Other transportation options to airports
 

I think it's expensive $35 each for two people each way to take the shuttle to the airport. That's $140 round trip.

Many of you won't see that as a problem, but we go back and forth alot and that gets pricey. I wish the shuttle would reduce price for couples or r/t but they won't.

I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in setting up a Villages ride board where the driver wouldn't have to pay (because they are using their car), but the other passengers could split the costs of the gas. Or some such option. Surely there are those who could use this, in this big town. Let's get a discussion going.

The Village Airport Van charges $40 pp. so with a tip your couple's fare would be closer to $90. They claim to make 48 trips a day to Orlando. It's not cheap to run a business of this nature. Besides recovering the obvious purchase cost of the vans, including maintenance and insurance, there's also rent for the office, salaries and fuel. Like most services, someone has to cover their overhead, and then there's the profit the owners are legitimately entitled to for taking extraordinary risks. I don't have any problem with the price they charge.

$35 pp...how much cheaper do you want it. I think that os very reasonable for an hour drive.

Have you looked into UBER?

I believe on your 10th trip on The Villages Airport Van (yellow van) they give you it free. We just received our free one.

However, The Villages Airport Van may stop at several addresses outside and inside The Villages before your house. This may result into a 45 minute or longer delay in getting home.

An option is to rent a car and drop it off at the airport and locally on the return. I've heard the price is very reasonable.

I find auto rentals create personal stress and i avoid them unless I really have no other choice. There's the usual line of customers at the car rental booth, insurance conversation plus the fuel issue options, Sun Pass option, (plus tolls) and maybe the GPS. Then you have to worry about dings and dents either present when you first see the car or maybe when you turn it in and wonder how did I miss that. Then there's the time and hassle if you should be involved in an accident and have to pay for the revenue lost while the vehicle is being repaired. Now all that BS to save less than $25 off the price of the Airport Van. Is it really worth it? Now driving your car to Park and Fly for short absences makes the most sense.

Signature Coach was the best deal and they went out of business chargine $35.00. A Villages ride board has a lot of liability associeted with it.....everything will be great until there is an accident and someone gets hurt (lawsuit) or wait until the traffic causes one of the riders to miss their flight or a pickup on return. If you can't afford a company then I agree with Red, park and fly and take your chances on leaving your car there......for peace of mind any damage will be your responsibility and won't create conflict with others who might depend on you.

Uber
 

would like to hear comments from people who have used uber.

The Uber website estimates the cost as $119-$159, one-way.

Using 55 cents per mile as a reasonable estimate for the true cost (depreciation, insurance, gas, maintenance, etc.) of driving your own car, the one-way cost of driving yourself is $33 (based on 60 miles) plus about $6 in tolls. You can get off-airport parking for maybe $4/day?? Since you know how long you will be gone for, the least cost method (shuttle vs. driving yourself and paying for parking) is easy to figure.

If you only want to consider the incremental cost of gas then many cars can do each way for about $5 plus another $6 for tolls. For me, personally, it is not worth picking up other people on my way to the airport to save $5. I am sure you can find many people who would like to be riders (I want to be a rider!) but finding drivers may prove to be more difficult. You may also have issues with trunk space for luggage so the size of the car and the total number of pieces of luggage would need to be coordinated. Pretty soon you are working on this full time and might want to buy some vans and setup a regular schedule of runs to the airport ;-)

Liability-Liability-Liability!!!

You would not save $25 as there is around $10 for Fuel & a further $10 in tolls. Daily rate for car hire even if using your own insurance doesn't come cheap. We have in the past hired car but only for sake of convenience and now tend to use Village Taxi

Since there are always two or more of us going to or from the airport, I always get a one way rental. If you sign up in advance for an account (like Hertz) there is no wait on pick up or drop off. The charges go to your credit card. Most credit card companies provide the insurance coverage free. For me it is less expensive but more importantly we can leave and arrive on our own schedule and not be driven around all over the area or wait at the bus stop.