For one night away, driving yourself is cheap and easy. For a fortnight it is four hundred kilometres of driving on the two days you least want to do it, plus a parking bill that accrues every single day you are gone.
| Works at any hour | Yes |
| Fixed total cost | No |
| Car sits at the airport | Yes |
| You drive tired | Both ends |
| Good for one night | Yes |
Fuel for roughly four hundred kilometres of round trip, twice — once when you leave and once when you come back. Tolls on the Sydney end. Airport parking for every day you are away, at whichever rate applies to the car park you booked.
None of those are outrageous individually. Added together over a two-week trip they routinely exceed a return shuttle fare, and unlike our fare they are not a number you know before you go.
You leave in the dark, drive two hours, park, take a car park bus to the terminal, and fly. Then you land after however many hours in the air, collect the car, and drive two hours home tired.
That last leg is the one worth thinking about. Driving the Hume after a long-haul flight, at whatever hour you land, with wildlife about at dawn, is not the same task as driving it fresh.
One night away, travelling alone, flight at a civilised hour, car you are happy to leave. In that case park it and go — the parking is a day or two and the drive is manageable.
The calculation flips as soon as the trip gets longer, the flight gets earlier, or there is more than one of you. And it flips hard on a fortnight.
Check the current prices yourself. We deliberately do not quote a dollar figure for the alternatives on this page — they change, and a stale number in our own favour would not be an honest comparison. Our fare is published on the fares page; hold it against whatever the alternative actually costs today.
It varies by car park and how far ahead you book, and the rates change. Look up the current price for your dates and hold it against our published return fare.
For one night, usually. For a week or a fortnight, generally not once you add fuel, tolls and parking for every day.
About two hours each way from Goulburn, longer from the outer localities - so roughly four hundred kilometres of round trip, done twice.
It is an extra leg with your luggage at both ends, and it runs to its own frequency rather than yours.
It is the part of this option we would think hardest about. Two hours on the Hume, tired, at whatever hour you land, with wildlife about at dawn.
Published fixed fare, no deposit, and nothing charged until after drop-off.
Not sure which option suits you? Ask and we will tell you honestly.
Get a Free Quote →These are our own transfers — the van at the Sydney Airport kerb, a full boot of the group’s suitcases, and customers dropped right at their cruise ship. Not stock photos.
