Driving from NY to DC
 

Hi, we are a family of 3 including my 10 year old daughter. We are in NYC (for 3 days) in July and headed to DC from there on a saturday. We will be a friend's house in the Upper West side and planning to rent a car and drive down to DC. We need the car in DC anyway as we will be in the suburbs near Bethesda.

A few questions:
- Should I plan to rent in Manhattan or go to LGA or JFK to rent? I keep reading horror stories of cars not available in Manhattan locations on saturdays
- Any other advantages of renting at the airport (ease of getting out, tolls etc) as we will have to take a taxi or uber to the airport - luggage
- I assume it will be 5-6 hours to drive, does that broadly work?

Thanks

I question your need for a car in Washington. I would question it a lot less if you were to tell us what you plan to do there. As to the drive down from New York, much depends on the time of day and the day of the week.

Have you considered taking the train from New York and renting the car at Union Station in Washington?

I too was thinking it might be better to take the train to DC and rent a car there if you really need one.

It is easy to rent a car at Union Station if you decide you really need one. The other option is a MegaBus.

Also, Bethesda is served by the metro, so not sure you need a car at all.

Traffic on a Saturday morning in the summer will be heavy. Summer rentals at the shore turn over on Saturday so you will have those folks coming and going. The Delaware Memorial bridge funnels cars into Delaware so, unless you are off to a very start, you are likely to encounter delays there, too.

To address your earlier question, if you haven't been dissuaded from the car rental from NYC, have you considered the Newark airport? LGA and JFK would put you on the far side of where you will want to be to start the road trip to DC. At Newark, you will be close to the NJTurnpike.

I had initially considered a flight or a train. We are coming in from Singapore - so will have a fair bit of luggage. Makes any transit with changes challenging from NY to DC. Also, plan to visit friends and family in DC suburbs and will need a car.

I could take a taxi to one of airports and start my drive - but will it save me from traffic? I plan to leave around 1-2pm and reach Bethesda by about 7-8pm.

The other option is a train or flight to DC and renting a car there - but looks like it can be quite expensive for three of us.

You need to price your options because I cannot tell you definitively what's going to be cheaper or more expensive. Car rentals in Manhattan are among the most expensive in the US, coming in at around $100 per day on weekends because most New Yorkers don't have cars and rent them a lot so there is a big demand. You'll need to add a drop-off fee unless you plan on driving back to the NYC area for a return flight. Many people here do in fact go to one of the area's airports to rent a car because it's cheaper. The drop-off fee may be high because there generally are not enough cars in Manhattan to meet weekend demand (they can be relatively cheap during the week, however, even in the summer), so car-rental companies discourage one-way trips.

If it were me, I'd price four options: 1) Train to BWI station (where you'd rent a car at the Baltimore airport); 2) a flight to either BWI or Dulles (where you'd rent a car); 3) the car rental from Manhattan; 4) the car rental from EWR. Then you can find out which works best for your needs.

I agree with everyone who says it makes more sense for you to rent from EWR (Newark) airport because it's on the way to Bethesda, while both LGA and JFK are significant detours. And I'd strongly urge you to plan your trip to Bethesda on a weekday, ideally a Tuesday or Thursday rather than a weekend. It will mean significantly less traffic, and you're probably not used to driving on the right.

If you are renting from EWR, then I'd strongly advise you to get a car service for all of you rather than go yourself to pick up the car and return to the UWS.

With the very greatest of respect: there are three of you flying from Singapore and you are talking about the "expense" of flying or taking a train from New York to Washington, DC?

No, it is not free but please, be realistic. You get what you pay for and even at the train station in Manhattan you can pay for help with all that luggage you have chosen to bring.

Since you have opted not to reveal any budget restrictions it is hard to advise you when all we hear from you is about "the expense."

>>We are coming in from Singapore - so will have a fair bit of luggage<<

Ok -- maybe I don't get it, but why does the distance travelled dictate the amount of luggage? Someone traveling from Singapore doesn't need any more 'stuff' than someone traveling from Philadelphia or Poughkeepsie. But even if you bring a boatload of luggage a train or flying would be easier. If you just 'must' drive, Newark makes more sense.

It’s an unpleasant drive, and a Saturday in the summer is particularly unpleasant.
id take the train to DC and if you think you really need a car there, rent one.

Luggage - I was just expressing my preference not to do multiple transfers with luggage. Taking a train or a flight means loading and unloading at taxies both ends. Renting in Manhattan is a single load of the luggage and then reaching DC.

