I’ll be coming from the west coast with wife and two little ones in tow and we’re trying to minimize the connecting flights, and arrive at an hour decent enough to make the drive to LP the same afternoon/evening. Anyone have tips on which airport to fly into? Looks like Burlington, VT is “somewhat” close? Anyone? Seems like even the early morning departures from here in SoCal arrive really late into that area…
I have done Burlington and Albany…with the Kids, I would go Burlington. The time is about the same for either…but…
Burlington you can take the ferry across Lake Champlain and let the kids enjoy the boat ride.
Burlington rental cars were a bit cheaper
Prettier drive, you go past Ausible Forks and some really nice water falls.
Much smaller airport
Much less traffic
I go Ohare - Detroit - Burlington. I am betting you can get a flight direct from SoCal to Albany however. UPS the bike.
Thanks for that Chip. I’ll likely use TriBikeTransport for the bike. Worked great for IMC this year.
TriB:
I live just outside of Burlington and the airport is really nice with kids b/c it’s really compact and small and quick to enter and exit from. From the airport, it is about a 10 minute drive down to the big/long ferry across L. Champlain. You drive through downtown Burlington, so it would also be a great place to stop and get something to eat.
The long ferry is about an hour (and we usually go that way when we travel with our 3 year old). There is also a ferry that is a 20 minute crossing that is about a 25 minute drive south of Burlington. Or, you can about an hour south to the Ft. Ticonderoga Bridge and cross there. Pretty much all three routes take the same amount of time to get to LP–I would say three hours being really conservative. The distance is not that far–the roads to the west of Lake Champlain are mostly secondary state routes.
If you’ve never been to Vermont, Burlington is worth the trip!
-Danielle
I live in NY so I just drove but on the marathon last year I met a guy that said he flew into Burlington. He said that he had previously went through Albany and even JFK but Burlington was much easier and nicer with the ferry. Just backing up what everybody else said…go through VT.
Hard to get from the west coast to upstate ny and not arrive really late other than the red eye. May be better to come a day earlier and stay either in Burlington or by the airport in Albany and then drive up the next morning. The drive from either is pretty nice . Will not matter much in the dark with really tired kids and adults. You may also want to consider Montreal about a 2 hour drive from LP. Also, depending on your point of origin there are some great connections on southwest through chicago midway to albany. Good luck.
I live in Burlington, and as everyone else said, its a good option. One option not mentioned (and how I get to the left coast), Montreal. It will be an easy drive to LP (~2hrs), almost all interstate roads. You can fly direct (a few LAX-YUL flights per day), no change overs are a good thing. Not sure what the high CAD$ has done to ticket prices, but it would be worth a look (just note that you’ll probably need passports by then). An added bonus is that Air Canada is a much nicer airline than the US choices 
-corin
When we did LP in 2003, we flew Southwest out of LAX to Albany for $99 each way. I didn’t get charged for the bike case on the way there, but did get charged ($40) on the way back. We stayed the night in Albany and drove into LP the next morning. It was an easy drive from Albany to Lake Placid.
Jeff
I know most of you Americans are scared silly that you will turn into an icicle if you cross the border, but you can fly direct from LAX to Montreal, rent a car and be in LP 2 hours later. Actually for the 1980 Winter Olympics, most teams flew into Montreal as it is the closest real airport with international connections. You can also fly direct to Toronto (more flt options) rent a car and drive the 5 hours or so, but with Montreal if you use one stop there are a zillion flight options available through Toronto, Chicago, Newark, Philly, Detroit.
Dev
Do NOT fly into Toronto. Do what Dev suggests.
Agree. Montreal is the way to go. Best flight options and least amount of driving once you get on the ground.
I used to live up that way a bit south of Placid. I would just see where the cheapest airfare brings you. Burlington, or Albany. Southwest does a lot of flights in and out of Albany and with the frequent specials they offer you may be able to find very cheap airfare off the Southwest website. It’s not unusual to be able to fly for $99-120 each way. It’s best probably to stay over night at the airport and drive up in the morning. Albany is probably a slightly easier drive but both options have a lot of twisty roads that would suck to navigate in darkness while tired after air travel all day. Good luck.
I think both are good contact points… however the capital district is pretty awful…so I suggest Burlington for sight-seeing sake…some of the best views of our mtns… the adks, are seen from VT…both shops in town, Placid planet an high peaks do well for bike delivery.
