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prepping for the inevitable

two years ago, flights to manchester and hartford were cheaper than flying into boston or portland. now, portland has doubled in price ($450-500?!), manchester and hartford are about 50% more expensive than they were, and boston has remained the same or has gotten even a little cheaper.

i'm tempted to fly into boston and drive the rest of the way. at $180 apiece, the cost savings over both bradley and manchester are worth the hassle of driving in the city.

figure 20mpg for the rental car, that's $50 in gas round trip to where I'm going in Maine. plus side trips. Say $100. that's still a big cost savings to drive 3.5 hours. Even with a $30/day car rental, that's still acceptable, considering the price difference of over $200/plane ticket, and still having to rent a car.

as you can see, my day went to hell, and i went into full blown panic mode over how to get there. actually, for a trip, that's not that bad. i could even deal with a vacation at that price.

twice, though? ugh.

more explanation later -- must go to end-of-day meeting.

Comments

We drove to Portland from Logan when our original plane connection was delayed. The BF's Parents mentioned something about an express bus from Logan to Portland (and other destinations) I assume they meant Concord Trailways. A direct run, only took a couple of hours—they showed a movie on it an everything—and it was considerably cheaper than either train or rental car. But you'll get a much better car rate than we did if you can reserve it ahead of time.

I've done Concord before. I love them LOTS. As long as you've got a rental (or family loaner) waiting once you get to Portland, you're golden. Watched a movie both ways, and the bus was only half full -- and that was in October during foliage season.

Concord also has stops further north, in Wiscasset and in Damariscotta, which is one of my destinations. The problem then still is transportation once you get there. If it were a leisure trip, I'd definitely leave the driving to someone else.

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