Fly or Drive Fly or Drive

How Fly or Drive works

Fly or Drive is a free planning tool. It combines real road routes, flight-distance estimates, and your cost assumptions into one recommendation: fly or drive — with the dollars and hours behind that choice.

Try the calculator

Data sources

  • Driving routes — distance and duration from OpenStreetMap / OSRM for the places you enter
  • Flight distance — great-circle estimates between endpoints, plus airport overhead for door-to-door time
  • Your inputs — travelers, MPG, gas, airfare, food, bags, parking, hotels, tolls, wear, rideshare, destination rental

Results are estimates for planning. Always verify tickets, traffic, weather, and real prices before you travel.

How the recommendation is scored

Each trip is scored across three dimensions:

  • Time (45%) — door-to-door hours, including rest stops and airport overhead
  • Cost (30%) — total estimated dollars for drive vs fly with your assumptions
  • Experience (25%) — comfort and hassle factors such as long driving days vs airport friction

You can also set a travel preference from Must fly to Must drive. Strong preferences shape the verdict; “Must” forces that mode when you truly will not consider the other.

How to use it

  1. Enter your route — one-way, round trip, or multi-city with optional stops.
  2. Tune assumptions — Basic for quick estimates; Advanced and Expert for fuller costs.
  3. Set preference — optional lean toward flying or driving.
  4. Read the breakdown — recommendation, maps, and shareable URL.