Why spend nearly $4,000 on a round plane trip for the family when you can travel the eastern seaboard for less than half the price?
Prior to children, my husband and I would frequently fly throughout the United States for weekend trips, work travel and of course, the good ole vacation. Often times the two tickets would cost less than $500 so when we were at the initial planning point of our vacation, we had a huge dose of price shock when it came to traveling by air. We attempted everything from planning flights at the least popular times to flying out of other airports and even price shopping other airlines. However, the cheapest tickets were almost $4,000, not a cost we were willing to pay when the remainder of the vacation cost about $4,300. So we did a different type of travel without the bag fees.
Renting a SUV with room for six people cost about $600 for ten days and with no parking charges at the resort, the answer was a no brainer. With the cost of gas outside of the state of Pennsylvania being under $3.00 per gallon, it would be about $200 between the four gas fill ups now bringing the cost of a vehicle to nearly $800. Still a bargain, but then wondering minds began to think about how to split the fourteen hour one way trip as two of the passengers were under the age of eight years old. That’s when an itinerary was created with some extra levels of fun.
The first stop on our trip from Pittsburgh to Orlando was visiting the City of Atlanta. We stayed the night in a hotel about twenty minutes from the major league baseball stadium which cost us about $160 for the evening and we went to a 12:35pm baseball game costing an additional $225 for the five of us to go to. After the game, we went to a popular restaurant with a large social media following for about $40. After the first stop, the traveling amount was now $1225. We travelled from the stadium to our next stop in Gainesville that evening for an overnight hotel stop which with a continental breakfast that cost $120 which was our last stop until the happiest place on earth.
After our fun and busy vacation, we left for home nearly a week later. We went through the states of Florida and Georgia before stopping for lunch in South Carolina. Eventually we made our way up through North Carolina and stayed in a hotel in the mountains of Virginia that cost us $90 for the night. The next morning, we made our way home in time for lunch. The meals for both the way down and the way back costed no more than additional $240, not including the popular social restaurant.
So the cost verdict at the end of the day was about $1675 to drive round trip from Pittsburgh to Orlando and back. Not only did we save about $2325 from not flying, but we had some fun stops on the road. Memories were made and everyone was ready to enjoy some quiet time at home before getting back into routine.
