I’d hardly be able to go to work following those rules.
It depends on what’s at the end and what’s in between. We just drove 8 hours for a 3 day vacation in two places with another four or five hours of harrowing driving between, but we stopped off at some interesting places along the way. When my wife and I were in different colleges I’d happily drive 10 hours to visit her for two days.
But I’ve always liked long distance driving.
I like to drive, so I’ll log the hours for nothing. I once left a book in KY while I visited family - I drove 6 hours, picked up the book, and drove home. On a motorcycle, I tend to ride from sun-up to sundown, so I’d want a day’s rest for each day of travel.
However, there aren’t many people with my tolerance level. I’ve learned that most passengers are good for about 6 hours of driving/riding a day with a 1-hour break in the middle, or a 30 minute break each fill-up on the bike.
When we visit my in-laws on a 3 days weekend it’s a 5.5 hour drive on Friday after work, stay 2.5 days and drive back Monday night. That’s about the comfort limit for me.
Frankly, it entirely depends. Earlier this year, I drove about 3 hours each way in the same day to attend a concert. A concert I went to last weekend, if it hadn’t been only 20 minutes, I would have driven to New York if I had to see them, which is probably about 5 hours each way.
In general, there’s a bit of a diminishing return. I don’t fret too much about 60-90 minutes each way for a single day, but 5-6 hours is pretty much my absolute limit of what I can handle and I’d rather fly or at least do a train or something. I do generally enjoy driving, especially the type for a vacation where it should be mostly on open road, but sitting still that long just doesn’t work. So I’d pretty much say, for one day, about 90 minutes, and works down some to about 45-50 minutes per day after that.
It’s 9hrs each way to my friends place in NY. We’ll go for a three day weekend but it’s too much for a two day weekend.
For me I’d drive all weekend without ever actually getting anywhere. I love driving when I’m not in a hurry so if I have time to poke around on the back roads, stop when I want and sleep when I’m tired I would happily drive 12 hours just to turn around and drive back the next day. This drives my husband insane. He requires a goal.
I’m another person who doesn’t mind driving. We’ll often take off Thursday afternoon for Santa Barbara or Las Vegas, spend 1 or 2 nights and come home. Each is about 3.5 hours from here.
I am not a big fan of driving or road trips. Anything more than 3 hours of driving and I start seriously considering 1) planes/trains or 2) alternative vacations.
The exception would be trips when I can do multiple little destinations. Like, my last trip to Yellowstone (about 8 hours of driving total) was to spend the night with friends in Spokane, spent four days in Yellowstone, spend a day at Craters of the Moon on the way back, with a night in Oregon, and then the last day driving back. (We were going to visit with friends in Yakima on the way back, but they canceled on us.) Even that was an awful lot of driving; we’d probably not drive that again.
Depends on what it is for. I drive a thirty-four hour round trip for dinner with some close friends, plus staying over and having breakfast the next day. That’s more time in the car than at the destination.
Earlier this year my boyfriend and I drove 14 hours one-way to Virginia Beach for a two-day stay, then 14 hours back again. Of course an hour of that drive was just getting from Norfolk to Virginia Beach… The trip was a special occasion, boyfriend’s best friend from childhood was getting a big promotion in the Navy and we were invited to the ceremony. I don’t think we would’ve driven that far for a short stay otherwise.
Longest drive with shortest stay was five (mostly 12-14 hour) days drive from Ontario to BC with a five day stay and then I drove back for five days. So 50 or so hours driving each way for 5 days vacation. That’s a bit more than I’d normally ever do, but gas was cheaper then, I wanted to see my family in BC, I’d never driven across Canada and I wanted to take my dogs with me. It was a great trip, loved the drive and saw some wonderful scenery, though wish I could have stayed with my family longer.
For a weekend, I’ll drive whatever it takes to get to where I want to be - the amount of time I’m willing to devote to that depends on how badly I want to be there.
My usual trip is to the SF Bay Area for a two day stay with my best friend. I’ll drive down and visit for the evening on day 1. Day 2 is more visiting and dinner. Leave in the morning on day 3 arriving home at the end of the day. Shorter than this, at $4.10 a gallon, no deal.
So I think the answer to the OP question is at least two full visitation/activity days for each day of travel.