Getting around once you land: cars, rides and transit

Getting around is where trips quietly fall apart. The flight lands on time and the hotel is lovely, and then nobody knows how they're getting from one to the other, or back from dinner at midnight.

This section covers rental cars, rideshare, taxis, public transit, airport transfers and road trips. We look at when a rental car pays for itself and when it's just a parking bill, how far rideshare can take you in a spread-out beach town, and what local transit is genuinely good for. We treat the ride home at night as part of the plan, not an afterthought.

Our first guide covers the Grand Strand, where the distances surprise people. More are coming on rental car tips, road trip planning and airport transfers in the cities our readers visit most.