Flying along
I may have found a solution to my holiday flight woes, and it's delightfully simple: Fly somewhere else.
By this I mean fly somewhere else nearby (using "nearby" in the American rather than English geographical sense) and drive. This seems to be a lot cheaper.
For instance, we could fly to Miami for a total of £500 less. It's then a mere 3 or 4 hour drive to Orlando.
Or, we could fly to Atlanta for about £800 less. It's a longer drive - 7 or 8 hours - but a bigger saving. Although if we did that I think we'd go a day earlier, stay overnight somewhere in Atlanta (this will not be expensive) and then drive the next day. And at least we'd get to see a bit more of America, albeit mostly Interstates.
For saving £800 I think I'll happily do an 8 hour drive - it's like being paid £100 per hour to drive there (Ok, £50 per hour including the return journey but still rather worthwhile). The law of diminishing returns does kick in though, as I'd save £500 for a 4 hour Miami drive, compared to £800 for an 8 hour Atlanta drive, meaning that in terms of pounds per hour Miami wins out, but still the overall saving is obviously bigger.
I've also found that rather then renting a GPS over there, I can take my TomTom and buy a US map, which conveniently TomTom have got on offer at 50% off at the moment. That should also save a few pounds. Or dollars. Whatever.
I'll still gladly take any offers of financial support though. This will be by far the most expensive holiday we've been on. The last big holiday we did was to Malaysia and Thailand for three weeks. There was only three of us then, and we stayed with Saff in Malaysia so didn't have any accomodation bills there, and we could use her car. When we went on our road-trip to Thailand, we didn't pay more than about £10 per night for a hotel, except once or twice. So after the flights all we needed was spending money, and stuff is cheap out there. This time we need 4 flights, car hire, accomodation, theme park entry and spending money. Funny how the "exciting, adventurous, exotic" holiday cost about half of what the "normal touristy" holiday will cost. And it was 3 weeks, not 2.
By this I mean fly somewhere else nearby (using "nearby" in the American rather than English geographical sense) and drive. This seems to be a lot cheaper.
For instance, we could fly to Miami for a total of £500 less. It's then a mere 3 or 4 hour drive to Orlando.
Or, we could fly to Atlanta for about £800 less. It's a longer drive - 7 or 8 hours - but a bigger saving. Although if we did that I think we'd go a day earlier, stay overnight somewhere in Atlanta (this will not be expensive) and then drive the next day. And at least we'd get to see a bit more of America, albeit mostly Interstates.
For saving £800 I think I'll happily do an 8 hour drive - it's like being paid £100 per hour to drive there (Ok, £50 per hour including the return journey but still rather worthwhile). The law of diminishing returns does kick in though, as I'd save £500 for a 4 hour Miami drive, compared to £800 for an 8 hour Atlanta drive, meaning that in terms of pounds per hour Miami wins out, but still the overall saving is obviously bigger.
I've also found that rather then renting a GPS over there, I can take my TomTom and buy a US map, which conveniently TomTom have got on offer at 50% off at the moment. That should also save a few pounds. Or dollars. Whatever.
I'll still gladly take any offers of financial support though. This will be by far the most expensive holiday we've been on. The last big holiday we did was to Malaysia and Thailand for three weeks. There was only three of us then, and we stayed with Saff in Malaysia so didn't have any accomodation bills there, and we could use her car. When we went on our road-trip to Thailand, we didn't pay more than about £10 per night for a hotel, except once or twice. So after the flights all we needed was spending money, and stuff is cheap out there. This time we need 4 flights, car hire, accomodation, theme park entry and spending money. Funny how the "exciting, adventurous, exotic" holiday cost about half of what the "normal touristy" holiday will cost. And it was 3 weeks, not 2.
posted by Nej at
2:30 pm
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