Driving to St. Paul Minnesota from New York City
 

Hi Folks,
Wondering if its a good idea to drive down to St Paul, Minnesota in late August to drop my daughter off to college? I believe its a long drive but is it interesting? The other option is to fly. We will be there for a few days and then head back to NY. Any nice places along the way? We are 3 in the car.

Also how long is the drive there and back?

It is 1200 miles each way.

It depends on what your interests are. There is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the Willis (Sears) tower in Chicago.
Will you have a lot of dorm room stuff jammed in the car?
When she returns to New York with just luggage, she may want to ride on Amtrak. She gets a 10% discount with the Student Advantage card. http://www.amtrak.com/student-discount
Try to avoid the major commute times in Chicago.

While I have not personally made this particular trip (NYC - MSP), I've made plenty of road trips of similar length with my college-aged children (DC - Austin and DC - OKC). Having this extended time in the car with my young adult children was priceless--and we always found something interesting to see and do along the way. (We looked at RoadsideAmerica.com for ideas.)

I definitely would choose making this road trip over flying if you have the time. (Allow at least 4 full days to get there, so you've got time to do some sightseeing.)

If she's going to have a lot of her stuff, then going by car is good. It's basically a straight shot on I-80/I-90. I-80 starts in NJ west of the GWB, I-90 joins I-80 a little west of Cleveland and then you just have to follow I-90 to Minneapolis.

There is NO WAY she should take Amtrak to NYC from Minneapolis - that's more than 30 hours on the train EACH WAY. Completely daft idea. Fly her home and back.

> Any nice places along the way?

Depends what you mean by "nice." There are plenty of places along this route that MIGHT be of interest to you, but we have no way of knowing unless and until you specify what types of things you would be hoping to experience. Unfortunately, we can't tell you where something is located until you tell us what is the "something" you are looking for.

Thanks for the answers friends! Yup looks like its gonna be the flight for us! 4 days by car would have loved to do that but don't have the time this year...I've driven a lot in the US on both coasts but will have to keep that for another time. The train journey is too long..that settles it! Now the only question is should I hire a car in St Paul or the public transport is good enough...and how is Sun Country Airlines...any experiences on that?

Sun Country is a good airline.

Whether to rent a car or not depends on what you want to do while you're here. If you are planning on shopping for dorm or apartment supplies, it would probably be easier to have a car. If you want to sightsee, you can get around on public transit but it can be a bit cumbersome for some locations. Light rail from the airport to downtown Minneapolis and from downtown Minneapolis to St. Paul is good.

Which college is she going to?

Try to go the the State Fair for half a day or more while in town.