NW to SE Trip Planning

Hi - I am in the preliminary stages of planning a trip from Seattle in
late October/early November. We have about 8 days to do this, and we
will be visiting friends and relatives in Arlington, Virginia;
Greenville, S.C. and Orlando, FL. I am thinking that the best plan
would be to fly into a centrally located airport (Atlanta?
Raleigh-Durham?, rent a car and do a north and a south bound loop of
about 4 days each. Any advice on this? Thanks in advance.

wrote...
Hi - I am in the preliminary stages of planning a trip from Seattle
in late October/early November. We have about 8 days to do
this, and we will be visiting friends and relatives in Arlington,
Virginia; Greenville, S.C. and Orlando, FL. I am thinking that
the best plan would be to fly into a centrally located airport
(Atlanta? Raleigh-Durham?, rent a car and do a north and a south
bound loop of about 4 days each. Any advice on this? Thanks
in advance.

Atlanta would not be in your line of travel. While its possible
to drive Orlando-Arlington in one day, its a hell of drive...
I did it in my youth - took @14 hrs. But, from Greenville, both
can be reached in a day. So, I suggest using Greenville as a
base and driving to Orlando & Arlington as "overnighters."

But here's another idea: Book a flight into Orlando and return
from Washington (Baltimore) on an airline that does not charge
you a ton for one-way tickets. See www.southwest.com which
flies between Sea-Tac, Orlando & Baltimore. Rent the car with
from a company that does not assess a high one-way drop fee.
According to www.orbitz.com, these seem to be reasonable:
Thrifty, Dollar & Alamo. [Rog']

Roger B. wrote:
wrote...

Hi - I am in the preliminary stages of planning a trip from Seattle
in late October/early November. We have about 8 days to do
this, and we will be visiting friends and relatives in Arlington,
Virginia; Greenville, S.C. and Orlando, FL. I am thinking that
the best plan would be to fly into a centrally located airport
(Atlanta? Raleigh-Durham?, rent a car and do a north and a south
bound loop of about 4 days each. Any advice on this? Thanks
in advance.


Atlanta would not be in your line of travel. While its possible
to drive Orlando-Arlington in one day, its a hell of drive...
I did it in my youth - took @14 hrs. But, from Greenville, both
can be reached in a day. So, I suggest using Greenville as a
base and driving to Orlando & Arlington as "overnighters."

But here's another idea: Book a flight into Orlando and return
from Washington (Baltimore) on an airline that does not charge
you a ton for one-way tickets. See www.southwest.com which
flies between Sea-Tac, Orlando & Baltimore. Rent the car with
from a company that does not assess a high one-way drop fee.
According to www.orbitz.com, these seem to be reasonable:
Thrifty, Dollar & Alamo. [Rog']

Thank you, Roger, for the good suggestions. I will look into the
open-jaw flight idea. As for the Greenville-as-base idea, would you
happen to know what the closest major airport to Greenville is?

wrote:
Thank you, Roger, for the good suggestions. I will look into
the open-jaw flight idea. As for the Greenville-as-base idea,
would you happen to know what the closest major airport to
Greenville is?

Well, Atlanta is about 2.5 hrs away, Charlotte is 1.75 hrs away,
and Raleigh-Durham is about 4 hrs. away. I'm not sure if this
is current, but here are the airlines that used these as hubs:
Atlanta: Delta Airlines
Charlotte: USAir
Raleigh-Durham: American Airlines, United Airlines

There is a Greenville-Spartanburg airport (international!). But depending on
your airline choice, you're bound to go through one of those other cities.
So it would depend on the timing of the connection.

Well, Atlanta is about 2.5 hrs away, Charlotte is 1.75 hrs away,
and Raleigh-Durham is about 4 hrs. away. I'm not sure if this
is current, but here are the airlines that used these as hubs:
Atlanta: Delta Airlines
Charlotte: USAir
Raleigh-Durham: American Airlines, United Airlines

wrote in message ...
Hi - I am in the preliminary stages of planning a trip from Seattle in
late October/early November. We have about 8 days to do this, and we
will be visiting friends and relatives in Arlington, Virginia;
Greenville, S.C. and Orlando, FL. I am thinking that the best plan
would be to fly into a centrally located airport (Atlanta?
Raleigh-Durham?, rent a car and do a north and a south bound loop of
about 4 days each. Any advice on this? Thanks in advance.

Arlington to Greenville is about 480 miles.
Greenville to Orlando is about 530 miles.
[Both are a full days drive in a shortened daylight time of year.]
This means you have 2 days gone with driving and 2 days gone flying.
Four days remaining.
If you centralize, you would eat up one or two more days driving back.

** If you lose the Orlando visit, you will have more time to visit and
relax.. Eight days will seem rushed with that much travel, esp. if
you are not fond of long drives.

Rog's idea was a good one.


SEA to Orlando and Washington to Seattle are each about $180 one way
per QIXO, late October flight. Sea to Orlando RT is about $248 and
Sea to Wash RT is about $303; Figure an open-jaw somewhere in
between. FYI: Sea to Richmond RT is about $450...

Not sure how long you need/want to spend at friends/relatives, but I
would snap up the chance to drive to new and exciting places as much
as possible. The interstates north from Florida to Carolinas and DC
area are not exciting (I-95, for example). If you have time, take
local, state and US roads. YOu won't have bad traffic anyway that
time of year, if you do the Interstates.

Renting a car with different drop off could be a pain; Make sure you
tell the agency you will drive in other states, especially if you rent
from a Florida location.

http://www.travelcoupons.com/ is the literal online version of the
hotel discount booklets they have at Welcome Centers in most of the
Eastern states. They have printable discount coupons for same-night
lodging that can give spectacular rates.

Thanks to everyone for the great information! This is an area of the
country I'm not familiar with, and all of the advice is sincerely
appreciated. Terri

"Roger B." wrote in message . ..
wrote:
Thank you, Roger, for the good suggestions. I will look into
the open-jaw flight idea. As for the Greenville-as-base idea,
would you happen to know what the closest major airport to
Greenville is?

Well, Atlanta is about 2.5 hrs away, Charlotte is 1.75 hrs away,
and Raleigh-Durham is about 4 hrs. away. I'm not sure if this
is current, but here are the airlines that used these as hubs:
Atlanta: Delta Airlines
Charlotte: USAir
Raleigh-Durham: American Airlines, United Airlines

No one uses RDU as a hub anymore. AA used to, but stopped years ago. Don't
recall UA ever having a hub here. The airport is pretty well served however,
especially with the addition of Southwest in recent years.