How Far Would You Drive Before You’d Rather Fly? A New Survey Has Answers
I saw the results of a survey on how long people are willing to travel by car, and it got me thinking about the trips our own family has taken.
Upgraded Points asked more than 2,400 people across 48 states how many hours in the car it takes before they’d rather just book a flight. The answers ranged all over the map (literally), and reading through them, I kept comparing notes against our own trip.
Too Far to Drive: Survey Reflections
For one trip, we drove from Eugene down to Reno, about 7 hours in the car. We spent the night in Reno then drove to Las Vegas, another 7 hours of driving. We stayed overnight in the Fremont District, then we drove to Quartzsite, Arizona, the next day. This was a 3-day trip, and by the third day, the kids (age 10 and 20 at the time) were definitely ready to be out of the car.
We had a great time in Arizona, where we stayed with a family member, but no one was excited about the trip home. We had planned to drive about 10 hours the first day to get to a friend’s house who lives in Oakland, California. But we didn’t have a 10-hour drive in us (any of us!), so we stopped in Bakersfield, California. This was when a hotel with an indoor pool really came in handy.
The Quartzsite to Bakersfield leg was about 5.5 hours. The next day was an easy 4-hour drive to Oakland, which gave us plenty of time with my friend. We were gone for an extra night to accommodate the extra stop, so I realize that if you were on a strict timetable, you wouldn’t always be able to modify a trip like that.
Would you have driven that? Or would you have taken a flight instead? From the nearest large airport from our house to the airport in Phoenix, a direct flight could have gotten us there in under 3 hours.
Infographic courtesy of Upgraded Points
The National Average: Nine Hours and 39 minutes
Turns out, my family’s experience on that trip isn’t unusual. Across all the survey respondents, the average tipping point — the number of hours in the car before people would rather fly — was 9 hours and 39 minutes. Kids weren’t part of this survey, but if you’ve ever traveled with them, you already know that number is much less than what an adult would be willing to do.
Some States Bail on Driving, Fast
Californians had the lowest tolerance in the country, switching to “just fly” mode after only 6 hours and 24 minutes. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Texas, and Illinois rounded out the bottom five, all under 8 hours.
The survey’s theory is that living near a major airport hub changes your calculations. If LAX or DFW is 20 minutes away, why would you spend all day in the car? We have a small airport near us, with more options if we drive 2 hours to the next largest airport.
Other States Will Drive Basically All Day
On the flip side, Idaho topped the list at 12 hours and 55 minutes before residents would rather fly, with Montana, Kentucky, Missouri, and Maine close behind. These tend to be states where the nearest big city, or the nearest airport, just isn’t that close, so a long haul feels pretty normal and expected.
What Actually Pushes People Toward the Airport?
Distance alone doesn’t decide anything, according to the survey. The biggest reason people would drive instead of fly was cost: 75% of respondents cited flight prices as the deciding factor, way ahead of delays, layovers, or traveling with kids and pets. I don’t recall now how much airplane tickets were for that Arizona trip, but I’m sure it was a factor in deciding to drive.
But road trips can get expensive. Gas prices are much higher now than they were then. Lodging prices and food prices are much higher now too. For people who responded to the survey, worries about the car holding up, traffic, and the hassle of overnight stops were the top reasons people said they’d rather fly instead.
When Does a Drive Start to Feel Long?
Separately from the flying cutoff, the survey asked when a drive starts to feel “long” in the first place. Nationally, that’s 5 hours and 24 minutes — which lines up almost exactly with where our kids started asking, “How much longer?” Northeastern states hit that wall even sooner, some around 3.5 hours, while Nevada residents held out past 8 hours before calling a drive “long.”
Infographic courtesy of Upgraded Points
The Takeaway for Family Road-Trippers
If your family’s limit is somewhere in the 5- to 6-hour range for the kids and a bit higher for the adults, you’re right in line with how most Americans actually feel.
We thought about flying on that Arizona trip, but I wanted the experience of having the kids look out the window and see a changing landscape, waking up in a few new places, seeing new things. All of those experiences you just don’t get when you fly. In the end, I still think driving was worth it. We have those memories.
The kids are older now, with jobs and friends and other commitments, so it’s much harder for us to take long road rips. The last time we traveled, we went to Sunriver, which is only about 3 hours away from us.
Now we know that the real trick to a good multi-day road trip is to keep it manageable. Don’t try to push it and go as far as you possibly can, especially with kids. Build in the extra stop before anyone’s asking begging to be done. Everyone stays happier and fresher, and doesn’t dread getting back into the car the next day.
What’s the longest you’ve driven in a day? Would you do it again?
