How far are willing to drive (yourself) for a day trip?

[Pam in CT]

2 hours ago, regentrude said:

We use as a rule of thumb that time at destination must be longer than time in the car. For day hikes, we are willing to drive up to 2.5 hours. Five hours in the car are worth it if we hike at least five hours and it's spectacular. I am not willing to drive more than that for just a day's outing.

Yup.  Otherwise I'm not really enjoying the outing/destination; I'm too preoccupied about not wasting time! and getting back in the car! for the return trip.

 

Whereas if I'm just plowing through to get to where I'm going (particularly if it's an essential errand or COVID-driven decision to drive when we'd previously fly) my endurance is a good deal longer.

2 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

I drive 12 hours in a single day to make it to our Alabama house without paying for hotels.

I've driven alone 7+ hours to Pittsburgh more often than I can count; and with my husband 20++ to Georgia twice and Florida once, trading off drivers but not stopping other than gas & bathrooms. Sucks but you do what you gotta do.

[J-rap]

Assuming you mean going somewhere and then back home again in the same day, for something optional like a special event, then generally no more than 3 hours.  But, we've definitely gone 4+ hours if it's a medical appointment or procedure and we just really want to go back home again the same day after it's done.

Of course if we're on a road trip where we're then staying at a final destination for several days, we've often put in long 12-hour days of driving, but I don't think you mean that.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

4 hours for me but only once a month or so, definitely not on a day to day or even weekly basis

[theelfqueen]

We generally try to stick to 4-5 hours of driving max in a day. 

[Murphy101]

Whatever gets us home by 9pm tops.

Which is very limiting with a 5 year old that gets puking sick for any trip over an hour or two without at least a one hour stop.

Sans young children? We have been known to take 6 hour one way day trips.  Occasionally. Not regularly.  
 

Edited December 29, 2021 by Murphy101

[catz]

1 hour ago, Farrar said:

I estimate that it's totally possible that 1 in 10 people in DC have had Covid in the last week (15k cases with underreporting because of home tests, undertesting because of the holiday, and cases so mild that people didn't know they had it... I think 4x as many people as officially reported is a totally reasonable guess, but that would be literally 1 in 10 DC residents). So... yeah.

CDC estimates we are catching 1 in 4 on average anyway so wouldn’t be surprise at all during a big omicron surge.  
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.html

I have driven to my sons college campus and back a bunch of times and back in a day, especially since Covid started because I haven’t wanted to stay overnight.  That is about 4 hours or so one way.  I plan hiking in there and know all the stops.  I load up some good audio books.  Pack some good snacks.   My kid is a music major and I’ve done it for performances.    I will probably be doing it in January because he needs to be back on campus early before the campus shuttles start running.  I actually kind of enjoy it!

Edited December 29, 2021 by FuzzyCatz

[Just Kate]

The company I work for is 3 hours away from my house (I work from home). About two or three times per month, I drive to my office, work all day, and then drive home. That’s 6  hours of driving plus a day  of work. Sometimes I visit clients that are even further away, so I’ve driven 4 hours for an appointment and then driven home. I’ve been doing this for years and now that I’m in my mid-40s, it is harder to do!!

[MercyA]

2.5 hours one way tops. 

[vonfirmath]

5 hours ago, Quill said:

Just curious. 🙂 I recently went to a beautiful Christmas market, which was slightly more than three hours one way. I got to wondering if that is the upper limit for a one-day adventure. I think I might be willing to drive up to four hours one way for a really outstanding experience, but probably not more than that. 
 

*My question only pertains to you actually driving yourself in a car, with or without other passengers. I have gone more hours than that on a bus, for example, to NYC for the day. 

I drove 4 hours to Dallas to see a play and then 4 hours home on the same day

[Laura Corin]

Around two hours, particularly in winter. If I'm tired, driving back along narrow country roads in the dark  with fast drivers around me can be hard.

[Hannah]

49 minutes ago, Laura Corin said:

Around two hours, particularly in winter. If I'm tired, driving back along narrow country roads in the dark  with fast drivers around me can be hard.

Agreed, there is a big difference between driving two hours on a multi-lane, well maintained freeway vs two hours on a narrow windy country road, or a poorly maintained pothole riddled road as we have here (where in some cases its actually more sane to drive on the shoulder of the road).

