My family and friends will be joing me for the Lake Placid IM. Any suggestions what city they should fly into? Would Albany be the best city?
Albany is probably the best. it depends… If your friends are looking for a good trip, Montreal is a good option. i am from there and it is about the same disatnce than albany. Montreal is great in july. Lots to see and to do, very cultural. You can also try saranac lake or burlington vermont. Hope this helps
I would strongly advise against the Montreal option. Not that Montreal is not a great city (it is in fact a fabulous city), but you will have to cross borders twice at the infamous Montreal Dorval Airport, which could take a very long time. (Assuming you will be flying from the States fo course)
If you want to visit Montreal after the Ironman, just drive there for a few a days. Provided that you don’t cross the country line on a sunday evening, it should only take a few minutes. Then, drive back to the States to take your plane back.
If you fly to a small airport (Burlington or Saranac Lake) arrive a couple day early since it is never guaranteed that your bike will follow you on smaller airplanes.
Francois (in Montreal)
I have done Albany as well as Burlington…I prefer Burlington as it was more relaxed. The drive time is about the same - but add for the ferry on Champlain. It was kinda neat on the Ferry and all…mountain roads, no freeways. Nice stuff.
The ONLY REAL option is to fly into Montreal. This is the airport that the whole world used for the 1980 Lake Placid winter Olympic games. You can rent a car in dirt cheap Canadian dollars and be in LP in 2 hours. If you are flying from the west coast, Air Canada has direct flights from LAX and SFO, so your trip is that much simpler.
Dev