Road trip or fly/rent a car? (cost, rentals, cycle)

[SCSbunny]

Hi all! My bf and I want to take a trip (I'm thinking maybe late this year/early next year) to see some places we may be interested in moving to. Unfortunately this is a rather difficult task as we are in Cali and we want to travel around the southeast.

For one, we cannot take too much time off of work, so I am not sure if we should make it one larger trip or break it up into smaller, separate trips, perhaps 2 trips. I would not want us to take more than a little over 2 weeks max for one big trip, and I know he will want to keep the trip as short as he can because he has clients and workers that rely on his business.

Two, we would like the trips to be as affordable as possible. We are not looking for a nice little vacation, this is a very purposeful trip. Of course I don't want us to be miserable and have that experience leave a bad impression. We would love to take one of our cars, preferably my own, but I already have 120,000 miles on my car and I had a job that required lots of travel so I'd like to give my car a break since I don't plan on getting a new one anytime soon. We may be able to take his truck but it's a work truck and may not be the best for personal use. Also taking a car means more hotel stays, longer days, and it will take a very long time to get to our first interested destination (Houston, TX). But flights are expensive and we would want to rent a car, which also costs money. There is also I may add a comfort factor in taking your own car for a trip and makes us feel more at home, which is sort of the point since we are looking for our new future home. Of course, this is not considering where we would stay, which would inevitably be multiple places.

I love road trips so I wouldn't so much mind traversing through the country and he also does good on the road for long periods, but I am concerned about the amount of time it would take plus the wear and tear, however, it could be a bonus to just get a feel for the country even outside of our destinations.

My top two interests are Houston, TX and Charleston, SC. His biggest interests are Florida and also Charleston. We are also curious about North Carolina, and maybe Tennessee. For sure, we want to visit TX, FL, and SC. I have family in Panama City Beach, FL we can visit on the way, and I am due for a visit anyway, so I am wondering if we can somehow squeeze this into our itinerary.

What do you all suggest would be the most affordable and efficient yet still a quality way to visit our places of interests? This primarily includes transportation but also lodging or anything else you may suggest. Thank you, I look forward to your responses

[WouldLoveTo]

If you are not in the northern tier of CA, Houston should be a reasonable 2 day drive and you can see some sights along the way.

What you need to do is map out from your home to each point you are interested in seeing. You may find the far east-most areas will be more difficult to see everything you want to see even in two weeks.

I am one who loves to drive my own car so I understand where you're coming from (I also hate flying). I will do a long trip in the future but in the meantime I have areas I can get to in 1-2 days and then explore from there. I have a flexible work schedule but am not sure I can even do 2 weeks this year... but soon

[StealthRabbit]

I use a travel spreadsheet for choosing method for every trip (car, plane, RV, motorcycle, camp vs home, train (Usually Europe and Asia)

Far more often we use fly/drive, especially when working (limited available time to be gone). But we travel 50% of the time Just completed a 5 day fly/drive today) 1950 miles by car, 3500 by air. Rental car only had 3'miles on it when I picked it up.!

For discovery of areas we use private guest stays to get a better feel for area. Host profile explains career and interests of host, so we pick someone able to contribute info to our travel quest. $0 - $20 / night worldwide for previous 30 yrs. Always visit as if you lived there (attend and volunteer at events, seek your likely interests that you would pursue while living there.

For your broad area, I would likely arrange 3+ trips (long weekends) and choose a hub that has cheap cars and air. I usually book SWA, since they have free changes and bags. Remember that car rentals can be very expensive at certain airports (Fees and Taxes). Just make up that spreadsheet and populate it (including time spent flying and driving from each potential destination. Nashville and Atlanta and N Orleans, often have package specials. Tampa and Orlando have often been inexpensive for cars and air. We have also used Panama City and Pensacola for hubs, often renting car at Panama City inbound and dropping at Pensacola for no drop fee.

Remember... During your earning yrs there are 5 states that are income tax free. We lived and worked in one that was very high pay state, and next door to a no sales tax state (5 minutes away)

I'm not one to recommend from your list as being in Texas part-time for last 27 yrs, I could never deal with Houston. But... We have hundreds of local Texan neighbors who have 'escaped' from Houston! . I also do not go east of Missouri river between May and October.

