In today’s world, air travel often feels more like a test of endurance than a luxury. There are so many hidden “costs” to air travel that it makes you think hard about the pros and cons of air travel vs. road trips. Your innkeepers experienced this first-hand recently as we just returned from our annual spring break trip with our children. At this time of year, we close the Inn for a week and try to find a place to get away and give our children a great experience and bond as a family. While these trips are always great and generate fabulous memories, we can’t help but be struck by how difficult, stressful, and expensive it is to travel long distances by plane nowadays.
For this most recent trip, we had to wake up early, drive to the airport, navigate security, take two planes, wait for our bags, and then grab a bus to our resort. And then it was practically the same timeline reversed on the way back. On top of all this, there were additional expenses for parking, checked bags, and transportation to and from the resort. We wasted almost a full 24 hours of our vacation getting to and from our destination, not to mention the time it took to decompress and recover from the stress of travel. Even the small airports are just so crowded and full of people all experiencing the same stress. Of course, we haven’t even mentioned the potential impact of adverse weather leading to flight delays, cancellations, or missed connections!
Before we became innkeepers, when we had hectic jobs and schedules, we always had so much appreciation for the benefits of driving vacations. The shorter, weekend-oriented driving-distance trips were so enjoyable and allowed us to get to know the area around where we lived. We would stay in small, unique places, like B&Bs, and fully take advantage of every minute that we had invested in our time off.
For your next vacation, we hope that you consider some of the following reasons why a driving trip to the mountains of North Carolina can be just as great of an experience as a flying trip to the Caribbean or other far-off places, without all the stress, hassle, and rigid schedules. Here are some of our favorite reasons to choose driving rather than flying for your next getaway:
- Flexibility and Freedom to Adventure – With less travel time, you can arrive, leave, and explore your destination without all the rigidity of flight schedules. It’s so much easier to adjust your plans and leaves open the opportunity for spontaneity and adventure.
- Pack all your Favorites – We all know that vacation is better when you have options for what to wear. It’s hard to know what you will feel like wearing days in advance. Enjoy the freedom of being able to pack your favorite shoes or the peace of mind of being able to bring that extra jacket, workout clothes, or even your favorite pillow. Just throw it in the car!
- Reduced Stress and Travel Time – Avoid all the hassle of the airport and the stress of dealing with security lines and TSA. Plus, use your vacation time for a leisurely trip, not a stressful one traveling to and from on someone else’s schedule.
- Scenic Routes To and From – Add to your adventure by using the drive to and from to explore a new town or grab lunch or dinner in a small town. For example, all around Waynesville, there are unique places to explore and scenic routes to take. Coming from the west, maybe stop at Andrews and take a rail-bike tour, or coming from the east, stopover in Black Mountain’s unique downtown for lunch. Of course, taking the scenic route to or from the Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway is a fabulous way to enjoy your travel time while on vacation.
- Unique Experiences – Less-Crowded Places – Traveling to smaller locales by car provides the opportunity to slow down and experience truly unique places, like Waynesville’s charming Main Street, and support hard-working small businesses where your tourist dollar goes so much further. Towns like Waynesville are often less crowded and less-“people-y” than your normal large-scale tourist spots.
- More Environmentally Friendly – Traveling shorter distances by car has a lower impact on the environment than long-distance airplane travel.
- Less Weather Disruption – You don’t have to worry about getting stuck in an airport overnight due to flight cancellations or delays. Having a car means you can adjust your plans with less hassle and inconvenience.
- More Affordable – Driving-distance trips often cost less than flying trips. Less travel expense means maybe you can take more trips and enjoy more vacations each year.
When searching for a great place to take a driving vacation, the Andon-Reid is a great central location and home base. Surrounded by amazing mountains and landscapes and near so many great attractions, we invite you to banish the stress of traditional travel and spend all of your time off enjoying yourself in our little slice of paradise here in western North Carolina.
See you soon at the Inn,
Your Innkeepers,
Brenda and Peter
