Hi,

I am based in Boston, MA and would like to visit my friend in Washington DC for a surprise visit this Fri. I can leave Boston on Thu evening or anytime Fri and would like to return to Boston on Saturday am.

Apart from the Amtrak options, can any help me out with flights. I believe there are 3 airports in the Washington DC area....which one usually has the 'best fares'?

I will need to get to Metro Center from the airport using public transport as my friend does not have a car.

Thanks,
Bostonian

National Airport is right in DC and has its own Metro station, so it's by far the most convenient. You might be able to get a good fare if you travel at hours that aren't popular with business travelers.

If you fly into Dulles or BWI, you'll have to take one of the Metro's shuttle buses between the airport and the subway system.

My daughter often flies between Logan and BWI; the B30 express bus runs every 40 minutes, 7 days a week, costs about $3 and takes about 30 minutes to get from the BWI terminal to the Greenbelt Metro station. You'll have to make one transfer on Metro lines, but they're easy because all it takes is one escalator ride.

The best fares will likely be to IAD or BWI. DCA is closest to DC, right across the river in VA but usually the most expensive. All have public transportation options to DC as well as taxis.

Cheapest to DCA this late is $436 with a stop, maybe a change, in Newark, leaving Thursday, returning Saturdday.

Yikes, for that sort of price and time/hassle investment, I'd be looking at Amtrak instead. Takes you right from South Station to Union Station, eliminating all the waiting, check-in lead times, ground-transit hassles, and potential weather-related deyals.

At this late moment, your best bet is to fly into BWI. You can get flights from Boston, Providence or Manchester.

dayals --> delays

The last time my daughter flew into DC, her 90-minute flight was delayed nearly 3 hours due to weather in a different part of the country and the resulting unavailability of a plane for her flight. The distance for which it's "worth it" to take ground transit rather than flying gets greater every year!

kayak.com to compare fares, but they no longer list American Airlines and then you also should check Southwest out of Manchester or Providence if that works for you.

I would fly - considering you only have about 36 hours by your timeline.

With the money you save flying into BWI or Dulles you could rent a car for that time period.

Try AirTran into BWI -- looks like about $240 roundtrip.

Hi,

I may fly into IAD or BWI...can you please help me figure out the public transport options, especially from IAD.

How long would I take to get to the Metro Center area?

Thanks,
Bostonian

There is a metro bus from Dulles that connects to the metro in Rosslyn (Va) or L'Enfant Plaza (DC) (costs $3 and runs once an hour). There's also a private bus, "Washington Flyer" that runs from Dulles to the metro at W. Falls Church (costs $10 and runs 2x per hour).

The metro has a pretty good "trip planner" on their website, http://www.wmata.com/default.cfm. According to that, it takes about an hour of travel time from Dulles to Metro Center (assuming you catch the bus right when it leaves), and you can click through to the bus schedule.

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated!