How far do you drive...

The thread about Michigan Adventures ("Is this place gonna make it?") made me think of an interesting topic.


How far are you willing to drive to a park for a "daytrip"? That is, drive to the park, spend the day there, and drive home, as opposed to crashing at a hotel/friends house/whatever.

For me that limit is between 2-3 hours. I'm in Pittsburgh, and see no problem with taking a daytrip to Six Flags Ohio. A daytrip to Cedar Point, though, is close to my limits -- I've done it, but I'd rather spring for a hotel.

Now, I realize that there are other factors involved (CP is a bigger park than SFO, so by the time we're through the park I'm more tired and then STILL face a longer drive home than SFO), but in general, what's your daytrip radius?

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--Greg

http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/

For me, no more than 2 hours.
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THE BEASTmaster
www.geocities.com/byostie

Can you take me higher?(CREED)

From here in Pittsburgh, my limits for day trips are CP to the west (though I prefer 2 days there), SFDL to the north, and Hershey to the east.

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Neil
Pittsburgh, PA
www.geocities.com/neildeweese

I can't say, because I don't drive!!! About 3 hrs.
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DOWN WITH TRIM BRAKES!

We drove about 3 hours to SFGADV. Other than that we usually do a few parks in a few days. This weekend were hitting Lakemont Park on Saturday and Kennywood on Sunday.

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Parks hit for 2000!
PKD,BGW,Knoebels,DP,HP,PKI,HW,SFKK,SFA,SFNE,LC,GE,QP, Camden, SFO,CP,WL,IW,KW

The most I've gone was from Wash. DC to BGW. It took about 3.5 hrs each way, and I was at the park from 10:15am to 9:45 at night. The driving wasn't
too bad for traffic or any of that though.

Trip to CP is a 4 hour long journey!
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Shawn Bailes
Webmaster of Coasters R Us
http://coastersrus.home-page.org

I've been to: (alone or as the only driver)
Leaving and returning to Brookfield, CT

Darien Lake 5.5 hours
Left 7am / Home at 3am

SFAmerica 5.5 hours
Left 7am / Home at 3am

Kennywood 7+ hours
Left 7am Sat / Home at 12noon Sunday
(grabbed a few zzz's in the back of the van)

Not only do I luv coasters and parks,
I guess I don't mind driving too much either.

Coaster Ed

Me. I have a LONG 4 minute drive up to Paramonts Kings Island! Man am i lucky. SOB is soo cool and i can go whenever i want!

I had a fun little jaunt in July...

7-10 4 hours to Holiday World, each way.
7-11 1 hour each way to PKI.
7-12 4.75 hours each way to Michigan's Adventure.
7-13 4 hours each way to Cedar Point.

I drove alone to all parks, which means I drove THE WHOLE way. I must say, It was all worth it!

P.S. I LOVE cruise control.

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Gotta ride 'em all!

Soggy, I'm with you on the cruise control.

Coaster Ed

I'm all for driving anywhere to ride. Last Saturday I drove 415 miles each way to ride the Starliner in Panama City Beach, FL... and it was well worth it. Last year we drove from Florida for multi day trips, doing 800 miles for one day. This year I've searched early for inexpensive plane tix and rented cars... But still, in June, I put 3300 on the rental car in 7 days driving from St. Louis to Agawam MA and back, doing every coaster we could along the way.
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"You have to scale a lot of lift hills to coast easily..."

Jason

Cruise control is a godsend :)

I haven't tried Hershey or SFDL as daytrips yet, although I've considered it. Like I said, CP is about as far as I'm willing to drive to-and-back in a day, BUT that's a bigger park, so MAYBE Hershey wouldn't be too bad. Hmmm...


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--Greg

http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/

30 minute drive to SFGAm. 2 hour drive to Big Chiefs Kart and Coasters. Other than that I am usually flying the friendly skies.

4 hours to Cedar Point and 4 hours to SFGAm. The 4 hour trip home at 10pm after getting up at 5am and spending the entire day at the park is not alot of fun but definately worth it. *** This post was edited by CP Twister on 8/4/2000. ***

I'm an hour to Cedar Point or SFO, three to PKI, 2-3/4 to Kennywood.

However I've flown for an hour from Cleveland to Baltimore then drove a rental from BWI to SFA, then BGW, then PKD and back. Gotta love putting miles on a new car that isn't yours!

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

My limit for a day trip is 3 to 4 hours. Luckily, living in Washington DC, I have eight places to go in that time window!

SFA -- 20 minute drive
PKD -- 1.50 hour drive
HP -- 2.00 hour drive
BGW -- 2.50 hour drive
Knoebels -- 3.00 hour drive
SFGRAd -- 3.00 hour drive
DP -- 3.25 hour drive
CI -- 4.00 hour drive

I really feel that the mid atlantic is a great place to ride coasters at a lot of different parks that are relativel close to each other.
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--K

Wow, Hershey is that close to DC? I guess I knew that but never realized it. I guess I know were to go next summer when I visit the area.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Its just a short 3 hour adventure through lovely Los Angeles to get to Magic Mountain for me.

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"May the Force be with you"

When I was younger, I used to do a four-hour trip to PKI -- usually geting back at about 4am. I wouldn't do it now -- one of the advantages of "old age" is no one calls you a wimp when you crash at a hotel.