Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Every week, thousands of area Washingtonians decide to escape the beltway and take a trip up to New York.  As with most topics around here, the conveyance used for the trip has become a matter of great debate.

Car:

It's so tempting to take your car.  You have the freedom to come and go as you please, you don't have to deal with crowds, you can blast your tunes and stop to pee whenever you feel like it.  It also means you don't have to shell out more than a hundred bucks for a ticket, but not so fast.  Tolls to NYC are currently $37.05, and just slightly cheaper on the way home.  Plus gas to get you 460 miles round trip, and parking at NYC hotels averages in the $50 range.

And then there's the traffic.  Sure, leaving at 6am on a Saturday morning will usually yield you a pleasant trip taking about 4 hours.  But add in a holiday, rush hour, weather, or construction, and this travel time can double.  It's too much of a crap shoot for my tastes, and really the car is more of a hinderance than a help once in the city.

Car total cost for 2 people for 2 days: around $115 per person ($70 tolls, $100 parking, $50 gas divided by 2).  Not my favorite way to go.

Train:

I don't like the train.  I don't.  A lot of people have a hard time handling that. 

I understand the virtues.  There is no security, you should up ten minutes before the train leaves, don't have to go through security, you move about freely, and it drops you right in the middle of Manhattan.  It really is 3.5 hours door to door (including cab time).  But that also includes 195 minutes sitting in an Amtrak regional train jerking back and forth and stopping more often than it seems like it should.  And these days, its rare to find a daytime NE Regional that isn't completely full.  Plus with no assigned seats, it is an absolute mad dash to find spots together if you are traveling with companions, which is stressful in the Penn Station "pit".

The costs of the train vary wildly - if you book far in advance, off peak, you can get a regional for 98$ round trip, a real bargain.  But most of the time, I find I end up paying closer to $200 about 2 weeks in advance.

Cost for 2 people for 2 nights: 230$ per person (assuming 200$ ticket, Union Station parking and 10$ for NYC taxi)

Plane to JFK:

Have you been to JFK lately?  Probably not unless you've traveled internationally - be thankful that the "local" NYC airport is La Guardia.  JFK is 17 miles from the lower east side of Manhattan - a flat taxi rate of 45$ applies to or from, you can get a car service for $40 from JFK to Manhattan but they charge $63 to get you back.  You also have to heavily factor in traffic to get to and from the airport.  As one friend this weekend described it, the Delta terminals in JFK were designed by children - clearly Terminal 2 was.  DCA to JFK also does not count as a shuttle, meaning you have to put up with all of the crap of regular flying that is somewhat alleviated with the shuttle.

And last but not least, it takes forever to fly to JFK.  The FAA has the standard flight pattern swinging out over the ocean to avoid traffic into Philly, EWR, and LGA.  When you leave, you have to fly out even further over the ocean to get around the inbound traffic, so you end up going east over the Atlantic for 40 miles, when DC is considerably west of New York.  In other words, you drive around the skies of the east coast for an hour in a flight pattern that nearly doubles the distance.  It's just not worth it.

DCA-JFK cost for 2 day flight: $265  ($170 ticket, 55$ taxi and tip each way, 20$ per day parking at DCA)

Place to LGA:

This is the bomb diggity in my book.  You fly from the easy local airport (DCA) to the easy local airport (LGA), its a nearly straight flight pattern that takes 35 minutes, its a short cab ride into Manhattan for about $30 bucks, and you're on the shuttle which means open seating, newspapers, cocktails, and that little Delta shuttle terminal at LGA that is soooooo easy to get in and out of.  Its worth a slightly higher fare if that applies.

Cost per person for 2 day trip: $260 ($200 ticket, $40 taxi and tip each way, $20 per day parking at DCA)