Apparently Charleston is not easy access by flight if you are trying to find reasonable prices. I was wondering the proximity of nearby airports to Charleston where I could find cheaper flights with a reasonable drive. It sounds like everything is a 2 hour drive.

I just bought 2 tickets with USAir from Ohio for $225 ea going into Charleston and out of Savannah. This same route was $150 higher ea ticket at the beginning of June, so timing is evrything. Savannah is about 2 hours away, Charlotte is about 3-4 hours away. Delta and Independence Air also fly these routes.

Check out Columbia SC - it is about 2 hours down Hwy 26 to C'ston.

Do not know your city of origin, but we get reasonable prices Boston-Savannah several times/year. Have flown Independence, USAirways, Delta. RT fare is generally $200-300.

Where are you flying from?

Myrtle Beach is the closest, largest, and cheapest airport in the state. Myrtle Beach is an hour and ten minutes.

Savannah is tiny, forget Hilton Head, and I'd rather have my eyes poked out than fly and drive from Columbia or Charlotte.

I haven't driven from Myrtle Beach/C'ston but the drive down from Columbia isn't a hard drive - not too much traffic nor too many trucks. Easy on/offs are available too for those unavoidable stops for boiled peanuts and Cokes!

I think your closest will end up being Savannah but not by much...Myrtle Beach and Columbia are both about 2 hrs. Of the latter 2 I would say that Columbia would be an easier and more direct drive as the airport is right off of 26 and then you just drive 26 straight into Charleston - boring yes.

Leah, we often drive to Myrtle Beach for flights and it only takes us about an hour and ten minutes from downtown Charleston to the Myrtle Beach airport. The airport is on the south end of the beach.

Wow, gotravel - that's fast...I'll defer to your experience rather than mapquest - which only did Myrtle Beach - not airport. I've done the Columia to Charleston route and it definitely is 2 hrs or just under unless you are "flying"

An hour ten? Whew, I didn't know they had turned hwy 17 into the autobahn. LOL.

The MB airport is just barely south of MB. The airport is 95 miles from Charleston on a state highway. The Columbia airport is 115 miles away from downtown Charleston, all interstate. All things being equal, I'd choose Columbia to avoid the MB traffic lights. And those MB flights can be a bit more stressful (loaded with drunken golf buddies and families who've never flown before). And I can tell you that I did the ATL-MYR flight 4 times with ASA (Delta's commuter) and we were more than 2 hours late 4 times.

But as GoTravel mentioned above, MB will likely offer you the cheapest fares. And the airport is a breeze to use and get a rental car from (as long as you use a major - Hertz, Avis, etc).

Ok GoTravel - how do you manage the 1 hr 10 min to Myrtle Beach from downtown Charleston? - it Mapquests at 95 miles...and even at their conservative estimates that's a flat 2 hrs. I usually make it faster than Mapquest - but not by 50 minutes! I need to borrow your radar detector!

I'm basing it on the fact that we drive to Pawleys Island and it takes us an hour and ten to get to Pawleys from downtown Charleston. We usually book early flights so we spend the night in Pawleys and fly out the next morning.

It is an hour an ten minutes from downtown Charleston to Pawleys Island.

BTW, the speed limit on 17 South is 60MPH and we usually drive 75.

Still, it isn't two hours from MYR to Charleston. We live an hour south of Charleston and it is closer than Columbia. It is also a bigger and nicer airport.

Brian, since the airport is pretty far south of Myrlte Beach (the congestion, not sure geography wise), there aren't that many stoplights. Once you get south of the Air Force Base, you are pretty much home free except for a couple of lights in Georgetown.

Oh, gotravel....so that 1 hr 10 was from Charleston to Pawley's - not from Charleston to the Myrtle airport...so figure adding at least 20-30 minutes on to that estimate since it is 23 miles from Pawley's to the airport. So, a more realistic driving time from the airport to downtown Charleston would be maybe 1 hr 30-40 min - right? Still, a little shorter than Columbia.

Last I looked, there are a significant number of red lights on 17 in Mt. Pleasant .... in fact, my vehicle almost overheated yesterday while stuck in traffic (10;15 am no less) several times. And then there's that bridge which is enough to produce a heebie jeebie or two (unless GT is zipping along 526 to get south?)

Incidentally, I always fly out of Charleston, and have never found that the price difference (unless it's a party of four or more) warrants the extra expense of a rental car, gas, etc.
And parking in Charleston? A place you don't need a car.

Round trip to Vegas from CHS was $284 last week -- my daughter flew from State College, PA (a dinky airport to put it kindly) at Christmas for $197 to CHS. As aliska said, timing is everything.

B/

Hooters Air is expanding and adding many N/S flights to/from Myrtle Beach.

As to travel time from MYR (Myrtle Beach Airport) to Charleston, we drive that once a month. It's a solid 1.5 hours for me (traffic in Mount Pleasant can make that a little iffy), and I don't poke. Of course, apparently I am not the speed demon that GoTravel is!

The drive is fairly pleasant, gets better the further south you go, and is great from Georgetown to Mount Pleasant (just north of Charleston).

Wow thanks for all the input! BTW I am flying from Phoenix, and will be renting a car anyway. We were thinking Sept, but it doesn't look like that will happen. Maybe spring time.

Chuck, I think it is only around 70 miles for us to get from downtown to Pawleys. Of course that would make my hour and ten minute trip more feasable.

GoTravel,

that's it; problem solved. 1 hour 10 minutes C-town to Pawleys and then approx. 20 minutes from there through the seemingly endless guantlet of traffic lights on Hwy 17. And if I see you in my rear view mirror, I promise to get out of the way!