Miguel Cruz wrote in message ...
Hallvard Tangeraas wrote:

I'm shortly going from Vancouver in Canada to Washington DC in the
States, then Washington DC to New York, then finally to Switzerland
from New York.

Thanks for the replies to everybody.
The full story is that I already have plane tickets -a Star Alliance
round-the-world ticket, so I don't have to worry about which airport
gives the best fares, but rather what's most convenient.

I've called up the airlines and made a preliminary change, but can
change it again if I like.
The information here has been helpful.

What I've done now is the following:

- Vancouver - Washington DC Reagan (DCA)
- Washington DC Dulles - New York La Guardia
- New York JFK - Zurich (via Frankfurt)


Washington National (DCA; which you've called "Reagan", thus giving yourself
away as a non-DC local) is by far the most convenient airport to the city.
Much much more convenient than Dulles (IAD).

Yup. That's what I found out after searching for a Washington DC map
online, so most convenient when arriving in the evening.


The second most convenient after National is Baltimore (BWI). Dulles is a
distant third, and is also the world's worst airport.

I thought I'd try out another airport when leaving, but if it's really
a crappy and inconvenient one which is difficult and time-consuming to
get to I can change this to IAD as well.
How much time do you reckon I'd use to take a bus/train to Dulles?



Unfortunately flights to National can be more expensive, and not all
airlines serve it. But use it if you can.

National airport isn't an option for me since Star alliance doesn't
list it when searching for destinations, so I guess none of their
airlines use that one.


New York : John F. Kennedy
La Guardia

LaGuardia (LGA) is probably the fastest to town if you're flying into New
York from elsewhere in the USA. Not by much though. And as others have said,
no international service except Canada.

I've made a good choice then, since LaGuardia is what I've set up
already, when arriving from Vancouver.


For flying out to Switzerland it's a toss-up between Newark (EWR) and JFK.
Personally I prefer EWR as it's a bit faster to get to and in better shape
than most of the JFK terminals.

Again, Newark isn't used by Star Alliance apparently, so JFK seems to
be the only choice, but too bad it's hard to get to with public
transport.
Someone mentioned it being a long subway ride, but I'm OK with that (I
took a long train ride getting to Tokyo Narita airport from the city
as well). What I don't like however is if I have to change
trains/buses a million times when I haven't been there before and I'll
be afraid to miss something or not find the buses/trains.

So, how do I get from one of the central locations in NY to JFK?
I think I might be staying at one of the Chelsea hostels in Manhattan
if they have rooms available.
Would that be a good choice for staying 5 days in New York, trying to
see as much as possible without spending half of each day just
travelling?


Hallvard