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| ROAD TRIP: Cheaper, or more expensive? |
I've heard a lot of people say that with the rising cost of gasoline, the road trip is a thing of the past; that there are now cheaper, more affordable ways to travel (air, bus, train, etc.). I'm the type of person that, when presented with something like this, takes it as a challenge. I love road trips. I love kicking back on the open road with the windows down, blaring a little 'Sweet Caroline', and singing til my ears fall off (happened to a guy I knew once, needless to say the rest of the trip was pretty quiet). When somebody tries to take that away from me, I won't stand for it (i'll sit, maybe with a hot slice o' pizza and a tasty beer. what can I say, I'm easily bribed). On this page I'm going to chart out three road trips, randomly selecting large cities and sending the imaginary road tripees (word? no?) on a dazzling vacation to Miami Beach, New York, and Yellowstone National Park. I will list the cost of travel alone, as that is the main topic of this article. If you'd like an entire vacation, I could point you to a few hotel sites, and maybe some car rental places as well. I will, however, be looking at hotel/flight and car/flight, because sometimes you can catch a gem and actually fly for cheaper with one of the two packaged.. All monetary figures will be dated, since airline tickets and such can change on a regular basis. A standard of $3.80 a gallon will be used simply because I am way too lazy to call all of the gas stations along the way. All travel miles will be based off of google map directions, since actual driving distance and simple distance between two points can be extremely different. This will be a two person road trip, so gas will be halved. Also, since there are two drivers, they will be able to drive in 7 hours shifts, making it a 14 hour driving day, placing us in certain locations for our hotels. I will not include the cost of toll roads in this calculation. Ok, all good with the rules? I feel like we're starting off on some big adventure! I think we need theme music. If I can figure out how to put it on this webpage and make it queue up right as you're reading this (right now), it will be done. It might even be some original music, but don't go gettin your hopes up now, I'm no John Denver!
Des Moines, Iowa to Miami Beach - Friday, December 26th to Saturday, January 3rd: FLIGHT: CAR: You save $194.98 by driving! These numbers are not perfect, but they give you a good idea of what you can expect. St. Louis, Missouri to New York, New York- Friday, March 13th thru Sunday, March 22nd Uh oh! Spring break starts on Friday the 13th next year! Wuh wuh wuh! Bolt your doors shut! Hide in a garbage can (as if you don't already)! Put on a fake mustache (Rolly Fingers anyone?), cause it's going to be a bumpy ride! FLIGHT: CAR: You save 113.57 by driving! Ah, but is it worth the two days of marathon driving? That's your decision. But I like driving. You can play sweet games while you go to keep you awake, like cribbage, or backgammon, or slalom with the white stripey line in the middle of the road... what's that for anyway? Jokes... jokes....
Ok, for the last one, I'm going for all the marbles. I'm putting everything out there, leaving nothing behind! Huge trip! Leave the frail and weak hearted behind! This is a trip for the strong willed, mentally tough juggarnauts with literally nothing better to do with their time than sit in a car counting the pores on your nose because their's nothing left to talk about, and their's just not enough music to span the enormous gap in your life that is this road trip. Yeah, you feel me.... Bangor, Maine to Yellowstone National Park (West Yellowstone, MT)- Friday, May 15th to Saturday, May 30th (You'll need the Sunday to recover) STILL IN PROGRESS Got your bags packed? With 3 cases of Red Bull and a boat load of optimism I hope, cause you're going to need it all for this haul.
--------> Props to CheapTickets.com for getting you out to Bozeman for 761, $32 cheaper than the nearest competitor's site (that I looked at). CAR: |