bringing some friends

The hotel room rate for the convention hotel will be probably be around $140 a night or so after taxes. The room occupancy for these rooms is up to 4 people. I can't really answer about bus vs plane as I usually drive.

Nicona's right about the hotels: the most expensive one last year was $147 per night. The hotels have no problem with putting up to four people in a given room, and you can therefore save some money by getting the people sharing the room to kick in.

As for how to get there, I have no idea where you're coming from. It does make a difference. The major ways of getting to Anthrocon are (in descending order of cost) airplane, Amtrak, Greyhound and ride share. Air travel is the fastest and the others all vary based on where you're coming from. If you were coming from Philadelphia, PA. I'd say drive. If you're coming from Los Angeles, CA, I'd say fly. It all depends on what you can afford and what you can (and can't) put up with.

If I recall, you won't be 18 by the time of con, right? Someone in your group of friends is gonna have to be 18 to get a hotel room.

But, that aside, it depends on where you live as someone else said. If I was staying MI, come AC '11, I'd probably just drive. It's a 6 hour drive, not too bad really. Seeing as I'll probably be living out west, though, I'm going to be flying. For the plane ride, though, I'd suggest everyone pays for their own ticket. You guys may not be able to sit together, but at least this way everyone is paying for themselves.

I don't think they'd charge more. I think it's just one amount per night, and it's up to you four to figure out how to divide that up appropriately.

With four people all coming from Northern Louisiana, your three real options are Flight, Greyhound, and Carpooling. Flight would obviously be the most expensive, though assuredly the quickest.. you'll be able to start and end travel the same day. Greyhound is goign to be quite a bit less, but slower.. as you mentioned, a day and a half, roughly.

Now, I'd say carpooling is probably your best option, if you or one of your friends will have access to a well-maintained car. (You'd probably want said car to get an inspection at a trustworthy garage before the trip to ensure nothing goes wrong; one person having AAA or such through their family would also be wise. AAA covers tows and such even for passengers.) I see from a quick poke at Google Maps that it's roughly 17.5 hours by drive from Monroe, GA to Pittsburgh. Figure with a reasonable amount of meal stops and some time allotted for getting a bit lost, and you'll be able to make it in 20 hours- being able to switch off drivers will help one person from getting overwhelmed. My only concern with this would be the combined youth of the group- you guys haven't had the experience of these long, long drives and it might be rather a challenge for you. But it'll also be an adventure; you'll get to see and experience new parts of the country along the way. If there's time enough on the parts of the whole group, you might want to break the drive up into two days, just to allow yourself scenic stops along the way.

Carpooling will probably be the least expensive of the methods, even with a solid amount of gasoline cost- you're splitting it across four people.

--Chi

My mate and I drove up from Walker, La back in 2008. It took us 23 hours all told, but then I have 2 cubs that needed to stop a lot to water the trees.

I will say this, it's a beautiful drive, but will cost close to $600 in fuel with a vehicle that gets around 20/mpg. Plus meals, snacks, drinks, etc.

I was able to fly out of BTR for $264 this past year round trip. Flying is the way to go. Although I hear train travel can be a fun way to do it, but takes about 36 hours because of all the stops along the way.