Fly or drive for your next holiday?

In years gone by there was no option: Transporting the family to an interstate destination meant packing the car for a long drive.

How many of us recall the poor benighted Falcon or Holden being loaded with kids, clothes and toys – and then having a caravan hitched to the back for the long trip?

It was often a hard road as the heavily laden tow vehicle struggled into the wind on the Hume Highway, years before there was more than one lane – other than the rare overtaking lane – each way.

With the democratisation of air travel, that arduous trek is no more – except that there has been a huge resurgence in recreational vehicles (caravans) in recent years. Believe it or not, there is a subset of humanity that actually enjoys packing up the kids and all their paraphernalia into a diesel-engined SUV that will tow a luxurious van behind it.

For those who subscribe to the school of thought that life is a destination, not a journey, what is the cost/benefit equation of the great Australian road trip over a cheap airfare?

Some points to consider could include:

If the answer to those questions is a resounding 'no', you'll need to either rent a vehicle or take your own – perhaps a campervan or a motorhome if you want to stop off along the way.

So the question that arises is whether the nett cost to you is lower if you drive to the destination in your own vehicle, or if you fly there and hire a vehicle.

It may be that the answer will vary according to whether you want to factor the value of your own time spent on the open road into that equation. Is it really a holiday to spend eight hours driving from Melbourne to Adelaide or 10 hours from Brisbane to Sydney?

It's possible that a cheap airfare will be relatively more affordable – and therefore better value – the further you fly. To illustrate, it should be cheaper overall to fly from Hobart to Brisbane and hire a vehicle in the Sunshine State than to pack the family wagon on the Spirit of Tassie and drive it to Queensland – a round trip of six days, with transit accommodation an added cost.

Let's say, for the sake of the argument, that you're transporting yourself, your spouse and two pre-teen children interstate. Here are some indicative road-trip scenarios, based on different options...

Melbourne to Perth, two weeks away in peak season

By road, in a large SUV (diesel four-cylinder) towing a van

By road, in a large passenger vehicle (petrol V6).

By air (cheapest per online travel agent): $392 per person, return.

Sydney to Brisbane, two weeks away in peak season

By road, in a large passenger vehicle (petrol V6).

By air (cheapest per online travel agent): $155 per person, return.

What these indicative figures seem to suggest is travelling by road is the most effective means of holidaying in terms of cost, with caravan-towing eking out an advantage on longer journeys, during which the sights you'll see along the way will be a welcome diversion. Hundreds of kilometres of flat country and straight bitumen (like the Eyre Highway on the Nullarbor) is not everyone's choice of landscape though.

Often forgotten, the cost of purchasing a caravan and an appropriate tow vehicle can be considered part of the expenditure for going on holiday. If you use the family car for your holiday transport, the purchase price and annual running expenses (registration, insurance) are a much smaller component of the holiday cost because you're using the vehicle right throughout the year – not just when you go on vacation.

Still, that's the accountant's objection. If you've purchased a van and a tow vehicle you're probably getting your money's worth out of it by taking the family away on shorter trips most weekends.

When your once-a-year holiday takes no more than one day to reach the destination, any modern family car should be able to do so for around 10L/100km. This is more affordable than lugging the caravan, but you'll pay more for accommodation at the other end, of course. With your caravan, you'll pay to stay in a caravan park, but that's a cheaper alternative to hotel or motel accommodation.

By the time you quadruple even the cheapest airfare for a family of four it's not looking economically sound – and then you have to pay for the vehicle hire and fuel for day trips at the other end... to say nothing of the cost of accommodation.

It all depends on other factors too, such as convenience. Are you willing to pay more for reaching your holiday destination faster? Is your time worth something to you?

Those are points only you can answer, but a good way to help plan your holiday is to run a spreadsheet determining the relative costs of getting there. Consider these tips: Use up-to-date pricing for airfares, fuel and accommodation. Calculate what you're likely to spend on fuel – should you choose to drive – based on what you know of your vehicle's real-world fuel economy.

Bon voyage, and bon chance...