The choice depends on a combination of time available, distance to destination and convenience. Budget is usually a consideration as well, since even with increased fuel prices it is still cheaper to drive than fly in many countries.

It makes quite a difference when your vacation is six weeks as opposed to a fortnight. When you have a lot of time, driving is usually better, since you can stop over whenever and for as long as you want to, you can explore byways, you see more and you can truly make the "getting there" a vacation in itself. On the other hand, who wants to waste six days on the road when you only have fourteen for your entire vacation? Unless your vacation is a touring holiday in any case, in which instance the conundrum would not arise!.

As for distance to destination, it's fine to drive from Seattle to New York - far, but possible. It's not such a good idea to drive from New York to Londonseriously, if your only goal is to get to your destination, and this destination is more than one day's drive away, rather consider flying. Driving for a whole day leads to fatigue, irritability, blurry eyes and a greater probability of driver error. That translates into road accident. And then you have to do it again the next day. The problem being when you are going it's all anticipation and starting to unwind, but then you have to come back after your vacation, and after two day's driving you feel as though you have never had a holiday at all. Not really worth it.

Of course, driving to another country, even if it's fairly close, can be very problematic - getting all the necessary paperwork for your vehicle can be daunting and if you end up on the other side and discover there is some document missing, it can be hard to rectify (as happened to us taking our vehicle on the ferry between Botswana and Zambia). So much easier to get on and off the plane and into a shuttle or hired car on the other side.

There is also the matter of convenience. In most countries if the town is on the map you can drive to it. Airplanes only fly to specific places, even if you hire your own - it has to be able to land. The other issue is transport once you get to your destination. You can hire any kind of vehicle these days, but it is not necessarily cheap and there is the little issue of adequate insurance. Sometimes it's just more convenient to have your own vehicle available. Camping springs to mind - I would much rather camp with my own vehicle which is fully equipped to my taste than to have to rely on a hired vehicle which probably comes without the pan I desperately need to make perfect eggs.

Fly or drive - make your vacation a good one!

Learn more about this author, Santi Meintjes.
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