Would it be cheaper to fly a family of 8 to Boston for the Christmas holiday or rent an RV?

The parking fees in Boston for the RV would be out-of-this world. Good luck getting around town with that.

HEY, there is no FREE parking in the BIG DIG.

I just looked into renting an RV to drive from San Diego (where I live now) up to San Franciso for the 4th of July weekend and I can tell you, with gas prices what they are right now, I was floored by how much they wanted to charge me! I can't imagine driving from Miami to Beantown (my hometown)!

Besides that, Boston is not an RV friendly place-narrow congested streets and impatient locals to name a couple drawbacks. I wouldn't want to do it even it were cheaper than flying-and I don't think it would be given the hidden costs in RVing, such as gas, parking, feeding your family during the road trip, maintenance and repairs, etc. Holidays are a stressful time anyway-don't add to the stress with trying to navigate Boston streets in an RV, trying to find parking, and enduring the freezing cold the further north you get on your journey.

I say definitely FLY! You can get some good deals on hotwire.com (I usually book through them when I fly home for the Holidays) or you can try orbitz.com. And I would start looking NOW. The sooner you book (or rather, the farther in advance you book) the better. You can also get package deals on these sites for airfare and a rental car-and hotel if need be.

Good luck!

I don't know where you are from, but you might want to consider the fact that overnights in Boston during the winter are cold... and mixing all of those thin waterlines and tanks with severe cold might be a problem. Could cost a small fortune to repair the RV, not to mention the mess from a cracked black water tank.

you must consider the cost of the rv, food, gas and its a fortune to fill them up now, plus 35 cents a mile. you can spend several grand to get there and back easily. parking and setting up the rv once you get there. either way, you'll need a rental vehicle which you can get with unlimited milelage. flying will cost you about 2500.00 round trip plus rental vehicle and if not staying with relatives. the hotel will be about 4 to 5 hundred a night at most depending on where you stay. so flying, and eats and hotel should be about 5 to 7 grand for a week. you can rent a rv for around 500 to 650 a week for the size you need plus gas and eats. rving-3,000.00 to 4,000.00. flying-4,000.00 to 5,000.00.

I'd say rent and RV. Though it might be a bit tight in there. Plus the price if gas...i bet the airlines will have a special for all those people. I think airplane would be better. Get you all there quickly. Alright, I pick airplane.

It just depends how long you wait to get your tickets. If you plan way ahead of time you can get really cheap Plane tickets Tickets. If you wait to long Plane tickets get more costly the less time you give them to plan. If you plan months in advance you can get better deals. Remember if you fly you will have to rent a vehicle to get around, once you get there. With a family that size maybe two cars. Also Driving takes a lot of time and takes day out of your Vacation. Just to let you know I bought Plane Tickets, for my family, for this Summer. We planned three months in advance, we got round trip Tickets from Tampa, Florida to Providence, R.I. for $150.00 each round trip. I have Paid as Much as $1500.00 each round trip, in the past because we didn't plan soon enough ahead. From Boston to Tampa. Even rental cars are cheaper if you plan ahead.

Your username is acousticafrica, so I am assuming you are driving from Africa to Boston. If you can do this with a RV I would be very impressed.

where are you starting from?

You should fly. You can get discount airline tickets from orbitz.com or priceline.com. You could probably fly there & back for under $500. Also book your hotels online & you will save some money too.

if you fly airtran it might.

on average and this is fact its about 380.00 worth of gas to get there in an SUV an RV you would have to do the math

it depends on where you are from