[Eos]

II

Edited February 6, 2023 by Eos

[Guest]

6 hours ago, J-rap said:

Assuming you mean going somewhere and then back home again in the same day, for something optional like a special event, then generally no more than 3 hours.  But, we've definitely gone 4+ hours if it's a medical appointment or procedure and we just really want to go back home again the same day after it's done.

Of course if we're on a road trip where we're then staying at a final destination for several days, we've often put in long 12-hour days of driving, but I don't think you mean that.

Right. I have drive 11, 14 or 16 hours to go somewhere and remain for several days or a couple weeks. But I was wondering for only one day, out and returning. 

[Guest]

6 hours ago, FuzzyCatz said:

CDC estimates we are catching 1 in 4 on average anyway so wouldn’t be surprise at all during a big omicron surge.  
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.html

I have driven to my sons college campus and back a bunch of times and back in a day, especially since Covid started because I haven’t wanted to stay overnight.  That is about 4 hours or so one way.  I plan hiking in there and know all the stops.  I load up some good audio books.  Pack some good snacks.   My kid is a music major and I’ve done it for performances.    I will probably be doing it in January because he needs to be back on campus early before the campus shuttles start running.  I actually kind of enjoy it!

Me too; I was thinking that’s probably pretty atypical, but as long as it’s not stressful driving (like a congested or confusing city, or a hard time deadline), I like being alone in the car, heading for an adventure, or heading back home after an adventure. I can sing as loud as I want, stop when I like for snacks or bathroom, and it’s really rather nice. 

[Eos]

*

Edited December 29, 2021 by Eos

[Eos]

12 minutes ago, Quill said:

But I was wondering for only one day, out and returning. 

I've done this a couple times from home to Ohio, 16 hours each way.  We did the "alpine start" method which is to wake up at 3 and get on the road so as to get in around dinner time, which works much better for me than starting later.  One year I picked up dd in Ohio, drove south to her bestie's graduation in NC then all the way home the next day to get there in time for a concert dd was playing in - almost 20 hours and maybe a gallon of coffee.  Would not recommend.

[Carrie12345]

I’m pretty much a 2-hour tops person driving, but I could do longer if dh was driving.  I will zone out on long drives, so I don’t feel safe tackling too much.
I CAN do a 2-hour airport run and still drive back with my sister, because it’s an exciting, talkative ride back.

It’s a bummer, because my kids and I had years of real flexibility when we could have visited family any time we wanted to, but I can’t handle the drive. 😞 

[SKL]

I enjoy long drives, but it has to make sense.  I can’t think of any place I would want to go if I was just going to turn around and come back almost as soon as I got there.  But I gave driven 6+ hours many times for pleasure or business.

I think 4 hours each way is the most I have intentionally driven for a “day trip.”

[historically accurate]

3-4 hours is probably my max because 8 hours in a car is long. One of my kids can no longer travel well in the car due to POTS, so her limit is about 1 1/2 hours (and that's pushing it). So we don't do too many faraway things with her.

[MEmama]

3 hours each way is a long day trip for me, doable but not frequently. I don’t like to drive in the dark any more, so in winter when the days are short we don’t tend to venture too far unless it’s unavoidable.
 

 

[pitterpatter]

Two to three hours. Three hours is pushing it, though. That's only for really special trips. We might drive that far once or twice a year. One to two hours is typical for us on the weekends.

[QueenCat]

1.5-2 hours tops. I'm getting a hotel if it's more than that.

[Danae]

I’ve done six hours each way for one day trips several times.  I’m older now, though, and not sure I would do it that way again.  Maybe for something really important like a funeral when I absolutely could not be gone the extra night.  

[Kanin]

16 hours ago, Quill said:

Just curious. 🙂 I recently went to a beautiful Christmas market, which was slightly more than three hours one way. I got to wondering if that is the upper limit for a one-day adventure. I think I might be willing to drive up to four hours one way for a really outstanding experience, but probably not more than that. 
 

*My question only pertains to you actually driving yourself in a car, with or without other passengers. I have gone more hours than that on a bus, for example, to NYC for the day. 

I think 2 or 2.5 hours is my max to be happy. I could perhaps go 4 hours but it would have to be a really amazing destination 🙂 

[prairiewindmomma]

5 is my max for a “fun” trip. 10 hours round trip + 5 hours having fun makes for a long day. 

