Can anyone tell me the cheapest way to get to Boston from New York (hitchhiking not included!!)

Thanks

Peter Pan bus - leaves from Port Authority a number of times every day but fare has risen greatly over the years - it's now $79 RT off-peak.

Best bet is one of the Chinatown bus services - they're about $15-20 each way and there are several to choose from. 5% discount available for booking on-line. Check this web page for good comparative information on this and other cheap northeast transportation options

http://www.sethweinstein.com/travel/...x.shtml#boston

How about amtrak. Right now you can get a buy 1 get 1 free if purchased by 2/15. Single travel get 25% off. Although you need to purchase by the 15th you can travel thru august. www.amtrak.com

Well, since someone said bus and someone else said train I'll throw in my 2 cents -- rent a car!

That exhausts your choices, unless you walk.

Peter Pan Bus Lines and Greyhound now have sale fares that run $40 roundtrip from Boston to New York. There are about 8 choices per day from Boston at that fare and you can return on any bus from New York. However, my experience is that as long as you buy a $40 roundtrip ticket the bus drivers aren't going to question your ticket as you board the bus. The drivers change so frequently that they don't even know the fares.

There's another bus line called Entertainment based out of South Station that also has $40 roundtrip fares to New York. The difference is that Peter Pan and Greyhound which honor each others tickets through an alliance program run hourly, and on some occasions on the half hour. Entertainment only has a few runs each day.

SallyKate, being that you are originating in New York, Peter Pan or Greyhound is the way to go. You can buy a ticket at the Port Authority and board any bus at anytime from New York for $40 roundtrip.

The Peter Pan buses are newer and cleaner than the Greyhound buses. Peter Pan shows movies on many of its NYC/Boston runs; Greyhound does not show movies.

Keep the "O" and buy a N, W, Y, R K and E.

huh?

I highly recommend the Chinatown buses. Go to
http://www.staticleap.com/chinatownbus/
to get the list of companies. I used to take travelpackusa.com and I find the buses were cleaner and newer than Greyhound/Peterpan, good service and on time performance. Peterpan has gone downhill when it merged with Greyhound. With travelpack I had no problem getting a ticket by just going there 20 minutes before, it's $15 minutes for morning departures from Boston.

huh?

Since I think you are the same person asking about possibly seeing Cape Cod, I did a fast search on 1-way car rentals (looked on Expedia). You can do a 1-way car rental (pick up in New York and drop off in Boston) for about $75/day. You probably could get a lower rate, but they may also try to charge you for other things like insurance since you are not US citizen that may raise cost.

This is certainly not cheapest way to get from NY to Boston, but if you want to go to Cape Cod or stop in Plymouth (as one responder to another of your questions suggested), a car might make sense for a day or so. I would not keep the car in either NY or Boston, but pick it up for the trip and any side-trip before you end up in Boston.

There's a Chinatown to Chinatown bus that's $15 each way (I believe). http://www.fungwahbus.com/

Very interested in the above discussion but (sorry to hijack your thread for this SallyKate) I am interested in the best way of returning to NYC (actually JFK). I will be picking a car up in Boston and notice that the one way drop-off charge will apply in NYC but not in the likes of Hartford, New Haven or Newport. Are there good cheap bus options from any of those places to NYC/JFK?

One of your options and actually more direct than going back into NYC is to take the Peter Pan bus from Boston to Hartford. From the Hartford bus terminal, you can then switch to another bus line (I don't recall the name of it) that goes directly to JFK. There's also a bus that goes to LaGuardia.

The nicest way I have ever gotten to
Boston from NY was driving. What a nice
trip. Got to stop in other states in between. It wasn't expensive at all, as I rented. I also had the freedom to stop when I wanted to see what I wanted. Good luck. Hope you are able to do it this way.