Vacation planning novice needing advice!

[loveadopted]

Hi there, I am an old poster from the knot and the nest, mostly just poke around on these boards when I have some time.

I need some serious vacation timing help! What is the best way to go about determining when to fly home, and also when to rent a car? I believe car rentals go for 24 hours, is that right? So right now, we are looking for the earliest flight (to San Diego), so arrive at about 1:00pm. Is it better to fly home on a red eye or early morning? Each has a pro and con- one less night in a hotel, but then having to keep luggage with us until heading to the airport.

Also, each time we go somewhere it feels like we get stuck with odd hours with the rental car, or have time to kill after returning it, since with the current arrival time, it would be returned in the early afternoon.

Does that all make sense? Sorry this turned out long, most of our trips have been road trips so I haven't figured out how to plan a 'real' vacation! Any advice at all is appreciated!

[GilliC]

I tend to think more about what I would be doing that last day. If flying out late and keeping the car for a partial day would be advantageous because we could do more things that we wanted, it might be worth paying for another day.

If there's something we could do without the car, I might take the later flight. Especially if we could store our luggage at our hotel for the day. This usually doesn't make sense if you rent the car at the airport, though, so I usually only do it when we can get into town by shuttle/bus/taxi and rent the car there.

If there isn't anything I really want to do the last day, I would just take the earlier flight.

Also, what are your plans for the next day? I've never been able to go straight to work after an overnight flight, so if I was leaving on a Sunday I would definitely just choose to make it a travel day and give myself some time to recover after getting home.

[definitelyO]

I never worry or even think about the rental car to be honest. I just figure in the total cost and do not struggle to return "on-time".

I'm all about what is convenient for me. So - a red-eye would not be convenient for me unless there was a HUGE price difference that could justify it.

I start by targeting a certain date/time frame and then look at sites that allow you to mark that your dates are flexible. then if I can save $200 by leaving on a Tuesday night vs. Wednesday morning and hotels are only $100 then it's a win for me.

Public transportation in San Diego is pretty easy - so if you need to take a bus back to the airport it's pretty easy.

[frlcb]

Priceline a car or go through Costco and don't worry about the 24 hour periods.