It’s vacation time and you’re ready to travel. The biggest question is – how? Travel is certainly on the rebound, back to pre-pandemic levels. As you pack your bags, ready yourself for the long-sought after destination, discover why road trips are better than flying.
It’s no surprise that traveling is back, and it’s back with a vengeance. During Memorial Day Weekend 2022, 2.4 million people traveled by plane, a record number. But due to unexpected delays, unforeseen flight cancellations, and crowded airports, car travel reigns supreme.
The Vacationer recently reported that nearly 80% of American adults, or 206 million Americans, say they will take some sort of road trip this summer 2022. The results don’t surprise us. Skip the sky and opt for the open road instead. Here’s our top reasons why road trips are better than flying.
Checked baggage fees, multiple plane tickets, and a rental car are just some examples of how expenses add up for a family of five traveling on vacation by air. Conversely, the biggest expense you’ll have for your road trip is going to be gas. Plan ahead and calculate the cost of how much your trip will be with the AAA Gas Prices Calculator. You’ll likely find that road trips less than eight hours will be worth the drive. If you need a place to rest, book one of our 4,700 locations across the Best Western® Hotels & Resorts family of brands.
Road trips allow you to bring pets, kids, toys, coolers – the list goes on. You don’t have to abide by the restrictions of an airline: from luggage weighing less than 50 lbs. to the literal, peanuts, they serve you on the plane.
So, bring Fido, bring the whole family, and bring a cooler full of whichever snacks you and your family like to munch on. Plan a road trip playlist and blast those tunes on loud, because in a car, you won’t get shushed for bothering other passengers.
There are so many road trip routes you can choose from that scenic and fun. From the iconic Route 66 to the Blue Ridge Parkway, to city to city destinations like Milwaukee to Minneapolis or Montréal to Québec City, the world is your oyster.
Traveling also doesn’t mean only getting from point A to point B, but all the stops in between. If you want to be spontaneous, you can, and if you want to plot out different roadside attractions (read our article “Instagram-worthy Road Trip Stops”), and go with the flow to the tune of your own schedule, you can. Road trips encourage you to roam wild and free.
As Christie Hudson, a PR manager for Expedia eloquently put it in a New York Times article about 2022 travel, “Travel is no longer just about ‘going somewhere.’ Coming out of such a long period of constraints and limitations, 2022 will be the year we wring every bit of richness and meaning out of our experiences.” We couldn’t agree more.
