The plane may have landed, but at some beach destinations the vacation is still hours away. Across 100 well-known coastal getaways, the final airport-to-beach trip ranges from a four-minute drive to nearly three hours on the road.
That contrast is especially sharp in the U.S. Key West ranks third worldwide, while the Hamptons, Rehoboth Beach and the Outer Banks occupy three of the four lowest positions among drivable destinations.
To show how much travel remains after the flight, Mozio, a global ground transportation booking platform, analyzed 100 well-known beach destinations across the U.S., Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. The study measured Google driving time and distance from each destination’s primary commercial gateway to a representative beach point. The 97 drivable destinations received a combined accessibility score weighted 60% toward travel time and 40% toward distance, while three destinations requiring an additional boat or plane journey were placed in a separate category. The ranking measures the ground transfer only and does not factor in flight availability.
Key Takeaways:
Cozumel ranks No. 1 overall at 1.2 miles and five minutes from the airport, followed by Sharm El Sheikh at No. 2 and Key West at No. 3. Sharm El Sheikh has the fastest drive at four minutes, but Cozumel wins the combined time-and-distance ranking.
Seven destinations in the 50 states make the global top 30: Key West at No. 3, San Diego at No. 10, Myrtle Beach at No. 13, Daytona Beach at No. 15, Fort Lauderdale at No. 21, Coronado at No. 24 and Waikiki at No. 30. Including Charlotte Amalie in the U.S. Virgin Islands and San Juan in Puerto Rico raises the total to nine.
Four destinations in U.S. states place among the global top 15: Key West, San Diego, Myrtle Beach and Daytona Beach.
Key West is the highest-ranked U.S. destination and one of only six places worldwide where travelers can reach the beach in eight minutes or less. Its 1.8-mile transfer is also the second-shortest drive in the study.
American destinations occupy three of the bottom four drivable positions. The Hamptons ranks No. 94, Rehoboth Beach No. 95 and the Outer Banks No. 96, with only Manuel Antonio in Costa Rica ranking lower.
The gap between the highest and lowest U.S. destinations is 134 minutes and 118.2 miles. Reaching the Outer Banks takes more than 23 times as long and covers nearly 67 times the distance of the Key West transfer.
Of the 35 destinations analyzed across 14 U.S. states, 17 can be reached within 30 minutes and 30 are one hour or less from their gateway airport. Only Gulf Shores, Cape Cod, the Hamptons, Rehoboth Beach and the Outer Banks take longer than an hour.
Florida has more destinations in the study than any other state, with 11, followed by California with six. South Carolina and Hawaii have three each. Florida places three destinations in the global top 25, while California places two.
Across all 97 drivable destinations, 55, or 56.7%, are 30 minutes or less from the airport. Eighty-three, or 85.6%, are reachable within an hour, while 14 require more than 60 minutes.
Sharm El Sheikh has the fastest airport transfer at four minutes, while Manuel Antonio has the longest at 169 minutes. That creates a 165-minute difference, with the longest transfer taking more than 42 times as long as the shortest.
The top 10 destinations average just 7.9 minutes and 2.4 miles from the airport. The bottom 10 drivable destinations average 112 minutes and 72.4 miles, making the average bottom-10 journey 14 times longer and 30 times farther.
Distance and travel time do not always move together. The Outer Banks is the farthest destination from its gateway airport at 120 miles, but Manuel Antonio takes the longest to reach, with its 97.6-mile route requiring two hours and 49 minutes.
Three destinations sit in a separate non-drivable category. Malé requires a 10-minute speedboat transfer, Bora Bora an 18-minute boat journey, and Boracay a 30-minute boat or plane leg beyond the initial flight.
The 10 most accessible drivable destinations are Cozumel, Mexico (No. 1); Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt (No. 2); Key West, U.S. (No. 3); George Town, Cayman Islands (No. 4); Mallorca, Spain (No. 5); Corfu, Greece (No. 6); Montego Bay, Jamaica (No. 7); Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands (No. 8); Mykonos, Greece (No. 9); and San Diego, U.S. (No. 10).
The 10 least accessible drivable destinations are Gros Islet, St. Lucia (No. 88); Zanzibar, Tanzania (No. 89); Goa, India (No. 90); Negril, Jamaica (No. 91); Cape Cod, U.S. (No. 92); Saint-Tropez, France (No. 93); the Hamptons, U.S. (No. 94); Rehoboth Beach, U.S. (No. 95); the Outer Banks, U.S. (No. 96); and Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica (No. 97).
You can view the full study here: https://www.mozio.com/blog/
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