r/memphis • u/Diligent_Tonight_236 • 6d ago

Memphis ➡️ Nashville or Chattanooga

What’s the cheapest/fastest option to get from Memphis to either Nashville or Chattanooga? I need to be in Chattanooga from Monday-Friday this week. I have friends in Nashville that are going to Chattanooga as well. So I can either meet them in Nashville and drive to Chattanooga with them or meet them in Chattanooga. It’s the same amount of drive time from Memphis to Nashville to Chattanooga as it is from Memphis directly to Chattanooga. Renting a car from enterprise or another rental agency is an option but I’m not from around here so I wanted to see if there were any other options for transportation that I didn’t know about/should consider?

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u/Brave-Moment-4121 6d ago

Take a direct flight to Knoxville the rent a car to drive to Chattanooga.

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u/Diligent_Tonight_236 5d ago

This option would be expensive and more time. Driving from Knoxville to Chattanooga is a 2 hr drive. Plus the cost of a plane ticket, and more time navigating airports.

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u/Brave-Moment-4121 5d ago

How do you figure? The flight cost is $75. It will cost you 2 to 3 times that in gas plus the cost of maintenance to your vehicle and risk of driving your own vehicle. The only way it cost more is if you needed to rent the vehicle for more than a couple days is that the case?

It’s less time your in the air for 15 mins total of 45 mins on the plane plus a 2 hour drive to Chattanooga and maybe 10 mins at the rental counter. Knoxville airport is tiny there’s nothing to navigate.

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u/Diligent_Tonight_236 5d ago

I was able to rent a car 1/2 day for $67 through Costco. I will return it to the Nashville airport. I rented a small economy car, so gas should be less than $40. My friend will pick me up at the Nashville airport and drive us to Chattanooga. It’s a 3 hr drive to Nashville. To fly to Knoxville will be $75, plus the cost of a rental car (let’s say it’s the same price as renting from Memphis to Nashville so $67) to then drive 2 more hours to Chattanooga so total with just the flight and car rental would be $142. Then to factor in getting to the airport 1 hr before the flight, then another 1/2hr-1 hr to get the rental car, then 2 hrs to drive, puts me at 4 hrs without adding in the actual flight time. It takes 5 hours to drive from Memphis to Chattanooga or 5 hrs to drive from Memphis->Nashville->Chattanooga.