"How Far for a Convention?" Topic

For a really good convention, how much travel time are you prepared to put in? Try to express the results in hours one way, or days on the road, please, to make it easy to convert into a poll later.

Me? About ten hours travel, which might involve a night on the road.

For decades I drove from Dallas to Ft. Worth, OK City, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Vicksburg, San Antonio, Galveston, Denton, & flew to 1 or 2 others further away. I'd say one day on the road for up to 300 miles.

6 hrs driving at a max.

I guess about the same flying, maybe a total of 8 if there are connections.

6 hours sounds about right.

I fly from California to attend Historicon on most years. So that's an hour to the airport, roughly 8 hours, including layover, no the flight and then 1.5 hours driving from either PHL or BWI.

So roughly 10.5 hours each way plus I guess time in the airport pre-flight and retrieving a car post-flight so in the 12-13 hours all told.

So far not leaving the state, so 1 hour to 12 minutes

I go to all the HMGS East Cons (Historicon, Cold Wars, Fall In). Depending on location it's about 8 to 9 hour drive.

Kim

I think the farthest I've traveled was 4 hours drive time.

19 hours one way to Historicon for me.

I maxed out driving for 5 years in a row to make Historicon I also made the circuit that Spurious M. noted. Nowadays four hours max.

Flying from the UK for Historicon and Hurricon in 2022

11 hours to Historicon. That is as far as I would go.

The most time I've ever spent going to a convention was well in excess of 1 hour, probably 1 hour 30 minutes because of Friday evening commute traffic.

Luckily for me, that convention (DunDraCon) has recently moved closer to where I live.

ColdWars or Historicon are Cross Country flights, 8-10 hour travel day.

'Local' cons are 500 miles. 4-5 hour drive.

I've driven 6 hours to a Con but also spent 4 days in the area. For a one day Con 3-4 hours one way would be the limit.

On two separate occasions I drove 12 hours to attend Historicon in Fredericksburg

3 hours to attend Recon or Hurricon in Orlando.

Haven't traveled to anything but a local convention ever.
Distance really isn't the issue— expense is, and that's not just transportation, it's hotel rooms and so forth.

I really, really want to go to GaryCon, but once I factor in the hotel, the plane trip, and figuring out how to get from the closet airport to Lake Geneva… no, not happening on my budget.

I'll stay home and just go to Nashcon when it comes, which is a thirty minute drive each way.

16 hours. Haven't done it yet due to Covid. Maybe this year.

Grelber

I am actually surprised how far some come from the reaches of the globe

I'm doing 500 plus miles by car for the SYW Convention in Mar-Apr. This will be a first and should be interesting!
But hey, what else would I be doing? Sittin' home watching the tube?!

Historically, in the UK, I would attend about 10 shows per year with anything from own city up to an 9 hour round trip by car.

I would also make an international trip, by air, leaving on a Thursday/Friday, show on Saturday, returning home on Sunday/Monday.

That is probably not possible as the show circuit had been hammered by the pandemic/cost of living rise so probably on 2 or 3 shows a year and fairly close to home.

2 hours would probably be the max

Three or four hours (one way) tops, with an overnight stay. Otherwise a couple of hours.

'Local' cons are 500 miles. 4-5 hour drive.

What do you drive?

Driving is down to 2 hours these days alas, maybe 4 max. (Stupid vertigo gives me killer headaches).

Previous record, 18 hours non-stop Boston to Milwaukee for GenCons (rotating 3 person crew: driver, shotgun, and napping in the back seat).

Flying — if the con is within shuttlebus distance of the airport, time is not a factor!

In reality, no trips this year. Happily went to 2 cons last year where masks and vaccines were required. This year, none of the cons I would like to attend are requiring masks, and that's way too long indoors for my mask to be good enough protection.

90 mins to 2 hours is my average, tho that's just a function of how far they are. I will do 5 hours for one next month.

Someday I may do Baltimore to Chicago, tho for that I might fly.

Six hours one way by car. An hour and a half one way by plane.

At Historicon did see a Britisher for sure, wasn't sure if expatriate or actually came over for games maybe a business trip, didn't ask. Did wonder since living there 2 years.

My max is 8 or 9 hours one way by car.

While still a working man <4 hours. But I would imagine after retirement I would/could increase that. I want to hit some of the bigger conventions eventually and I am not a fan of flying.

Although, I may someday, as a bucket list thing, fly to the UK for wargaming and of course see my ancestral home land.

As I have gotten older the driving distance has shrunk. For a multi-day convention probably 6 hours/300 miles max.

8 hours seems to be about the furthest I have gone

The nine hour drive to Chicago from Darkest Arkansas for Little Wars and (an hour less?) to Champaign for Winter War, but I have Family in both places (who also game) making it less painful. (No Hotel).

Flying to Both this year, we will see how it goes. Can't make that long a drive, and no more night driving for me at 69.

Other than that, it was the KC area (three hours, plus hotel); Going to be a VERY abbreviated con schedule in KC next year (2024) without "Recruits".

Keep making the trip to Oklahoma City for Twisted Lords, and not finding much of interest there.

For a convention where I'll be selling my PaperTerrain products, 4-5 hours. To just attend, maybe 2. I really hate driving! :)

Eight-hour flight from JFK to Brussels, a one-hour train ride from the airport to Antwerp, and a 10-minute cab ride to the hotel.The next day, a 15-minute walk to Crisis, sponsored by the Tin Soldiers on Antwerp.
I've also done a few long weekends to London for Salute. In both places, the beer is better than at the US shows.