My husband has been best friends with someone for TWENTY years. We weren’t shocked when he got asked to be the best man in this friend’s wedding. However, we were shocked when we started looking into the cost of traveling over 1000 miles round trip to attend the wedding events.
Normally, we’d likely decline a wedding this far away with the potential to be costly. That is, unless it’s in a super cool location, or for a close family member or really close friend. This was the latter. Sooo we had to figure out the best budget-friendly option to make it work.
We scoped our options and ended up comparing Airbnbs vs hotel, as well as driving vs. flying (then if flying, renting a car or Ubering from/to the airport).
Let’s break down this comparison.
Hours Spent Traveling
In terms of hours spent traveling, I initially thought a super quick flight would be MUCH less travel time. Upon looking into it more, if choosing to fly, we’d have to Uber to the airport, get to the airport early, fly, rent a car, then drive almost another hour. As a result, the overall time estimates for flying and renting a car came in at around 10 hours round trip. Driving meant about 8.5 hours each way, adding in a buffer for pit stops, and bringing the estimate to about 18.5 hours. Still a big difference, but not nearly as much as I was expecting.
Transportation Costs
In terms of transportation, the areas of the wedding events were about an hour each way from the airport. Also, the events were about 25-30 minutes from a lot of the things we wanted to see/do in the area. As a result, if we chose to fly, it would have made sense to rent a car unless we didn’t want to leave the hotel aside from wedding events (or chose things to do within walking distance… which wasn’t much). The cost of the Uber to/from the airport in MD would have been around $36, the flights for two $431.92, and rental car in MI $199.42, totaling $667.34.
Looking at the cost of driving, round trip gas cost $115.31. However, sometimes people do not consider the fact that this does put some wear and tear on your vehicle. In terms of this, I will just estimate that I’d have to get an oil change sooner. Let’s say an oil change is $60 and this trip put me ⅕ of the way there; thus, I will add $12 to this total. Yes, it probably also puts me a tiny bit closer to needing tires and brakes, which is something to consider as well, but those are far less frequent than oil changes. If you want to add that in, you can scope out how many miles your vehicle manufacturer suggests new tires and brakes and factor that cost into your estimates!
Overall, driving came in as a MUCH more budget-friendly option.
Dog Sitting Costs
Okay, so I FULLY understand that not everyone has pets and this cost might be zero regardless of which option you choose here, but I have two separation anxiety-ridden pups that LOVE traveling with me. They are the easiest in the car (just sleep and chill the whole time) and such great Airbnb guests.
Since we would be gone Thursday-Sunday, dog sitting for two large dogs would have ran us around $275 (our dogs are needy and we pay what we believe someone living at our house and taking care of our little family deserves to be paid).
By bringing them, this cost goes to zero real quick!
Lodging Costs
In terms of lodging, there was a hotel block with a discount. However, the hotel was near the wedding location, but about 20 minutes from the reception. There were several hours in between the end of the wedding and the beginning of the reception, so I found it more beneficial to be closer to the reception spot.
The cost of the hotel would have been $371, while an Airbnb less than two miles from the reception site was $353. Note: The hotel would have been a queen bed in a decent hotel. The Airbnb was a multiple bedroom house with a full kitchen and fenced in yard. I love having a fridge and appliances to cook or reheat leftovers while traveling.
Pros of Each Option
The flying/hotel option definitely had some things going for it. It meant less travel time, staying in the same building as other wedding guests, and both me and my husband could sleep on the way home the day after the wedding.
In terms of the driving/Airbnb option, we were less than two miles from the reception location, in a nicer area of Michigan, had a full kitchen and fenced in yard for the dogs, and got a free bottle of wine from the host!
Cons of Each Option
Concerning the negative aspects of each option, the flying/hotel option meant we’d be depending on no delayed/cancelled flights to make it to the wedding events and back to our dogs. We did have an issue with this when we were coming back from the Netherlands and our dog sitter had left, expecting us to be home. It was super stressful! This option also meant being away from the dogs for several days AND a much higher total cost.
For the driving/Airbnb option, the downsides included not being in the same building as other wedding guests and having to drive home the day after the wedding. Realistically, we could have avoided this by just staying another night, but that wasn’t worth it to us!
Our Decision
I’m sure by some of this wording, you’ve realized what our option was… we brought the dogs and stayed in the Airbnb! And guess what?! The total was $800 cheaper!!
The total price of the flying/hotel option would have been $1,313.43 while the driving/Airbnb option came in at $480.31.
Sure, it would have been nice to fly and not drive. However, it wasn’t as big of a difference in travel time as it initially seemed (8.5 hour drive vs. super quick flight). Also, I absolutely LOVE being able to bring my dogs with me when possible when we travel. Since my husband was in the wedding party and I was not, I enjoyed being able to chill at the Airbnb with some company (the dogs lol), work on my side hustle, and have some wine (which our host kindly left for us!).
Our initial goal was to keep the four day trip around $600. Although we saved SO much money with the options we chose, this did NOT mean we chose to go wild and spend like crazy on the trip.
However, since our choices came in well under $600, we were able to go out to eat on a cute date, get some BOMB cookies, and do some exploring without feeling strapped for cash.
In general, I I think it’s super important to weigh your options when traveling. Had we not done this comparison, we would have blindly spent SO much more money. It’s easy to say to yourself, “Oh, it can’t be THAT much more expensive to just do what everyone else is doing.” Guess what? It actually CAN be that much more expensive and it would have been if we weren’t intentional about it.