I honestly avoid flying at all costs, when at all reasonable. My wife and I drove to Wisconsin last month - it was an 11 hour drive (taking it easy), but well worth being in control. And this fall, we rented an apartment in Montreal for a week, and are driving there as well. That'll probably end up taking 10-11 hours one day and 4-5 hours the second day each direction, but again, the equation is simple:
1.5 days of driving each direction > [hassle of flying in general + risk of tremendous delays + cost of two round-trip tickets]

I refuse to fly as well. Right now I can't think of a thing that would make me get on a plane -- maybe if I had to get on the last plane out of the city before the giant tidal wave (caused by the asteroid) hits, but even then I might look for a surfboard instead.

But I've just never liked the whole flying experience. Not only am I both acrophobic and claustrophobic, and a misanthrope, but flying has become just like riding the bus -- the same badly-dressed losers, crowded, smelly, tiny chairs that cramp your legs, etc. Why bother? To go some place with yet more people? Feh.

For those who can't stand flying simply because of the hassles, you might want to consider flying some of the smaller airlines outside the big cities. I live about 30 minutes from O'Hare in Chicago, but I hate flying out of there so much I sometimes drive an hour plus to Rockford. It is truly a pleasant surprise. Clean, uncrowded, etc.

Last time I was there I parked the car 100 feet from the entrance, walked in the door and up to a counter manned by two people and no one in line. They were very friendly and said, "Flying to Las Vegas today?" I said, "Yes, how did you know?" They said, "Because that's the only flight out this morning." It was beautiful.

I had a similar experience flying out of Gary, IN

Train. Love the train.

Of course, the two times I've traveled by train have been two extremely scenic routes, so even sleeping in the chair (bigger than bus or airline seats) was liveable.

We once took the kids on a trip to San Diego on the train, and we had one of those roomettes. Awesome!

I'm a free-markets kinda guy, but was I dictator I might succumb to the temptation to make an exception for trains. Slap a big surcharge on air travel, and have the great trains of yesteryear running everywhere....

My most miserable travel experience to date was by train. We took the Amtrak out of Cleveland to DC. We were supposed to leave at midnight, but didn't board until a quarter to three. We got a sleeper room - double-decker coffin sized - and had a night's sleep one might charitably describe as "fitful" - constant bumping, accelerating, decelerating, leaning, gah. We were scheduled to arrive sometime in the morning, but didn't get to our hotel until 4pm. I bought my wife some dramamine, we got room service, and were asleep by 8.

The Acela Express to Boston a few days later was fine - nice quick commuter job. But then the trip from Boston back to Cleveland was again all-night torture.

All tolled, our train trip cost about double what plane fare would have been, and took about twice as long as driving ourselves would have.

I understand the sentiment, and I realize that if they were run better, the differentials in price and transit time would be reduced, but still, I've gotta say - trains suck ass. Never again.

Mr. Weidner, you don't need to make a free market exception for railroads, you just need to remove the socialist controls that are on them now. I'm thinking of the government rules that force the railroads to charge according to the value of what they're delivering.....

Except, if memory serves, the Staggers Act of 1980 chopped the dead hands of the Interstate Commerce Commission off the throats of the railroads. The resulting freedom to alter their routes and schedules, along with (finally!) freedom to set rates according to what the traffic would bear, allowed them to come roaring back from the brink of oblivion.

Alas, it was too late for some: Penn Central; New York, New Haven & Hartford; Lehigh Valley; Delaware, Lackawanna & Western; Erie; Central Rail Road of New Jersey; Lehigh & New England; Lehigh & Hudson River; Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific; and on and on and on...... Fallen flags, all of them..... Their many thousands of route-miles, which would be handy to have today, vanished to make way for housing developments, parks, and shopping malls..... thanks to the socialist-minded IDIOTS at the ICC....

The reason railroads don't operate passenger trains anymore (Southern, now part of Norfolk Southern, was the last railroad to run a long-distance passenger train) is because they can't make money doing it. Amtrak (the sole operator of passenger trains nowadays) bleeds money, and may have to be truncated to its core, the Northeast Corridor-- the only place where it can turn a profit.

If anything in this situation is "socialist", it's the massive subsidies the trucking companies and John Q. Driving-Public get for their vehicles in the form of "free" roads to drive on, made possible by taxation. Railroads don't have that freebie-- the have to obtain, construct, and maintain their roads out of their own pockets, with no help from the public treasury.