Quirky question here... I am planning a trip to fly into the New England area, rent a car, and make stops in several states. It's all part of a plan with my Daughter to stand in all 50 states before she hits a certain age.

My question is... what is the best area Airport to fly into?

I am trying to tap into the collective wisdom (and avoid spending hours on different travel sites seeing which airlines go to what airports). If anyone has advice on airlines having frequent specials in-and-out of a specific Airport, I'd love to hear it.

So far, for no real reason, I'm looking towards Manchester, NH as my spot. But I could be mistaken for any number of reasons.

Any advice you can offer me would be appreciated. Gracias.

I'd use www.itasoftware.com to find out which airlines ervice which airports.

Only problem with Manchester is that it is serviced by Southwest (as well as others) and those Southwest flights will not show up if you use ITASOFTWARE to find them.

It of course depends on where you want to go in New England. Manchester is a good choice, because it's not too big, and it's fairly easy to get in and out of. From Manchester, it's a short hop to Boston, the White Mountains,and the Maine coast. Vermont is about 1.5-2 hours. Other options might be Bradley (Hartford Ct.) if you want to explore the Berkshires and Litchfield. Burlington Vt airport if you want to explore Burlington and Quebec, or Portland if you want to explore the Maine coast. Of course there's always Logan, which is just about in downtown Boston. All in all Manchester would probably be your best bet.

Don't forget Providence, RI. Maybe better if you want to stand in RI, CT, MA, NY. It is also a big Southwest airport. I think Logan is the most central if you want to do all the NE states. And if you do...trip report please

I vote for MHT but that's because it's the one I usually use. As Zootsi pointed out, from there it's a short hop to the other states. I would guess Providence airport to be only 2 hours away so go with the best bargain on flights or where you would like to spend the night. From MHT it's less than an hour to Portsmouth NH (great restaurants on the coast), drive across the bridge and your in Kittery ME where there's great shopping outlets, head back to Concord NH and via Rt 89, VT is only an hour from Concord. Then you can head down Rt 91 to MA and CT. Head over to RI and back to MHT. With careful route planning you could probably do all New England states in one day of driving. From VT you could slip over to NY. Have fun.

MHT may be a good choice depending on where you are coming from. There are few direct flights to or from there so it may make travel more inconvenient than going to Boston. I usually find cheaper flights out of Boston than MHT and more direct flights. But then you have the hassle of dealing with Boston traffic which may or may not be a real problem depending upon your time of day, day of the week and your own comfort level of driving in a city.

Shop price and schedule for MHT or BOS. Southwest, Delta, USAirways are primary carriers into MHT. Just about everyone except Southwest flies into BOS.

A reasonable itinerary could be put together to hit all of New England flying into either airport.

I would suggest doing as the Gail above says, but add Providence (PVD). All three airports are so close (relatively) that if you get a great flight going into one only, might be worth it regardless of the extra hour or so drive. As others have pointed out, depending on where you are coming from it might be a little tougher getting a direct flight into Manchester or Providence than BOS; but that might not be really important to you.

I may be jumping on this post a bit too late; I have to say that the choice ofairport will depend on what area you wish to visit the most.

I can vouch for Bradley International (Hartford area, CT) to be a pleasant, quick, on-time experience.

JetBlue, my favorite low-cost airline services Burlington, VT. If you are coming from an airport JB serves, they are a great choice and Burlington is a nice location for access to much of New England.

I may be too late, but the only thing to consider when flying into any other airport besides Logan is the frequency of flights. If your flight is cancelled or you miss it due to weather, there aren't as many other flights to choose from. If you are flying in the winter, that's a consideration.