During the 1970s and 1980s, I was working for Champion Paper Company, earning a fair amount of money. During that time, I flew frequently, and am not at all afraid of flying. It was expensive but getting on the plane was not a test of endurance, and airline passengers were treated very well. Today, I am still not afraid to fly, but I can't stand the way that airline passengers are treated. Having to arrive so far ahead of time, being herded like cattle, searched like an incoming prison inmate, and packed into seats like sardines, and still expected to pay a small fortune for the abuse. No thanks, I don't fly anymore. Traveling by train is nice, but only if I have a sleeper car. Even then, the sleeper cars are far more condensed than they used to be. Still, I can stand traveling by train, although the people in coach don't look very comfortable. Bus? No, forget it. I've always hated buses and don't see any reason to change my mind about that. My preference, by far, is to drive, especially if I'm not in a huge hurry, and can stop early enough each day to spend some time online at the hotel. When driving alone, I try to avoid the expressways, tollways, and freeways, opting for the backroads, but I can't do that when my wife is in the car.
I agree with you regarding flying. It has changed so much since the mid sixties when I started long haul traveling. Back then you were treated like a welcome guest, but now it seems as if you are cattle. Of course, if you have the money for business or first class, it is a different story, but my budget usually limited my seating to coach. I would never step on a bus in the States, but here in Thailand, the long journey buses are very good. Some actually have the same amenities as a 747 such as personal monitors, vibrating seats, etc. For a trip which takes about 10 hours, the cost is only about US$20 and that is pretty cheap!
I enjoy travel by train when I can look out at the passing scenery. I also like boat trips. I don't get seasick, but I do get airsick. I'm not afraid of flying and I have flown a lot in the past, but not in recent years. I don't like road travel for long distances and I hardly ever get in a car or a bus for a short ride. I much prefer walking to and from anywhere local and I can get to most places without having to walk by the side of any major roads.
My preference would definitely be to drive. I agree about the plane and still do fly to a few destinations that I'm unable to drive too such as Cuba or Punta Cana. I never had a fear of flying but I'm not a good flyer because I'm claustrophobic. Being confined in a plane with so many people is not a good thing for me, so I rarely even flew to destinations I could drive too. I don't mind the train and often take it to visit my daughter who lives in a different city which is four hours away. First class is definitely the way to go, though. Coach can be a bit of a nightmare.
The last time I fly it was a nightmare, the plane was late, it was in disrepair and crowded. We had to get off the plane and make our own arrangements to get where we needed to be, the company made no effort to help us make the connections we needed to make. I also do not like the need to take off my shoes and leave my bag unlocked so it can be checked if security decides my bag looks odd. I will drive to my location if I can. I take the train locally but have not had the opportunity to take a long trip on the train yet.
Let's bump this oldie, shall we? I suppose my favorite mode of travel is our RV; all the comforts of home and we can pull into a rest area and actually rest. (After making lunch and watching a little TV.) I despise flying and haven't made a commercial flight since 2010 or so. I was thinking that I have never been on a train in my entire life so I might check into taking an Amtrak trip someday soon.
You should do that, Beth. Get a sleeper car. That makes all the difference in the world, I think. Although I've never ridden any distance by train via coach fare, I have walked through the coach cars and I think it would be a lot like a bus. Short distances might be fine, but then you may as well drive. The sleepers are great, though. Traveling across country by train, you get to look into everyone's back yard, see the worst parts of every city you go through from the safety of the train, and some pretty nice scenery in between, and from a vantage point different from that which you will see when going by car. Thanks for bumping this thread. I started it in the second month of the forum and there weren't very many of us around yet.
Flew to Hawaii in the 70s, rode ski trains out of Boston in the 50s. Have driven cross country twice. Therefore my favorite mode of transport is by my own car.
There is something to be said for being in control of the trip. Marriage changes that a bit, though. When my wife is driving, she will stop to use a bathroom but not fill the tank because she still has half a tank and she thinks it's too expensive at the station she stopped at for a bathroom, then stop again a few miles down the road for water or coffee, then have to pay at least as much or more for gas another hundred miles down the road because the gauge is low. Plus, we have to take the tollways all the way, which is why the gas prices are so high, to begin with. When driving, I prefer to make one stop, fill the tank even if it's only a quarter of a tank down, go to the bathroom, get coffee, and be done with it for a few hundred miles at least. And, while tollways make sense in many places, with heavy traffic, construction, and traffic accidents, they are not always the fastest way to go. Besides the tolls, everything is more expensive the closer you get to a tollway, particularly the service plazas.
My wife typically never drove when we were on a trip except for one excursion to Canaan ME to visit her sister. I had just spent aa rather grueling work at work and asked her to drive from our home in MA to Canaan while I slept. It seemed like we had hardly spent anytime driving and we were there. She does like to go fast. That was he best time ever. When on a long trip like when we went cross country, we only took toll roads to get out of New England and then wandered along stopping every 2 hours for pe break. Stopping whenever we were low on gas.
I love to travel, and seriously wish that I could do it more often ! I always wanted a motor home or camper van and then just wander around America, going wherever I felt like going and stopping when I wanted. I used to have a small VW camper bus, and I just loved that little bus. I didn’t do any really long cross-country trips with it, but I did travel around quite a bit in the western states. I had one of those campground memberships, so I could stay at any of the affiliated campgrounds either free, or for part -price, and then we could swim, walk around the campground, and really enjoy the trip. I went on a cross-country train trip, from north Idaho to Richmond Virginia, when Robin was stationed at Ft. Eustis, and I totally enjoyed that. It is really not the same as a bus, even though it might seem that way. A train is much more comfortable, and has roomy seats. You can walk from one car to another , so you can actually get up and walk around, which you really can’t do on a bus or plane. The train had both a snack shop and a dining car, so I walked back and forth to one or the other of those when I had food or coffee. The bathroom is large enough that you don’t feel like you are stuck in a tiny box when you are in there. There is also an Observation Car (sometimes called a Vista Dome), where you can go upstairs and see everything all around the train because it is all glassed in. I LOVED sitting up there and looking at all of the scenery ! Now, if I were able to travel, a train is what I would do. You can get tickets that last for a week to a month, and then go anywhere you want for that length of time. This is my VW camper bus, around 1995.