Most people I mention this to scoff. 'Matt, you're really saying you'd rather be in a car for two days instead of taking a four hour flight someplace?' Let me stop you there. Your flight might be in the air for a few hours, but taking a flight in America today is a day long, exhausting affair.
To compare these two things, I'll embrace two rules. First, I'm going to consider the comparison from the point you pull out of your driveway to the point where you get to your destination. Second, I'm not going to compare driving to a first class travel experience. Most people can't afford that anyway. This is comparing how most of us fly, standard.
When you're taking a flight, you either have to A) drive to the airport, pay for a parking spot, and hope your car is safe, B) beg a friend to drop you off and pick up up when you return, or C) pay for a ride. You have to be there at least two hours before your flight, but it's best to be there three hours early. You get your ticket and check you bag (most of the time regardless if you wanted to check your bag or not), usually with additional costs. You have to go through the security checkpoint, which at MSP is a nightmare (did you pack everything in tiny little bottles? Don't have to do that in a car!). Then you get to wait for your flight in crowded, loud and uncomfortable concourses, generally dealing with some of the angriest employees of any industry. Bonus, you get to pay 3 times more for water, coffee and food than you did before you got into the airport.
You're then crammed onto an airplane, if you don't get bumped. If you're lucky you're not next to the stinky guy, or the coughing guy, or the loud drooling sleeper, or the guy eating an onion sandwich. Hopefully the person next to you has the good social graces to keep their shoes on. Hopefully no turbulence. Hopefully you're not in the tiny bladder aisle. If the nearest airport to your destination doesn't have a direct flight, then you get the magic of flying to an unfamiliar airport, trying to patiently get yourself and your carry on off the plane, finding your connecting flights terminal, navigating a huge complicated building, and hoping you don't have to make a mad frantic run for it. And then you get the added bonus of wondering if your bags will actually make it to your destination.
When you get to your final destination airport, you have to get your bags (if they shows up) and then figure out how you're going to get to where you're sleeping that night. If you're staying in a local hotel, you might be lucky enough to have a shuttle, or cheap cab ride. Then you get the magic of checking in, and then get to 'relax' in a not-home hotel room. Arrived!
If your final destination is a drive away from the nearest major airport, then you'll either need to beg someone to come pick you up, or rent a car. Then it's into the rental, navigating unfamiliar streets while you try to figure out how to turn the window wipers on, hoping you don't have to deal with local traffic until you get to your final destination. Arrived!
It's a full day, sometimes even longer. You're exhausted, bone-tired. Airline travels SUCKSSSSSS...
I'll concede the first point right away. Yes, the drive is two days, with a quick, and likely expensive hotel stay, but most of the travel hassles you deal with in a plane are not an issue with a car. I don't have packing restrictions, security checkpoints, shoeless seat mates, and rude customer service reps.
The cost difference is not even close. Using be frugal.com's drive or fly calculator, the cost of driving on the vacation I just took was about $780 total (for five people). That includes gas, hotel, and food. The same trip cost for a flight with rental car (which I needed to have) was almost $3500. It's almost five times more expensive to fly than drive and THAT should mean something.
When you fly, the country streams beneath you. You really don't see it. When driving, you get to witness the country changing before your eyes. My experience from the last trip; from Minnesota's Northwoods and lakes, to Wisconsin's forests, to Chicago's urban glitter, to flat and weirdly far right, demented Indiana. Kentucky is gorgeous with horse farms merging into larger rolling hills, eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina are brilliant with mountains, and then you get to the southern pine forests of South Carolina, before changing dramatically in the end as you get onto the coast, a completely different culture and vibe. You really see America unfold, in all it's glory.
It's also a lot easier to dive into to local culture with food and entertainment when you're on the road. Airport to airport is the same chain stores/restaurants you can find anywhere. I discovered Forsyth Country Kitchen on one road trip going through Georgia, a little off the interstate. That might've been the best food I ever ate.
This comparison does have its limits. Of course you can't drive overseas, but my experience when I've flown to foreign countries is the customer service is FAR better than on domestic flights. Also, the West Coast is tough. That's either two VERY long days of driving with multiple drivers, or it's three days. Round trip, that would be an additional six days of car travel. Most of us today can't afford to take more than a few days off, maybe a week. Anything west of the Rockies has to be on a plane if you have limited time off.
The real test for me is this. When I fly somewhere, I always need a day to recover. When I drive, I might nap a little, or sleep in the first day, but I'm off and ready to go. I always feel far more exhausted after flying.
Do what you like, and enjoy what limited time we have as American workers today. If I can at all justify the time commitment, I'll be driving.
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