Travel for a short break

[Lockdownbear]

How far or long would you travel for 3 or 4 nights away?

I'm slowly coming to the idea that no more than 2 / 3 hours is what i should be looking at.

I'd do 4 hours total travel maybe push to 5 if it included a short flight

For a flight up to 3 hours, preferably less as you have to add in all the time either end at the airport (which will be longer than usual now).

If driving, max 3.5 hours scheduled drive, which likely will take 4.5-5

Max 3hr drive assuming no holdups so potentially a lot longer.

I have done 4 hours each way. Probably consider up to 5 routinely.

Depends on circumstances and how much I want to go there. Obviously things are different now but pre-Covid I have happily taken flights up to 12 hours long for a long weekend if it was a friend's birthday or somewhere that I wanted to go that had an amazing deal on.

But I used to travel a lot for work with frequent international travel (e.g. fly 10 hours, work next 2.5 days in overseas office, fly back 10 hours) so my judgement of what is "reasonable" may be different to many people's.

I was thinking driving.
Trying to balance the hassle of getting somewhere vs the benefits of being there.

Whatever you feel comfortable with and what's within that time range. I travel more than 3 hours for work for the day, so wouldn't necessarily limit myself to that distance for a long weekend leisure trip.

If there's something you want to do that's 4-5 hours away, if you set off early, you'll be there by lunchtime on the first day, and you can still have just about a full day on the last day if you set off home at 4-5 pm.

It's when you don't have an early start and take all day to get somewhere, and then feel the need to set off home in the morning of the last day so you lose both travel days that makes it feel like it's not worth travelling more than a couple of hours for a short break.

Are you able to take the break mid week rather than at the weekend? Our last break was a 240 mile journey, left home 10am to miss the work traffic and were at our destination by 3, including a few comfort breaks and a sandwich stop. A bit longer coming back as we stopped at a pretty town for a wander and a proper lunch. At a weekend you could add on at least an hour each way. Appreciate it means taking extra holiday if you're working.

Of course, if there's somewhere an hour or two from home that you'd like to visit, and haven't been for day trips, or has more to do than can be fitted into day trips, that's also a good plan, especially if you consider driving further a hassle.

For me, who does the driving, I limit it to 3 hours. (That's without delays).

Our 2.5/3 hour journey took 4.5 hours last week...... We do the journey a few times a year it's not normally so bad. Buy if I had a 4 hour journey I would definitely plan to stop which makes it more lile 5 hours. Add in bad traffic and you are driving for a day of your short break.....

Driving with kids a couple of hours. Flight we have done venice, bergen etc so about 2/3 hours flight plus drive. We did New York for 4 nights but left the kids at home!