Playing amateur travel agent is a pain in the ass!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

The past few years we've flown to New York in the summer, as my wife has family there.

Had enough airline points for two free tickets, except that airline doesn't fly to New York anymore. Thankfully, it does fly to Maryland, where I have family. So I can fly to Maryland, stay with family there, drive to New York, stay with family there, and fly out of New York on another airline.

It all sounds simple enough, except that one way car rentals are an arm and a leg. At least $100-$200 over the regular rates.

Plus my youngest is no longer under 2, which mean she flies for the exact same rate as a grown adult.

Ironically, the cheapest option would be to fly to Maryland, drive to New York, then drive back to Maryland and fly out of Maryland. Flights out of Maryland are cheaper than flights from New York, and the round trip car rental is much cheaper (even factoring in $80 or so in gas). Only problem there is it cuts time out of the trip. And my wife hates car travel as it is (I'm fine with it.)

At least we won't have any hotel expenses.

No real point here, just rambling, unless anyone has any good travel booking suggestions.

[OriginalGeek]

1. I stay with a cousin in Maryland too

I like driving too so the car trip portion wouldn't bother me either - it's too bad your wife isn't into it...what if you took local highways and made it an adventure instead of zipping by on the freeway? It would add a lot more time of course but you might see some cool things.

We're going to Indy for a convention in July and I hope we can sneak out for a side trip up to Chicago. My wife doesn't like riding in the car but she'll do it if something good is on the other end lol.


If you are a Costco member check with them for car rental rates - my last trip they saved me over a hundred bucks on a week-long rental. (They do other travel arrangements too, I believe, but I've only done car rental through them so far.)

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. I grew up with family road trip vacations from Maryland to Florida.

Over 20 hours total, usually broken up with one or two nights hotel stay.

That's what I knew from as long as I can remember, so I came to love it. Getting there was half the fun.

My wife's family didn't do anything remotely similar. They vacationed locally mostly, and if it was long distance, they flew. I guess that explains why she's less appreciative of the concept of the road trip.

[OriginalGeek]

3. The ones I remember most were from Texas to Florida

Stopping for seafood all along the gulf. And every once in a while getting to ride rides at a boardwalk type place up in the panhandle...good times!


My grandpa recently bought a new Airstream motor home. It's really just a big Chevy van with a pimped out interior (lounge, kitchen, bathroom, flat screen TV, etc..raised roof so you can stand up in it.). He's already told me he's leaving it to me - lol, he's just "borrowing" it from me until he's finally done traveling (he's funny like that)...I don't have any idea what it costs to run that thing around - I bet it gets maybe 12 mpg - but I'm gonna have to really ponder hard on whether or not I sell it or go see the country...IF I have any travel money at all by then (hopefully a long while yet but he did just turn 92)... I think I need to take at least one big road trip in it before selling. never been west of Possum Kingdom in Texas...