Help me get from MIA to Fort Walton Beach

[scubamickey]

Planning a dive vacation and having a heck of a time with this leg.
We're flying from Anchorage into the dreaded Miami airport (level of dread only slightly less than flying into Atlanta) to catch a flight to Exuma to join our liveaboard. Ok, that part is good. Now we wanted to return to Fort Walton Beach instead of Miami on an open jaw ticket. Unfortunately, all the flights for this trip are on airline miles and in this case it's on a partner so no open jaw is possible.

Long story short. We want to go to Fort Walton Beach on the same trip to visit family and dive the Mighty O. I was thinking about renting a car and driving from Miami to FWB. Then I realized it's 600 miles.

Question (finally): What other options do I have? I priced a flight between the 2 cities and it was over $400. So that option is out. Does Florida have a rail system between these destinations or close to FWB? Bus service?

What's the speed limit down there these days?

 

[Scubastud16]

greyhound? other than that, i'd drive. speed limit is 55, 60, or 70 depending on where you are. usually 60-ish.

 

[Matteo]

yeah, pretty much what stud said...either hop on the greyhound or see if you can find a deal on a one-way rental car...on a lighter note, I'd be willing to bet you'd be the only one on the bus with a bag full of dive gear!!!

 

[Tom Winters]

Easiest way is to just tough it out and drive. No real passenger train service in Florida even though the trackage is there, and you sure as hell do not want to sit on a bus to Pensacola.
It's all highway from Miami and can be pretty fast. I pretty much cruise at 85 the whole way and that's to maximize my mileage/speed curve. Someone is always going faster and that's whom the troopers go after. A rental just gives you so much more flexibilty.

 

[ReefGuy]

Just don't carry cash in the rental.

 

[DEEPLOU]

Planning a dive vacation and having a heck of a time with this leg.
We're flying from Anchorage into the dreaded Miami airport (level of dread only slightly less than flying into Atlanta) to catch a flight to Exuma to join our liveaboard. Ok, that part is good. Now we wanted to return to Fort Walton Beach instead of Miami on an open jaw ticket. Unfortunately, all the flights for this trip are on airline miles and in this case it's on a partner so no open jaw is possible.

Long story short. We want to go to Fort Walton Beach on the same trip to visit family and dive the Mighty O. I was thinking about renting a car and driving from Miami to FWB. Then I realized it's 600 miles.

Question (finally): What other options do I have? I priced a flight between the 2 cities and it was over $400. So that option is out. Does Florida have a rail system between these destinations or close to FWB? Bus service?

What's the speed limit down there these days?

My son is in Panama City Beach, about 1/2 to 1 hr east of FWB. It is cheaper for me to fly into Orlando rent a car and drive than try to fly into PC. And not just little cheaper. Last month my wife and daughter did it, it was cheaper for the two of them into Orlando and rent car than it would have been for just one to fly into the local puddle jump.

Rent the car, possably rather than driving back to Miami you could continue west to New Orleans and fly out of there.

 

[mike_s]

You're not going to find a flight direct from Exuma to FWB.

Fort Walton Beach airport is very limited by its "contract for allowed flights" with the government (US AIR FORCE). The airport actually is on Eglin AFB and the contract they have limits them to something like 60 flights per day. Therefore, that limits your flights.

into FWB airport, you can pretty much catch Delta from Atlanta, Continential from Houston, and Northwest from Memphis. US Air used to fly in from Tampa, but that looks like it's been replaced with GulfStream Air. That would be your best/direct option for flying from Miami. You'd fly from Miami to Tampa and then to FWB. You also could fly from that Bahamas to Florida (Miami or FLL) via Gulfstream Air to Tampa to FWB.


Other options besides Panama City Beach airport that DeepLou mentioned above are Pensacola. You've got more choices of airlines in this airport and more that fly to the southern parts of Florida, such as Orlando, Tampa, or Fort Lauderdale. Might make the jump from the Bahamas easier. P'cola is less than 1 hour from FWB.


While driving might seem like an option, if you're only going to drive it one way, make sure to calculate the "drop fee" on the rental car. It's not cheap for a 600 mile trip. For the cost involved of the drop fee, gas, hotel, rental car fee and all the taxes and fees, it's might be cheaper to fly in the long run.

Although the above doesn't provide you a "direct solution", I hope it provides you some options and helps some.

 

[LindaBluedolphin]

Depending on how much time you have you might want to check flights on Southwest out of MIA to someplace closer (I don't actually know which airports are closer, but Orlando comes to mind as one, as does Tampa). They frequently have cheap fares and you can buy 1 way tickets with no penalty. You can rent a car from there, maybe not ideal but an option.

As for the drop fee Mike mentioned it may not apply. I rented a car in WPB last July and dropped it in Orlando with no drop fee. I actually checked renting it in Ft. Laud too and there was no drop fee. I used Dollar Rentals. I don't rent cars enough to worry about being that loyal to any car company, I care about inexpensive.

 

[jdcpa]

SouthWest does not fly out of Miami. It flies out of Ft Lauderdale. I think the closest you will get with them is New Orleans.

You might try Tallahassee if Pensacola does not work out. It is further, but not too far from FWB.

 

[scubamickey]

The rental is pretty cheap and no drop fee between Mia and FWB. For a midsize car it comes to around $70.

This wouldn't even be an issue if I wasn't using miles to fly. Continental has a flight from Exuma to FWB that connects in FLL and Tampa (orlando, can't recall). But open jaw tickets on partner airlines using miles are not possible. At least not from this location. I refuse to pay over $500 per person just to do this

I have tickets into Miami but flying out of FWB so the road trip would only be one way.

I'll check out the flights to Orlando, maybe it's worth it just to cut down on the drive time.