LITTLE ROCK — The great quandary of a family’s summer trip must be whether it’s better to fly or drive.
The Guru spent a good six minutes poking around travel-related websites, trying to find an Internet “calculator” to compare flying to driving. There isn’t a good one.
That caused The Guru to call out his big gun: California travel analyst Joel Widzer, author of The Penny Pincher’s Passport to Luxury Travel.
Widzer suggests those deciding whether to fly or drive could use a salesman’s tool known as the “Ben Franklin close.”
“They take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle,” Widzer said.
“They list reasons to buy the car and reasons not to buy the car on the other side. In this case, with flying or driving, I’d use theBen Franklin close.”
Interesting. Ben Franklin never drove and he never flew, but he’s gonna help anyway. How nice.
The Guru and Widzer sorted through several factors worth considering.
They included:
How many days? A vacation that’s short favors flying over driving because you don’t want to spend the whole time getting there.
Distance? The Guru’s pop drove the family to New York one summer, but it was too far to drive.
Some travel folks say trips of more than 400 miles are always better for flying.
What’s it cost? Everyone knows flying is more expensive (fare, bag fees and airport parking). The question is how much more. What’s your breaking point?
Rental car? Widzer suggests renting a car even for a driving vacation, allowing a family to travel in something fancier than usual. That’s part of the fun, he said. But, if flying, is a rental car going to add to the trip’s cost?
Mass transit? Big cities tend to have transportation options like trains and buses that make flying better because you won’t need a car. Chicago is an example.
Memories? Long car trips are the one you’ll talk about years from now.
Mom: Remember when little Jimmy fell down, smashed his Popsicle and broke his leg at that New Mexico rest area?
Dad: Great trip!
“There’s a lot in this country to experience and we miss that doing the fly over,” Widzer said.
WHAT’S COSTCO?
Readers missed the sarcasm when The Guru wrote last Monday that he’d never heard of Costco.
The Guru, folks, isn’t as dumb as you think he is, but he apparently stinks at conveying sarcasm.
E-mails poured in about Costco.
“Amazing that The Guru doesn’t know what Costco is,” writes Dan Moyer of Bella Vista. “Think Sam’s Club without their flawed business model.”
“It is just like Sam’s,” writes Marcia Delpino of Rogers. “You would have to be from the North to know.”
“It is a large box store similar to Sam’s Club, but much better - selection of items is truly vast,” writes Stevie Lamar of Bella Vista.
OK. The Guru’s got it.
Now, what’s Sam’s Club?
Robert J. Smith’s column about people on the move in Northwest Arkansas appears each Monday. He can be reached at [email protected].
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 06/13/2011