. Even if our children were still living with us I think car travel is easier than air travel with a family. The whole airport experience is just no fun anymore. Our flight to Puerta Vallarta was delayed in Dallas for 18 hours. It took almost 2 full days to fly to our destination. That would have been a nightmare with children. We just treated it as part of the adventure and actually had fun.

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

I max out at 10 hours

Any more than that from where I live and I'd just about drive off the edge of our little islands. There is something to be said for living in a comparatively small country.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Any more than that from where I live and I'd just about drive off the edge of our little islands. There is something to be said for living in a comparatively small country.

Yeah I thought so too until you told me how far Tintagel was from where I was!