Write now Print Email Article Invite a writer™ Add to Favorites Contact this writer

by F. Michael Monti

• A
• A
• A

Would an $800 savings in travel cost make it possible for you to vacation in a real resort instead of settling for that same old same old destination close to home? If your whole family could make the trip for $250 instead of $1,000, would it mean the difference between a ho-hum get away and a time to remember? Would you be willing to spend a little extra time getting there in order to make that happen? Well for families on a budget, your ticket to an exciting getaway may just be parked in your driveway. If you own a reliable vehicle that is large enough to hold your crew, have a cellular telephone and belong to a motor club, then driving could be the way to go.
Many people shy away from driving long distances because the extra travel time might take away from the vacation. However, flying is not what it once was. My family has made the trip to Florida from the Philadelphia area by airplane, train and car. Having experienced all three, we find driving to be a close second to air travel, especially when expenses mean the difference between going and staying home.

Flying is certainly the preferred way to travel when the destination is a thousand miles away. But in these days of airport security, flying has lost some of its luster. Between getting to the airport, check-in, waiting to board, actual air time, waiting for luggage, picking up a rental car and driving to your final destination, total door to door time may not be substantially less than driving to the same location. Factor in the cost of air fare, airport parking and a rental at the other end, and driving your own car becomes much more enticing.
Of course the potential savings will vary. But that $800 figure is a real possibility once you exceed three people. And if you're traveling with five or six, the savings will be substantially more. Let's consider the example of a family of four on a one week vacation traveling from Philadelphia to Orlando. Round trip coach air fare will average around $800 once you consider all the charges they don't mention in the advertisements. Add in a $50 parking fee at the airport and $180 for a not very fancy rental car for the week and your total expense comes to $1,030 just to get to your destination and have a car at your disposal while there.
Now compare that with the cost of driving your own car. The United States is literally covered with excellent high speed roads. Interstate 95 along the east coast is an example one such road. Assuming you have at least two people to share the driving, it's possible to safely make this trip without the added cost an over night stay. The distance to Orlando from the Philadelphia area is right around 1,000 miles. Consequently, assuming an average highway mileage of say, twenty-two miles per gallon, the round trip cost for gas and tolls with current gas prices averaging $2.50 per gallon should total around $250. This represents a $780 saving over air travel.
Admittedly, there are drawbacks to traveling this far by automobile. Actual driving time should run around sixteen hours each way. Break that up with stops for meals, bath rooms and refueling and it could stretch to twenty. That might be a bit much if you have a couple of young kids in the car. So the obvious solution is to break it up into two days in each direction. You could make this just another part of the vacation with a stop at some attraction along the way. In the Philadelphia to Orlando example there are various attractions to choose from. Places like Historic Williamsburg are open all year around. Theme parks like Kings Dominion in Doswell, VA are open spring through fall. And the route is filled with history, architecture and southern culture in places like Charleston, SC.
One thing to be mindful of is traffic in and around certain major metropolitan areas. Once again, in the Philadelphia to Orlando example, Washington, DC is to be avoided at all costs throughout most times of the day. Unless you plan to make that city a stop on the trip, you will be wise to get around it in the middle of the night. One of our favorite tricks is to leave the Philadelphia area by 2 AM so that we pass through Washington before 6 and beat the morning rush. This strategy comes with the added benefit of having the kids asleep for the first several hours. It usually means that the first driver goes to bed by 8 PM the night before, but it is well worth that schedule adjustment.
From there we continue on until 8 or 9 when we stop for breakfast. By that time, if we aren't planning to drive straight through, we're in perfect position to spend the day at one of the major attractions in Virginia. Then, we can get on the road again by 5 or 6 PM and drive for a couple of hours to a clean but inexpensive motel (there are hundreds of them on this route) somewhere near the mid-point of the journey. On the return trip we might choose to sample some of the southern charm in a city like Charleston, SC. Arriving there around mid-morning, we can tour the town until 5 or 6 PM and again drive for a few hours to a motel near the mid-point. Then, refreshed from a night's rest we finish our journey home, being careful to arrive in the Washington area during off peak hours.
Based upon an itinerary like this, our hypothetical family of four could leave on their vacation early Saturday morning, spend the day in a place like Williamsburg, arrive in Florida late Sunday afternoon, spend five days in the Florida sun, leave for home early the following Saturday, spend one more day in a place like Charleston and return to the old homestead on Sunday afternoon all rested and ready to tackle the world.
Finally, we consider it wise to always carry a cell phone and be a member of an automobile club when driving this far from home. That way if old reliable happens to leave us by the side of the road, we can dial for a tow and find a repair shop that has been checked out for its honesty and dependability. We belong to AAA, but there are others that will serve the purpose.
This spring, since one of our older daughters and her husband moved to St. Augustine, Florida we'll be taking the eighth grader out of school for a few extra days over the Easter holiday and driving south for a visit. Since that trip is a paltry 875 miles, we'll probably do it all in one day over fifteen or sixteen hours. But whether we choose to drive straight through or to break it up in either direction, the out of pocket savings provided by that pile of steel, rubber and plastic parked in the driveway is the thing that makes seeing our kids on a regular basis possible, while basking in the Florida sun at the same time.

Learn more about this author, F. Michael Monti.

Add your voice
Know something about The benefits of driving as opposed to other transportation? We want to hear your view. Write now!

more options

hide