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Houston Babies
Drive vs. Fly?
Trying to decide whether to drive or fly:
Fly: Time necessary: will get there 1 hour before flight, 2 hour flight, 4 hours driving to our final destination (which means rental car expense) (so probably a total of 7ish hours time spent). I have a free flight, so I could use it to reduce the cost of flying. (I am also looking into a flight that will go only 1 or so hours from our destination, so someone could pick us up, but then I couldn't use my free flight b/c would be a different airline).
Drive: 11 hours driving with a 15 month old. 
I think the cost difference is like $400 more to fly/rental car vs. gas for driving (including the free flight - although I am tyring to look into other flight options to get the costs down).
Any experiences I should be aware of to sway my decision??
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Re: Drive vs. Fly?
Best choice: fly to the place one hour away
Second choice: drive it
So Tasty, So Yummy
We just drove 10 hours with our 14 month old. It really wasn't that bad. We wanted our car at our destination and knew we needed to bring a lot of stuff so we didn't really even look into flying. DS does pretty well in the car though. He definitely had times of crying but they were never too long. He took several naps too...probably from boredom! DH and I would take turns sitting in the back with him and that helped out. We stopped more than normal just so he could get out of the car for a while. I wouldn't want to do it all the time but it was definitely doable.
If you could get 1 hour from the destination I would consider that but I wouldn't want to deal with flying and then having to drive 4 hours.
We drove roughly 10 hours over 2 days when Kaley was 15 months old. She did really really well in the car.
We have chosen to not fly places because the thought of being delayed on the runway with two kids is just not something we want to deal with. At least when driving you are in control of stops and can let the kids run off some energy when needed.
G is a road trip champion. Our last vacation we drove 4500 miles total and the very first and very last legs of the trip were around 20 hours each. He's made the 24 hour road trip back and forth from MI to TX 3 times so far.
So my vote, Z is ok with being in the car and you need/want your vehicle at your destination, is to drive.
If you want some of my (non-expert) advice for traveling long distances with a toddler feel free to email me kimmer12378 at gmail.
He does pretty well in the car - but we don't go long distances, either (maybe 30 min max?). I am thinking we could try to leave later at night and drive through the night so he will sleep through most of it? Of course, we would have to prepare to be up all night driving. I am thinking we should probably get one of those laptop players.
Still debating b/c I just found out that I can't use my flight credit for the time that I am going! (when did SW start blacking out times for the Rapid Rewards flights?!?)
I asked DH about the 1 hour away place, but that flight has a stopover in ATL or Memphis (delta), and he doesn't want to do that - he thinks too much risk of delayed/cancelled flights.
I would drive because you can control the environment so much easier. You can bring a million toys if you want plus a movie player and if he gets cranky after a few hours you can stop and get out and stretch his legs.
Plus he can talk and giggle and cry and laugh and scream all he wants without annoying anyone else - and without you worrying about him being too loud, etc. And you can sing silly songs at the top of your lungs for entertainment or put his favorite cd on the radio.
Collin Thayne 10.11.2010