What’s the nearest airport? I Called IMUSA and the woman on the phone didn’t know. SHe said it’s 2 hrs away, but didn’t know the name.
You can actually fly directly into Saranac/Lake Placid airport but the plane will be a small turboprop and your bike probably won’t go with you. Some people go into Burlington, VT but a majority go into Albany and drive around 2 hrs to get there…
My sis is coming in to watch and is flying (from Charlotte) into Burlington. Supposedly there is a ferry boat you can take across the lake, or just drive around the lake. She is planning to get into Burlington in mid afternoon, spend the night there and drive to LP the next day - although I think she could probably make the entire trip in one day.
Saranac also has an airport, although a colleague flew in there for a business meeting about a year ago told me its pretty expensive.
The Web site says something like “Flying into Lake Placid is difficult…”
…not exactly a ringing endorsement.
Fly into Burlington. Very small airport, in a way cool town. And do take the ferry from Burlington across the lake. The schedule for the ferry is probably at the airport or search the web for it. I think it runs from 8:00 AM until around 5:00 PM, and is about an hour across. Driving around the lake is just as fast but it isn’t as cool.
last year we flew into albany, and rented a car there. the drive wasn’t bad, 1.5 or so.
Tarp
Thanks everyone. Sounds like Burlington is the way to go.
Cool. Looks like a flight to albany may be a bit cheaper.
This is a no brainer.
Fly direct from any major US or European city to Montreal Canada (ie Newark, Laguardia, Boston, Detroit, Pittsburg, Chicago, San Francisco, LA, Denver, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, Lisbon, Zurich, Amsterdam, Brussells etc), and then rent a car and you are in LP within 1:45. The airport in Montreal is actually on the “right side of the city” so you don’t have to spend 60 min getting across this city.
This is what the whole world did for the Olympic Games in Lake Placid. This is likely half the price of some convoluted 5 stop connection routine on a puddlehopper to Burlington Vt.
Your travel agent likely won’t tell you to do this because it would never occur to them to actually leave the United States to travel to a location in the United States.
After the Ironman, spend a few days in Montreal, one of the best cities in North America from a tourism perspective. Much more exciting than going to Burlington on Albany to catch a flight.
Dev
My sister and her boyfriend would probably be detained at the US/Canadian border…
Montreal is not the cheapest airport to fly into either - I travel there enough to know that - for business.
I checked. It’s $210 more to fly from Chicago-Montreal than Chicago-Albany.
We’ve done both the Albany airport and Burlington Vt. I highly prefer the Burlington route along with the ferry ride. Last year the ferry was loaded with athletes and we socialized the entire trip.
Check out Jet Blue for airfare if they service your area. Our hosts in Lake Placid commute between Naples and Lake Placid all summer and they use Burlington.
Support Crew
One other point to keep in mind about Albany. As you probably know, lodging in LP is expensive. I found it much cheaper to fly to Albany and actually stay in Albany that night, then head to LP the next day (Friday). Same could be done on the reverse (stay in Albany the night before a morning flight out).