I've done both, it depends on the time you have available, what vehicle you personally own. In my travels across the USA a few years back, I drove my Ford Focus station wagon. It had enough capacity to haul a lot of stuff, yet small enough to get good gas mileage, Driving from Houston to Denver through Texas, I had to do 85 mph to keep up with traffic, still I got decent mileage. Other times, when my primary focus was getting somewhere quickly, I'd fly in and rent a car. It all depends on the situation.
How far are you traveling? I prefer to fly and rent, but I wouldn't fly any place I could drive to in 4 hours or less (driving to the airport, parking, security, gate/boarding times plus flight and deplaning make a trip less than 4 or 5 hours not worth it).
I've debated this in terms of going to San Diego. It's about a 5 1/2 hour drive from phx but renting in phx is expensive. flights to SD from phx haven't been as cheap as I would hope but rentals in SD are cheap. Haven't made the trip yet but will as soon as I find the right combination and available time.
That's a good point, samsung1. When I've rented a car at my airport destination, I never drove out of state. I'm aware of the restrictions. But it beats the crap out of driving 1200 miles to Miami, unless I plan to enjoy the drive. I've done it several times, and the scenery in the mountains of Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia is breathtaking. There's a stretch of I-75 in Tennessee that scares the shit out of me. Over the right side of the freeway is a 1500 foot drop into a valley. In rainstorms up there, the drive can be treacherous.
Nuts- I did a layover in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale for the second time this past summer. Great deals on rental cars and hotels on Priceline (tons of really nice hotels for the cruise line crowd that go cheap on Priceline). Tootsies and Scarlett's...lots of fun.
Flying NC (Raleigh) to Ft Lauderdale or PBIA (West Palm Beach) is fairly expensive this time of the year and rentals tend to be 20% higher at the airport remember December January Februarys high season in Florida I have driven many times from NY to Florida you have the easiest part of the drive none of the NY or NJ traffic and you don't need to go through metro DC its fairly smooth driving till you hit Jacksonville and that is never more than 45 minutes . Whatever suits you best that's how you'll do it just be aware that I have family in Cary, NC and it never takes me more than 9 hours and the drive is fairly easy.
Renting a car and then driving close to 1000 miles will be more expensive – if one takes the gas one will spend driving back and forth; plus if one stays overnight half-way on the trip; then that is an additional hotel stay (probably one each way); and thus adding to the cost.
Additionally – when driving out-of-state in a rental; there is often an additional charge or perhaps a per mileage charge that significantly adds to the rental-price (in some areas one can drive to neighboring states w/ no charge but that is not always the case).
So renting a car to drive-down will probably me more expensive and more time consuming (a good portion of your SC trip would be consumed by the driving).
As knight-errant mentioned; if it's more than 5 hours probably better to fly.
w.r.t. rentals – Enterprise has $9.99 per day (compact car) weekend rates; but one has to rent the car Fr – Mo (all 3 days); and one can't rent at the airport; it has to be at a neighborhood location to get the special.
IME the airport rental locations are often more expensive but not always the case – I recently rented a car from Budget at the Miami airport and it was a decent price (for Budget specifically; for w/e reason it was more expensive in the neighborhood location than at the airport but it's usually the other way around IME).
Discount airlines like Spirit probably come out at the same price one would spend on gas (both ways) if one drove a long distance (1000 mi).
The best thing would be to find a cheap airplane ticket w/ a discount carrier and then get a good rental deal at the location you are heading to.
Kayak.com is a pretty-good website for seeing plane tickets from different airlines though not all airlines are listed.
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Take the shaggin' wagon.
Chicks dig it.
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Miami's will be 800 miles for me or 11 hours drive time
Was thanking about stopping half way and enjoying the clubs their then finish the drive on the morning
Additionally – when driving out-of-state in a rental; there is often an additional charge or perhaps a per mileage charge that significantly adds to the rental-price (in some areas one can drive to neighboring states w/ no charge but that is not always the case).
So renting a car to drive-down will probably me more expensive and more time consuming (a good portion of your SC trip would be consumed by the driving).
As knight-errant mentioned; if it's more than 5 hours probably better to fly.
w.r.t. rentals – Enterprise has $9.99 per day (compact car) weekend rates; but one has to rent the car Fr – Mo (all 3 days); and one can't rent at the airport; it has to be at a neighborhood location to get the special.
IME the airport rental locations are often more expensive but not always the case – I recently rented a car from Budget at the Miami airport and it was a decent price (for Budget specifically; for w/e reason it was more expensive in the neighborhood location than at the airport but it's usually the other way around IME).
Discount airlines like Spirit probably come out at the same price one would spend on gas (both ways) if one drove a long distance (1000 mi).
The best thing would be to find a cheap airplane ticket w/ a discount carrier and then get a good rental deal at the location you are heading to.
Kayak.com is a pretty-good website for seeing plane tickets from different airlines though not all airlines are listed.