What happened to road trips?

Well you're either not driving all that far or you're not stopping to see things on the way like the grand ole road trips of old.
I did a road trip for my birthday, up the Oregon Coast. I had 5 days (due to budget restrictions). I so wish I had more time. I had planned stops along the route and made random stops too. But it was too much driving and not enough enjoying. If I were to do it again, which I hope I can. I will plan for at least 7 - 10 days. Unfortunately, my budget doesn't allow for that right now. :(
 
We road trip every chance we get. My adult dd's always ask if we can drive into Houston( about 2 1/2-3 hrs from us) just to get a mini-road trip in.
I grew up driving everywhere. It was the highlight of my summers when we would drive to North Carolina as a kid. Every time I hear Floyd Cramer , Danny Davis, CCR, Statler Bros. I am taken back to our big ole van and some great trips! My girls grew up tripping too. We moved alot and always planned trips home or to go see my sisters. Man, this is making me want to hit the road :)
 
We just got back from a road trip. This is one of my favorite road trip signs, pointing us down to the Jersey Shore. :car:

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We tend to go on weekdays & come back before the weekend. The beaches & boardwalk are a crowded mess on the weekends. The prices of hotels & rental cars are cheaper weekdays. :thumbsup2 The money we save means we can do another weekday mini road trip later, like to see the autumn leaves.

Whereas, last I heard, airfares are cheaper when there is a Saturday stay between round-trip flights. But, that means paying the much higher weekend hotels & rental cars rates. :badpc: :sad2:
 
Growing up in the 80s, I went on road trips a lot with my parents. My friends also went on these trips.

Now, I don’t know anyone that road trips anymore. They fly everywhere and complain about how much it costs.

We have flown twice and I despise it. We do road trips every time we travel now. However, we travel mostly in the summer, and our work schedules are very flexible, and the "extra" time to drive isn't an issue. We also never take a trip that is less than 7 days but most of our trips are at least 10 days. My DH works 2 24-hour shifts each week, but they rotate days and if he plans it right, he can get up to 13 days off by using 3 days of vacation. I don't get paid time off, but I can take as many days off as I want in the summer (when school is out) as long as there is 1 person in the office.
 


We did a short one just 2 weeks ago. Drove up to St. Ignace Michigan to participate in a Guinness World Record attempt of MINI Coopers in a line crossing the Mackinac bridge. We then drove up to Munising for 2 nights and hit several attractions there and along the way.

Most of our trips are destination vacations where we don't want to spend 2 or 3 days getting there so we fly.

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I was a child in the 80s and we never went on road trips. If it was farther than 3 or 4 hours by car, we either didn’t go or we took a plane. My mom hated being in a car, and Dad only had so much PTO. Now, as an adult, I’m the same way (only so much time to take off and I hate being cramped up in a car). I just feel so much safer flying than on the roads.
 


Very recently made a road trip to Ohio from NC. Usually fly if it's over 100 miles, but there were lots of short side trips this time and would have needed a car, so....we drove. :teeth:
 
Our family still loves road trips! I love them because it’s just you and your family instead of being with 100+ people on a plane.
I love being able to stop whenever we want to eat or find a cool roadside attraction or view.
I would rather drive than fly any day and we have been on some long trips.
 
We still road trip. I hate flying, hate being confined, hate being jammed into seats, hate the noise.

By the time we would fly and rent a large car/suv it would be cost prohibitive. We always want a car even at WDW because I cannot stand the buses. Rode them one time after a boat ride and never again. We try to take 2-3 road trips a year.

It is great having our own quiet car, comfy heated seats and can bring everything we need. We are really good at car rides.
 
Growing up in the 80s, I went on road trips a lot with my parents. My friends also went on these trips.

Now, I don’t know anyone that road trips anymore. They fly everywhere and complain about how much it costs.
We often take road trips, and we fly often, I've never complained about air costs and don't know any one who does. Flying is very inexpensive.
 