Cost - this comes in second. The train tickets run for about $300 and the car rental at BWI for 3 days runs for about $200. The car rental from Manhattan and dropoff in IAD is about 400$. With fuel and tolls, I'm sure its not cheaper than train + car rental. Flights are a lot more expensive on a saturday evening. Plus for the commute to the airport, check-in time etc, it may not be much shorter on an end to end basis.

I hear the feedback on the quality of the drive. I think its a tradeoff of transferring luggage a couple of time vs the predictability and comfort of a train ride. I used to live in the US and love driving - so yes, there's a bias to getting into a car and driving around :)

It sounds as if you don't have any choices about timing and want to rent in Manhattan, so do that. It will be much easier to get out of Manhattan if you can do it before 9 am on Saturday. Traffic will be heavy but not debilitating. I've done that drive many times. Definitely try to get out before 10 if at all possible. Your easiest route out of Manhattan is probably the Lincoln Tunnel. Head straight down the West Side Highway or, if you prefer, West End Avenue, which becomes 11th Avenue. Either route will take you straight to the tunnel, and there's pretty good signage. The other option that might work for you is the Holland Tunnel; in my opinion, getting out of NYC on a weekend (anytime actually) is significantly easier if you get on 7th Avenue going south (but get on 7th Avenue only south of 34th Street). That's a more direct route into the tunnel to NJ than any other route since the local streets get all backed up.

Be prepared to pay several tolls in cash or rent a tollpass from the car rental company. (Having the tollpass is a big timesaver despite the cost, so I'd do it, and it also gets you discounted tolls.) You will, thankfully, not pay an outgoing toll on either tunnel or bridge.

Or Bolt bus.

Someone who stresses over the idea of loading a suitcase in/out of a taxi is NOT going to take Bolt bus. You don't need so much luggage, coming from Singapore is irrelevant.

I just can't comprehend someone who thinks renting a car in midtown Manhattan and driving out of it and then around suburban DC where the traffic is horrendous solely because they have so much luggage that moving it into and out of a car is a major task. This makes no sense unless you are moving house, which you aren't. No one needs that much luggage on a trip, one suitcase per person is all you need, and it doesn't have to be larger than 24 inches (and the child's can be smaller).

Luggage is your problem. The fact that your entire plan revolves around the fear of moving luggage a foot.

I could see the need for a car in DC if you aren't near the metro stop, though, "Bethesda" is actually a large area by name and most of it is a long way from the metro. If these friends lived within a quarter mile of the metro, no you wouldn't need a car but I'm sure that isn't the case. I'd just drive it to a metro parking lot, though, not into the city.

I have tentatively booked a rental car but have taken this feedback on the drive. I am going to try and avoid the rental and take the train.

I am flying to NYC in LGA and will be taking a cab from there into the city anyway. So, another taxi ride to Penn station should be quite doable and looks like a good tradeoff compared to 5-6 hours of driving in bad traffic.

I'm guessing you are bringing gifts if you have that much luggage!

I do think the train would be a lot easier, but if you like want to drive, actually it is often cheaper to not rent from Airports. They usually have an additional surcharge for the airport. You may not be a costco member, but I went to Costco.com here and chose a random Saturday with NYC as my pickup and BWI as the drop-off airport. They have TONS of rental places all over NYC, including the Upper West side. I compared two of them, plus Newark and LGA. The airports were both about $100 more. So it may or may not be worth a trip out to the airport. Even if you aren't a Costco member, you can check the relative differences in prices on Costco.com, then go directly to the rental company.

Have you looked at one of the International car rental companies? If you have foreign credit cards, they often have good deals even in the US. My brother (from Aus.) likes them because some of them include insurance.

If you do take the train, then I think you’ll be fine. Spring for a porter at Penn Ststion, who will get you to the correct track before everyone eksr and help get you on the train with your luggage. It’s worth the hefty tip.

But it I wouldn’t take all the grief about the car rental too seriously. If you really prefer to drive, then drive. It’s not that bad. People on this forum do have a tendency to steamroll people.

:) I get the tough love answers for anything I post on this forum - the information is valid but one has to make the decision that works best for themselves!!

The porters at Penn Station are worth their weight in gold! (although I don't remember them actually helping me get on the train with my luggage, it was so worth it to be led down the escalator, with them bringing the luggage down, before anyone else).