Thanks all! Great advice! I have some “bump” freebie tickets we’ll be using on United, so the airfare will be free. Any issues with renting a car in Canada and driving across the border? I would think the rental car companies would frown on that, no?
No issues with renting and driving across the border. People are doing it all the time. If you fly United, there are codeshare flts direct from LAX to Montreal (YUL). You should be able to cash your United points on this flight, get a United flight number and fly into Montreal on an Air Canada “piece of equipment”. Alternatively, if you want to take a connection, then fly into Chicago and then connect to Montreal.
Now that I think of it DO NOT CONNECT THROUGH TORONTO!!!
Why, because you will be forced to clear customs in Toronto…the best way to miss your connection as you will have to wait for all your luggage including bike box, go through the “nothing to declare line up” and then haul it back to the “connection” baggage drop off point. I have to do this everytime I fly from SFO to Ottawa via Toronto and even though I am not carrying a bike, I do everything in my power to only have a carry on. Connecting in Toronto sucks.
If you fly from LAX through ORD (Chicago) on United, you will check your bags right through to Montreal and then you will clear customs in Montreal. Best of all, from customs to the Montreal airport Rental Car counter is a 100m walk…a good thing when you have a bike box and don’t have to get onto another Rental Car shuttle to drive to a Rental Car Parking lot 3 miles away.
If you decide to fly into Montreal, feel free to email me. I would suggest you take the Pont Mercier (Mercier Bridge) to get off the island of Montreal, rather than trekking 20 miles across town to the Pont Champlain to get to the 15 to hook up with the Interstate 87 which is likely the directions that maps.google.com or mapquest will give you. Also, I suggest that you plan your flight so that you arrive in the evening around 6:30 pm, so by the time you get your car and get out of the airport the traffic is not crazy and you should be in Lake Placid by 9 pm.
Alternatively, you can fly on United from LAX via ORD to Ottawa (same flying time as MTL). From Ottawa, LP is a 2:45-3 hour drive, but the airport is really small, so clearing customs is quick and the rental car counter is even closer to the arrival zone…the drive out of Ottawa is also very laid back as you are already in the South end of town in the right direction to get the 416 to the US border. Its no secret why we usually have 60-80 athletes from Ottawa competing in LP.
On the way back, you can also play tourist and spend a day or two in Ottawa or Montreal or both…lots to see in both cities…certainly a pile more than Albany (in all fairness to our Albany ST friends…)
Dev
Hmm. Placid via Toronto. Only worth the 6 hour drive if you get to meet Don Cherry at the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame.
Best way to the Winter Sports Capital of the World is via Lake Clear Regional, baby. The 27 minute drive from the airport to the Crowne Plaza will provide a delicious appetizer for the real road cycling that the ADK park has to offer. After all, they don’t call it the Tri-Lakes Region for nothing ; )
Sidebar, I’ll be damned if Bill at Placid Planet Bicycles doesn’t brew espresso that will raise your vo2max by 4 liters/minute.
http://placidplanetbicycles.com/page.cfm?pageID=105
Yeah, Bill.
~Dave.
Zarskieman, are you driving at 80 kph or 120 kph? Anyway, he asked for direct flight options first…Toronto (5) and Montreal (2) are the closest with direct flights.
Yep. Direct flights first, true. However, the thread is ‘which airport to fly into’, right? In my opinion Lake Clear is the easiest if you can get a worthwhile connection from Albany or Boston. Beyond that, Burlington and Albany are essentially equidistant, but Montreal usually entails some (0-60 min) delay at customs.
I only meant to suggest that the drive from Lake Clear offers killer views of Whiteface from a vantage a scarce few IM racers get to see, as well as a glimpse of the area’s finest road riding beyond the now ‘GO CHRISTENE GO’ tagged Ironman Rodeo 73/Rt.9/86 killer-combo.
Sorry to deviate OT. “Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime is death.”
Just check with your own car insurance company and make sure that your insurance covers you in Canada. When we first moved back to the States (to VT), we used to have to contact our insurance company when we went to Canada. As much as Dev and Fleck’s ideas to fly to Canada make a lot of sense re: saving flight time and connection, remember the customs issues and the whole change in passport issues. The drive from Montreal to LP is shorter, but as the parent of a three year old, I have not-fond memories of waiting to cross the border back into the U.S. with a really hungry baby in the backseat…
-Danielle
Can’t you fly into Saranac?? I’ve no idea of how often flights go there, but that’s where my Dad’s flying into from the UK next year (obviously not direct), so it must be possible…