Which is better to use: "добраться к" or "добраться до"?

Question

As far as I can tell добраться means "to get to (somewhere/place)".

However, since it's a reflexive verb, in order to take an additional "object", it needs to have a preposition following it. (Unless one has a special-purpose adverb, as in the case of добраться домой). It is unclear to me which preposition is better used here, к or до.

Specifically, добраться к and добраться до both seem to be synonymous to me.

Question: Which is better to use: добраться к or добраться до?

The choice of whether to use к or до does not seem to depend on the type of destination. I have seen both добраться к нам and добраться до нас to mean "to reach us/arrive at where we are", i.e. for arriving at a place defined by some person/people's presence there. I have also seen both used for arriving at a place defined intrinsically, i.e. by name but not by a person's presence or absence there, e.g. добраться к аэропорту and добраться до аэропорта.

(Compare: Она ходила к нам, поэтому она была у нас and Она ходила в аэропорт, поэтому она была в аэропорту -- the different types of locations demand different prepositions.)

The word добраться is new to me, and I don't think it is as likely that I will use it correctly in the future if I don't learn it with a corresponding preposition. But I am not sure which phrase would be better to put on my flash cards: добраться к or добраться до.

Answer 1

The exact semantic difference eludes me but one thing is for sure: добраться до is 30 times as frequent as добраться к according to ruscorpora.ru. So use до and you'll be right 30:1.

Answer 2

By default and when required, a verb with a prefix is used in a same-topic utterance with an existing modern preposition similar to a prefix (unless semantics and/or usage require it to be otherwise). Not sure if with works with inanimate complements only or otherwise:

Зайти за деньгами.

Набрести на клад.

Довести до ума.

With your examples, both options are correct, but there are some different nuances of meaning.

к нам means spatially a location 'where we are' in a sense similar to the French 'chez nous' (a place where we abide and which is ours);

до нас means spatially a location 'where we are' in a sense 'a place where we are located now and which is not ours'

This difference seems to work with animate compliments only. E. g. one cannot say about inanimate complements * 'дойти к двери' or * 'дойти к городу' (but the rare or possible usage of дойти + к can also be explained by the aforementioned nuances as well).