The road trips we always took were a week or two long on the road, different hotel every night or maybe two nights in one. But it was trips that there was lots to do and/or see all along the trip. Road trips through TN and up the east coast were always favorites. We have taken a road trip around our own state and south Louisiana too.

Although we drive to Orlando, I don’t consider it a road trip because from here to Orlando is the most boring drive ever. Nothing to see. On the way back we sometimes take a detour to Tampa or down to the beach. But mostly it’s just the way we get to our destination.

Next summer dh and I are planning to visit Wyoming. We will fly into Cheyenne, rent a car and then road trip around the state. So sort of a combo trip! Lol. We were originally going to drive the whole thing but it would stretch the trip to at least two weeks and that’s a bit long to take off work.
 
I grew up in the 60s and 70s so road trips were pretty much the only way to vacation. We would even take mini-daily trips, going for a ride to just explore the state we lived in. Our most epic one was one summer in the 70s, probably around 73 or 74. Daddy had a lot of unused vacation, almost 3 months, so we took off in the VW van, Mama, Daddy, 3 of my 5 older brothers and me. We started in Albuquerque, made our way west, up the California coast over through Utah and back down. We camped the entire time, back then you could pretty much pitch a tent anywhere you wanted you didn't have to go to campgrounds. We had a huge tent that Mama, Daddy, one brother and I slept in and the two oldest brothers pitched pup tents for themselves. It was so much fun and we had so many adventures. We own a fifth wheel RV so road trips are how we vacation now but even before we bought that, my son and I took road trips. We flew to NM from Georgia one year then rented a car and drove all around NM. The only other times we flew was if we were taking an international dive trip.
 
I road trip because I hate flying. Two years ago my partner-in-crime and I did a 3 week trip to the Grand Canyon. In 2020 we plan on heading up to the Badlands/Mt. Rushmore/Yellowstone with a swing by the Rockies.

How else would see such roadside attractions like the Biggest Ball of Twine and such if you fly! :drive:
 
Growing up my father worked for the local power company so always got 2 weeks off last week of July first week of August. We would drive to some place like FW, 1977 I was 15, but stay along the way.

Today me getting a full week is me worrying whats going to go wrong or someone needs something and I'm not there to fix it with little to no backup.

Last trip I'm walking down main street and get a call that our credit card batch didn't work. To fix it with me in front of the computer is a 2 hour ordeal with over seas tech support. Until its fixed we would be not getting our 70k per day. Oh sorry for the rant haven't been there in almost 6 years and have no future plans for any trips. :(

oh and its did work it was just the report that didn't work which was easy to fix.
 
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Most hotels on road trips are about $100 a night.

This depends on where you go. We're doing a late summer road trip through Michigan and staying mostly near Great Lakes. Because of the tourist season destinations, we're spending much more in lodging than I would have thought. It's going to be over $2000 for 10 days just in hotels. One night is very inflated because of location/date and two nights are on Mackinac Island, but hotels in every area that I looked worked out to more than $100/night...several of them double that.
 
Airfare has become significantly cheaper (pretty much cut in half) since the 1980s when you adjust for inflation. That is also a contributing factor to the math of if it's worth driving vs flying.

Our personal line is in the 6 hour range for driving vs flying now. Someday when we have a lot more time we might do a drive around the country but right now the limited vacation time means we would have to power through a long drive and it's just not worth it to us for the cost savings.
 
If we can drive to it in under 10 hours then we drive. But I am not spending 2 days each way of a vacation for a few extra bucks savings. And that savings is a maybe depending on what kind of deal I can get on airfare. I think that the saying "time is money" is more true now with the way companies treat their employees. Many do not have very much paid time off anymore. I don't get any paid vacation days at my job. And as we get older, it is more stressful driving long distances. Driving is very exhausting because you can not stop paying attention for a second. It is a lot of stress on the driver.
 

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