On The Road Again...Just Can't Wait To Get On The Road Again...

At the end of July my family is going to a tiny resort town on the northern border of Georgia to attend a family reunion. Tonight I finally stopped procrastinating and spent some time online analyzing airfares and trying to choose which airport to fly into, given that there are 4 different commercial airports equidistant from the resort. The resort is about 2 hours from any airport.

After my analysis I concluded that my cost to fly was going to be approximately $368/person. For my 4-person family, that comes to $1472. That cost doesn't include any addl taxes/fees we'll undoubtedly end up seeing. We'll also have to rent a car. Let's call that an addl. $40/day though I think it would end up exceeding that by a lot. So the transportation costs are now up to $1592, so I'm calling it $1600.

Now let's figure travel time:

• Home to airport -- 30 minutes
• Arrive 90 minutes early -- 90 minutes
• On plane, In-air -- 120 minutes
• Wait for luggage -- 30 minutes
• Drive from ATL airport to resort -- 136 minutes
• Rent car -- 30 minutes

TOTAL: 7 hours, 16 minutes.
And that doesn't account for any time driving in circles as I try to exit Hartfield Airport, or trying to find the resort.

So, $1600, 7:16 travel time.

OR

• Gasoline to drive the MPV 782 miles, 22mpg = 35.54gallons at $2.65/gallon = $94.20.
• Travel time = 12:55

SO, As I see it that comes to about $1500 for about 6 hours, or $250/hr if my math is correct.

!!!   ROADTRIP  !!!
:)

(EDIT - was comparing air travel expenses round-trip to car-travel expenses one-way. The proper comparison would be approx. $1600 vs. approx. $200. My conclusion doesn't change a bit.)