CraveOnline Poll: You're Traveling Short Distances, Traveling Smart This Summer

Summertime in the U.S….everybody’s getting out there, enjoying the weather (in most of the country, anyway) and taking the opportunity to relax and maybe see a little bit more of the world around us. And generally speaking, Crave guys are doing that summer vacationing very guerilla-style, planning their own road trip adventures with an eye toward maximum fun — with maximum economy.

According to our latest CraveOnline monthly poll, you — our devoted Crave readers — are intent on getting out of town and hitting the road this summer, often choosing to plot out a series of shorter trips rather than one big monster excursion.

In fact, an overwhelming majority of you — 55 percent — said your travel this summer would focus on car trips within a few hours from home. Nearly a quarter of you jetsetters have your sights set on loftier travel adventures, with 25 percent opting instead for some international travel. The remaining 20 percent settle somewhere in between, plotting plane trips in-country to scratch that traveling itch.

But hey, all that gas — not to mention other road trip essentials — don’t always come cheap. So you said a few hundred dollars from the bankroll was being earmarked to keep the adventure rolling.

More than 38 percent of you said you’d be dropping up to $600 on your summer itinerary, assuring that the car is fully stocked with all the Cheetos and 2-liter bottles of Coke you can pack. Meanwhile, 15 percent of our readers said they were estimating their expenditures on summer travel at $600 to $900, while another 20 percent planned to spend $900 to $1,500. The other 27 percent? You’re living the life, my friends, planning to spend over $1,500 on wherever their travel imaginations may take them.

And for most of you, it looks like you don’t want that travel money coming back to haunt you in the form of credit card bills or loan payments. A full 65 percent say you’ll be paying cash to cover your on the road expenses, with just 22 percent opting for the credit card and 13 percent preferring to take out a loan to set those travel debts.

We have to admit, you all surprised us a little with exactly HOW you were making your travel plans. We thought everybody these days was using Expedia or Kayak or any of the other big online travel sites to book flights and hotel rooms. But it turns out, you guys like to get your hands dirty with all those details. Over 53 percent of you wanted to cut out the middle man and book your own reservations with an airline or hotel, while just 28 percent went in for the ease and convenience of a third-party travel site. Less than 19 percent said they’d go with a travel agent to get all those plans in order.

But of course, if you’re going to plan out all these trips, you’ve got to be heading somewhere, right? Well, it appears Grandma may end up alone and disappointed this summer because you guys have a whole bunch of big fun, big adventure event experiences on the list for our entertainment pleasure. When asked which big summer event you’d be most likely to plan a vacation around, more than half of you — 51 percent — said you’d be in sunny San Diego for Comic-Con 2013.

Surf, sun, pop culture mecca…not hard to see why SDCC topped the list so convincingly. Meanwhile, a handful of you musicheads settled on a Lollapalooza trip instead (13 percent), sports junkies want to chill at the X Games (18 percent) and some of you into alternative — and we do mean REALLY alternative — lifestyles want to let that freak flag fly out at Burning Man (18 percent). Or maybe you just wanna ogle the naked chicks. Who can say for sure?