If you are on a trip, what is your choice, take secondary roads that can easily double the trip time, but where you don't pay any tolls, or take the super comfortable highways and pay an absurd money with tolls? I've also realized that many countries don't have tolls at all, so is this your case? In my country tolls are super expensive!
It all depends how fast I have to be at my destination. I usually prefer to take the scenic routes and don't mind the extra fuel costs. But if I there is an urgency to be at a particular place at a certain time, I definitely take the highway. If I take the country roads, I never know if I will be held up with life stock blocking the road, or if there are some slow tractor ahead of me.
I usually take the highway when traveling. Other than in Houston we have never had to deal with a tolls. Perhaps we are just lucky, not really sure. We don't really do a lot of back roads though. I find they aren't a lot shorter, plus it is easier to get lost. But, generally if we have to go through Houston we'll go a back way or the "long" way to avoid tolls. You're totally right, they are obscenely expensive. You'll end up paying 20-30 in tolls just to get somewhere half and hour faster. Which to me is just not worth it. I'm in no rush and will take me sweet time getting there.
Like one poster said above, it depends on my destination. If I am traveling out of state to an area I am familiar with, then I will take the highway. If I am travelling far to another state on the east coast I will opt for the highway, Greyhound or airplane. Either way I am going to be out of money for the travelling expenses alone. I always save up enough to cover for gas and etc. so it won't be a burden on my mind.
Some places like New York have so many tolls to pay it maybe better to take public transporation to avoid having to pay so many tolls on the main road. If you know your way around and have no fear of getting lost take the back roads. Sometimes in my area when the highway is back up I take the back roads to get where I need to go.
I always go with the interstate. I'm actually just now in an area where there are tolls on some of the interstates. I use them anyway, though, because ultimately the toll price is better than all the extra time, gas, and frustration I would spend by taking a different, slower, worse route.
I'm not a huge fan of doubling a trip time but if it nice and scenic than I may not mind if I wasn't paying a huge amount for tolls. I can't stand paying all those toll fees, though I know it's a necessary evil... though like someone else mentioned it would really depend on how fast I needed to get where I was going. If I was like going on a business trip or something I may just deal with the tolls to get to my destination faster.
Pretty much like you Mayvin, if I am on the road my goal is not being on the road (usually), but to get somewhere and I have a limited time to do that, I mean, if I take longer on the road I will spend less time at my destination, so I prefer to pay the bill and take the highway, I think it's a necessary expense, I prefer to save somewhere else.
I'm an amateur photographer who likes the beauty of nature. When traveling, I always take the road where I'll take some nice photos. What it will cost has never concerned me. But we don't pay too many tolls where I live so it doesn't really matter if you take the highway or any other less traveled road.
In your case Denis it seems that the way to get there is as important as the destination, but usually that doesn't happen with me. For example, in August I am going to Algarve (around 300km drive) and I will take the highway because that means I save 1 or 2 hours on the road, hours that I can spend on the beach, so it's way more convenient.
In most cases, we take to highways to save time and make the most of the short time given for vacation and travel as we believe that time is harder to earn than money. But if we are not that tight with time, if we are not that concern about it, we just take the ordinary roads. Another thing that we put in consideration is the time that we travel. If we are travelling at night, we take the highways and never take the ordinary roads for safety concerns.
Some roads can be dangerous, that is true! I am a big saver, don't get me wrong, but I do save for a reason. Number one is to make it till the end of the month and number two is trying to put some money aside for the holidays, I mean, I work all year, so I think I deserve some luxuries (like using the highway haha) in the summer to go to the beach for one week.
