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Flights to Myrtle Beach area?

sls1003

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We're planning a vacation to Myrtle Beach at the end of April 2009 and I'm wondering where to fly into and on what airline. I know the Myrtle Beach airport is small and we don't mind a little bit of a drive so we're also considering Charleston. We have a two year old so we'd prefer to fly direct but the prices I'm seeing to these two airports are really expensive. Any other suggestions? We're in Chicago. Thanks!
 

riverdees05

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We are going in February and flying into Wilmington N. C.

Mapquest has Estimated Time: 1 hour 36 minutes Estimated Distance: 75.40 miles
 

Big Matt

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Charleston is about 30 minutes farther than Wilmington coming from the South. Those are the closest ones. Charlotte will definitely get the best flight options.
 

riverdees05

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Mapquest

Charleston, SC - Myrtle Beach, SC

Estimated Time: 2 hours 3 minutes Estimated Distance: 94.96 miles

Charlotte, NC - Myrtle Beach, SC

Estimated Time: 3 hours 46 minutes Estimated Distance: 169.75 miles
 

sls1003

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Thanks for all the suggestions! Both Wilmington, NC and Charlotte, NC were over $100 cheaper than flying into Myrtle Beach or Charleston. Then just for fun I started checking out other airports based on the "distance to major cities" in the II confirmation and found out that flying into Raleigh/Durham is another $100 cheaper than Wilmington and Charlotte. Mapquest has the distance from Raleigh and from Charlotte to be about the same - right around 4 hours to the resort were at. So now my choice looks to be flying non-stop into Raleigh for $100 less a ticket or flying into Wilmington with a layover and a plane change (with a toddler) for a $100 more but a shorter drive. Any thoughts? Has anybody done the drive from Raleigh? We're probably leaning that way, but 4 hours was a little longer drive than we'd planned. Thanks again for the help!
 

Big Matt

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Here's the way I always try to look at this situation.

Take the total cost of each option into consideration. In your case it's the cost of the flight, rental car, and gas leaving the airport and returning.

Then take the total amount of time from your house to the timeshare resort. I know driving is a pain, but so is changing planes and waiting in an airport.

My last comment is that whenever you have to change planes, you introduce a very lousy part of air travel that most of the time you can't control. With a direct flight, your flight can be late, but you still get to the destination. With layovers, you run the risk of missing connections, and with places like Wilmington where there aren't a lot of flights, you may miss an entire day by missing that connection.

Take the direct flight into Raleigh unless the car rental and gas price makes a huge difference.
 

Poette

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I would consider waiting awhile before booking anything. Although they encourage early booking, you will quite often see some lower airfare specials in December and/or January and even some specials later than that for travel in spring. Once you decide which location works best, keep looking on a daily basis; use the travel web sites to see who is offering the lowest rates and then go direct to the carrier's web site and save a few more dollars.
 
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