D.C. advice needed - best way between DCA & BWI late or early
 

I'm trying to be creative in getting my sister over here to Ireland and have found a great rate from DC. My question is: Her return flight will arrive 9:10PM to DCA. She has a BWI flight the next morning at 7:30AM (or I could possibly put her on the 2PMish flight, but hopefully not) and I'm wondering what's the cheapest option for this in-between time.

i.e. could she take a metro? bus? shuttle? and should it be that night or in the morning? I know traffic is likely an issue.

She possibly has a friend she'll spend the night with in Alexandria, if that turns out to be a good option. Wondering what our options are as to transportation between airports and possibly hotels I suppose.

Thanks!

with the inconvenience and expense of lodging and transfer between airports, could a flight to BWI be cost effective? She's obviously got to land somewhere else in the US before the flight to DCA because it is not an international airport--JFK, EWR?? Why go to DCA at all?

Her best option would be to go straight to BWI (which will be long and expensive) and spend a night at a local hotel. The trip (unless you want her traipsing on public transport that late) would involve either an expensive taxi ride or shuttle to BWI or a trip into DC, where she would get an Amtrak train to BWI, and then a cab to a hotel.

I live near DCA and if I have--God forbid--a 7:30am flight out of BWI, I spend the night at a hotel near the airport because I would need to leave DC so early to get to BWI.

How much more is she saving flying into DCA and out of BWI. If it's less than $300, you could easily eat that up in travel, hotel, and aggravation.

Actually nevermind - I just found an even better flight scenario where she goes out of Philly (she's in Pittsburgh) so it worked out. I had checked the flights this afternoon and nothing was there, but now everything seems to have changed. Sorry for the post!

MikeT - We're staying in DC in August and flying in/out of BWI. The flight out of BWI is at 9:45am on a Sunday morning. What time should we have a cab pick us up at? It sounds like the congestion is pretty bad. Also, we'll be flying in at 9:05am on a Wed. How long of a cab ride do you think it would be to the Metro Center area? Thanks for the advice!

There probably won't be any traffic on Sunday morning to BWI. The cab company could probably give you a good idea of when to pick you up. It really depends where in DC you are.

On the BWI website, they don't tell you how long it will take you to get to the center of DC, but they give an estimated rate of $63 to DC.

If cost is an issue, you could take the B30 bus which takes you to Greenbelt metro station and then take the train into DC.

http://www.bwiairport.com/ground_transportation/

9am on a weekday is rush hour, so your taxi will hit major traffic coming from the airport. There are plenty of trains to DC on a Wednesday at 9am.

As for Sunday, I'd probably not want to leave any later than 7:30am.

It's a 45 minute or so drive without traffic to BWI from downtown DC.

Since we're arriving during rush hour, how much quicker do you think the bus/train ride be compared to a cab ride? It seems like flying out of BWI on Sun am shouldn't be a problem. Thanks! Cost not really issue.

The bus isn't going to be appreciably quicker because it, too, will be in the rush hour traffic. Many people who work in DC live near Baltimore (or between the two) because Baltimore is much cheaper.

The train is more of a hassle, but will likely take a little less time (30 minutes to Union Station as opposed to an hour by taxi) and will be dramatically cheaper.

There are those group shuttle vans between BWI and downtown DC, also, but if you have several people, a taxi isn't so bad costwise, and certainly saves time and is more convenient. GOing on Sunday morning won't be an issue, and if your plane doesn't even arrive until 9 am, it will be past the morning rush hour by the time you get out to a taxi and head into the city. People coming to DC for business or to work usually are there by 9 or so. Although in the DC area, the rush "hour" is about 3-4 hours long in the morning and evening. But govt. workers tend to go to work early and leave early (at least by my standards).

So, if you aren't even out and on your way to DC until 9:30 or later from BWI, I wouldn't worry about it as being unusually a bad time. You won't even get near DC until about a half hour later than that.