[73349]

About three hours each way, and even for that, it had better be something special. 2.5 for a beach day, and that feels long to us--DS and I typically stop twice in each direction.

As a kid, I often had 1-1.5 hours between my parents' houses on the weekend and it was fine, but for some reason 2 hours gets irritating.

[QueenCat]

I'm trying to imagine these 3-5 hours each way as being day trips... unless it's an emergency. Kudos to those of you that can manage that. Makes me tired thinking about it. If I'm driving 5 hours one way, I'm there for at least a 3-day weekend, preferably 4. 

Edited December 29, 2021 by QueenCat

[Bootsie]

21 minutes ago, QueenCat said:

I'm trying to imagine these 3-5 hours each way as being day trips... unless it's an emergency. Kudos to those of you that can manage that. Makes me tired thinking about it. If I'm driving 5 hours one way, I'm there for at least a 3-day weekend, preferably 4. 

In Texas, it is just how far it is from city to city.  When I lived in San Anotnio, and there wasn't an IKEA in town, we would drive 4 hours to IKEA in Houston for a day trip.  Or, I might have a colleague who was speaking in Houston that I wanted to see and would drive for the day.  Or, a child wanted to look at a college in the DFW area--that would be a five hour day trip.  Then DD went to school in the DFW area and there were times we went to drop-off/pick-up/or attend a special event and would drive as a day trip.

[QueenCat]

48 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

In Texas, it is just how far it is from city to city.  When I lived in San Anotnio, and there wasn't an IKEA in town, we would drive 4 hours to IKEA in Houston for a day trip.  Or, I might have a colleague who was speaking in Houston that I wanted to see and would drive for the day.  Or, a child wanted to look at a college in the DFW area--that would be a five hour day trip.  Then DD went to school in the DFW area and there were times we went to drop-off/pick-up/or attend a special event and would drive as a day trip.

 Lol... Dh is from Texas... I get how big TX is... Maybe when I was younger, I could do the San Antonia to Houston thing as day trip but not now. I'd drive in the afternoon before, eat out somewhere nice, shop the next morning and drive home. If the 5 hours to DFW is both ways, with dh driving, we'd do it in  day... Just me? Depends on if I could out before the worst of rush hour... Dh will definitely do a longer day trip than I will on my own. 

[madteaparty]

Depends if there’s a kid at the end of that trip. 😉 I want to say 5 hours. 

Edited December 29, 2021 by madteaparty

[Faith-manor]

56 minutes ago, QueenCat said:

 Lol... Dh is from Texas... I get how big TX is... Maybe when I was younger, I could do the San Antonia to Houston thing as day trip but not now. I'd drive in the afternoon before, eat out somewhere nice, shop the next morning and drive home. If the 5 hours to DFW is both ways, with dh driving, we'd do it in  day... Just me? Depends on if I could out before the worst of rush hour... Dh will definitely do a longer day trip than I will on my own. 

I get that. I live in Mid-Michigan, and it is a 9 hour drive to our northernmost university in the state which still doesn't get one to the Wisconsin state line, another 1.5-2 hrs. We are a LONG state!

We have friends who have just been assigned a new church in a town no where near the highway on the Ohio border with MI. Their daughter is going to MTU in Houghton. It will take them 11 hours to get to her and not leave the state. 

Some of our states are just so huge or long or wide it is startling to think about traversing them!

[Bootsie]

1 hour ago, QueenCat said:

 Lol... Dh is from Texas... I get how big TX is... Maybe when I was younger, I could do the San Antonia to Houston thing as day trip but not now. I'd drive in the afternoon before, eat out somewhere nice, shop the next morning and drive home. If the 5 hours to DFW is both ways, with dh driving, we'd do it in  day... Just me? Depends on if I could out before the worst of rush hour... Dh will definitely do a longer day trip than I will on my own. 

It's often a toss-up.  Sometimes I just don't have the next day free--so scheduling a two-day trip just isn't possible.  Once I figure in the time to pack, book a hotel, check into the hotel there is a high time cost of staying in a hotel just one night.  And then I have to sleep in a different bed and make sure that I am up early enough for check out of the hotel. I would often prefer to have just a really busy day, fall into my bed exhausted, and then sleep as late as I want the following day if I do have the luxury of a two-day advernture.  

I have had in-town adventures in San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas that have been more than 1 1/2 hours one way on the road in traffic without ever leaving town.