[oceangaia]

From west coast to east coast, Wow. That will be 3 days driving each direction. And that's a lot of miles on your personal vehicle.

On the other hand, rental car prices are high right now and you can pack a lot more of your stuff in your car than a plane which is probably part of feeling more comfortable and "at home".

As for the costs, just make a spreadsheet and project them out for each approach. You can estimate mileage and gas costs for driving. (If you apply 58 cents per mile for auto expense, game over. Fly.) Compare extra cost of rental car and flights versus fewer days of hotel and restaurant expenses. On top of the dollar expenses you'll have intangible factors of time and convenience.

If you are really set on seeing that many places I would say drive. Adding in Texas really is going to require multiple flights. You could fly into Orlando or Atlanta and use that as a base from which to rent a car and see FL, SC, and NC. But if you're going to drive from there to TX you might as well drive your own car. So you'd be flying CA to Houston to see Texas, then Houston to Orlando.

Since FL is the top choice, I'd fly to Orlando and tour the panhandle, north Florida, and SC on a 7-10 day trip. Only if those don't pan out would I bother with the other options on a later trip.

I think you really need to do some more remote research and narrow your options down some else you might find yourself endlessly chasing a purple unicorn. You just need to find a place where you can be happy. You can't try to see every place to be sure there isn't some place better. There will always be places you haven't seen that might be better.

[himain]

Fly.

[bus man]

I would treat this as a business trip, instead of a vacation, and plan accordingly. Your "business" is scouting out locations in Texas, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Florida. What lies in-between is irrelevant for these purposes and, in the interest of time, can be skipped. (If you do end up making this move, that's the time to drive across the country and see the sights.)

I would break this up into two trips. Trip One, fly to Houston, rent a car, and see what you want to see. If there are other parts of Texas that you want to see, drive to those parts and take a look. Then, drop the car at the nearest major airport and fly to Memphis. From there, rent another car, and drive east along I-40, hitting Nashville and Knoxville and whatever else you want to see. (If you're not interested in Memphis, fly to Nashville instead.) Keep going east on I-40 and you'll be in North Carolina. See what you want to see and then drive down to Charleston. Take a look around, then fly from there back to California.

Trip Two, fly from California to Florida. The Sunshine State is bigger than you might think, so if you have specific areas that you want to see, try and narrow that down so you can limit your driving. (This advice applies to Texas as well.) If you're not sure, then fly into Jacksonville, drive south to Miami, then cross over the state west to Naples, then drive up north to Tampa, then drive over to Orlando. This path will show you the majority of the areas that most people from out of state move to. Once you're done with Orlando, fly home from there. If you already know that you want to be near the coast, then end in Tampa.

For both of these trips, study the costs of one-way car rentals very carefully. They vary widely from company to company. They also vary according to where you start and end, so plan out your rentals in both directions. (Thus, for example, in Florida, price out a pick-up in Jacksonville and a drop-off in Orlando, as well as a pick-up in Orlando and a drop-off in Jacksonville.)

If you do have to combine these into a single trip, I would skip Tennessee and North Carolina. Fly from Texas to Charleston, then drive from there south to Jacksonville (it's only about a three hour drive) and then do Florida as described above. Personally, I think that TN and NC are both great states and well worth considering. But you have to make this work for your time and your budget.

Finally, you said that you were thinking about doing this trip in the winter time. Prices will be higher in Florida at that time, though if you arrange to not overlap any holidays (Christmas, New Year's, MLK Day, President's Day, etc.) it's a little better. Do not go in March at all. (Three words: spring break crowds.) Weather probably won't be an issue in Texas and Tennessee and the Carolinas, but it could be. Given that time is an issue, I would not do Trip One in January, when the risk of inclement weather (which has the potential to cause significant delays) is the greatest.

Edit to add: Panama City Beach is not on the way to any of your intended destinations. The ONLY way it would make sense to include it would be if you skip Tennessee and both Carolinas and instead drive from Houston east on I-10 into Florida. Otherwise, save it for another time.

