cutman

Forget taking a "stay-cation." I'd rather be creative with transportation options. That's why my girlfriend and I set out on a MULTI-MODAL long weekend trip to Cape Cod from Boston for the 4th of July.

We started out with a short bike ride to the subway station. From there we took the subway downtown to the regional rail and bus station. We biked a few blocks to the wharf, where we boarded the ferry to the Cape. From there we rode the bus (with bikes mounted on the front) to our motel (outer Cape). Since it was getting dark and roads on the outer Cape aren't well lit, we took a taxi to a restaurant (and back). We walked to the bus stop the next day to go to Provincetown (at the tip of Cape Cod) and walked all over town. We almost took a pedicab ride, but enjoyed strolling along so much that we never bothered. Took the bus back to the motel, and in the morning we rode about 25 miles down the Cape Cod Rail Trail to Dennis (mid-Cape) for a family gathering. We hitched a ride back to the mainland with my sister and her husband and took the commuter rail back to Boston, the subway back to our neighborhood, and biked home.

So to sum it up, it went: BIKE>SUBWAY>BIKE>FERRY>BUS>TAXI>WALK>BUS>WALK>BUS>BIKE>CARPOOL>COMMUTER RAIL>SUBWAY>BIKE

So although we did set foot in a car, neither of us drove our own car anywhere.

Have you taken any car-free vacations or gotten creative with transport options?

botto 

yes.

evblazer

Hm. When I visited my folks this year it was somehting like
Taxi->Airplane->Taxi->Train->Parents Car
Parents work vehicle->Bus->Airplane->In-Laws Car
That was as car free as I could get from Point A to Point B and back given where my parents and I live and how long I stayed.

I think we went on vacation to disney 10 years ago for our honeymoon and we took the bus to the park from the airport and the disney mass transit options for the whole time we were there. Wonder what my next vacation will be like. Only 9 1/2 years to go!

Machka 

If you go over to the Touring Forum, you'll find a whole crowd of people who do car-light or car-free vacations:

https://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php?f=47

And if you look at my website you'll see some of my car-light or car-free vacations. I'll often fly places, but once I get there, I ride (or take trains or ferries as necessary).

Gustavo

I would have thought that car-free vacations were the norm. For most people around here, vacations means flying to Paris, London or some other big city, or spending a week at a resort in the Canaries, Mallorca or Thailand etc. Young people often go backpacking in Europe or Asia. All of these vacations are essentially car-free. Then there is the family-style car trip to the Continent.

As for me, I don't have a license, but love to travel. Even if I had a car, I sure wouldn't bring it on my vacation. The whole point of traveling for me is to be free. A car would simply be too much bother.

cutman

^ I suppose that's true. In my case anyway, we were going to Cape Cod, a popular summer destination, to which the vast majority of people drive (and sit in hours of traffic approaching the two bridges that'll get them there). No vacation should ever include driving a car, or sitting in gridlock for that matter.

Gustavo

It's of course different when you live as isolated as we do here in the North. I remember reading Donald Duck and being fascinated that they could take the car to the wild forests, the deserts, the mountains and the permafrost...

I don't know to what extent it is really a trend, but I see stories in the papers about train-tourism becoming more and more popular. It's always been the case that trains are very popular though, around big feasts and holidays they are usually filled to overflowing, and they are enlarging the network.

Unfortunately you are not allowed to take bikes on trains, so we always have to get lots of large black garbage bags, remove the wheels and wrap carefully. This year the are initiating trials with bike carrying trains, but get this, it is only on four routes, you can only carry the bike if you travel between termini, it costs $20, you have to pre-book (but not where you book your ticket), you have to pre-pay (at a third location) and there are only four spots available per train! Still, it's good that they at least see the demand.

gerv 

I think my goal would be to enjoy a relatively low-CO2 vacation. A great idea is, as Machka points out, to go the whole route on a bicycle. You can leave right from your door. Beat it out to some relatively low-traffic route and you are on your way.

I've taken weekend trips from my house, but would love a trip to SE Minnesota/West Wisconsin. It's a 3-day ride from here to Minnesota, so the only problem is getting time off work.

Machka 

And the thing is, if you've got a 2-week vacation, and you cycle right from home, you can head out 500+ kms from home before turning around and coming back. Most people have something interesting to see in a 500 km radius of home.

Platy

Not exactly a vacation, but yesterday I went to San Antonio to visit family, about 90 miles away. The interesting twist is that I used the intercity student shuttle bus operated by a university midway between Austin and San Antonio. It's open to the public for a cash fare. Unlike Greyhound the university bus provides bike racks. I accomplished a 180 mile round trip in 24 hours, with actual bike travel of 37 miles getting to and from the bus stops.

gwd

I prefer circuits to out-and-back. But I could also do a stay-cation and see and do things right in town. You can usually plan a multi-day circuit with camping or B&B or cheap motels or relatives.

Machka 

Check out my hub-and-spokes thread in the Touring forum.

bragi

I recently completed a bike trip from Seattle to the San Juan Islands via Whidbey Island, and it was the most fun I've had all summer. 20 miles of suburban hell to get to the ferry, but not nearly as hellish as I had imagined, 60 miles or so of rolling (OK, sometimes brutal) hills in very nice country full of wildflowers, a nice ferry ride without the horrible wait that greets motorists this time of year, and then several days of the most beautiful rides imaginable in the islands themselves, punctuated by occasional food/beer stops. I traveled light and fast, staying in relatively cheap motels, so I wouldn't have to haul camping gear along. It wasn't a whole lot slower than using a car, way more fun, far less expensive, even with motels, and much less of a hassle. An added bonus is that you get to talk to other bike tourers on the ferry, most of whom are more than happy to share their stories with you. It was so nice that I plan on doing another five-day jaunt to Victoria, BC in a couple of weeks, via Port Townsend and Port Angeles, WA. Compared to flying, it's so civilized it's ridiculous.

BTW, what is wrong with Amtrak, anyway?! It seems absurd to require people to put their bikes in boxes just to go down the coast. Many years ago, I traveled all over Italy by train and bike, and not once did the rail people expect me to disassemble my bike and shove it into a narrow box just to go a few hundred miles; they just let me bring it on the train as is. If the trains are that full, I can't imagine that it would be that difficult or expensive to install a couple of bike racks, for God's sake...

Roody

Some of my favorite vacations have been canoe and hiking trips in Michigan, Ontario, western Canada, and Washington. I must admit that I drove to the trailhead or launch site.

filtersweep

Most vacations are car free--- we usually fly somewhere. Does that count? No need to rent a car--- just take an airport shuttle to the hotel. We went to a very bike friendly island where there was a bike rental a block from our hotel.