Looking back on our travels, I see I write a lot about the flying but that's just one part of the logistics. It's an important part but if you arrive somewhere and can't get around or have no place to sleep, it's not much of a vacation. When I start planning a trip I usually start with what we want to see. Usually I have some desitination or main attraction in mind.
For example, when we went to Michigain I wanted to see Mackinac Island and the Shipwreck museum. Once I know where I want to go, I need to consider three things. Where to park the plane, where park us and how we are getting around. It then becomes a balancing act trying to find the best options. In general for most locations we need a rental car. This seems to drive our decisions a lot more than you would think.
There are some locations where we can Uber, for example St. Louis, much of what we wanted to see was near our hotel so Uber was perfect. We actually rented a car one day but it was literally a morning pick up and same day drop off. Having a car would have been more of a bother and would cost a lot more. This is the rare case, on our latest trip we needed a car in all but our first stop and that was because it was really just intended as an overnight without sightseeing.
The easiest way to get a car is to land at an airport that has airline service, almost all of them have some car rental option. In most cases the car rental company will drop the car at the FBO (fixed based operator) if you are in their loyalty program which makes the entire process easy. Rentals at these airports tend to be the cheapest too. The next best option is that some local rental company services the FBO and will drop off a car. Sometimes you go through the company and sometimes the FBO has a negotiated rate but typically this will cost a bit more. That said, being at a more convienient smaller airport often makes it a good trade off.
We did this in Tacoma for example, Enterprise was the supplier but I made the reservation through the FBO. It was a bit more expensive but easy. In some locations you have to get creative. In Nebraska a local ford dealer dropped a car for us. Pricing was good and it wasn't a terrible car but I initially couldn't find the keys. The FBO didn't have them and I ended up calling the dealer. They just left them above the visor. I guess this big city kid isn't used to cars with the keys left inside.
Second consideration is the plane parking. Big airports come with big costs sometimes and can often be more congested to get in and out. Gas pricing can be quite a bit different from airport to airport. On our last trip we had a spread in price of $2.75 per gallon and with us buying several hundred gallons over the trip, price starts to matter. Luckily with the Baron I have big tanks and it is preferrable to leave it partially fueled as we have better performance a bit lighter.
What I usually end up caring about is parking fees, ramp fees, junk fees and the minimum fuel purchase required to waive the fees. Some places will waive all the fees and even a night of parking if you buy a minimum, typiclly 30-40 gallons with the Baron. So if fuel is $2 more than my next stop and I need to buy 30 gallons, I hope to avoid $60 in costs to justify it.
On our latest trip we only paid parking in 3 of the 8 overnights, parking varied between $15 and $30 a night. At the expensive place I got one night waived as well as all the fees which were around $80 so the overpriced fuel worked out.
Hotels are the last consideration. Typically this relates to how close we will stay to what we want to see. For example, we could have stayed closer to Yellowstone than the 1:20 drive we chose but the accomodations closer were much more rustic. I don't mind basic but I am done with rustic charm, give me a clean room with a hot shower and decent bed and I am happy.
In the end ground logistics can be a huge driver of where we land. In Wyoming I could not find any rental cars going into Laramie so we chose to land in Cheyenne and drive 40 minutes to make the logistics work. It was not all a loss as one of the places we wanted to visit was between the two so we picked it up on the drive back. Typically it is a trade off balancing the three factors.
On our Oregon stop I looked at Medford and Klamath falls. The FBO was cheaper at Klamath but cars and hotels were a lot more and Medford, while slightly farther to Crater lake, had more other things we wanted to see closer. Sometimes you have multiple good options but often one of the factors will drive your decison and you make everything work.
This is just a glimpse at what goes into planning some of our bigger trips. I can easily spend more time on trip logistics than flight planning but the time spent translates into a better travel experience. It's really nice when you land, you are expected, the car is there and the hotel has your room. Not having to hastle with logistics enroute is the reward for planning.
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