[Listener2307]

I am retired. I have driven over 2M miles and through all 48 lower states. I loved traveling when I did it, but no longer have an interest in traveling as it is described by our OP.


I would combine 2 ideas. I would travel as fast as the 2 of us could by car all the way to Charleston. Take turns driving if you can and if it gets too rough stop at a Holiday Inn Express or something. Eat properly and take naps in rest stops if you can........ Try to make the trip to Charleston in 30 hours flat. It can be done with 2 drivers, but they have to be good drivers.

Then you are done "hustling". Take a day or 2 to see Charleston (you may never want to leave) and idle through the rest of your tour however you wish.
When it comes time to go home, just repeat the process; get where you want to be as fast as is safely possible.


I travel without reservations at hotels. I just wing it and I really prefer it that way.



You're young. You will recover very rapidly.
BOL!

[FindingZen]

Fly to and from Houston and rent a car from there to see everything else. That will save you at least four to six days on the road, depending on where in California you are traveling from.

[RamenAddict]

I would skip Houston. That is the farthest from your other destinations. I live in tallahassee and had lots of coworkers with family in Houston, and the drive from there was 13 hours. I think PC is 9, but you could easily do a loop from Jacksonville up the coast to Charleston, Charlotte, and TN, down to PC, and back over to Jax to get most of your choices in one visit. It is like 9 hours from PC to Houston, the nearest choice on your list.

[Ruth4Truth]

Given what's going on in your life personally, and by that I mean--issues with your relationship, it's not realistic to be planning any reconnaissance missions to other states with your bf, to give you my honest opinion. You two can't really afford it, judging by what you've said in your first post, but more fundamentally, you don't even know if he'll still be your bf by the time you two are ready to make the trip. You don't know if he'll still be your bf after you tell him no kids until he marries you. If you stop and think about all the advice people have given you, you may start to doubt you even would want to be married to him.

IMO you have some serious thinking and soul-searching to do. The last thing you should be thinking and dreaming about is road trips with a nearly 40-year-old guy who pursued you when you were in high school, has avoided marrying you while simultaneously peddling warm-and-fuzzy images of himself teaching your child how to provide for her/himself in adulthood, and can barely support himself working 7 days a week. There's something very wrong with this picture. He's almost 40, but he's still struggling to make decent money as he's on the cusp of middle age? What's he been doing the last 20 years to try to get ahead? Who is this guy? What does your mom think of him?

Sorry, OP, but I'm just trying to be very realistic. You really aren't in a position to take even one road trip. Re-read your original post, here. You two don't have a reliable vehicle between you, neither of you can afford to be away from work long enough to drive to your destination and back, you can't afford motels, you say flying and renting a car is too expensive, listen to yourself!

This topic, in combination with your other one regarding your concerns about pregnancy and caring for an infant tell me one thing:

You've become accustomed to overriding your own concerns. You've somehow been programmed to ignore the little voice inside that tries to tell you, what's right for you, and what's a bad idea. You need to listen to that voice now. You need to do more than just listen to it; you need to take action, speak up for yourself, and say, "This isn't working for me", (relationship, or living situation), or "I can't do that right now. It's not a good time for me" (pregnancy). Or "the fact is, that we can't afford this trip. Let's take our time to save up for it."

You need to stand up and be your own person, OP. You need to speak up for yourself, and be firm on the important matters. That may sound scary, but it needs to be done, and it gets easier once you get used to advocating for yourself. That's what adults do. Don't let this guy drag you to the ends of the Earth looking for a more affordable situation just because he can't pull himself together to get a decent job. Do NOT let him talk you into having a child before you're ready to, especially since he won't step up to the plate and marry you. Or even if he DOES marry you, don't let him talk you into doing anything you don't feel ready to do. None of these plans are realistic, frankly.

Sorry, OP: truth. You need to hear it, and take it in, and think about it. You need to look out for yourself, because no one else will. They may say they will, but just wait until reality sinks in, Things will look very different from the picture they paint for you.